Two Chicks Obsessed with Books & Eye Candy

Sharing our love of M/M Romance

release day review

The Best Man’s Problem by Sera Taino: Release Day Review

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He can’t forget the kiss he shared with the best man.

But is he the best man for him?

His sister’s wedding isn’t the ideal place for Rafael Navarro to reconnect with the man he kissed in a moment of reckless abandon. But it’s impossible to avoid best man Étienne Galois! The gorgeous Haitian photographer hasn’t forgotten the intimate moment they shared, even if Rafi is the most maddening person he’s ever met. Can the two find common ground, proving opposites not only attract—they can become lovers for life?

From Harlequin Special Edition: Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.

The Navarros

Amazon 

Harlequin

This book is from a traditional publishing, Harlequin Special Edition. These are the books that as a teenager, if I got one…oh my…lol. I’m glad to see how they’ve evolved more. More diversity in the MC’s as well as the side characters, and different sexualities are referenced. This isn’t your grandma’s romance novel, and that was all right with me. 🙂

This book had such great representation. In fact, there really was only one character who was a white male, and cisgender. Both Creole and Spanish language phrases were sprinkled throughout the book as well. I really enjoyed that. Quite often, when MC’s speak different languages, you might see one or two references to it, but this book had the languages represented from beginning to end.

Rafi was a control freak, trying to keep everything exactly in the path that he laid down, and love wasn’t really in his life’s plan. The guilt over how his mother died permeated every interaction he had in his life. This made the book a bit of a slow burn, from enemies to lovers. Their first kiss was before the book started, then the first reader read kiss wasn’t until over halfway through the book. It took them a while to get from calling each other names to calling each others’ names.

Étienne, meanwhile, was very much the opposite of Rafi. He was open to love, open to life and new experiences. He’d had his own tragedy on his island in Haiti, before moving to NYC. For Étienne, it caused him to not want to waste a minute of life. It did lead to some heartbreak for him, as well.

There were some issues that I felt were unresolved, or not fully resolved to my satisfaction. In addition, the book is written very formally. The everyday language used was stilted in some places, using words that are not normally in the vernacular. That piece definitely harked back to the older days of romance novels.

This was definitely opposites attract with, of course, a Harlequin guaranteed HEA. An enjoyable read.

3.5 pieces of eye candy

Prince of Lies by Lucy Lennox: New Release Review

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Rowe Prince is a lying liar who windmills into my life in full color, claiming to be Sterling Chase, a quirky, eccentric billionaire… and founder of the company I created. 

Two can play at the lying game, though, and I’m not about to let some burrito-delivering, floppy-haired virgin from Indiana best me at a game I was born to play. 

So I do him one better and pretend to be Sterling Chase’s new assistant. I’ll teach him a lesson that will hopefully wind us both up in bed… with nothing but the truth between us. 

But it turns out his shameless lies are enchanting… unintentionally hilarious… and make it all too easy to forget the truth…

Until I learn that this cutie’s intent is to defraud the company I’ve spent years building. I have to choose: risk the company or say goodbye to the man I’m falling for. A guy who just might be…

The Prince of Lies

Title: Prince of Lies

Author: Lucy Lennox

Genre: MM Romance

Tropes: Billionaire/Mistaken Identity

Release Date: February 14, 2023

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

Goodreads

Isn’t it great when a book surprises you? It just doesn’t happen as much anymore. Am I a cynic? Perhaps, but fortunately Lucy took this one and gave me a surprise.

Reading the blurb, all about people that lie…well, it didn’t strike me as a book that I was going to be gangbusters for…but of course, it’s Lucy Lennox, so I should not have worried. This was a laugh out loud, sweet and low angst story. Worth a re-read for sure.

The banter between the two MC’s was so much fun, as they met via lies, and Rowe just kept telling them, and getting himself further into his outrageous stories. It does take a bit to get into the story and the relationship between the MC’s, but once it happens, it’s just gangbusters.

Rowe is so darn cute, trying to lie and then lie on top of his lies, but is super awkward (you know, for a billionaire). Bash, meanwhile, despite all his money, is sweet and caring, for Rowe, as well as all his friends, and wants to make a positive mark on the world.

Definitely a fun read, lots of laughs, some sizzling chemistry and a satisfying conclusion to the issues they were dealing with.

4.5 pieces of eye candy (that extra 1/2 for the surprises!) 🙂

Lucy Lennox is a USA Today bestselling author and winner of the A.C. Katt Gay Debut Novel Award.

After enjoying creative writing as a child, Lucy didn’t write her first novel until she was over 40 years old. Her debut novel, Borrowing Blue, was published in the autumn of 2016. Lucy has an English Literature degree from Vanderbilt University, but that doesn’t hold a candle to the years and years of staying up all night reading tantalizing novels on her own. She has three children, plays tennis, and hates folding laundry. While her husband is no shmoopy romance hero, he is very good at math, cooks a mean lasagne, has gorgeous eyes, looks hot in his business clothes, and makes her laugh every single day. She writes gay romance with heart, humor, and heat!

Website: https://www.lucylennox.com 

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

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2017155708550087 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucylennoxmm 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lucy_lennox 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lucylennoxmm 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3k1u29H

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16116459.Lucy_Lennox 

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lucy-lennox 

What He Learns: Desires: New Beginnings by EM Denning: New Release Review

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A new dominant
A jaded submissive
What could possibly go right?
Sterling’s plan is simple. Learn how to be dominant, woo his crush. The only problem is he doesn’t know how to do either of those things. Getting a job at the local kink club seems like a good place to start. Meeting a kind and older submissive on his first night on the job throws a wrench into his plans.
Despite how hard he tried, Kelly was never enough for his ex-husband. Years after their amicable, yet heartbreaking, divorce, Kelly has come to terms with how things ended. Hoping to put all his doubts aside, he’s ready to get back into the scene.
Kelly’s first night coincides with Sterling’s first shift at Desires, and he can’t help his interest in the much younger man who has more questions than answers. It doesn’t take long for them both to realize they have something important to offer the other. Sterling needs practice and Kelly… well, after so long away, he does too.
Questions turn into scenes and scenes turn into more, and they’re just getting started when Kelly’s doubts creep back in. If he wasn’t enough for his ex, how can he be enough for a man like Sterling? Can Kelly learn to trust again, or will they lose everything they have built together before love can even be found?

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

This book what such a great combo of sweet and hot. And it wasn’t cheesy and I really, really enjoyed it.

First time Dom. Amirite? Especially since it seemed like he was going into it for one person. But it wasn’t something he really considered until he saw it. Someone kneeling.

This is where it could so quickly go off the rails. Baby Dom jumping in there, double fisting paddles, going way overboard. But nope. He eases into it so gently and naturally. Starting slowly with an experienced sub. Getting advice from not only his sub, but other Doms. He wasn’t a kid in a candy store. He was a kid with 50 cents standing in front of candy dispensers figuring out where he should spend his money.

Kelly was great. A experienced sex only sub who is divorced from a full time Dom. Or wanna be full time Dom with a sub who wants to please but ended up resenting him. I love that they stayed friends. Seeing each other for lunch once a week or so. What was a toxic marriage turned into a lovely friendship.

Sterling and Kelly are wonderful together. A great match who not only fulfill each others needs, but are a strong relationship outside of kink. The I love yous were a bit fast, but hey. Who am I to judge?

I’d love to see Sterling gain more confidence and expand his repertoire with Kelly. Hoping for them to pop up in coming books.

4 pieces of eye candy

The Loner (The Vers Podcast Book 1) by Riley Hart: Release Day Review

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Declan
As a founding member of The Vers, a queer podcast I host with my three best friends, I’m The Loner—quieter than the others, and except for them, I don’t let myself get too close to people. Most of them just let you down anyway, or maybe it’s just that something about me chases people away.

Infrequent, no-strings-attached hookups have always worked for me. Who knew my favorite one would become such a popular movie star? But Sebastian Cole and I made it work, meeting up whenever he was in Santa Monica and in the mood—until he called it off when he got a serious boyfriend. A boyfriend he later found in bed with another man.

Now Sebastian is back in California, taking a break from acting. He needs a friend, and for whatever reason, he decides that should be me. We’ve known each other intimately for years, and yet we’ve never spent much time together with our clothes on. When he starts taking me places, it feels suspiciously like dates…and surprisingly, I like it.

Despite our differences, Sebastian’s lonely, like me. The more we hang out, the more I realize I’ll never get enough of him.

A loner dating a celebrity doesn’t make much sense. I don’t know how to be someone’s boyfriend, let alone be in the public eye. But to call him mine, I’ll need to leave the past behind and finally allow myself to move forward with him.

The Loner is an opposites attract romance about a movie star rethinking his career and a bar owner/podcast host who isn’t fond of most people. Expect Southern California sun, swoon, found family and once-in-a-lifetime friendships.

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

What a great start to a new series. AND because there are 4 best friends, we kind of don’t have to wonder who is going to get their HEA next.

The series starts with Declan. Ten years ago a hook up turned into a semi regular hookup. Declan was a bartender and Sebastian was an actor trying to make it. Which he did. But still had semi regular hookups with Declan because being out in Hollywood doesn’t necessarily mean being OUT. Eventually they drifted apart because Sebastian got a Hollywood approved boyfriend.

And 10 years later he walks into Declan’s bar once again. This time, Declan is the owner.

I loved Sebastian. Hoe he got to do what he loved, but he was also questioning if that was all he wanted to do. Realizing that friendship can be fickle when you become a celebrity. And being a homogenized Hollywood version of “acceptable gay” really kind of sucks.

Rattling around his big house he figures out that he really doesn’t have friends. Which, really, I can totally see happening. Starting life as a closeted gay person doesn’t lead to a lot of lifelong friendships. So when people then wanted to be his friend, it wasn’t necessarily for the right reason.

Declan has friends. Exactly 3 and that was enough for him. But Sebastian convinces him to be his friend. And with that, they end the sexual side of their relationship. Declan is a grumpy Gus who doesn’t want to be wooed by Sebastian’s charms. The problem is, Sebastian doesn’t even realize how charming he is.

So they do the dude bro thing and hang out, grill, drink beer, etc. Friends. But the more they get to know each other, the more the friend thing blurs.

But that is one of the things I really liked about it. That they had TEN YEARS of being hook up buddies who knew practically nothing about each other. And getting to know each other lets them each mature a bit past thinking only with their small heads.

Declan’s 3 best friends are fun too. Their dynamic is a little bit overboard for me with the way they constantly mock each other. But that seems to be when all 4 are together. When Declan is with just Parker, his bestest best friend, they are way more real. I want to see more real with the 4 guys. And stop calling each other stupid names. It’s like they revert back to being 15.

Anyway. The romantic love relationship between Sebastian and Declan was very organic. It made sense what they were doing and the path they were headed down. AND without the big, cliché misunderstanding that leads to a break up thing. That’s so tired.

I’d love to see more of these guys. Partly because we didn’t get to see them together while Sebastian was working. That will be an interesting dynamic.

Looking forward to the other three guys finding their happiness.

4 pieces of eye candy

Rocky Start: MM SEAL Bodyguard Romance (A-List Security Book 4) by Annabeth Albert: Release Day Review

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I think I’m falling for my bodyguard co-worker. Now I need protection… from myself.

As a former SEAL intelligence officer, I’m supposed to be smart. Unfortunately, those smarts don’t apply to love. I did a nice thing and took my heartbroken fellow bodyguard out for a Valentine’s dinner. Just us bros. But my plan worked a little too well, and a night that ended with a scorching kiss has turned into the most awkward morning at the office ever. Now we’re working together as bodyguards on a remote mountain movie shoot. And we’re roommates.

I’ve never been attracted to a guy before, but something about Avery calls to every protective instinct I have. We’re not dating, but every night alone together, I fall a little deeper. It’s also Avery’s first time with a guy too, and while we’re both enjoying all sorts of new things together, I worry my heart will be broken when we return to civilization.

No matter how badly this may end, I can’t seem to stop wanting Avery. All of him. I want to see who he’ll become if he ever manages to get out of his own way. I want to be his biggest cheerleader, best friend, and the guy he comes home to. But going from secret hookup to forever after is a big ask. Are we both brave enough to take the leap?

ROCKY START is book four in the A-List Security series. It features TWO highly protective SEAL bodyguards, a double awakening, an exploration of the sexy, lacy kind, and all sorts of brand-new emotions. Get ready for all the high heat, big feels, and found family feels readers expect from this fan-favorite military romance author. Join A-List Security for this lower-angst series featuring former SEALs and celebrity clients. Happy endings and no cliffhangers guaranteed!

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

Tough Luck: MM SEAL Bodyguard Romance (A-List Security Book 1)

Hard Job: MM SEAL Bodyguard Romance (A-List Security Book 2)

Bad Deal: MM SEAL Bodyguard Romance (A-List Security Book 3)

Well. Damn. **Fans self**

I’ve been a fan of Annabeth Albert for a long time and I am fairly certain I have read all of her books. This one is by far the sexiest. There were several- huh, wasn’t expecting that but yes!- moments. Which just kept me turning the pages.

Oh and the cover model? If that isn’t Malik, I don’t know who is.

This is a double awakening for this couple. Both had only ever been with women. Avery is that poor shlub that tries too hard, it seems, with women, only to be dumped again and again. Malik isn’t a serial dater and doesn’t do casual. Having come out of a long term relationship, he is fine on his own.

Avery has A LOT of internalized homophobia. Enough to beat himself up and make Malik mad. Before Malik is able to smooth his feathers. Good thing since they are on an assignment together in Colorado. And rooming together.

Like the previous books, both guys are vets. Avery lost an arm and Malik has some crippling PTSD. And while Avery sometimes feels sorry for himself, I think it’s really so that Malik will boost him up.

Watching Avery come into his own was kind of beautiful. And once he is fully accepting of himself- wow.

Like I said at the beginning, there were places this book went that I wasn’t expecting. BUT they were absolutely perfect. So well written. Not over the top at all. Very real and organic.

I savored this book, not wanting to rush through it. Avery and Malik deserved that attention.

4.5 pieces of eye candy

Just Say When by Aimee Nicole Walker: Release Day Review

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Someone wants Police Chief Emilio Mendoza dead. And if his unknown assailant doesn’t kill him, pining for Sheriff Abraham Beecham just might.

Abe and Lio’s thirty-year journey has taken them from heated rivals to best friends with countless labels and pit stops along the way. Romance is the only avenue left unexplored but not from lack of love or desire.

Abe pushes people away before they can get too close, and Lio doesn’t engage in situations he can’t control. They’ve reached an impasse, and neither are willing to risk their friendship until fate intervenes, forcing them to reassess their priorities.

But when an unhinged enemy targets Lio, will their gamble be too little too late, or will their love truly conquer all?

Just Say When is a standalone romantic suspense novel within the author’s Savannah universe. This book contains mature content and is attended for adults.

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

Police Chief Mendoza has made many appearances in different stories. In several of them, the nature of his relationship with Sherriff Abe Beecham has been speculated about. Finally, we get their story.

We get a lot of their background story when they tell it to Lio (Chief Mendoza’s) ez wife’s new husband over pizza. Because even though they are divorced, they are still friends and they coparent a teenage boy. Which is nice to see.

And while the story gave us, well, the background story, it would have been nice to have a non-condensed flashback version. I might have been more invested in their relationship. Not that I wasn’t, but, yanno. More development of the characters and their relationship would have been nice.

Lio’s ex wife is also dealing with an investigation that started in another book. You don’t have to read the other books though as it is easily explained again. But it’s just funny to go from this bad a$$ Chief to a guy with a kid and an exwife who is on the periphery of the police force and a best friend since childhood who is a Sheriff. Who knew he had such a tangled web.

While Abe and Lio dance around each other, we hear a little more about the investigation and meet 2 Army buddies of Abe and Lio. Another thing we didn’t know. It was nice seeing the 4 guys kick back and hang out.

What I didn’t expect from this book were the tears. Which had nothing to do with Abe and Lio’s relationship. But if you don’t cry, I will be really surprised.

A couple of things I really did like. We only get a very brief scene with Locke, and then one comment from him at another point. I like when there is character cross over, especially because they are in the same world, but I feel like, given the chance, he could take over. So I’m glad we saw him briefly and that was it.

I also liked how both guys have no problem with their sexuality and don’t need, want, or have to hide. Especially because there is a teenager in the family. A pretty cool teenager too.

There is a bit of a whodunit going on, which added some interest to the story. No spoilers, natch.

Overall, I really enjoyed these nearly lifelong best friends accept their love for each other and find happiness. Especially since they weren’t 23 years old. I love seeing older characters represented.

4 pieces of eye candy