Garrett Leigh

Forgive Me Father: Rebel Kings MC: Embry & Mateo by Garrett Leigh: New Release Review and Giveaway

November 17, 2022 by Denise

. .

Embry

“…you don’t understand.”

Mateo lowered himself to sit, still vibrating with the need to fix me, the way he always did. “Then tell me. Explain it like I’m the simplest idiot you’ve ever met.”

I can’t. I’d never told anyone. Not the judge, the jury, or the legal aid barrister who’d written me off before she’d ever met me. But as I drowned in Mateo’s affection, in a love I’d done nothing to deserve, the words came tumbling out.

Bad words.

Dark words.

Darker than sin.

Darker, even, than Mateo’s battered soul and the secrets I didn’t know about yet.

I thought those words would shatter me.

Shatter us.

But when the devil came for us, it wasn’t mine.

It was Mateo’s, and the man I’d trusted with my fragile heart was a stranger more broken than his scars could ever show.

Forgive Me Father is a continuation of the best-selling Rebel Kings MC series. Content warning for violence and sexual trauma.

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

Rebel Kings MC Series – 4 Book Series

Book #1 – Devil’s Dance

Book #2 – Saint’s Song

I was intrigued with Embry and Mateo and their dance around each other from the moment we met them in Devil’s Dance. (Must read the first two books. Not only because of the continuing story, but they are really good) Finally we get the story of the club “chaplain” and one of the club’s main enforcers. Worth the wait!

Everyone in the MC is still kind of reeling from what happened in book 2. Reeling and recovering. A lot happened and the healing will take quite a long time. But I think that also brings them together more, knowing what they could have lost so easily.

Embry and Mateo. Man, I love these two. Even with them dancing around each other for so long, it is still a slow burn once they admit their feelings. Or at least admit that they want each other. They are so different in their roles in the MC, but similar in the way they keep secrets.

They gather strength from each other without even realizing it I think. Not as MC “brothers” but as men. Even something as simple as Embry wearing one of Mateo’s shirts seems to boost both of them. They have an intimacy that is hard to miss. It just makes what they have so much more real.

I pretty much guessed both of their secrets, but not to the extent of what really happened. The outing of Mateo’s was a bit shocking. Things that were said kind of reminded me of some scenes in Sons of Anarchy (US tv show about an MC).

There’s a lot going on in the story as well. Most of it is revealed once Mateo’s secret is revealed. But it keeps a lot of the main MC guys in the story without taking the focus off of Embry and Mateo.

They get that hard fought happily ever after, but not without the support of their MC.

You should definitely check trigger warnings before reading. This book (like the others) is violent.

4 pieces of eye candy

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.

Garrett’s debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.

Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.

Website: http://www.garrettleigh.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh

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Saint’s Song: Rebel Kings MC: Cam, Alexei, and Saint by Garrett Leigh: RB, Release Day Review and Giveaway

June 16, 2022 by Denise

Expect: a fragile king, a sweet-hearted henchman, an enigmatic hitman, and a fight to the death.

Cam, Alexei, and Saint have survived their battle with the devil, but with too many enemies to count, can they survive the war?

“Kill me,” I choked out. “If he’s dead, you gotta kill me too.”

One club, one heart.

Three men, one soul.

Can loving someone kill you? I feel like the world is ending every time I look at them.

Cam. My brother. My president.

He’s the love of my life

And then there’s Alexei. I didn’t know I could feel this way about one person, let alone two. But I think of him in every breath I breathe for Cam. Every thundering beat of my heart. Because there is no Cam without him.

There is no me. My life wasn’t worth living until I found something worth dying for.
And I’d die for them a thousand times.

Saint’s Song is the second in a hurt/comfort, biker romance, MMM duet from the world of the Rebel Kings MC. Content warnings inside the book.

Cover Design: Black Jazz Design

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

Book #1 – Devil’s Dance – Amazon – All Regions

Devil’s Dance Paperback – The Ripped Bodice

Book #3 – Forgive Me Father – Pre-Order – Out Nov ’22

So, I fell even more in love with these guys.

Firstly, let me admit that I had to reread book 1. And then I reread my review of book 1. I ended that review with:

“This is book one of two. Apparently book 2 explores more of the relationship growing between the three men together. Because as a triad we didn’t get a whole lot. So I definitely want more. But there are other characters I would love to see get their happily ever after as well. Fingers crossed for more books.”

Let me confirm that yes, they are a firm triad in this book. And it plays out in so many different ways. Each man has his own personality, but how he loves the other two- with his heart and his body- are unique to them. With Saint they are gentle. Saint is always gentle. Cam and Alexi, not so much.

There is still trouble happening with the MC, fall out from what happened at the end of book 1 and more trouble around the corner. Cam is still determined to go straight. So they have to do something about the trouble.

As an American (this book takes place in England), I really appreciated that this outlaw motorcycle club doesn’t use guns. They don’t even entertain the idea. Alexi does, but he is a Russian hitman. But the MC? Nope. Pipes, hammers, chains. Old school. Which is still brutal af but it also makes the fights extremely personal.

The who and what of the issue between the Rebel Kings and the Crows is twisty and turny. Makes for an interesting plot, but also made my eyes cross if I was reading too late at night.

So I got what I wanted out of book 2. AND there are more to come according to the author’s note at the end of this book. So yay!

4 pieces of eye candy

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.

Garrett’s debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.

Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.

Website: http://www.garrettleigh.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh

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Christmas Mountain: A Christmas Gay Romance by Garrett Leigh: RB, New Release Review and Giveaway

November 11, 2021 by Denise

The probation officer caring for his dead brother’s baby. The wounded gentle giant with the biggest softest heart.

Rami: Sweet Fen Hawthorne is my favourite thing about working in the prison. His broad shoulders and sunny grin. His twinkly flirtation. And he likes me as much as I like him. More seems inevitable until life happens.

One day I’m there, then I’m not, and second chances don’t really happen when your car breaks down halfway up a snowy mountain, do they?

Besides, I don’t remember flirting with a bearded lumbersexual, only dreaming about one.

Fen: Do dreams come true?

Christmas Mountain is my home. But it’s the one place on earth I never imagined seeing Rami Stone again, and now I’m snowed in with him. Trapped, with only a roaring fire for company, and it’s a fantasy come true. The air is thick with more than snow and the eighteen months we’ve been apart fades away.

As the snow clears, though, so does the haze. Rami says he comes with baggage.

But so do I, and I’m here for the heavy lifting.

I’m here for forever.

A Christmas MM romance from Garrett Leigh. Expect: Long lost friends-to-lovers, heart-warming found family, and the swooniest second chance at love with a healthy dose of sweet hurt/comfort. Gorging on mince pies and cinnamon-spiced doughnuts is optional, but deeply encouraged.

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited

So swoony!

We met Rami oh so briefly as Dante Pope’s probation officer. Turns out he has a crush on one of the prison guards and one of the prison guards has a crush on him, but life got in the way and they lost touch for about 2 years.

During that time Rami ended up being the caregiver to his nephew after his brother OD’d and the baby’s mother split. This poor guy is suddenly in charge of a toddler while trying to work and occasionally get some sleep. And then he kind of snapped. If you’re a parent, you have probably felt that way. Just completely exhausted and overwhelmed and if you start crying you might never stop. That’s real life. So in a fit of desperation he decides to go to his sister’s house. Except she lives on a mountain, it’s 2 hours away in good weather and oh, unexpected snowstorm. And then his car dies. In the snow. On a mountain road.

Don’t worry because a gorgeous hulking lumberjack rescues them. And that lumberjack is the prison guard.

Turns out their lives are entwined in a way they didn’t know. Rami decides to stay at his sister’s house with her brood for a bit to get some help, maybe relax a little and get some sleep. But Fen, the prison guard/lumberjack is part of his sister’s life so they see a lot of each other. And they flirt. Hard. Even when Fen says he doesn’t want to cross a line. He doesn’t do casual. And Rami has every intention of going back home to his life and his job.

Rami’s sister is amazing. I want to call her super mom, but her husband is just as amazing. They are fairly self reliant, they homeschool, etc. Rami didn’t think he could do it but he learns to slow down and live how they do. For now.

Fen has some demons and reasons for leaving the prison and going back to take over his father’s Christmas tree farm. And as much as he adores Rami’s sister and family, he is still pretty closed off. They all chip away at him- kids included. And especially Charlie, Rami’s nephew he is now raising.

It wasn’t just Rami and Fen falling in love that was swoony. It was Fen allowing himself to fall in love with Rami’s whole family. And letting them all love him back.

There’s a bit of drama toward the end that was unexpected. But you also know that everything is going to be ok.

Definitely worth the read if you are a fan of the author. Or even if you are new to their work. Or just want a lumberjack Christmas story. Or a single dad story. Or all of the above.

4 pieces of eye candy

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Deliverance: A Second Chance Gay Romance (Darkest Skies) by Garrett Leigh: RB, New Release Review

May 24, 2021 by Denise

Banished gangster Benito Martell is living on the edge. An explosive hook-up in a club gifts him the relief he craves, but nothing about his life is ever so simple. Complications abound, and before long, he’s falling for the only man who can save his family from eviction.

Recovering addict Mickey Larwood has worked hard to leave his past behind. He can’t look back, not even for the beautiful Benito, the last soul on earth he expected to steal his heart—a soul who’s knee-deep in the underworld Mickey has run hundreds of miles to escape.

Benito can deny it all he wants, but Mickey can smell trouble a mile off.

And Benito is trouble with a capital T. As his desperate lies unravel, so does the fledgling love that’s grown between them. If Benito wants deliverance from his old life and a future with Mickey, old ghosts need to die.

If they don’t kill him first.

Deliverance is an angsty standalone MM romance novel, with second chances, found family, friends-to-lovers, and buckets of hurt/comfort themed loveliness. Trigger warnings for addiction and childhood trauma.

Cover Design: Black Jazz Design

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited

Book #1 – Redemption – Currently only 99c

Book #3 – Salvation – Pre-Order Out September 20

I really loved the first book in this series, Redemption, for a lot of reasons. So I was excited to get my hands on this one. And I really can’t wait for the third!

Dark, gritty, heartbreaking. But these two guys finding each other when they did was just perfection.

The last time we saw Benito he was working for Asa and had shot Dante. Flash forward and Benito is out of the gang, but not without a price. So while trying to go straight, he is still a bit crooked. He has a plan to come up with the money to buy his freedom, but it involved stealing from his former boss. But after the boss threatened Benito’s mother and sister, he is doing what he has to do to keep them safe.

Benito has so many layers that make him who he is. The son who wants to hate his mother but can’t, the brother who wants only the best for his sister, the former gang member who just wants out, the guy still grieving the father he lost years ago and the man who doesn’t have any idea how to be in a relationship.

That brings us to Mickey. A club hookup who wants more of Benito. But Mickey has his own demons- including also being a former gang member. And while Mickey is on the straight and narrow, his past haunts him. Which is why I think he tries so hard at his job to help as many people as he can.

Mickey and Benito together are explosive. They are sooooooo hot together. Even their first encounter they practically fight each other until they are sated. I mean, have ice water handy. Maybe a fan.

We don’t get a ton of background on Mickey. Just that he was formerly in a gang, had to leave his hometown, is a recovering addict and now has a full time job. He has some demons of his own but Benito is still the main focus of the story.

This is angsty, raw and real. I loved it.

4.5 pieces of eye candy

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.

Garrett’s debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

Website: http://www.garrettleigh.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh

Unforgotten (Forgiven Book 2) by Garrett Leigh: New Release Review

February 22, 2021 by Denise

Billy Daley hasn’t been home in years, and he likes it that way. He’s just fine on his own—he has a cash-in-hand job at a scrapyard, a half-feral cat to keep him company, and many miles between him, his hometown and all the baggage that comes with it.

Until the job goes sideways. Suddenly he’s back in Rushmere, working for none other than his brother’s best friend—a man whose kiss Billy can’t seem to forget.

Gus Amour’s memories of Billy Daley are all spiky edges, lips crushed against lips and a reckless streak that always ended in trouble. But when Billy needs a place to stay, Gus steps in. He’d do anything for the Daley family, including living, and working, side by side with a man who makes his heart beat too fast and his blood run too hot—two things he’s been running from for years.

It doesn’t take long before their easy banter, lingering touches and heated glances become a temptation too hard to resist. But falling into bed and falling in love are two different things, and love has never come easy to either Billy or Gus. Only when fate threatens to steal away their opportunity for a second chance will they realize they don’t need easy.

They just need each other.

Forgiven

Book 1: Forgiven

Book 2: Unforgotten

Amazon

Carina Press

This is book 2, but can easily be a stand alone. I didn’t read book 1 as it is a traditional MF romance and that isn’t my jam any longer. It was pretty easy to extrapolate the background story that was explicitly told.

So there’s Billy. Left home when he was old enough and lived a bit like a nomad. Six months here, six months there, before moving on. Working odd jobs, sleeping where he can and dealing with the residual pain after and accident and shoulder surgery. His time at his current location is cut short when he gets fired for punching someone who hurt his cat. The cat is ok, don’t worry. I’d punch someone for hurting my cat too! With pretty much no options, he figures he would head back home where his brother lives. But they have a strained relationship at best AND his brother’s girlfriend lives with him. But Gus, Billy’s brother’s best friend. And the brother of Billy’s girlfriend, said he could stay with him.

And so begins forced proximity, grouchy Billy, far too sunshiney Gus and a fabulous cat named Grey.

Billy and Gus had kissed once about five years ago. And they both continue to think about it. But as men are wont to do, no one brings it up. They brood and daydream and fantasize about each other. While working AND living together.

I really enjoyed the dynamic between Gus and Billy. They learned to live and work together before they learned how to be together. But of course there were still issues with that- mostly from things unsaid which lead to misunderstandings.

There were a couple of things that I would have wanted- Billy discovering that he was demisexual for one. It was never said, but it was fairly obvious to me. Gus had a breakthrough with Billy about his past, but never with Luke (Billy’s brother) or Mia (Gus’s sister). So I feel like a lot was left unsaid.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this book. The time spent building the relationship between Billy and Gus made for a deeper story.

3.5 Pieces of Eye Candy

Falling For My Roommate by Garrett Leigh: Blog Tour, New Release Review and Giveaway

March 20, 2020 by Denise

Falling for his roommate gives ex footballer Micah the second chance he deserves, and what could be better than loving your best friend?

Micah

I’m a broke ex-football player with a bum leg and PTSD. Last summer, I had two choices: the streets, or find a cheap room to rent in the city. I chose the second option, which landed me with a brand-new problem, cos I hadn’t banked on my roommate becoming my best friend. Or that before long I’d find myself head over heels in love with him. Trouble is, even if Sam likes me back, I ain’t fit to be no one’s boyfriend. I don’t know how. All I do is wade through every precious moment and hope that he doesn’t regret the day he ever met me.

Sam

I’m a gay book nerd with no business falling in love with hunky athletes. Micah is the dictionary definition of beautiful, inside and out, he just doesn’t know it. And he definitely doesn’t know I’m ridiculously in love with him. The embarrassing kind of love.

He’s all I can think about.

But it’s not as simple as loving someone who doesn’t love me back. Micah is damaged goods—at least, that’s how he’d put it. The world has chewed him up and spat him out, and he thinks he deserved it. That he’s still the battered mess he was a year ago.

I want to shake him, and shout in his face that he’s not. To force the truth on him and make him believe in himself the way I do. But I can’t save Micah. One day, perhaps he’ll realise that he already saved himself.

Cover Design: Black Jazz Design

Amazon US- Kindle Unlimited

Amazon UK – Kindle Unlimited

So good!

Except for the boring title, I really loved this book. Micah was a small character in a previous book (I really love that. Because then you don’t have to read the previous books, but if you did you get these pop in characters you can check on) when he was a professional football (soccer) player. Now permanently injured, his mental health precarious and most of his money gone, he shares an apartment with Sam and works as a personal trainer for senior citizens.

Sam is just a chill guy. He works as a bartender and goes to school very part time. And he loves books. Of course you’re going to love a guy who loves books! Honestly, I wish he talked about books and his love of books more. Teehee

Anyway, mutual crushes, longing looks, but best friends and roomies. They are just so cute together. They totally act like a couple without the benefits. They start dipping their toes into the idea of being a couple while visiting Sam’s parents.

Throughout the entire book you just want to hug Micah. OMG this guy. His entire life did a 180. He is struggling everyday. His inner dialogue really showed the turmoil of living with mental health issues and how quickly and easily things can change. Anyone who lives with anxiety or depression or ptsd will absolutely see bits of themselves in him.

Often when one character is struggling, the other tends to be overly happy and optimistic and you want to smack them. Not Sam though. Yes, he does lead a fairly charmed life with little struggle, he does everything he can to understand Micah, not just try to get him to cheer up. He isn’t that character who is practically a cheerleader with permasmile. He was super real.

This is a must read if you are a fan of Garrett Leigh. If the author is new to you, it is easy to jump right in with this one. You’ll probably go back to read as many of the others as you can.

4.5 pieces of eye candy

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.

Garrett’s debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

Website: http://www.garrettleigh.com/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh

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