Sunday, 30 July 2017

ARC REVIEW : Under the Boardwalk by Felice Stevens


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Beneath the famous Brooklyn landmark, love is hidden but not denied:

All his life, Alexi Kharpov has dreamed of traveling to unknown exciting places instead of working at his family’s frozen custard stand on the famous Coney Island boardwalk. Every year is the same until a gorgeous man picks a spot in front of his stand to sing, captivating him with his beautiful voice. After two summers of listening, it might finally be time for him to cross that boardwalk and take a chance.

Opera singer Cameron Maxwell has traveled the world, but the sight of the beautiful man serving custard to tourists touches his heart like nothing ever has before. A summer fling might be exactly what he needs to put his problems out of his mind, but the last thing Cam expects is to want the summer to last forever.

It’s a season of discovery for both men who learn to dig deep within their heads and hearts to decide whether secrets old and new should remain buried, or if love is too important to keep hidden under the boardwalk.
 Image may contain: 1 person, sitting and text
Under the Boardwalk








Under the Boardwalk by Felice Stevens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Some stories are worth melting for.
This was what happened to me soon as I finished this 'custard' story of Cam and Alexi.
I loved how easily they're fit into each other's life after decided that finally two summers is enough.
Enough of wanting, enough of just seeing each other from afar, enough the cowardice to say hello.
It's a story of a 'not a love at first sight', love at first sight.
Soon as they talked, they're clicked, like a soulmates click. And I couldn't be more happier that Alexi somehow, has his dreams comes true. I think he's having the same dream as me, to be able to see the world. And Alexi proved that could happen.
This is ended with a HFN and a promise of HEA.
Recommended!

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Saturday, 29 July 2017

ARC REVIEW (Spoiler free) : Rule Breaker by Lily Morton

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Is it really wrong to want to murder your boss?

Dylan has worked for Gabe for two years. Two long years of sarcastic comments. Two long years of insults, and having to redo the coffee pot four times in the mornings to meet his exacting standards.

Not surprisingly he has devoted a lot of time to increasingly inventive ways to murder Gabe. From stabbing him with a cake fork, to garrotting him with his expensive tie, Dylan has thought of everything.

However, a chance encounter opens his eyes to the attraction that has always lain between them, concealed by the layers of antipathy. There are only two problems - Gabe is still a bastard, and he makes wedding planners look like hardened pessimists.

But what happens when Dylan starts to see the real Gabe? What happens when he starts to fall in love with the warm, wary man that he sees glimpses of as the days pass?

Because Gabe is still the same commitment shy, cold man that he’s always been, or is he? Has Dylan had the same effect on Gabe, and has his solid gold rule of no commitment finally been broken? With his heart taken Dylan desperately needs to know, but will he get hurt trying to find the answers?

From the author of ‘The Summer of Us’ comes another scorchingly hot romantic comedy, showing what happens between two men when rules get broken.
Rule Breaker









Rule Breaker by Lily Morton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sometimes, along the way your reading history, you will stumbled to that one book that you have no idea what you'll find. Sometimes, it's what's she/he's name author you've never heard of, read their book and hooked.
That was what happened to me with this book. I never heard of this author before, and I blindly read this book.
And I'm hooked since the first email ( I really loved the emails between Gabe and Dylan and a beginning of every chapter).
If you read this book (you must!), you'll be like me I suppose. You know, that you'll want desperately to punch Gabe, like all the time want to punch him in the face kind of want. But in the end, he's the one you'll desperately want to hold and love. Sigh.
To say I'm in love with this book, especially Gabe and Dylan, is understatement. I'm obsessed.
This book is so good, I didn't even realized (considering the length), I didn't do my usual skimming during sex scenes.
I enjoyed every words, every journey that Gabe and Dylan took to find that they're meant to be together. I smile, laugh, angry, angry, angry, blushed, cry, angry, and ended loving it.
Lily Morton did something amazing with this book. I never once bored reading this story(which very often and easily distracted).
This book is one of the best book I have ever read this year, and I will definitely revisit this again.
Oh how I miss Gabe and Dylan already.
This book is sexy, and even the love making is sexy :)
I believe I need Jude (that awesome friend of Dylan) and Henry's story in a very near future!
Highly recommended.
You need this book!


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Thursday, 27 July 2017

ARC REVIEW : Fool of Main Beach (Love in Laguna #5) by Tara Lain

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Merle Justice wants to reach for the stars, but it’s tough to get respect when playing a teenybopper vampire on TV. Then he meets a famous director anxious to give him all he thinks he wants—and maybe a bit more. Everything’s looking up until a life-threatening encounter with some homophobes on Main Beach puts Merle face-to-face with a Sasquatch-sized hero in a pink puffer coat.

Tom Henry defies description. As unsophisticated and simple as an angel, he walks through life content with who he is and asking for very little except to care for his sister, Lily, and the dogs he loves. Then he meets Merle, the embodiment of dreams he barely knows he has. Merle knows the people who hold his future in their hands might love Tom—but they’ll never understand Merle and Tom together. Tom knows it too. With lives this far apart, who’s really the fool of Main Beach?
Fool of Main Beach (Love in Laguna, #5)









Fool of Main Beach by Tara Lain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I reaaaaallyyyy liked Tom! He's an epitome of sweet, honest, pure and angel in a human form.
Merle couldn't be luckier having him rescued that night.
And Tom love sex, yeah you hear me. He loved sex and never shy for asking for Merle it.
I felt like Tara did a really good job wrote about Tom.
It's like I'd seen Billy all over again. Big honest, not too smart but lovable and all I want is taking him home and protected him from the cruel world.
Some stupid thing along the journey to find love of course happened. And I was kinda wanted to slap some people in their face. But all ended well in the end.
Tom and his boys were definitely entertaining and well, Merle had to do some incredible move to deserve him. Fair trade.
If you're following this series from the start, this one need your attention.
This can be read as a stand alone, but I think you better read the series in order, just to get to know their stories, especially my favorite, Billy and Shaz <3 br="">Recommended!

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RELEASE DAY REVIEW : A Little Bit Like Love (South Haven #1) by Brooke Blaine

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What if you had everything in the world you wanted…except the man you’d left behind?

Jackson Davenport, the charismatic, strait-laced heir to the Davenport fortune, has a secret. One he’s been hiding since he graduated from South Haven all-boys academy—and that secret’s name is Lucas.

When a work trip takes Jackson back to his old stomping grounds, memories of the year he shared with Lucas come crashing to the surface. With growing pressure from his father to settle down and take over the family business, Jackson knows he’s on borrowed time, and sets out to find the free-spirited daredevil he once knew.

But Lucas isn’t the same man he was eight years ago.

One night. A shattered heart. And an endless parade of nameless faces. Lucas Sullivan is South Haven’s ultimate playboy, a reputation he’s honed since the only boy he ever loved left without a trace. To the world, he’s brash and confident, an in-demand artist who spends his days designing one-of-a-kind pieces and his nights as king of the downtown scene.

Many have tried and failed to get past the barrier he’s carefully constructed, but it’s the shy, studious boy he once coaxed out of his shell who still haunts him.

Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe it was lust. Or maybe…it was a little bit like love.
A Little Bit Like Love (South Haven, #1)










A Little Bit Like Love by Brooke Blaine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars




Ever wonder what would it be if your life turning upside down and all you've ever known was all lies?
Ever wonder what life could have been if you found out that your first love is still love you and life turned you to face the love of your life once again? For a second chance no less.
Gosh! This book did a lot to me.
At first, I was skeptical because this is Brooke's first MM. Many MF authors didn't make it to the MM world.
But I'd say, Brooke, you're welcome to MM community wholeheartedly!
This book is sexy, unputdownable, and I cannot put it down, but didn't want to say goodbye to Jackson and Lucas.
They're perfect.
I can feel the chemistry right from the start, and during my reading, I kept holding my breath that somebody's better not fuck it up.
I almost losing my mind when something 'almost' happen. But I think Brooke knows how to play the fields. Nothing made me disappointed. Nothing, not even Lucas's behavior before Jackson.
There are two person caught my attention. Bash and Shaw.
I couldn't wait to read about Shaw in the next book. I hope Bash will also get his own story, his story could be 'interesting', since Bash is...well, Bash. Wink.
READ THIS BOOK.
Highly recommended!

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Thursday, 20 July 2017

ARC REVIEW : Smitty's Sheriff (Hope #3) by Cardeno C.

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Todd is too flakey. Richard is too stubborn. Together, they're perfect. A May-December couple get a second chance at love.

Retired soldier Richard Davis wants a stable life in a quiet town with a forever man. Becoming the sheriff of Hope, Arizona, accomplishes two of his three goals, but instead of finding a serious partner, he falls for too-young-to-be-committed and too-flakey-to-be-serious Todd Smitty. Richard won’t find the right man if he’s obsessed with the wrong one, so he walks away from Todd.

It’s lust at first sight when Todd meets his sister’s army friend. He sets his sights on the worldly, strong, stable older man, and the more time he spends with Richard, the harder he falls. But after three years together, Richard cuts off all contact with no explanation.

When a mutual obligation requires Todd to move into Richard’s house, he’s thrilled at the opportunity to earn a second chance. Ignoring Todd from across town was hard enough. Can Richard resist temptation under his own roof?
Smitty's Sheriff (Hope, #3)Smitty's Sheriff by Cardeno C.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars








It pained me to give only two starts for CC's book.
But what can I say? From the first time I read about Rich, I didn't like him. He's too judgmental for my taste and Todd on the other hand, a clueless, doormat and a cheater (three years as a booty call for Rich and he's sleeping with others too, not that i can blame him. Richard made him believe that it was just sex.).
I have no idea why did Todd can put up with Rich for so long. No communications for three years is a disaster, don't you think?
I mean, come on...when you (sex) partner looked down at you and didn't make any move to make commitment, would you just stay for him for that long? Not in my world.
But, once again, Todd is a doormat, he took anything Richard's offered. Both main characters are hard to like.
This is almost a no angst short story, but this is CC's book. You should read this one.
You can always blame me for my rating.

*I read it on the plane, so probably it's the plane, not the book. :)*


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ARC REVIEW : A Kind of Home (A Kind of Stories #4) by Lane Hayes

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A Kind Of Story

Isaac Dalton is the guitarist for Spiral, arguably the biggest rock band in the world. The band’s meteoric rise to superstardom has its perks, but fame and fortune aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Nonstop touring and performing exhaust him, and when an overzealous fan makes it imperative that Isaac travel with a clingy bodyguard, he is ready for a break from the madness. More so when his newly single first crush shows up on his doorstep. The man is strictly off-limits. He’s a memory from a place Isaac would rather leave behind. And he’s straight.

Fun-loving former athlete slash construction worker Adam McBride desperately needs a new beginning. And New York City is the perfect place to start over and think about how to rebuild his life. A short stint as roommates with his brother’s best friend from high school seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement. However, when friendship gives way to fierce attraction, both men find themselves in unchartered and possibly dangerous territory. Isaac has to decide if he’s willing to take the ultimate risk for a kind of love and a kind of home he never dreamed possible.
A Kind of Home (A Kind of Stories, #4) 


A Kind of Home by Lane Hayes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was sexy, I cannot put it down and I really liked Adam.
This book worked for me, I didn't even skimming the sex part. That one tells a lot :)
I read this one when my mood was 'right'.
So, I'm not sorry for loving Adam and Isaac. They're cheesy, and Adam loving Isaac the way Isaac never imagined before.
So it's a matter of heart and choices, whether Isaac will let Adam in, or living his life always in running from something he's actually craved.
Home.
And Adam gave it all of it, the unconditional love and a home he always dreamed of.
I know, I'm a hopeless romantic. This one is so far my favorite of this series.
Recommended.





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Monday, 17 July 2017

ARC Review : The Teddy Bear Club by Sean Michael

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Two lonely men. One perfect family.

Aiden Lake adopted his institutionalized sister’s two daughters, and he’s a good dad. He works nights on websites and gets in his adult time twice a week at the Roasty Bean, where he meets with other single gay parents.

Devon Smithson wants to be a good dad now that his sixteen-year-old sister asked him to babysit her newborn… three months ago. But he’s overwhelmed with the colicky baby. An invitation to the daddy-and-kid gatherings at the café is a godsend. The pot is sweetened when his friendship with Aiden develops into more—maybe even something that can last.

But the mother who kicked Dev out for being gay wants to get her claws into the baby, and she doesn’t care if she tears Dev, Aiden, and everything they’re building apart in the process.
 



 The Teddy Bear Club








The Teddy Bear Club by Sean Michael
My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I love kids, babies and the bunch of them,. I mean it.
But when you have almost 70 percent of the book talking about babies, diapers, playing and lacking of romance in my MM book, I'm not a fan.
Skimming some diaper changing and I found there's not so much of a story.
Sorry.

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Review : Model Investigator (Haven Investigations #3) by Lissa Kasey (

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With his lover, Kade, missing, androgynous former model turned private investigator Ollie Petroskovic is ready to kick some ass to bring him home.

Ollie and his ex, rock star Jacob Elias, need to find Kade and free him from the clutches of his manipulative family. But with Ollie suffering from chronic migraines and Jacob unable to bear loud noises, they are hardly the dynamic duo. It takes a lot of sweet talking on the part of Jacob, and patience Ollie doesn’t have, to find Kade. Only Kade’s not whole anymore. The fight for Kade’s heart and mind is far from over.

It’s Ollie’s turn to guide Kade through nightmares, self-doubt, and PTSD. Kade’s memories are scattered, fragmented with possible horrors, and he’s not quite sure what is real. Ollie will have to draw on his investigative skills to clear Kade of the terrible accusations his family has made and help Kade unlock the truth. But in doing so, he ignores his own health, which could have catastrophic consequences for everyone, especially when digging up the past could be lethal for them all.
Model Investigator (Haven Investigations, #3)









Model Investigator by Lissa Kasey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is my favorite of the series.
I really loved how much Ollie and Kade loved each other. And the jealous Ollie is epic!
I can't believe the ending...this is actually what I predicted before.
I know how clingy Ollie to Kade, but Kade need a clingy Ollie.
And I can't believe that Kade can be upset to Ollie too. LOL.
And the public sex is awesome! I never thought I'll see the day Kade's blushing...
Took me a long time to finish this one, because I don't want it to end.
I missed them already.
The ending is kinda cliffhanger, but didn't make me mad.
I'm waiting impatiently to the next book!
Recommended!

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Monday, 10 July 2017

ARC REVIEW : Mascara & Bandages (Mary's Boys #3) by Brandon Witt




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Ariel Merman is a new drag queen who’s already finding a family at Hamburger Mary’s. After a performance as Ariel, Zachary Cooper walks home in his makeup and is assaulted by homophobes. Zachary’s worry that the attack has thrown a wrench in his good fortune is eased when he looks into the eyes of his doctor.

Dr. Teegan Chau is a little lost after divorcing his wife and coming out of the closet, but he can’t deny the pull he feels toward the young man he patches up. Luckily, Zachary takes the initiative and asks Teegan out. But attraction is the easy part of their blossoming relationship—as they deal with an ex-wife and child, being a drag queen in a heteronormative culture, Zachary’s lingering trauma from his attack, and Teegan acclimating to life as part of an out-and-proud gay couple.

The challenges seem daunting at the start of a romance. Can Zachary and Teegan make it through the rough patches and take a chance on the love that’s been missing from both their lives?
 



Mascara & Bandages (Mary's Boys, #3)








Mascara & Bandages by Brandon Witt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't read the book about Vahin (and Malcolm?), after reading Dani's review, I think I'll pass his book, sorry Vahin. But this one I approved. Actually, I liked this one better than the first book.
Zachary is adorable. no wonder Teegan drawn to him. I liked the dynamic and good chemistry the two of them. I always curious about cross-dressing main character in my MM books. Good thing is, more of the stories are good reads and enjoyable. This one is no exceptional. I liked this. A lot.
I felt sorry about what happened to Ariel/Zachary that night, but he won't meet Teegan if he's not in the Hospital, right?
I called it blessing in disguise :)
I liked all the Mary's boys who really care about Zachary and become family he needed. Add Teegan in the picture, and it was perfect.
This is enjoyable, and I liked it that the angst was in the beginning, almost end angst is really not my thang :)
Read this book, you'll enjoy it.
Recommended!

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ARC REVIEW : Runner by Parker Williams

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 Matt Bowers’s life ended at sixteen, when a vicious betrayal by someone who he should have been able to trust left him a shell of himself, fighting OCD and PTSD, living in constant fear and always running. When he buys a remote tract of land, he thinks he’s found the perfect place to hide from the world and attempt to establish some peace. For ten years he believes he’s found a measure of comfort, until the day a stranger begins to run on Matt’s road.

He returns every day, an unwelcome intrusion into Matt’s carefully structured life. Matt appeals to the local sheriff, who cannot help him since the jogger is doing nothing wrong. Gradually, after tentatively breaking the ice, Matt begins to accept the man’s presence—

But when the runner doesn’t show up one day, it throws Matt’s world into chaos and he must make the hardest decision of his life.
RunnerRunner by Parker Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars





I really liked this story. I can see why Matt acted like that, with the PTSD and all. Overreacted?
Yes. But in a mind of 16 years old boy who trusted his teacher and attacked by him? Even there's no rape, just one attempted..still..memories followed.
The problem is, Matt rejected the therapy and getting deeper and deeper into his own lonely world.
Until he found Charlie. Charlie is perfect in every way possible. He's definitely a perfect man for Matt.
But...does he really 'that perfect'?
I liked the slow burn relationship between Charlie and Matt, and how patient Charlie with him. And don't forget about the loving brother Trey. He's a picture of a perfect brother.
Looks like everything's perfect...but it's actually not.
This one is almost no angst story, mostly about how's Matt struggled with his inner demon and fighting it if he wants to be with Charlie.
Charlie on the other hand, is a determined man. This is the kind of man I need in my life. Patient and determined. I really liked Charlie, Matt is a lucky guy :)
Overall, this one is a 'fun' read (for me), not too thrilled with the epic ending...but what can I say, Charlie is an epic lover :)
Read this book.

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