Review by Jodi: Rainbow Blues by KC Burn

Title: Rainbow Blues

Author: KC Burn

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Rating: 4.5/5 Smooches

Blurb:

Having come out late in life, forty-three-year-old Luke Jordan is at a loss about how to conduct himself as a gay man. As a construction manager, he’s not interested in being out at work, but he’d like to find a boyfriend or at least some gay friends. Two years after his wife got all their friends in the divorce, he’s no closer to the life he wants.

Zach, Luke’s adult son, takes charge and signs him up for the Rainbow Blues, a social group for gay blue-collar workers. At an event, he not only finds friends but meets Jimmy Alexander, part-time stage actor and full-time high school biology teacher. Jimmy loves the stage but wishes potential boyfriends weren’t so jealous of the time he devotes to it. When he meets Luke and finds him accepting of his many facets, he thinks it’s a dream come true.

Their relationship quickly moves into serious territory, but their connection is tested to its breaking point by the offer of a juicy movie role that takes Jimmy to the opposite coast and into the path of a very sexy costar.

Review:

“Are you working in a blue collar profession? Do you find it hard to meet people? Do you feel uncomfortable being honest with your coworkers about your orientation? If so, Rainbow Blues might be for you. Rainbow Blues offers a safe environment where you can be yourself and meet other men like you.”

KC Burn is an engaging storyteller. In Rainbow Blues, Burn expertly develops her characters and plots and takes the reader on a fairy-tale like adventure. Although love-at-first is rare in the real world and is not always successful in fiction, Burn makes it work in this charming book.

It is difficult not to fall in love with Luke Jordan. Luke is portrayed as a hardworking man who is at a crossroads in his life. He is tired and lonely. The middle aged construction manager has been divorced for two years. He is living in a small, uninspired apartment, living a mundane life. Although he has always known he is gay, he has spent most of his life living in the closet. When his high school girlfriend became pregnant, he knew he had to marry her and take care of his future child. He loves his ex-wife and his son, but he is lonely, has no friends and has no idea how to meet single gay men.

Readers meet Luke on a typical day. He comes home from work, puts his dirty clothes in the washing machine, showers (with no energy to masturbate) and pops a frozen dinner in the microwave. This is his daily routine.

After selecting Salisbury steak—again—he slung it in the microwave and grabbed a beer from the fridge. One a day was all he allowed himself. At least while he was alone. Bleak was one thing. Drinking himself into a weeknight stupor was a whole different story.

A few minutes later, his “gourmet” dinner was ready, and he placed it on the coffee table in front of the couch. With a practiced hand, he flipped on the television. NCIS reruns first, then at eight there were other things on. Nothing new, unfortunately. This close to Christmas, everything was on hiatus.

He didn’t even have to check the guide to know when to change to which channel. Was this what he had to look forward to for the next forty years, or however long he had left? Appetite gone, he shoved his half-eaten meal away and laid his head back on the couch. Was this all there was for him? Could he put up with this… monotony for the tiny weekly bright spot of Zach’s visits?

The divorce had seemed like such a good idea. He and Kelly had been growing apart for years. Hell, they probably should never have gotten married in the first place, but with Zach on the way, and both he and Kelly still teenagers, it seemed the thing to do. He and Kelly were still friendly, but she’d been the social one of the pair of them. Once they’d split, Luke discovered most of their friends were her friends, but since their separation had been completely amicable, he hadn’t noticed the loss. Not until Kelly married and got pregnant in short order. Her new husband had been a widower with two kids under ten, and Kelly’s whole life changed. Suddenly, Luke’s entire social network, however peripheral he’d been in it, was gone. And he didn’t know how to build a new one.

Luke’s entire social interaction was watching various crime solving teams on TV do their stuff. Kelly and Zach knew why Luke had divorced Kelly, but he hadn’t told anyone at work the real reason. He didn’t dare. None of those guys were his friends. They respected him as their boss, but if they knew the truth, he wouldn’t even have their respect. So Luke never accepted any invitations to bars or parties or dinners, not even when he’d been married. After all, he’d been grappling with the truth for so long, and he was afraid if he got too close to anyone, they’d figure it out. The truth would likely be career suicide.

And what did he have to show for his carefully kept secret? A miserable lonely apartment and a miserable lonely life. He was too young for this, but he was too set in his ways to change now.

But as Luke discovers, quite spectacularly, change is inevitable. When Luke’s son, Zach, buys his father a membership to Rainbow Blues, a social club, for Christmas, Luke’s life changes rather drastically. Meeting men like him is a first step to improving his life. He attends a play with a new friend and when his eyes see the lead actor, Jimmy Alexander, on stage, sparks fly.

A door opened not too far away, followed by a flurry of activity. Luke stared, then the actor came into view. The one who played Gary, the closeted married guy, who had seemed destined to die alone until he got up the courage to come out. Luke had been entranced, and not just because the story had many parallels to his life, to the point he could relate to the play’s title of Walking Wounded.

The actor had been stunning. Jimmy Alexander. Tall, blond, slender. Expressive hands with thin fingers that punctuated his words. His face wasn’t perfect and plastic, like generic models on magazine covers. His smile was wide, his eyes a little narrow, and his nose a trifle too big for his face. But Luke couldn’t keep his eyes off him. Near the end, he’d almost lost track of the story line, so intent was he on memorizing every movement of Jimmy’s mouth.

When they’d first entered the theater, he hadn’t understood why anyone had bothered wasting money on the program. Sure, maybe a page or two for “credits” but the booklet seemed excessive. During intermission, however, he’d been thankful for that little booklet as he flipped through it to Jimmy Alexander’s page. The actor was apparently thirty-eight years old—had to be a typo—and had starred in a number of plays, most of which Luke had never heard of. Luke would have much preferred to know what his turn-ons were and whether he was gay. Maybe the program wasn’t all that useful after all.

Within minutes Jimmy was surrounded by people. He shook hands, accepted kisses on the cheek, and drank fizzy champagne. When he threw his head back and laughed, Luke strained to separate the sound of it from the din of the rest of the crowd. It had been a long time since Luke had wanted anything as much as he wanted to lick the long, smooth column of Jimmy’s neck.

When Jimmy, actor by night, biology teacher by day, spots Luke across the crowded lobby, he is instantly attracted and extremely nervous. Luke is scowling, and Jimmy fears the beautiful, burly, straight man is angry about the content of the play and Jimmy’s performance.

Jimmy darted another glance at the broad, auburn-haired man. The guy had been sending dark looks his way ever since Jimmy stepped out into the room, and he made Jimmy nervous as hell. Maybe the guy’s wife was talking to the actors? If the guy hated the play so much, why was he sticking around? It wasn’t fucking fair that straight guys could be so gorgeous even when they hated you.

With effort, he dragged his attention back to another well-wisher. When he let himself glance back, he hated himself for the little niggle of disappointment that the guy had finally taken his leave.

Jimmy’d taken leave of his fucking senses if he thought a big, muscled straight guy was going to want Jimmy drooling over him anyway. Then, an older couple shuffled a few steps, and Jimmy sucked in a quick, surprised breath. Hot guy at two o’clock and closing in fast, with a fierce, determined look on his face.

The chemistry between Luke and Jimmy is palpable, and Burn makes it easy for readers to become enchanted both men. Luke is charming and sincere. Jimmy is adorable and caring. Despite their differences, these two men have a lot in common. They seem to have an instant connection that thrives and strengthens regardless of the roadblocks Burn flings in their way. Both men are looking for a love – long term. Despite the fact that Jimmy loves to talk and Luke loves to listen, communication is a stumbling block for them.

The initial conflict and drama in the story comes in the form of Luke’s son, Zach, and Zach’s best friend Ryan. Accepting your father dating men is a far cry from accepting him moving in with his new lover. The tension with Ryan is unexpected. And, when Jimmy is offered a dream acting job in Hollywood, the stress becomes too much for Luke, especially when the movie director is intent on publicizing a budding romance between Jimmy and his co-star.

Burn has a knack for creating three-dimension, realistic characters who tug at a reader’s heartstrings. She does a good job developing these characters and twisting the plot just enough to keep the reader wanting to know more. This is the kind of book that should be read in one sitting. Although Luke and Jimmy do have explosive chemistry, the fact that they jump into this relationship fully within days of meeting each other, it is outside forces that keep tugging them apart.

Burn does a great job presenting a realistic fairy-tale like plot that almost ends in tragedy instead of happiness. The angst-factor is high during parts of the story, and, just like Jimmy does in his performances, Burn knows exactly how to reel in her audience and play to their emotions.

Thank you KC Burn and Dreamspinner Press for providing a review copy of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

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Review by Jodi: Somebody to Love by Merry Farmer

Title: Somebody to Love

Author: Merry Farmer

Publisher: Smashwords

Rating: 4/5 Smooches

Blurb:

For Phineas Bell, love has not only been out of reach, it has been impossible. In a world where men who love other men are anathema, he has poured his love into his work, his town, and the friends who accept him as family. But when a handsome new lodger takes over his home and his heart, breaking all his careful rules, Phin must choose between playing it safe and letting love in.

War hero Elliott Tucker is the answer to Cold Springs’s prayers for a sheriff worth his salt. But with every single woman in town throwing themselves at him, Elliott has eyes for only one person: Phin. The sparks are hot between then, but in spite of Elliott’s best efforts, Phin’s heart proves the toughest nut to crack. A love that starts with fire threatens to burn them both…

… until a shocking abduction throws Phin and Elliott together on the trail of ruthless kidnappers. Will their efforts to save a child wrench them apart or will it prove that at last they’ve found somebody to love?

Review:

He [Elliot] was supposed to be the seducer. He was supposed to be the one to set the tone, determine the pace, and take what he wanted. At the moment, all he wanted to do was fall to his knees and give Phineas Bell everything he had, forever.

Somebody to Love is the sixth book in the Montana Romance series by Merry Farmer. As Farmer noted in a recent interview, “the series is set in the late 1890s.  The first book in the series, Our Little Secrets, takes place in 1895 and each successive book is set between then and 1900.” Somebody to Love takes place at the turn of the century: The Industrial Revolution is in full swing, technology is changing, and admitting to being a homosexual could get you killed.

Sheriff Elliot Tucker knows how homosexuals are looked down on in society, from experience. He has built a fortress around himself to hide that part of him. Thanks to the classification of being a war hero, Elliot believes that he is safe from people’s prejudices. To the world, he presents the façade of a stereotypical alpha male. He is vain, cocky and very full of himself.

A veteran of Teddy Roosevelt’s Roughriders, Elliot has put his career of being a door-to-door salesman long behind him when he swaggers into Cold Springs as the new sheriff. He is hell bent on being in control and his intimidating and attractive physique seems to demand respect, as well as some head turns. He has no intention of revealing his innermost secrets and desires. All bets are off though when he meets mild-mannered banker Phineas Bell.

A locked door separated the lobby from the main section of the bank. Phin managed to unlock it with Eloise still in his arms, then stood back to let Christian through.

A second man came with him. Phin had never seen him before. He was tall with broad shoulders and dark, curly hair. He carried himself with palpable confidence that shone through in his bright, dark eyes. A few of the ladies in the lobby stared at him through the open door whispering behind their hands. Yes, Phin definitely would have noticed this man.

Before Christian could introduce him, the man stepped closer to hold out his hand with a warm smile. “Elliott Tucker, at your service.”

Phin’s heart thumped against his ribs at that smile, at the glittering mischief in the man’s eyes, at the scent of sandalwood and musk. He felt the tell-tale rush of blood to places generally ignored, delicious and dangerous.

Of course Elliot realizes Phin and he have similar leanings right away. However, when Phin confesses to liking men, Elliot is floored. He has never met anyone as open and honest as Phin, and that makes Elliot rethink his plan of immediately seducing the banker. Elliot decides to help Phin go back into the closet and redeem his reputation in the eyes of the townspeople. He seems to assume that Phin will be grateful for his help and jump into bed with him. Not only do things not go as planned, but they skyrocket out of control quickly and very humorously.

Elliot renting a room from Phin is a convenient detail that seems to cement the lawman’s plans, but readers quickly see the hazardous potential for everyone involved.

He slid closer, thumping Phin’s back and leaving his arm draped around his shoulder like they were old friends. Phin’s skin prickled with hope even as his mind rebelled. He kept his expression in the perfect mask of neighborly contentment, smiling from Christian to Michael. Christian looked as pleased as a picnic. Michael raised one eyebrow over his glasses. At least Phin wasn’t the only one who saw the potential train wreck on the horizon.

It is difficult not to smile when meeting Phin, especially when he is engaged in conversation with his niece Ellie. Phin is a gentle man, who has a depth and compassion to him that is slowly revealed to both readers and Elliot. Phin’s honesty is both a positive attribute and a fault. Family and friends are important to Phin as is being honest. He does not hide who he is from the townspeople, and he does not use people as cloaks, unlike Elliot. Although the townspeople do taunt Phin, they also seem to afford him respect, which is a bit lost to Elliot at the beginning of the book.

Phin is not unaffected when he meets Elliot. There seems to be an instant attraction there, but, of course, Phin does not want to reveal his feelings. He is convinced Elliot would be appalled, and Phin, in turn, would be scandalized.

There was absolutely no good reason whatsoever for Phin to read anything more into the introduction to Sheriff Elliott Tucker than what was there. The man was outgoing, friendly, bold, and intelligent—qualities that any competent town sheriff should have. He should be swimming with joy that they’d finally found someone worthy of the position.

There was no reason for him to have completely lost all powers of concentration for the afternoon or to be suddenly conscious of parts of his body he’d largely ignored either.

But the words in his newspapers had become so much blur in the hour since Elliott Tucker had stood in his office and shook his hand, and his blood seemed to have developed a will of its own.

His skin was flushed and warm. His palm still tingled where Elliott’s fingers had brushed it. He stared at it, wondering if it had all been a trick of his imagination, a result of denying his basic urges for so long. It’d been years, decades since he’d been with a man, but he’d always considered a disciplined regimen of redirected thoughts and self-gratification to be enough to pay Nature’s toll. The thought that it wasn’t, that the sight of one well-built, smooth-talking stranger walking into his office and smiling could dredge up every urge he’d deliberately put aside, was disconcerting, to say the least.

The fact that this story is set in 1900 in a small, western town adds intrigue and charm to the characters and the plot. Farmer has written an engaging story that draws the reader in from the beginning. The characters in the book are multi-dimensional, and even without having read any other books in the series, readers will appreciate the charisma of these characters and their connection to each other.

Both the romance and mystery of this story vie for center stage in the plot: corruption, kidnapping, criminal enterprise, a dramatic fire and a well-timed bar brawl all have the power to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Despite the mysterious sisters and their nefarious plot, this story is charming in an old western movie way. It is interesting that Farmer has used women as the villains in this story. Although that seems a bit odd for the time period, it fits with the comments the characters make about the people at the mining company being crafty.

Of course, when Elliot and Phin finally fall into each other for a first kiss, the heat is palpable.

He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against Elliott’s neck. Five seconds. Just five seconds of falling apart, then he would pull himself back together, stand tall, and do what he needed to do to get to the bottom of things. At least now he knew what he was up against, and that he had an ally in his sheriff.

He drew in a breath and lifted his head. Before he could even meet Elliott’s eyes,

Elliott clasped the sides of his face and drew him close for a kiss. Their lips met and a jolt shot straight through Phin’s gut. Elliott was soft at first, drawing out the brush of their mingled breath, the tenderness. After a heartbeat of hesitation, he pressed closer, slanting his mouth over Phin’s and sucking on his bottom lip. He drew back and met Phin’s eyes. Far more than gentle concern lit their depths.

“I thought you might need that,” he said, breath ragged and eyelids lowered with desire. “I hate seeing you in distress.”

“I….”

Words didn’t seem right. Phin leaned into him, reaching out and returning the first kiss with a desperation that rose from the center of his soul. He opened his mouth against Elliott’s, gasping when Elliott let him in. The taste of him was solid and sensual. He closed his arms around Elliott, digging his fingertips into the corded muscles of his back and pulling him closer. Elliott kissed him with a powerful need, like a dam breaking, his tongue sliding along Phin’s.

After years of chastity, Phin met him passion for passion, exploring, tasting, feeling. He couldn’t get enough of Elliott’s mouth. The hard and soft of it thrilled him, the intimacy of tongues and lips and teeth searching for each other heated the blood in his veins.

Farmer’s prose are beautiful and descriptive. The town of Cold Springs is welcoming and aptly a direct contrast to the barrenness represented by the mining town of Anaconda. Farmer uses irony, symbolism and humor in an appealing fashion within the pages of this story. The dialogue works well in this story and helps deepen both the plot and characters, even though it may not be one hundred percent authentic for the time period.  

Thank you to Merry Farmer for providing a review copy of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

Buy Links:

Smashwords

Amazon

All Romance Ebooks

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Review by Jodi: The Mating of Michael by Eli Easton

Title: The Mating of Michael

Author: Eli Easton

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Rating: 5/5 Smooches

Blurb:

Sex in Seattle: Book Three

Everyone admires Michael Lamont for being a nurse, but his part-time work as a gay sex surrogate not only raises eyebrows, it's cost him relationships. Michael is small, beautiful, and dedicated to working with people who need him. But what he really wants is a love of his own. He spends most of his time reading science fiction, especially books written by his favorite author and long-time crush, the mysteriously reclusive J.C. Guise.

James Gallway’s life is slowly but inexorably sliding downhill. He wrote a best-selling science fiction novel at the tender age of eighteen, while bedridden with complications of polio. But by twenty-eight, he's lost his inspiration and his will to live. His sales from his J.C. Guise books have been in decline for years. Wheelchair bound, James has isolated himself, convinced he is unlovable. When he is forced to do a book signing and meets Michael Lamont, he can’t believe a guy who looks like Michael could be interested in a man like him.

Michael and James are made for each other. But they must let go of stubbornness to see that life finds a way and love has no limitations.

Review:

“Who was the grimacing man in the photo, being silly, goofing off with a friend? He did not recognize that man as James Gallway, the acerbic recluse. The tectonic plates in his life were shifting, and he couldn’t see where it would end—whether a new paradise lay on the other side or whether the landscape of his life would be buried like Atlantis, under the waves of disaster.”

James Gallway has very few friends. A science fiction writer by trade, he is reclusive, prickly and wary of letting down his guard in front of anyone. His agent is trying to get James to be more visible by doing book signings and attending an awards event. James is not happy about being in the public eye and mingling with fans and fellow authors. He is self-conscious about his appearance and his being wheelchair-bound. Although he is not eager to accept or admit it, he also is lonely.

Michael Lamont is outgoing, nurturing, compassionate, passionate and seems to get along with most people. He is a homecare health worker and a sex surrogate. Despite all of the people in his life, who clearly love him, he, too, is lonely. Love seems like an elusive dream for him, just out of his reach.

In this third book in the Sex in Seattle series, Eli Easton grabs ahold of readers and doesn’t let go. Although readers have met Michael in the first two books of the series – The Trouble with Tony and The Enlightenment of Daniel – it is in this third book that Michael’s character jumps off of the pages straight into readers’ hearts.

Michael is a born nurturer. It is hard not to fall in love with his character. He is gentle, loving and nonjudgmental.  Michael’s compassion and caring nature seem genuine, but James has his walls firmly in place, and he rejects Michael’s advances. Their first encounter at the book signing is charming, but it is Michael’s realization that his stalking of James at the pool has resulted in James no longer swimming that seals the reader’s love of Michael’s character.

“You stopped going to the pool!” Michael said in the sort of tone one might use to say “You killed my dog!” or “You cheated on me!”

James was momentarily too surprised to react. Then it sank in that Michael Lamont was standing on his front doorstep—the guy he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about, the guy he’d blown off so rudely and had since regretted. He wasn’t sure if he should be thrilled or freaked out, but thrilled seemed to be winning by a wide margin.

James drove his wheelchair back a foot. “Please. You have me on tenterhooks. Do come in.” He stuffed down any trace of interest, using his droll voice.

“I….” Michael hesitated. “No, I really don’t want to invade your private space. I just came to say—”

“Come in. It’s cold with the door open.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Michael looked abashed. He stepped inside and closed the door. “Look, I didn’t come here to throw myself at you again. I came because you stopped going to the pool! That is so wrong. And I’m so upset that you did that. And that I did that. It’s really good for you to go to the pool!”

James’s mouth was hanging open. He snapped it shut, feeling inexplicable mirth bubbling up inside him at the absolute absurdity of the situation.

He swallowed it down and glowered. “How is that any of your business?”

“Because it’s my fault!” Michael said in frustration. “I stalked you at the pool, and now you stopped going! I just came here to tell you that I won’t go there again. I promise. But I can’t stand that I took that away from you. The guy at the desk said you’d been going there daily for years. If I swear that I won’t go there again, will you go back? Please?” Michael looked at him beseechingly.

It was James’s turn to talk, but he was busy drinking in Michael’s appearance. Geez, he looked better than James’s very active and overexercised imagination had remembered. He was wearing a light jacket over a rust-colored embroidered tunic shirt that looked like J.Crew and India had had a 60s love child. Very skinny jeans hugged his slender thighs. His dark hair fell swoopingly over one brow as he regarded James, apparently waiting anxiously for a verdict.

It was sort of sweet that he cared so much, really. In a strange, stalkerish way. “I’ll go back,” James said at last.

Michael looked relieved. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. “Good. Because I know you probably just think I’m weird, but I really admire you, and if I screwed things up for you, I’d never forgive myself.”

James and Michael seem like a perfect match for each other, although James clearly cannot see this as well as the reader can. Michael’s openness seems a direct contrast to James’ reclusiveness and self-loathing. James doesn’t think anyone could be interested in him because of his disability. He is reclusive, lonely and has been burned in the one romantic relationship in which he was involved.

He sat there, suffused with a numbing blackness. The truth was, he’d been going downhill for a few years—bouts of depression, having to force himself to write, uninspired, unhappy. Broke. Lonely. His discouragement over his reviews and sales had sapped his confidence and made his writing even more stilted, mechanical and forced rather than swept out on a wave of passion. He’d accumulated a ten thousand dollar credit card bill just trying to keep afloat. And he’d been isolating himself too much. That was why he’d stuck with dating Chris, even though nothing about it had felt right, until finally Chris dumped him. James was pathetic, a twenty-nine-year-old virgin with no family and a handful of casual friends. He was tired of living alone, struggling on through life alone. He was tired of seeing other couples like Devon and Allison, while he himself was unloved, untouched.

Michael is sweet, caring and uninhibited. He is the opposite of James in many ways. Despite his ease with getting to know other people though, Michael has been unlucky in love. When he finds out his favorite science fiction author is doing a book signing, he drops everything to go see him.

It was hard to explain to anyone what J.C. Guise meant to him. Michael was sixteen when he’d read Troubadour Turncoat, a novel in which a young medic on a Federation starship discovered that the Federation was using biological weapons against civilians. The medic single-handedly brought them to their knees through sheer determination, a fierce sense of right, compassion, and moral honor.

It was a book that changed Michael’s life, cementing his decision to follow his mother’s footsteps into medicine and become an R.N. The way J.C. wrote Acton Halliway, with his deep sense of empathy and his absolute core of right and wrong, had shifted something inside Michael. Maybe it was silly to say you were who you were thanks to a science fiction novel, but it was true. It wasn’t that the book created Michael’s personality, but it had plucked certain attributes he already had, making them resonate at the precise time in his life when he was trying to figure out who he was.

And then there was the small matter of his crush. When Michael got the hardback of Troubadour Turncoat from the library, the back inside flap had an author photo. To Michael’s knowledge, it was the only photo ever acknowledged to be of J.C. Guise. It wasn’t a very good photo, being about an inch square and one of those artsy black-and-whites where the focus was a little fuzzy.

It was a candid shot of J.C.’s face as he looked off to the left, smiling. But the photo was big enough — big enough to see that his hair was long and dark and his face was young, square, strongly featured, and mysteriously attractive. The brief bio beneath the photo said that J.C. Guise wrote the bestseller Troubadour Turncoat at the age of eighteen and was considered a science fiction prodigy.

Michael had looked at the book’s publishing date and figured out that J.C. Guise was only a few years older than Michael himself—nearly his own age, cute, and so fucking brilliant. A serious fanboy crush had begun right then, aimed at that little one inch square of a face.

          Although Michael is proud of being a sex surrogate and he loves his job, he is afraid to tell James about it. Quitting seems like a logical choice to Michael, but his boss encourages him to speak to James first. Michael is not sure James will understand, so instead of telling him about the job, he keeps it a secret, which, of course, turns out to be a colossal mistake.

Michael loved being a sex surrogate. It felt entirely natural to him. He’d graduated from nursing school at twenty-one and did an internship with a VA hospital in Seattle. A few of the patients there were young, just recovering from injury or PTSD. One in particular, a sweet boy named Wayne, had lost a leg and was severely depressed. Michael was fairly certain Wayne was gay, and he was so devastated by his injury. Sometimes, Wayne would look at Michael, then look away. There was pure need in that look, a need so deep it ran red with blood. Michael had a strong urge to hold Wayne, to comfort him, to, yes, give him relief in any way that he could. Instinctively, he sensed that Wayne needed physical contact, needed someone to make him feel like a man, to remind him that being alive meant the possibility of great pleasure, not just pain.

Michael is sweet and his attitude is in direct contrast to James’ pessimistic views of life. Although James’ actions seem a bit harsh at times, Easton has provided such a detailed background story for him that readers cannot help but empathize with him. The story of James’ childhood is tragic. His writing seems to serve as a type of therapy for him. He does not realize how much it also serves that aspect to his readers, especially Michael.

Easton has created a wonderful group of characters – professionals and misfits – in the Sex in Seattle series. However, it is with The Mating of Michael that Easton’s talent really shines through. It is not just the main characters who readers will gravitate to: Tommy, Lem, Mrs. Chelsey and Marnie are great additions to this book and help keep the plot intriguing and the smiles flowing. Not only do these minor characters supply depth to the story and Michael’s character, but they also provide humor. The story of Lamb is a great addition to the story and helps readers understand more of James’ thoughts.  

      Although The Mating of Michael can be read as a standalone novel, the book has more depth if the other books in the series are read first. Easton is a phenomenal storyteller, and she has an engaging writing style incorporating realism, humor and angst. You can read about Easton’s inspiration for this series and characters here.

Thank you Eli Easton and Dreamspinner Press for providing a review copy of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

All Romance Ebooks

Barnes and Noble

Review by Jodi: Running Wild by S.E. Jakes

Title: Running Wild: Havoc Book 1

Author: SE Jakes

Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Rating: 5/5 Smooches

Blurb:

Embrace the danger…

Sean Rush is an adrenaline junkie. That’s why he was in the Army, why he steals and races classic muscle cars . . . and why he can’t stay away from bad boy Ryker, a Havoc Motorcycle Club lieutenant. Fortunately, Ryker can’t seem to stay away from Sean—he’s spent the last eight months breaking into Sean’s apartment and stealing into his bed, leaving Sean physically satisfied but increasingly restless.

Sean has always avoided relationships. He likes to come and go without being controlled. And Ryker is possibly the most controlling man he’s ever known. Still, he finds that he wants more from Ryker than their silent nighttime encounters.

Then one of Sean’s thefts goes bad, and Ryker’s protective instincts kick into overdrive. He takes Sean to the Havoc compound, determined to keep him safe. But Sean’s past threatens the safety of Havoc—and everything Ryker holds dear. Worse, Ryker’s hiding secrets of his own. Soon it’s obvious that the adrenaline rush can’t keep them together anymore. But maybe love can.

Review:

“He pushed all my limits. Had from day one but this . . . this was new. Exciting. And scary as hell.

--Sean Rush

Caution: Reading this book may make readers fall in love with outlaw, badass bikers and adrenaline junkie car thieves. There are no two ways about it. This book is hot: steam coming from the pages hot. The characters are captivating, the plot is intense and the interactions between the characters are engaging and mind boggling. In other words, this is a typical SE Jakes book.

To make this book more intriguing, Running Wild is narrated by main character Sean Rush, so the reader is fixed to the facts from Sean’s point of view. This tactic gives the book an added dimension as Sean tries to come to grips to what is happening in his life as he tries to work through his thoughts, feelings and observations. In other words, reality is relative to what Sean perceives it to be.

It has been a long time since Sean Rush felt anything. The man is a bit of an enigma: Army veteran, tough guy, car thief, brawler, adrenaline junkie, loyal friend and, surprisingly, a romantic. Sean appears to be a crossroads. His recent release from the Army has him looking for his place in the world. He, along with his two best friends and fellow car thieves, Noah and Billy, joined the Army and wound up in Afghanistan to avoid going to jail. Only Noah and Sean make it out of the desert alive.

Sean likes to push boundaries, and he and Noah like to get into trouble. For Sean, stealing cars and drag racing fulfills an inherent need. It is all about the thrill. Both Sean and Noah suffer from PTSD, and Noah turns back to stealing cars, while Sean, without realizing it, gets what he needs from starting fights and from having hot, mind blowing, exhausting sex. That is until he starts stealing cars again.

Sean has fallen into a “relationship” with a member of the local motorcycle club, Havoc. Ryker is sexy, powerful and mysterious, and he has been breaking into Sean’s house on a regular basis for the last eight months.

Every single time he broke into my house, I had to convince myself it wasn’t a dream. I never knew when he’d show, couldn’t plan for the times he’d yank the sheet off me before the mattress shifted under his weight. His hands were big and rough on my bare back, and when he flipped me over and skimmed between my legs, that heated rough on my cock was heaven.

So was the big, hot body on mine.

I didn’t know if I should be stopping it. But why would I? Hot sex, no commitment. Hell, no talking. Most of the time just a soundtrack of classic rock, punctuated mostly by the Grateful Dead, which made the whole thing so goddamned hot. It was the perfect nonrelationship for a guy like me, since my lifestyle was completely nonconducive to relationships.

But this guy wasn’t just any guy. No one in my twenty-four years had ever had the balls to pull this kind of break-and-enter shit with me. I was impressed. Fascinated.

He was a shadow. I was used to moving through places unnoticed, but even though he had it down to an art form, he definitely wanted to be noticed when he came into my bed. And he was strong. Stronger than I was, which was no easy feat.

He was tattooed. Always bore a couple of bite marks after we finished. I couldn’t help myself—I liked the idea of leaving my mark, but then, I was always hoarse the mornings after he visited, so I guess we were even.

He liked to study me in that brief space of time postsex before I crashed. I could see the appreciation in his dark eyes, and it made me squirm. He’d notice that I was somewhere between embarrassed and enjoyment, and he’d chuckle, low and husky, and that made my cock hard. Again.

I wanted to ask him why the hell he kept breaking in, but I didn’t. It was obvious to me—he wanted to fuck. And I was acquiescing when I normally wouldn’t have. I liked control, all types, all the time. But during these visits, it didn’t matter.

He made me dizzy. Pliant. Incoherent.

I could tell he liked me that way. Expected it.

Jakes is a master of grabbing the reader by the throat and not letting go, and she has done it again with Running Wild. This is the first book in a new series, and readers are left wanting more about these eclectic characters: Sean, Ryker, Casey, Jethro, Linc and Sweet. There is a thin line between good guys and bad guys in this book. Jakes likes to keep readers on the edge of their seats as she slowly reveals the facts and deepens the characters through expert development and plot manipulation.

At the beginning of the book, Noah is the only person who Sean truly trusts, but after helping Noah with a job and almost dying in the process, Sean realizes that Noah may not be trustworthy.

As the relationship between Sean and Ryker intensifies, the tension between Sean and Noah increases. Sean is not sure who to trust. Between Billy’s brother, Officer McKibbins, tightening the reigns and Sean learning the truth about what Havoc does, the plot thickens and the tension crescendos. McKibbins blames Sean for his brother’s life of crime and death. And, in true survivor guilt mode, Sean owns some of that guilt.

      Despite Sean’s actions and words, it seems clear that he wants the relationship he has with Ryker to be about more than sex. But, Sean doesn’t do relationships, and he believes the only reason Ryker keeps coming back is for the sex. Ryker always leaves after the sex, until, of course, he doesn’t. Sean isn’t even sure that it all isn’t a dream … accept for the roses.

And, like he knew, the delivery guy grinned when he said, “Flowers for Sean Rush,” because obviously he thought it was great that I’d gotten them. Again.

Noah grabbed the big box—bigger than normal—and pushed me out of the way to put it on the table. I tipped the delivery guy by lifting Noah’s wallet from his back pocket and taking a couple of bucks, then pointed him to the door. It was only fair since Noah was already opening the box, demanding, “Who the fuck’s sending you long-stemmed roses? The chick from last night?”

Thankfully, there was still no card. Hell, I still didn’t need one. Ryker was sending them. They came every morning after he made me come. Anyone might think he was courting me, but I knew better. The fucker had to be making fun of me. Didn’t stop me from letting him into my bed though. “Long story. And fine, Bertha’s tonight.”

“You’re just saying that to get rid of me.” Noah smirked as he turned one of the roses in his fingers—this time there were eight roses instead of the usual single one. He touched a thorn and hissed when it pricked him. “Someone’s into you.”

“Yeah, right,” I muttered, walked to the counter, and started cracking the eggs, badly, because I knew he’d intervene.

He did, putting the rose down in the box with the others. “What do you mean, ‘Yeah, right’? In the real world, red roses mean serious business.”

I wasn’t living in the real world. I was sucked into a dream world where a man too big to move as silently as he did broke into my house, and I did nothing to stop him. I was actively encouraging it with my silence.

Despite the fact that Sean seems enamored with Ryker, Noah doesn’t trust the man or Havoc. Noah seems to care about what happens to Sean, but there is an underlying uncertainty presented to the reader regarding Noah’s true motivations.

Noah’s tone softened. “Rush, come on. I just think you’re putting too much into this. He’s having fun. He liked the chase, but once he caught you . . .”

No more flowers.

Noah continued, “I think you’re confusing sex and love, Rush, and you’re the last person who should be. You’ve never trusted very easily, so why now, with him? I mean, look, you’re talking Havoc here. Even for you, that’s extreme.”

I stared at the open road and, for the first time, fully realized that maybe I couldn’t trust my best friend. I hated him for that, wanted to hate Ryker more for opening my eyes to it, but I couldn’t. He’d been trying to protect me.

But I couldn’t discount what Noah was saying either. “Ryker knows things about me.”

      Ryker holds a prominent position in Havoc, and although the other gang members do not seem to have a problem with Ryker being gay, they are not all thrilled with his relationship with Sean. Sean has a bit of a reputation in the community, and the bikers know all about his stealing cars. Jakes does a fabulous job with her descriptions of Ryker and by using the showing not telling method to unravel his feelings for Sean.

The way he looked at me made the world still. All the noise, the bullshit, stopped cold. He was all I wanted to focus on. Everything else fell away until it was just the beating of my goddamned heart, and he’d snuck in there when I wasn’t looking. When I was being too dense to notice, and he’d known it the entire time. Known and waited, semipatiently, until I’d discovered it.

His hand traveled along my side, the way it always did, slid under my arm, then settled, palm open, fingers splayed over my left side, fitting against the slope of my ribcage. He studied his hand and my skin intently, and now I realized he’d been doing that since our second night together.

His hand seemed to fit there, perfectly. I didn’t question why he did it. It was one of those things where, if I mentioned it, he might stop doing it.

Once his hand settled into its spot, my eyelids got heavy. His arm slung over me. An anchor. I slept, even though I didn’t want to.

When I woke, he was gone.

Jakes likes to blur the lines between good and bad in her books, and she expertly does this in Running Wild. The characters and plot are captivating. Since this is the first book in a series, the HEA is understated.  Jakes uses a grittiness in this book that lends to the realism and intensifies the relationship between these characters and the rawness of the plot. Jakes’ characters are multi-dimensional, strong, vulnerable, and very skillfully flawed. As in her other books, the genuiness of the characters is revealed through subtle character actions and dialogue, which makes this book a great read.

Thank you SE Jakes and Riptide Publishing for providing a review copy of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

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