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Monday, June 22, 2015

ARC REVIEW: Secret by Kindle Alexander #MM #Romance



Genre: Stand-alone M/M Contemporary Romance 
Release Date: June 9, 2015

DESCRIPTION: Tristan Wilder, self-made millionaire and devastatingly handsome CEO of Wilder-Nation is on the verge of a very lucrative buyout. With tough negotiations ahead, he's armed with his acquisition pitch, ready to launch the deal of a lifetime. There’s just one glitch. The last thing he expects is to fall for the hot business owner he's trying to sway.

Dylan Reeves, computer science engineer and founder of the very successful social media site, Secret, is faced with a life-altering decision. A devoted family man with three kids and a wife, Dylan has been living a secret for years. Fiercely loyal to his convictions, his boundaries blur after meeting the striking owner of the corporation interested in acquiring his company. For the first time in his life, reckless desire consumes him when the gorgeous computer mogul makes an offer he can't refuse.

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1eCh4YZ
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1I8ApMw

OUR REVIEW: Kindle Alexander has hit it out of the park with Secret! 

I’ve read several Kindle Alexander books and liked them well enough, but Secret is on a whole other level. I loved it from the first page to the last.

Tristan Wilder, the CEO of the company that wants to buy Dylan Reeves’ breakthrough social media site, Secret, is everything you’d imagine a head-in-the-clouds inventor to be, and Dylan is the ideal businessman and father with his perfect wife and family. But all is not as it seems, which Tristan discovers when Dylan and his team go to visit Wilder Inc. headquarters in California. Neither is a twenty-something billionaire—refreshing, I know!

Secret is in no way about cheating, or ménage, or anything even remotely like that. It’s about people who are committed to each other’s happiness and how new partners fit into this complicated and unusual situation. Nothing that happens is without the other’s consent.

Teri, Dylan’s wife, is a thoroughly developed secondary character. Her kindness and understanding of Dylan’s predicament endeared her to me immediately. I’ve seen some reviews that doubt a wife like her could exist. I don’t doubt it at all, especially in a world and time where many gay men still choose to hide who they are for family and business reasons. Teri and Dylan take their marriage seriously and are doing the best they can for their children, despite the anguish their sacrifice is causing both of them.


Never in his thirty-seven years of life had anyone said those words to him. he played the stereotypical hetero husband so well that every person he knew would have sworn the Reeves family stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

[...]

Tristan's smooth voice caught his attention as he ducked his head through the open door. "I promise it's discreet. Your secret's safe in here." 

I loved seeing the apparently straight Dylan emerge from his self-imposed celibacy under Tristan’s creative tutelage. Likewise, Dylan’s involvement with Wilder helps Tristan to see where he’s gone wrong, and ways to correct his mistakes, both professionally and personally. At first, it’s all fun and games—Tristan sees Dylan as a challenge. Someone he can have, enjoy, then leave once the companies are merged. But life has other plans, and these plans blow both these men, and the readers along with them, way off their chosen course.

But what about the sex, you ask?

This book is chock-full of all the good stuffsmoldering romance, burn-up-the-sheets sex, and plenty of panty-melting moments! 


"Baby, are you asleep?"

"Close," Dylan murmured. His voice gravelly and thick, proving he'd been sleeping.

"I need to tell you something. I haven't ever said anything like this before, but you need to know so I can sleep." Tristan lifted his head a little, talking quietly into Dylan's ear, trying to keep his heart from racing out of his chest. 

"Okay." A solid yawn formed on the word. 

"I'll wait for you, however long it takes. I don't care. I'll wait. I'm in love with you."

If you love books about family, love, and acceptance, then this is the book for you.

OUR RATING: ❇❇❇ stars!

Thursday, June 11, 2015

REVIEW: Finding Your Hero by A.J. Kelton #MM #Romance


Real estate mogul Roman Janiko believes weakness is something to be exploited. He made his millions doing just that, but now he's beginning to wonder if there is any good left in him. 

Chris Williams is on the run from an abusive boyfriend who will do whatever it takes to get back what he believes is his. Looking for a place to hide, Chris stumbles straight into Roman’s arms. 

Something about his sassy attitude stirs feelings in Roman that he had thought lost, but it's going to take more than words to show Chris that he has found his hero... 

OUR REVIEW: Roman is a rich real estate mogul with suspected mafia ties. He does what—or who—he wants, when he wants. Until he happens upon a poor, beaten man on the beach. Chris has just escaped from a very long and abusive relationship. 

In a move, very much out of character, Roman takes Tony into his home, nurses him back to health, and gives him a new lease on life. But there is trouble in paradise…

The setup was interesting, and there were aspects of this story that I thought were very well done. Chris is a character you will feel for, whom you will root for. He has been through so much, and you will desperately want him to find his happily ever after.  The abuse scenes are particularly poignant and might be a trigger for some people. 


“Please stop,” Chris pleased. He pulled at the ropes that held his wrists once again.

He had jerked on them enough that his wrists were rubbed raw. “Mitch, please don’t let them do this.”

Mitch glanced at John but said nothing.

“Don’t want to play, pretty boy?” John ran his finger down the center of Chris’ chest. 

When Roman is with Chris, he’s the perfect mix of protective and loving. 


Chris looked at his salad a slight blush touching his cheeks. “Maybe I’ll check it out to see if it is anything worth looking at.”

“Oh believe me,” Roman said and waggled his eyebrows “not only is it worth looking at, it is worthy of all the attention it receives. Not to say I have bragging rights, but, you know, I think I’m worth writing home about.”

But when they are apart, Roman is ruthless. He does things behind Chris’s back, things Chris never finds out about, at least in this story. 

As a reader, I was left perplexed. Despite the fact that there is no sex in the story, there is a definite loving relationship between these two men. One I can’t help but feel is flawed, since Chris doesn’t know who his knight in shining armor really is. 

Perhaps this is the first in a series? It’s the only way I can understand why this story would end without sex and with so many open threads. 


Amazon US:  http://amzn.to/1e4tf09

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1KXIPow

OUR RATING: ❇❇❇ ½ stars

Saturday, June 6, 2015

ARC REVIEW: Coming Out by Lila Rose (Hawks MC Club Novella) #MM #Romance



Genre: Series M/M Contemporary Romance (can be read as a standalone)

Living a lie, Matthew ‘Mattie’ Alexander is exhausted. It’s not easy to keep up the pretence, the deceit, but it’s safer. Coming out to a world that so easily hates takes a courage he’s yet to find, so he pretends – pretends to be into women – pretends to love being a part of the university’s football team. It keeps him safe, hidden. 

Until he meets Julian. 

From the moment they first meet, Mattie knows life is about to change. He’s yet to determine if it is for the better or worse. Living life through laughter, Julian is lonely. Without the jokes, the humour, he would be living on the edge of depression. Succumbing to his controlling father’s demands, Julian finds no joy in the path laid out before him. 

Until he meets Mattie. 

As soon as they cross paths, Mattie has the power to drive Julian’s man parts crazy with lust. But can lust be enough to help Mattie out of the closet, and guide Julian into a happier place? 


Limits will be pushed. Rules will be broken. But it’s only together, that they will have the strength to overpower fear, fear of themselves and fear of others. Just how far are they willing to go in the aim of coming out? 

OUR REVIEW: This is the coming out story of a young college boy and the older man he meets when he’s hired as a masseuse for the football team. 

These men are polar opposites: Mattie is a serious nineteen-year old closeted athlete who has a very supportive family. Julian is an out and proud thirty-six-year old masseuse with a tremendous sense of humor and a penchant for pet names, who is trying to rid himself of his albatross of a family. They hate him, who he is, and make no secret of it.


It’s fun to see how these two characters meet and start up a relationship given the eighteen-year age gap and the vast difference in their life situations. When trouble kicks up with Julian’s family, Mattie shows that he’s much more of a man and protective lover than expected for his age. He’s Julian’s equal in every way.  

Some of the best scenes in this book are with Mattie’s parents, straight-forward folk, who say whatever is on their mind.


“Okay, well, when the time comes, we’ll want to meet him. Need to make sure he’ll be good enough for our boy.” 

Jeesh. That was something I wasn’t looking forward to. Mum would no doubt embarrass me by asking inappropriate things.

For example, the next words out of her mouth, “Do you take or give?”

“Nancy,” Dad barked. “Jesus Christ, woman.”

Mum rolled her eyes. “I’m just curious.”

“Mum, it’s not something to discuss at dinner… or ever.”

She sighed. “Fine.”

The sex is hot and frequent. I loved the massage scenes, even the ones that don’t involve a happy ending. J


He hummed to himself. I would have loved to know what he was thinking. “What’s your name?” he asked. 

“Matthew,” I said as he worked my back. Was he going to go low or not?

My question was answered moments later when his hands suddenly left me and landed on my upper thighs. He squeezed them. I closed my eyes and mouth, Fuck.

“Do you like my hands on you, Mattie?” he drawled, running his hands slowly up and down the back of my legs, just inches shy of my lower arse cheeks.

Please keep going, my dick sang.


Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1RQ5qHS

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1eTAS9W


OUR RATING: 4 stars