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New Release Book Blast

Swipe by TA Moore: Blog Tour, Exclusive Guest Post and Giveaway

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As one of the top trauma surgeons in Plenty’s ER, Dr. Taggart Hayes knows how to fix broken things—fractured legs, ruptured spleens, allergies, and traumatic brain injuries. He can put them back together good as new.

A broken heart, though? That’s a bit trickier. Especially when it’s his own.

When Tag swipes on the photo of the hot man in the dating app, he just wants a distraction from the wreck that used to be his life. A one-night stand with a safely inappropriate stranger, no names, no feelings, and no complications.

But the headless photo on the app belongs to a man who isn’t so easy to forget the next day… or the next week. And it becomes increasingly clear that Bass is neither safe nor uncomplicated. Drawn into the dark, criminal underworld his lover inhabits, Tag has to decide if the cure for his broken heart is worse than the disease.

Title: Swipe

Author: TA Moore

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Release: December 31

Cover Artist: Kanaxa

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First of all, thank you so much for having me! I’m thrilled to be here with my new contemporary novel SWIPE by TA Moore. Check out it. I had a lot of fun writing this book, and hopefully you guys will have fun reading it too.

A swipe right is what kicks off the story in Swipe. Tag Hayes needs an easy win. He’s an ER doc, one of the best in Plenty, and he’s not used to feeling like a loser. Or, at least, he wasn’t before his boyfriend had an affair with a younger nurse and became his ex-boyfriend. Tag hasn’t exactly bounced back from that when the book starts, but when his ex and the younger man turn up at a funding event he’s at he decides it’s time he did.

So he grabs his phone and opens a hook-up app, where he finds a hot dude that turns out to be just what he needs to scratch his itch.

It used to be that online dating and hook-up apps were something people resorted to, the last resort of the terminally socially awkward. It was embarrassing if you couldn’t find a partner the old fashioned, if you needed the internet to midwife that connection for you.

Still is, I guess, to some people. Yet there’s so many dating apps now that they have started to specialise, to fulfil niche dating demands like ‘uniforms’.

It’s terrible and awesome, much like everything else about human development since we started to build huts. I mean, people who are against dating algorithms mourn the death of spontaneous, unmanaged human attraction. At some point, though, there were people of a similar mindset decrying the fact that young people these days were just meeting people themselves instead of waiting for family to introduce them. Or roll it back far enough and some caveman would be there complaining that all this ‘talking to people’ was ruining the pure physical connection they used to depend on.

Dating has always evolved alongside society. Besides, all that ‘better in the old days’ nostalgia rarely takes into account how hard it was for anyone who didn’t want the relationships that they were expected to pursue. I grew up in a small town, and everyone knew your business. For LGBT people that’s not just occasionally embarrassing, it could be–it usually was– dangerous. For some people, it was too dangerous to even take the risk of trying to make a connection.

Others took the risk, of course, and they found ways to connect and communities that were safe. Safer, at least. There are people in the LGBT community as well who feel that something has been lost as the dating world moves more online.

Personally, I still think that the benefits outweigh the costs. Datings apps and online dating help people make the connections–intimate and not–that they need at that moment in time. Sometimes that’s all they need, sometimes more develops.

Hopefully, for most people, not as dramatically as it does in Swipe.

TA Moore is a Northern Irish writer of romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and contemporary romance novels. A childhood in a rural, seaside town fostered in her a suspicious nature, a love of mystery, and a streak of black humour a mile wide. As her grandmother always said, ‘she’d laugh at a bad thing that one’, mind you, that was the pot calling the kettle black. TA Moore studied History, Irish mythology, English at University, mostly because she has always loved a good story. She has worked as a journalist, a finance manager, and in the arts sectors before she finally gave in to a lifelong desire to write.

Coffee, Doc Marten boots, and good friends are the essential things in life. Spiders, mayo, and heels are to be avoided.

Website: www.tamoorewrites.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMoorewrites/

Twitter: @tamoorewrites

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Tyra’s Book Nook – 26 Dec

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A Husband for Santa by Doreen Heron: Release Day Blitz, Excerpt, and Giveaway

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Father Christmas knows his time delivering presents is coming to an end, and his son is more than ready to take his place at the helm of the sleigh. But family tradition stands in Turk’s way.

He must find a Mrs. Claus to help share the burden. Unfortunately for tradition, he would rather a husband than a wife, and he doesn’t have time to meet anyone anyway.

At the same time, Christmasologist and PhD candidate Symeon Golightly finds himself sad and alone over the holidays.

Maybe a chance encounter and a Christmas wish will bring them together.

Title:  A Husband for Santa

Author: Doreen Heron

Publisher:  NineStar Press

Release Date: December 23, 2019

Heat Level: 1 – No Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 20600

Genre: Holiday, LGBT, Folklore, magic, elves, Christmas, romance, fantasy

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Chapter One

“Prepare the landing bay to receive the sleigh. I repeat, prepare the landing bay to receive the sleigh. We expect the mission to be terminated in fifteen minutes. I repeat, the sleigh is fifteen minutes away.”

The elves began to scramble, thousands of them getting to their feet and running from dormitories and lounges, through the glistening silver ice corridors and into the straw-lined landing bay. With nimble fingers, trained through years of constructing toys and preparing lists, they padded out stables with fresh straw and hay. They filled troughs with water and bowls with cereals and carrots. They swept the solid snow that had drifted in when the sleigh left and dried up the pools of water where the snow had warmed enough to melt. The elf children, too young to have any real responsibilities yet but old enough to graduate over the year and take on jobs for the following Christmas, took a break from observing and making notes and leapt to the gas lamps, lighting them to give the reindeer a cozy environment to come home to.

“We expect the mission to be terminated in ten minutes. I repeat, the sleigh is ten minutes away.”

Some of the older elves, particularly those celebrating their final Christmases, jumped as Turk’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker. They hadn’t enjoyed this particular “innovation” and much preferred when his father had been in training and instead came to each of them in turn to make the announcements personally. They were glad to be retiring to let the younger generations—who didn’t seem to be quite as attached to the traditional ways—take the reins. En masse, the elves retreated to the back of the room, where they surveyed their work. It looked nice. Cozy. They wanted nothing more than for the reindeer to be able to rest as soon as they arrived home, and for Father Christmas himself to feel the wave of relaxation hit him after finishing his deliveries for another year. The younger generations waited with bated breath as Inger—the oldest elf and Chieftain of their little tribe—surveyed the room. She pointed to a corner where one last errant cobweb was stubbornly clinging to a beam, and one of the children leapt to a broom and scurried to clear it away.

“We expect the mission to be terminated in five minutes. I repeat, the sleigh is five minutes away.”

Inger surveyed the room again and smiled as she was satisfied with what she saw. Her team had served her well, this final Christmas. She nodded to the corner, where an elf stood alone. He was easily two heads taller than the others, almost the size of one of the human children for whom they made presents and was well muscled. At Inger’s nod, he turned to the wheel at his side and began to crank it. A creaking sound boomed from the timber roof, as it began to part. At once, the elderly elves started their chant, an ancient elven magic to protect the stable against the elements. The snow itself obeyed them, falling to settle on the roof and avoiding the hole that was emerging. When it was wide enough for the sleigh to fit, the muscled elf stopped cranking. But the elderly continued to sing, keeping the heat generated by the gas lamps inside the room, and keeping out the snow that was falling so violently.

“The sleigh has been sighted over the Crystalline Falls. I am on my way. I repeat, Turk is en route.”

The elderly elves rankled at the announcement. Never before had a Santa-in-Training ever felt the need to oversee the landing. It had always been a privilege afforded to the elves as a reward for their hard work. But times were changing, and all new Father Christmases had to put their own mark on the role.

Turk’s mark, it seemed to the elves, was micromanagement.

But they continued to chant, regardless. One slip in their song and winter would get into the landing bay, undoing all their work and discomforting Father Christmas and his eight faithful deer who had fit an entire year of work into a single night. And not one of them was prepared to let that happen.

The chanting could be heard across the palace. Turk emerged from the control room and stopped for a second to listen.

The sound of the elves was the sound of his life. Of hours waiting for his father to come home from work and tell stories of all the children to whom he had delivered gifts. Of those he thought Turk might like to be friends with if it were ever possible to leave Polynya. Those who had grown older and who chose not to believe in him anymore, just because their parents had chosen not to believe. Those who ignored all the evidence right in front of them that proved he existed, and instead put blind faith in parents who had no evidence other than what their parents had told them, who relied only on what their parents had told them before. Those were the stories that saddened Turk the most, particularly when he entered his teenage years and the children who he had considered peers and friends stopped believing.

They no longer wanted him to exist.

It was a happy song and a sad song. A song of hope and joy and obligation and loss. And in that moment, as he finally allowed himself a break in his work to take stock, he felt the loss of his own father about to retire and the joy of his own life about to begin.

He took a deep breath to steel himself. He couldn’t allow the elves to see his moment of weakness. Yes, they may have raised him and bathed him and changed his diapers, but as of the moment his father touched down in the sleigh, he was Father Christmas, and he had to lead them as a general leads his troops.

He had a family legacy to live up to.

He set his jaw, strong and stubbled, and took a moment to wipe the tears from his icy blue eyes. He pulled himself upright, towering over the elves at six feet and two inches and straightened his back. He’d read a book that said good posture commanded respected, and he needed his elves to respect him.

The echo of his black leather jackboots clattered through the ice corridors as he strode to the landing bay. Another tip from his book. Walk with a heavy step and make your presence known before you arrive so people know you’re there. He wasn’t entirely sure if that one applied to working from his own home, but he figured the author knew what he was talking about and was quite determined to follow all the advice on offer.

The torches lining the walls lit as he approached and extinguished as he walked by—lit long enough so that he could see, but not so long that they would begin to melt the walls. He moved deftly through the maze-like corridors and hallways, following the shortcut he’d figured out when he was a child and wanted to trick the elves into thinking his magic had developed. The truth was it would have been easier for him to teleport into the Landing Bay, but that didn’t quite make as much of an impact on the sound of his boots on the ice floors.

And it was all about the impact.

The elves scrambled out of the way as the two solid pine doors to the landing bay swung open, and Turk strode in. Quickly, they pulled themselves back together and stood to attention as he had taught them. The elderly elves objected to this, finding the position highly uncomfortable, and their hearts were glad they were required to carry on chanting.

“At ease,” he commanded, and the elves moved fluidly into position. Even the children, keen to impress their future boss, joined in and tried hard not to giggle as Turk walked back and forth past them, looking them over. “You are well presented, in spite of tonight’s working conditions. I’m glad I’m finally getting through to you.”

Inger chaffed at his words and closed her eyes to drown out what he was saying so she could focus on the ancient and magical words of her people.

“The loading bay is acceptable,” he continued, striding around the bay and peering into each hay-filled stall. “I feel we will have much work to do over the coming year to modernize this space and maximize efficiency, but that will come on December 26. For now, this is acceptable.”

A single snowflake fell through the opening in the roof as Inger let her guard slip. The Landing Bay had never been merely “acceptable” on her watch. Nor on her mother’s. Nor on her grandmother’s. She and the Matriarchs took their role seriously, and they worked hard to ensure that everything was done to perfection. Thankfully, the flake melted long before it was noticed by anyone other than her. She felt it fall as she felt her concentration lapse, and she certainly wouldn’t allow herself to do anything that he would merely consider to be “acceptable.”

She was so looking forward to retirement.

She felt for her daughter, who would need to take the reins and put up with Turk’s peculiar brand of nonsense.

A roar of wind and snow occurred overhead, and the children became antsy in anticipation of what was about to happen. Turk looked up and nodded, happy the elements were being kept out of the landing bay and satisfied the roof was open enough to allow the sleigh in so it could land. He squinted and saw a very faint red light in the distance.

“Showtime, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. The elves scrambled once again, lining up along the walls and the stall doors, leaving as much floor space as possible free for the sleigh to come in and land. While still chanting, the elderly elves walked to the far north wall, against which was set a raised platform. They walked up onto the platform and stood, choirlike, continuing their chant for the last few moments of their careers.

They were ready.

Turk joined them on the stage, running his hand through his dirty blond hair and smoothing down his wine-red suit. This was his moment. The moment he had spent his whole life preparing for. From the moment his father landed the sleigh, he would take charge, and the next Christmas would be his. His book had said to “make sure one presents oneself properly” from the very beginning of the job.

He was ready.

The red pinpoint of light grew bigger and bigger as the distant sound of sleigh bells began to chime. Turk took a deep breath and shifted his weight from foot to foot. He would never admit he was nervous and was almost positive the churning in his stomach was caused by the questionable reindeer meat in the curry which his mother had served the night before. But as he straightened his red tie for the fifth time that minute, the elves could see he was nervous. A couple of the children sniggered and pointed, but the others had sympathy for him. They knew his dad was a popular Father Christmas, and so he had a lot to live up to.

And if some of them were honest with themselves, they weren’t sure he would.

The sound of the sleigh bells grew louder and louder until finally the sleigh itself hovered overhead. The deer were well rehearsed by now and hovered in place until they were given the order to descend. It was a silent command, given by a Father Christmas who had spent two centuries working with each family line. He allowed for a delicate lowering of deer and sleigh alike until its wooden rails and thirty-two hooves set down on the landing bay’s tiled floor. At once, the elves scrambled into action and the bay became a hive of interaction. The elves turned the wheel, and the roof closed. The elves standing by the stall gates unlatched them, and then headed to their own deer, unhooking them and leading them over to their stall. First Rudolph, then Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, and so on until all nine were safely locked away and gratefully lapping their water.

As they were working hurriedly, Inger and the other elderly elves made their way to the sleigh and helped Father Christmas. He was wobbly on his feet as he stood but was able to make his way down to the landing bay floor entirely unaided.

“Turk,” he called, his voice booming through the Bay. “Please see to it that the sack is returned to its rightful spot.”

“Of course, Papa,” Turk replied. He turned to an elf, the only elf currently unemployed, and gave the command. “You heard him. Take the sack to the—”

“No, Turk.” His father stopped by the pine doors. “I asked you to please take the sack and put it away.”

“But Papa. This is what the elves are—”

“The elves are not your slaves, Turk. They work for the children, not for you. Now, please put the sack away and then meet me in the Lounge.”

“The Debriefing Room,” Turk corrected his father under his breath as he made his way to the sleigh and pulled the large, empty, hessian sack from the back seat. It looked so different with the enchantments faded and the magic gone for another year. Now, it was loose and malleable and normal.

He didn’t like it.

Carefully, he laid it out on the floor, careful to ensure no elf trampled over it and folded it in half, and then half again, and then half again. There was no ceremony to the sack any more, and that made him a little sad. He very much enjoyed being a child and watching his father and Inger fold it carefully and then carry it solemnly to its room to be put away. He looked at Inger, who was observing him carefully, and was certain he saw a tear in her holly-green eye. It was a shame, he thought, that she so disliked him that she refused to even help him with the sack ceremony.

“At least there will be new Elders next year,” he mused, picking up the sack and carefully making his way out of the landing bay along the twisting corridors toward the Toy Room. “Maybe the new Matriarch will want to do the ceremony with me.” The Toy Room doors slid open, and he walked amongst the empty shelves to the illuminated glass box where the sack resided during the off-season. Gently, he opened the box and placed the sack inside. As it hit the bottom of the glass, it began to shine in gentle hues of red and green and gold, its magic immediately beginning to replenish and rejuvenate. “I’ll see you next year,” Turk whispered to it before he turned around and tiptoed to the Debriefing Room.

He saw no need to announce his presence to his own father.

 

Doreen Heron is a writer who is finally living her dream in Cornwall, England. She is lucky to live in the county she loves, and to be using her writing to entertain her readers.

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The Christmas Oaks (Laurel Holidays #1) by V.L. Locey: Blog Tour, New Release Review and Giveaway

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Bryn Graham is shocked to find he’s inherited a hunting cabin in north central Pennsylvania. From his grandfather of all people; a stubborn man who went out of his way to make Bryn’s childhood miserable. He’d vowed never to go back to the small, rural community of Kutter’s Summit, not that he didn’t have fond memories of the place. It’s just that he’d rather be celebrating a quiet Christmas back in Nashville with his cat and his contracts.

A couple weeks of hunting, cleaning, and handyman work and he can hopefully put the place up for sale and move on with his life. He never expected to find his childhood friend Parson Greer living in the cabin. Parson is no longer a boy, but a handsome, wary man consumed by the demons of a faraway desert war. When a rekindled friendship shifts into something deeper, Bryn finds himself lost in emotions that a workaholic like him has never made time to experience before.

Can the magic of Christmas, and the soft voice of a man who has seen too much, show him a future where anything is possible?

Cover Design: Designs By Sloan

 

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Bryan is on his way back to his little conservative town for the reading of his homophobic gandpa’s will, the same grandpa that kicked him out of his life when he found out he was gay… Once really close with the old man and the town that turned their back on him upon his coming out, it was the last place Bryan wanted to go now that he’d made a name for himself in Nashville.

Now, I’m not gonna lie, I like blue-collar guys doing blue collar things, so when I read he was an agent to country stars, I balked a little bit… I figured he’d be hoity toity and up his own a.s.s., but he wasn’t. A little self-important, but I mean, he was an important guy, he was proud of his accomplishments, especially when people didn’t think he’d be much but the gay kid from Kutter Summit.

Planning to get to town, see what his granddad didn’t leave him and he’d be on his way back home in time… what he didn’t expect was for his granddad to leave him the old hunting cabin that he used to take Bryan to when he was younger and they’d do things together…. All before he turned his back on him.

So, this story is set in Bryan’s POV and I liked it, though I would’ve liked to have seen Parson’s… Parson was the only who had Bryan’s back when everyone but his sister turned against him. It was too bad they lost touch because Bryan had missed Parson and his friendship. That ship had long since sailed though, Parson went away to the military and Bryan learned he was back in town, but his sister said he’d come back all messed up…as ones so often do.

He surely wasn’t expecting to go up to the cabin to get it ready to sell and find Parson holed up in there like Paul Bunyan, living off the land, but sure enough, that’s what happened. The Parson he knew was long gone though and in his place was a sexy as sin adult with more than a little demons that he brought back from his time overseas. I loved Parson though, he was impossible not to fall for… having always had a thing for Bryan, he was standoffish with him at first, but, he needed Bryan so badly. Used to being alone because he made it that way, hidden up at the cabin away from the noise and stares… he needed someone to help him work things out in his head…. Now that Bryan was there, he wanted to be that guy….

Of course, with the real world only a phone call away, while Bryan and Parson are falling for each other, Bryan’s life is demanding he come back to Nashville and fix the mess he’d left behind with his career and the spoiled rich people he represented. Ugh… I was glad we didn’t see much of that.

Though my heart broke for Parson, I knew Bryan wouldn’t be able to live without him, and it took him a minute to realize it too, but, well, I won’t spoil the ending, but if you like the sappy happily ever afters, then don’t skip past this one. I adored Parson and Bryan grew on me and I’m also glad he found a little bit of closure from the hurt he’d left behind so long ago. I wouldn’t mind reading more about these two anytime.

5 pieces of eye candy

USA Today Bestselling Author V.L. Locey – Penning LGBT hockey romance that skates into sinful pleasures.

V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, Torchwood and Dr. Who, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a pair of geese, far too many chickens, and two steers.

When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in one hand and a steamy romance novel in the other.

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Counter Culture by JL Merrow: New Release Blitz

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Customer service has never been this personal.

Robin Christopher, beleaguered retail worker, isn’t having an easy November. His boss is raising stress levels planning a Black Friday to end all Black Fridays, his family doesn’t understand him, and his best friend thinks his new crush is a hallucination brought on by watching too many episodes of Doctor Who.

Archie Levine dresses in Victorian style and divides his time between caring for his young son and creating weird and wacky steampunk gadgets from bits of old junk—when he’s not looking after his mum and trying to keep on good terms with his ex. The last thing he’s got time for is a relationship, but the flustered young man he met while disembowelling a fridge is proving very tempting.

When his mum’s social conscience is roused by a local store with a cavalier attitude to the homeless, former rough sleeper Archie shares her anger. Little does he know that Robin works for that same store. When Archie finds out he’s sleeping with the enemy, things could cut up very rough indeed.

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Hi, I’m JL Merrow, and I’m delighted to be here today to celebrate the release of my new rom-com, Counter Culture, which features a clash of cultures between a socially conscious steampunk and a stressed-out department store retail worker.

JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea.  She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again.

She writes (mostly) contemporary gay romance and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour.  Two of her novels have won Rainbow Awards for Romantic Comedy (Slam!, 2013 and Spun!, 2017) and several of her books have been EPIC Awards finalists, including Muscling Through, Relief Valve (the Plumber’s Mate Mysteries) and To Love a Traitor.

JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, International Thriller Writers, Crime Writers Association, Verulam Writers and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.

Find JL Merrow online at: https://jlmerrow.com/, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow

To celebrate this release, one lucky person will win a $10 gift card to Riptide. Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 9, 2019. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

Best Man by Lily Morton: Release Blitz, Excerpt and New Release Review

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Zeb Evans doesn’t do messy. 

The product of a disorganised and chaotic childhood, Zeb likes order and control, and as the boss of his own employment agency he can give that to himself. Life runs along strict lines and he never mixes business with pleasure. Everything in his life lives in neat, alphabetized boxes. Until Jesse.

Jesse Reed is Zeb’s complete opposite. He’s chaos personified. A whirling cyclone of disorder. He’s also charming and funny and a very unwanted distraction.

Which is why it comes as a complete surprise to Zeb to find himself asking Jesse to pose as his boyfriend for a few days in the country at a wedding. 

Zeb doesn’t do impulsive, but as the time away progresses, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the merry and irreverent Jesse. But can he bring himself to break the hard-won lessons he’s learnt in life? And even if he can, how could Jesse be attracted to him anyway? He’s so much older than Jesse, not to mention being his boss.

From the bestselling author of the Mixed Messages and Finding Home series comes a warm and funny romance about one man’s fight for control and another man’s determination to circumvent it.

This is the first book in the Close Proximity series, but it can be read as a standalone.

Best Man

Close Proximity Series Book 1

Lily Morton

M/M Romance

Release Date: 10.03.19

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He looks at me and sighs wearily. “Do you think you could possibly behave?” he finally says.

I bite my lip. “I don’t think it would be entirely honest of me to promise that,” I say slowly. “Especially if people keep treating you like you’re some sort of desperate stalker. It’s not fair.” I frown. “You’re doing bloody Patrick a favour. They should be thanking you, not treating you like an unexploded bomb from the war that might go off in suburbia and wreck someone’s lavender bush.”

He blinks. “Where the hell did that come from?” He pauses. “And why am I the unexploded relic from the war?”

I smile at him sympathetically. “You have a lot of pent-up aggression,” I inform him.

We first meet Jesse when he’s interviewing at an employment agency. He’s kind of a jack of all trades and a master of none, he can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble long enough to hold something down. That is until he meets Zeb, who lives with the tightest control on himself and his routine than anyone Jesse’s ever seen.

They’re complete opposites, but somehow, they work.
Cut to, three years later, where Jesse is thriving though thoroughly entertaining in the jobs he does and what can always be described as hilarious mishaps, though he’s completely charming and very well-liked with his clients.

When Zeb’s ex of five years is getting married to the woman he was cheating with only a year after they’ve split, he asks Zeb to be his best man and Zeb stupidly agrees. He needs a fake boyfriend/distraction for the weeklong activity schedule his exes fiancé has for them on the getaway they’re all going on together. Insane? ABSOLUTELY!

Now, once you get to know Zeb, you’ll understand a little about him that maybe let him say yes to the request of being the exes best man, but I didn’t buy it. Nothing would’ve made me take the abuse from the ex and their families, they not only openly treated Zeb like garbage, he just smiled and took it. They openly said awful things to him and treated him terribly, and he was just as nice and polite as could be. That part made me sick to my stomach, I HATE when bad people get away with being bad people.

Now, Jesse, even though Zeb wants to think of him as this young kid (20 years his junior), he gets to know Jesse on this week long trip together. They have fun together and Jesse is the only one who seems set to stand up for Zeb against this terrible, evil, entitled, foul-mouthed, bigoted family. He goes out of his way to put them off and show his support for Zeb, so it isn’t long before they fall into bed together.

Of course, it can’t be that easy… Zeb is still in a bad place, mentally… he’s still got his reasons of why he is the way he is and though Jesse realizes it, it isn’t enough to stop him from getting hurt by Zeb’s actions. And I don’t blame him…. I wanted to come through and knock Zeb out for the way he pushed Jesse away, not only that, but the way he picked the stupid ex and his wedding over Jesse and his feelings, when Jesse is the only one who’s ever been supportive of him and stuck up for him. My heart broke for Jesse and I thought he forgave Zeb far too easily. We had this angst the whole time and then it was like.. in a few paragraphs, all was forgiven. Blah.

Overall though, I enjoyed Jesse. He really is such a likeable character and was so very charming and witty. I liked him for Zeb, even though Zeb didn’t deserve him a lot of the time. I’m glad they got their HEA, though, I’m a sucker for those… and it was very entertaining, nonetheless.

Would love to see what happens between Felix and Zeb’s stepbrother… looking forward to that!

4 pieces of eye candy

Lily writes contemporary romance novels, and specialises in hot love stories with a good dose of humour.

Lily lives in sunny England with her husband and two children, all of whom claim that they haven’t had a proper conversation with her since she bought her first Kindle.

She has spent her life with her head full of daydreams and decided one day to just sit down and start writing about them. In the process she discovered that she actually loved writing, because how else could she get to spend her time with hot, funny men!

She loves chocolate and Baileys and the best of all creations – chocolate Baileys! Her lifetime’s ambition is to have a bath in peace without being shouted by one of her family.

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Flash Rip: MM Gay Romance by Keira Andrews: RB, Release Day Review and Giveaway

by

The most dangerous current is between them.

Training to be a lifeguard at an Australian beach is tough work, but Cody Grant loves a challenge. He spends long days in the sun and surf rescuing swimmers from treacherous rip currents while trying not to lust after senior lifeguard Liam Fox—who is deeply, painfully closeted.

Liam was supposed to be a football legend. Now in his mid-thirties, it’s been over a decade since his dream shattered along with his knee. Fans still recognize him regularly, and he’s terrified his sexuality will be discovered and his conservative parents will reject him. He has strict rules to protect his secret and keeps everyone at arm’s length. Liam never acts on his need to surrender after being shamed for it years ago by the first and only man he trusted.

Out and proud Cody fascinates Liam—and tempts him to break all the rules.

Cody is practically half Liam’s size and age, but has the confidence and compassion to take charge and give Liam the release, affection, and acceptance he desperately craves. But how long can a secret affair satisfy their hearts? As if saving lives isn’t hard enough, Cody faces his greatest challenge yet convincing Liam to trust him and find the courage to live out loud.

Flash Rip is an M/M gay romance from Keira Andrews featuring a slow burn, an age gap, scorching first times, and of course a happy ending.

Length: 290 pages

Cover Design: Wicked Smart Design

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited

I love books that are set in a country other than my own (the US) and they don’t Americanize the language at all. I love reading books with native slang, etc. And this had plenty! What’s better is that one of the MCs is from Canada originally, and while he uses a lot of the slang, some of it still makes him chuckle- or cringe. Like nicknames.

Cody is a lifeguard trainee at a very popular beach in Australia. With their busy season 9 months of the year, but the other three still attracting hardcore surfers to the water, it can be a year round career.

Liam HAD a career, as a player for the AFL. Until a nasty knee injury ended it far, far too soon. Now his career is on the sand, but his personal life is firmly in the closet.

I usually get mad at characters who are adamantly in the closet. ESPECIALLY if it is because of bigoted family. But for some reason, Liam really tugged at my heart strings. The poor guy was so afraid of being outed, that he wouldn’t even hook up with anyone in his own country. He would literally vacation alone in a different country and hook up with strangers who he was pretty sure wouldn’t recognize him from his time in the AFL. It was bordering on a phobia he was so afraid of being found out.

And it wasn’t just his bigoted family- it was the fact that he was famous, in a very masculine sport, that had no out players. So he would be the first. And he would definitely be front page news.

Cody has wanted to be a lifeguard on the beaches of Australia almost since he moved there with his family as a kid. In fact, when his family moved back to Canada, he stayed. His family of academics don’t understand why he wants to be a lifeguard, and he is sick of trying to explain. The fact that veteran lifeguard Liam is gorgeous is just a perk. A big perk.

There’s quite a bit of not even really flirting by either guy. Liam is so tightly in the closet that Cody doesn’t even think he is gay. But they definitely start to become friendly with each other. When Cody does finally make a move, poor Liam is just terrified. Ugh, it broke my heart.

So much internalized homophobia on Liam’s part. Not only hiding it, but the memory of his father making a horribly homophobic remark is burned into his brain. The poor guy doesn’t even know any gay people.

Cody slowly draws him out of his shell, but only in private. And while Cody swears he will never out him, never force him out, he is getting frustrated. Mostly about how Liam thinks he “should” be.

I won’t spoil anything, but the big conflict was definitely not what I was expecting. I love when a book goes off formula a bit. It was a nice change of pace.

So, I’ll say that I loved the Aussie slang, didn’t love how much of it was explained (because I feel a lot was pretty self explanatory within context) and Liam and Cody in bed together was really hot. Hello take charge Cody! And there was story in there. What they actually did as lifeguards, how they reacted, saved people, kept a watch and even helped locate missing kids. It was obvious the author spent some time at the beach.

Definitely give this one a read. You won’t be disappointed.

4 Pieces of Eye Candy

After writing for years yet never really finding the right inspiration, Keira discovered her voice in gay romance, which has become a passion. She writes contemporary, historical, fantasy, and paranormal fiction and — although she loves delicious angst along the way — Keira firmly believes in happy endings. For as Oscar Wilde once said:

“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.”

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