ARC REVIEW: The Coincidence by Felice Stevens

Title : The Coincidence

Author : Felice Stevens

Genre(s) : contemporary gay romance

Release Date : March 21st 2019

Rating : 5/5 Stars

Buy Links :
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Universal Link

Nice guys always finish last, and Coby Epstein is sick and tired of being last. After his boyfriend dumps him, Coby vows to take it slow and not jump into another relationship, no matter what his ninety-five-year-old great aunt says. When Coby sees his ex has moved on, he goes on a series of disastrous first dates and swears off men, determined to be alone. His best friend disagrees and finds the “perfect man” for him online and arranges a date. The only problem? Coby has no idea what she’s done.

Since childhood, Eli Kaplan has been his father’s greatest disappointment, a fact he’s reminded of at every opportunity. For years, he’s struggled with the knowledge that dating women doesn’t work for him. A late-night confession to his brother changes everything and Eli realizes, maybe, just maybe, he can come out, find himself, and find love. Eli takes the plunge and creates a profile on a dating website, not knowing what to expect. One night he chats with an intriguing man, and despite his nervousness, they arrange to meet for coffee. No big deal. They’ll probably never see each other again.

On the day of their first date, nothing could surprise Coby and Eli more than to discover that they live in the same apartment building, on the same floor. In a city of eight million people, coincidences don’t get crazier than that. But as the two men begin to weave their lives together with cautious optimism and hope for a future, they find an even greater thread holding their families together—one born from the ashes of a final solution that couldn’t destroy their ancestors’ courage, leaving scars that remain almost a century later. Past lives torn apart can be pieced together by a future no one could have ever imagined, where love is more than fate or coincidence. It’s meant to be.

“It’s more than a coincidence. It’s fate.”

The universe works in mysterious ways and nothing is coincidence if the universe want it….

🍀🍀🍀

Coby and Eli are stranger lived in a city of eight million people, but them serial coincidences happen to them in a very unique and unbelievable way that lead them to the one true love of their life…

“You need to find somebody to love who’ll love you back the way you deserve. You need someone to care about you...”

After break up with his ex, Coby made a promise to himself to not to jump into any relationship again for a moment and put himself first after being treated as less important person all these time. But that’s not what his best friend, Addie think, because she’s insisted that to forget the old ones Coby should find a new guy to move on. She then decided to find a new perfect guy for Coby through the dating online site…

All my life, I’d kept my emotions hidden. People called me the strong and silent one, but that wasn’t the real me. Only now, in this moment, could I expose my true self. Now, with Coby touching me. He unlocked the passion I hadn’t even known existed inside me…

For years Eli had accustomed for being the black sheep in the family. Whatever he did never satisfied and fulfill his father standard of success. After he come out to his brother and have serious talk with him, Eli then taking his brother advice and decided to join the dating online site. When a stranger profile caught his eyes he brave himself to made a contact and then…one by one coincidence start to happens…

One thing that always made me fall in love with Felice's works is her capability to turn a very simple things that happen in our daily life into something extra ordinary through her writing and made us keep falling and falling in love again and again with the story she wrote and all the main characters she created.

I already falling in love with the blurb before I even read the book, and I’m fall deeply in love more when I started the book. The dynamic of the story, the connection, the slow burn and the two adorable main characters had stolen my heart right away. The coincidence by coincidence that happen in this book work like magic and warmed my heart. But what I love the most in this story is the way the author always put a family love into the story, and this is what made this book successfully warm my heart to the fullest.

The Coincidence is no doubt another good read from Felice Stevens. And I recommended this book to YOU!!

Felice Stevens has always been a romantic at heart. She believes that while life is tough, there is always a happy ending around the corner, Her characters have to work for it, however. Like life in NYC, nothing comes easy and that includes love.

Felice has written over twenty books in the gay romance genre. Her books been translated into German, French and Italian. Her novel. One Call Away, part of her Soulmates series, was mentioned in Buzzfeed as one of the best “Out for You” gay romances of 2017.

Felice lives in New York City with her husband and two children. Her day begins with a lot of caffeine and ends with a glass or two of red wine. She recently retired from the practice law and now daydreams of a time when she can sit by a beach somewhere and write beautiful stories of men falling in love. Although there are bound to be a few bumps along the way, a Happily Ever After is always guaranteed.

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RELEASE BLITZ & REVIEW TOUR : A Body in a Bathhouse (A Mitch O’Reilly Mystery #1) by Brad Shreve

Title : A Body in a Bathhouse
Author : Brad Shreve
Series : A Mitch O’Reilly Mystery book one
Genre(s) : gay romance, crime/mystery/suspense
Release Date : March 14th 2019
Rating : 3/5

Buy link : Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Universal Link

Nearly bankrupt, wise-cracking private investigator, Mitch O’Reilly, divides his time accepting any investigation gig that comes his way, while half-heartedly running his Eye Spy Supply shop in a forgotten Los Angeles strip mall,

Two tours in Afghanistan have left Mitch a broken man whose social life amounts to enduring his fun-loving sister, Josie, and hooking up with anonymous men he meets online. That may change when he gets his big break. A beloved comedy scriptwriter is murdered at a bathhouse, and Mitch is hired to prove the innocence of the club custodian. In addition, the flirtatious club manager, Trent Nakos, has Mitch reexamining his belief that there should be no emotional entanglements associated with sex.

While Mitch investigates the bathhouse murder, he learns there’s more to investigate than just a dead body. He must choose between continuing a case that could finally put him on the map or drop the case to protect the one he loves.

A crime mystery thriller is not my usual cup of tea in book genres, but I don’t know why the blurb of this book had caught my attention and raised a deep curiosity in me. And the next thing I know I signed for the arc of this book and I must preparing myself for any challenges this book gave me.

The first thing I notice when I read the first few chapters is…I have a bit struggling with the author's writing and the ‘humors’ he put in this thriller mystery. I was expecting the story will grab me in, but I find myself can’t connected with the main characters and the story quite well.

But even though I have some troubles connecting with the story, I must admit that there’s a part of me that still enjoying it. The guessing part and the way the author trying to blurring the suspect and drove the readers to multiple suspects are fun enough. Well at least it almost satisfied the Sherlock side in me.

Overall the book is interesting enough to follow, but the way the author ‘solved’ the mystery at nearly end of the book was far from what I expected and that quite a bummer for me.

After growing up in Michigan and North Carolina, Brad Shreve criss-crossed the country while working in the hotel industry. In addition to working in hotels as a bellman, front desk clerk, and reservation call center director, he’s managed coffee houses, waited tables, sold potato chips off a truck and even hocked pre-burial funeral plans. 

He credits Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak for developing his interest in art and storytelling. He’d spend hours on the floor sketching and painting and writing stories. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George gave him his first inklings that he’d like to be a novelist someday.

In addition to perpetually thinking of how to kill people, he’s a proud dad, a beach bum, and coffee house squatter.

He currently lives in the Los Angeles South Bay with his husband, Maurice.

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RELEASE BLITZ & REVIEW : Perilous Hearts (Deviant Hearts #3) by A E Ryecart

Title: Perilous Hearts
Series : Deviant Hearts #3

Author: A E Ryecart

Publisher: Self-Published

Cover Artist: Meredith Russell

Genre/s: MM Romance (friends to lovers with psychological suspense)

Heat Rating: 4 flames 

Length: approx. 95 000 words

Release Date: March 8, 2019
Rating : 4/5 Stars

It’s the third in the Deviant w series, but can be read as a standalone. There is no need to have read the other books in the series first.

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Buy Links :
Amazon US | Amazon UK
Amazon Universal Link

You can lock your door, but can you lock your heart?

Finding the courage to end his relationship with his manipulative and vicious boyfriend, Jamie Wheeler turns to his close friend Ed Corrigan to help him get his life back on track.

Jamie and Ed have been inseparable for years, and all it would take is a small step to cross the divide from friends to lovers.

It would be the biggest mistake they could make. 

Jamie seeks the security of a settled long-term relationship, but Ed vows never to put his heart on the line again after a devastating betrayal. Anything beyond friendship is a risk, and could break them forever.

As Jamie’s vindictive ex causes trouble from the side-lines, a face from the past makes an unwelcome return. Jamie’s life isn’t getting back on track, it’s coming off the rails, as a series of seemingly random events lead to only one of two conclusions: either somebody’s playing a dark and sinister game, or Jamie’s losing his mind.

Tensions rise and danger approaches, drawing Jamie and Ed closer than ever. But time is running out as they race to discover not only what is happening, and why, but also what they truly mean to each other.

The third book in the Deviants Heart series, Perilous Hearts is a slow burn friends to lovers romance intertwined with dark psychological suspense. It can be read as a stand-alone and there is no need to have read the previous two books in the series. No cliff hanger and HEA guaranteed.

Mind games are so much more effective in the long run because they pick away at a person. They make even the most down-to-earth and stable types start to question and doubt themselves. Violence is too crude, though it has its place of course. But attack a person’s self-belief, and you attack and destroy the very core of them…

I must admit that I jumped into this book FIRST because the guy at the cover caught my attention. The SECOND is because the blurb had successfully intrigued me. And I’m really afraid that I will not catch the story because this is actually book three in the series. But the warning said that even this is part of the series, it still can be read as stand alone. So I decided to give this book a try….

The story successfully caught my attention right from the very beginning. The tensions and suspense the author trying to build right from the start made this book hard to put down. The main reason why I like the story is the friends-to-lovers trope this book offered me and when it combined with a psychological thriller, it made the reading become more and more interesting.

The mysteries are a bit predictable for me, I even know ‘the who' behind all the terrors right away, but I must admit the whole story still interesting enough to follow and I do enjoying every part of it.

And now I’m curious about the two previous books in this series since the guys from the previous books make some appearance in this book.

If you looking for friends-to-lovers story with a bit of psychological suspense touch, this book is one good choice.

A E Ryecart – or Ali as she’s known to many of her readers – writes contemporary mm romance and gay fiction. From the warm, sweet and fuzzy to the gritty, hard-hitting and challenging, Ali doesn’t hold back from making life just that little bit (or a lot) difficult for her men. But then who said the road to love and happiness was an easy one?

Ali’s stories are often set in London, where she was born and raised, providing the perfect metropolitan background to the main action. Now she’s older, if not wiser, and lives just outside of the big bad city with her husband, an overactive imagination, and a huge pot of coffee as she pounds the keyboard of her trusty laptop.

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ARC REVIEW : The Ghosts Between Us (The West Hills #1) by Brigham Vaughn

Title : The Ghosts Between Us
Author : Brigham Vaughn
Series : The West Hills book one
Genre(s) : contemporary gay romance, hurt-comfort-healing
Release Date : March 3rd 2019
Rating : 5/5 Stars

Buy link : Amazon

Dr. Christopher Allen knows how to deal with death. He’s a psychiatrist who works with hospice patients and their families, helping them cope with grief and letting go. But Chris’s job doesn’t prepare him for the sudden death of his devil-may-care brother Cal.

At Cal’s funeral, Chris is completely thrown when he meets Elliot Rawlings, an artist Cal has been dating. Chris is hurt to discover that the brother he knew as straight was actually bisexual. Elliot is angry and resentful of having been kept hidden from Cal’s family.

After the funeral, a night of drinking at the bar with Cal’s friends leads to Chris and Elliot falling into bed together. The next morning, they’re overwhelmed by guilt and grief and agree to never speak of it again.

But Cal’s apartment needs to be packed up and Elliot reluctantly agrees to help Chris, as well as answer some questions about Cal’s life and their relationship. Despite their guilt and initial dislike for one another, they sort through the pieces of Cal’s life and begin to fall for each other.

Despite his best efforts to fix things, Chris’s family seems to be crumbling around him and he begins to question who he is and what his role with them is. As his feelings for Elliot grow, Chris must decide if they’re worth further damaging his fragile relationships with his friends and family.

Elliot’s rough upbringing has left him distrustful of getting close to anyone, much less another man who isn’t willing to acknowledge him in public. The odds seem stacked against Chris and Elliot, but if they can overcome them, they may be able to lay Cal’s ghost to rest, along with their own demons.

Reader Advisory: This story deals with themes related to alcoholism, death (of secondary characters), and past abuse/neglect.

…despite the guilt and regret, there was no denying that a big part of me still responded to Elliot. And the more common ground Elliot and I found, the more difficult to ignore the attraction I felt to him. Nothing about him was my type and yet something about him drew me in.

🍀🍀🍀 

This book come with super maddening slow burn pace, but trust me it’s worth every second of your patience and time!

I know that this book will gonna be something since the first time the blurb caught me. And I’m so glad that the book had fulfill my expectations.

The emotional journey about the grieving and how the two main characters trying to cope it had successfully gripping my heart right from the very first page to the end. I have this constant ache in my heart during the reading. The raw emotions the author trying to portrayed through some emotional scenes had success put me in constant gloomy. I cried, mad and my heart broke for both Elliott, Chris….and Cal….

I mad at Cal for what he did to Elliott, but completely understand why the guilty eat him slowly from inside. I mad at Chris for almost hurt Elliott like what his brother did, but again I understand the dilemmas and the guilt he feels about his attraction to his brother boyfriend, and I have this constant urge to hug Elliott almost the entire reading because this poor guy didn’t deserve for being a dirty little secret. Elliott deserve all the best in his life, that include love...

The way the author woven the conflicts between the two main characters and people around them feels believable and squeeze my heart again and again, the main characters raw emotions and vulnerability are strip bare to the reader through the dynamic of the ups and down of their fragile relationship. And it’s all combined beautifully with the good writing that made this book feel stellar.

Brigham Vaughn is a new author to me and this is the first time I read her work, but I’ll make sure it won’t be the last…

That was the odd thing about all of this. I hardly knew him, yet Elliot understood me better than anyone else in my life. 

....the way he’d held me, let me grieve, anchored me. I had to believe it had meant something.  

Recommended!

ARC REVIEW : Better Place (Rainbow Place #3) by Jay Northcote

Title: Better Place
Series : Rainbow Place #3
Author: Jay Northcote
Publisher: Jaybird Press (self published)
Genre: contemporary m/m romance
Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh
Release Date: February 22nd 2019
Rating : 3/5 Stars

Buy Links : Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Universal Link

Joe deserves better. Meeting Dylan helps him see that.

After a recent redundancy, Joe takes a few months off to try and make it as a writer. His partner, Harry, is less than supportive but Joe is used to that after ten years together, just like he’s used to Harry’s controlling nature and his drinking habit.

Dylan, a server at Rainbow Place, is fascinated by Joe as he sits in the café and works on his laptop. His attempts to flirt are met with awkwardness at first, but gradually Joe opens up. Dylan is disappointed when he learns Joe isn’t single. As their friendship develops he begins to worry about the nature of Joe’s relationship, especially when he witnesses Harry’s behaviour in person. Abuse isn’t always physical, and Dylan knows that from experience. His concern helps Joe see his relationship for what it is, and gives him the courage to end things with Harry.

Free to act on their mutual attraction, Joe and Dylan dive headlong into something that becomes serious fast. Joe revels in the passion and intimacy he’s been missing out on for so long, but Dylan is worried that Joe is on the rebound. He puts on the brakes, knowing that they need to slow down to make this last. For this new relationship to work, Joe needs to show Dylan that he’s ready to move on from the past.

Although this book is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone and has a satisfying happy ending.

Maybe this is the hardest review I ever made this year because I have a huge dilemma when I wrote it. I have some issues with what had happened in this book that made me a bit in struggling to finish it.

I’ve known Jay for years and enjoying his works so much. Almost ALL the books I read always ended with 4 and 5 stars, but I need to admit that this book is not one of his best works and it’s hard for me to give this 3 stars but I think I need to be truth (at least) to myself and finally decided not to sugar coating my review this time.

I didn’t want to say much about what had bother me while reading this book, but the point is…you should completely ended your previous relationship clearly before you decided to hanky-panky with the new one. No matter how ‘believable’ the excuses that had been made to support the action, still it feels not quite right for me…

The saddest thing is… I’ve been so excited to read Dylan and Joe story but it ended not as what I expected. But even this one is not going well with me, still….there’s one thing that successfully drawn my attention and curiosity while reading this story. Yes! Lady GoGo! And I want to know more about this eccentric person.

Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of England. He comes from a family of writers, but always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed him by. He spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content.

One day, Jay decided to try and write a short story—just to see if he could—and found it rather addictive. He hasn’t stopped writing since.

Jay writes contemporary romance about men who fall in love with other men. Jay has five books published by Dreamspinner Press, and he also self-publishes under the imprint Jaybird Press. Many of his books are now available as Audiobooks.

Jay is transgender and was formerly known as she/her.

www.jaynorthcote.com

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ARC REVIEW : Wild As The West Texas Wind (Love Across Time #3) by Jackie North

Title : Wild As The West Texas Wind
Author : Jackie North
Series : Love Across Time #3
Genre(s) : contemporary gay romance, time travel
Release Date : February 23rd 2019
Rating : 5/5 Stars
Buy link : Amazon

Soulmates across time. Two hearts that were meant to be together.

In present day, Zach takes a road trip to Trinidad to find information on a missing friend.

In 1892, Layton Blue, outlaw, longs for hearth and home even as he treasures his life of freedom.

A freak rainstorm washes Zach's car into a ditch, sending him back to the year 1892. Searching for help, alone and on foot in the middle of the nowhere, he crosses paths with the famous Ketchum Gang. Now the gang’s prisoner, Zach’s fate is to be sold at a seedy auction for whores.

Layton is put in charge of making sure Zach does not escape, but as the chemistry between them grows, Layton finds himself wanting to help Zach.

Can Layton overcome years of being on the run? Can Zach accept help from an outlaw?

A male/male time travel romance complete with fast rides across the desert, campfires beneath the stars, cool water in the desert, wild rescues, and true love across time.

A WOWmazing slow burn from Jackie North!


Jackie North did it again! *hands down*

First…she made me falling in love with Stanley and Devon from Heroes for Ghosts, then she made me also falling deeply in love with both Laurie and John from Honey from The Lion, and now…she did it again and succeed made me falling in love with Zach and Layton!

If you’d reading Honey from The Lion and familiar with Laurie’s two best friend, Zach and Maxton that he left behind. This book is about Zach and his amazing journey back through the time to find his fate at old Texas land in 1892.

This book come with a very good storyline and was beautifully written with the details that will amazed you and take you back to the old Texas where the cowboys and outlaws took actions. The believable slow burn this book had offer had made the emotional connections between the two main characters (and with Tam the horse!) feels standout and so intense.

Wild As The West Texas Wind was a bit more intense than the previous book, but have nearly same tensions as the first book of this series. I was completely ‘blind’ and have this constant worries for what will happen to Zach since the first day he fell under Tom’s outlaws gang.

Zach’s life suddenly changed when a storm and floods almost took his life and washed away his car and leave him stranded in a strange place alone. On his way to find his way back to the town he met with the outlaws gang that soon made his life upside down.

Then come Layton, one of the gang member who Zach found slightly different with the others. In his struggle to stay alive in the whole strange situation that hit him since the storm, Layton’s had made him feels safe when his life was in uncertainty under the gang mercy.

For a long time, Layton had a wished for a home, steady life and someone to share it with. When Zach suddenly stumbled to his life, the urge to protect the man from all the danger slowly build in him. Zach and his braveness had open his eyes from the 'invisible prison' Tom’s had build around him. Layton want to be free and lived the life he’d been dreaming of, a simply normal life with someone he love for the rest of his life, but now he pictured all of that with Zach in it.
Zach was the reason that Layton was brave enough to do anything to make him safe even it’s mean he would risk his own life.

And with all the uncertainty of their future together, will a wish upon a star sealed their fate?

This book had consume me so deep and made it hard to put it down!
Jackie North really know how to pleased the reader desires with her utterly beautiful story. 

Wild As The West Texas Wind is another amazing time travel romance from Jackie North that will melt your heart. So don’t you dare to miss it!

"I'd do anything for you. I love you. If you want to leave and go roam the earth, we roam. If you want to stay and light kerosene lamps, then we light the lamps. I just want to be with you. I want to be your home."  

"You are," said Layton as he closed his eyes, and let his body rest in Zach's arms. "You are my home."

Recommended!!

And here's the links to the two previous book from A Love Across Time series :

Heroes for Ghosts

Honey From The Lion

ARC REVIEW : The Other Book by Roe Horvat

Title : The Other Book
Author : Roe Horvat
Genre(s) : contemporary gay romance
Release Date : January 30th 2019
Rating : 4/5 Stars

Buy link : Amazon

It was supposed to be just sex... Famous last words.

Tyler doesn't overthink pleasure and avoids complications. He knows it might be stupid to get involved with his closeted boss, but the temptation is too great. At first, the cold and beautiful Joel Sandstrom seems to loathe Tyler's guts.

Except one late night at the office, his reasons become clear...and his control breaks.

Every time they touch, Joel's stony face comes alive, harsh lines smooth out, and for a minute, he looks serene. Happy, even. Just sex - dirty, intense, spectacular sex.

During their covert encounters, Tyler discovers the power he has over the lonesome man, and it's a heady feeling. What if he could set Joel free and give him peace of mind? When Tyler realizes how much Joel needs him, he doesn't regret breaking his own rules.

Gay erotic romance. Contains explicit scenes and sexual interactions between more than two partners. For adult readers only.

This book come with such a long note from the author and it makes me interested even more to dive to the story the minute the book arrived in my Kindle.

And it only took one chapter to made me glued to the story and couldn’t put it down…

Aside from the hot steamy sexiness this book had offer, I’m completely surprised that the book also come with strong story with good plot. And I can’t denied that this book had successfully 'burn' me and I need to fanning myself almost the entire reading caused by all those sexy sex scenes but at the same time the story also success melt my heart because the conflicts the author trying to portrayed in this book also succeed drawn my attention. The ‘game’ both main characters played to each other, the push and pull and the growing feeling that grow between the two are interesting enough to follow.

I really enjoying reading this book.
This is maybe the first Roe Horvat's book that I read, but definitely won’t be the last.

So, if you looking for a hot steamy reading with good story in it and far from PWP (porn without plot) I think you can give this book a try…