It’s Getting Hot in Here is a post from: Lex Valentine

A week or so ago, I was chatting with Lex, and she invited me over to chat about good books. Now chatting about books is something I’ve never had a problem doing, and since this book by Ethan Day, called Self Preservation is one of the better books I’ve read this past year, I was psyched to come over and talk about it,

What struck me about this book was the odd dichotomy of the characters and situations being so much larger than life, and yet, still ringing true and feeling inevitable. Davis seems just like a normal, almost dull kind of guy. Until he thinks about Jack, at which point normalcy flies out the window on the wings of Davis’ fantasies. Such complete and utter denial of facts and reality should make this character hard to believe in, hard to sympathize with, but Day has created a character who instead is funny, interesting and authentic. You can’t help but love the guy, even as you see how he’s slightly delusional. You root for him while knowing he can’t really have what he wants, and yet, still, you hope he gets it. I’m still trying to figure out how he did that!

At some point, like Davis, you start to believe he can do anything. It’s impossible not to want him to win out in the end, so the plot twists that get him deeper and deeper into his impossible dream seem completely reasonable and logical.

Enter Alex, another character who can’t possibly be real, but also can’t be other than he is, and Jack, that impossible dream Davis is chasing after, who seems too good to be real, and you’ve got the makings of a story that can be fantastically entertaining, or that can go horribly wrong.

It’s Ethan’s own voice, his unerring ability to see the humour in just about anything, and his willingness to let his characters live large and laugh at themselves that makes this story work. Taking risks, of course, means getting hurt, and it’s inevitable that the characters will face unpleasantness. Day doesn’t flinch from that any more than he holds back on his humour.

Now, I’m not a cryer. Movies, books, pretty much nothing in fiction is ever strong enough to make me tear up. Huh. This book is pretty much billed as a romantic comedy. Huh again. I found myself sniffling not once, not even twice, but on three separate occasions while reading this book. The honesty this book is written with touched me, and I can–literally– say I laughed, I cried, and yeah, it kinda became a part of me. At least, this book has become a part of the fabric of inspiration I turn to when I’m searching for ways to improve my own efforts. It isn’t often I come across a book that not only entertains me, satisfies my need for all the ends to be tied up in a pretty bow, but also teaches me. I most definitely will have to get me a hard copy of this puppy. Nothing like that dog-eared well-read look of a much-loved story.

I’d give this 4.5 Valentines. There’s grammer stuff going on, but nothing I couldn’t forgive.

4.5 Valentines by Jaime Samms

Self Preservation

Loose Id

Novel

BUY LINK

Blurb:

Davis always assumed they would wind up back together, until Jack calls and invites Davis to his wedding to Tadd Austin, a prominent architect in Chicago. Jack’s only known Tadd for two weeks, so whatever Jack feels for Tadd couldn’t possibly compare to what he shared with Davis. There’s no way in hell Davis can stand by and watch the life he always expected to get back slip away to some guy Jack barely knows. Tadd Austin, indeed…more like Toad Ass-ton, Davis thinks.

With his best friend, fashion designer Deseree Wildwood in tow, Davis has to shed his sweet, guy-next-door persona, and re-vamp his image into a self-confident, hot piece of eye candy. He’s going to the wedding with only one goal in mind: to do whatever it takes to win back Jack. The Toad is toast!

Once in Chicago, Davis discovers it isn’t going to be as easy as he thought. Not only is Tadd very un-Toad-like, but a mysterious British playboy named Alex Parker manages to interject himself into the mix. Only true love will survive as the tug of war ensues in this Bermuda love triangle from hell.

Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices.

LEX NOTE: Jaime is a fellow Pink Petal Books author and her current release there is Spinning, a book I made the cover for. You can visit Jaime at Jaime-Samms.net.

Self Preservation is a post from: Lex Valentine

If I break it down by book, the most obvious Alpha hero I have is Roul Verlaine in Mating. Roul is the quintessential Alpha. He’s a werewolf who leads his pack. He’s an action man, a decision maker, and within his world he’s a force of nature. When he meets his mate, the fact that she too is Alpha, totally turns him on and makes him even more eager to pounce on her, take her, and make her his own. He’s a tad bit chauvinistic, but then again, that seems to be an overriding Alpha trait. They always want to be the top of the heap and that means commanding their women too even if the women are Alpha. However, like a good marriage, compromise becomes the key and a smart Alpha will learn to work in tandem with his Alpha mate. Despite the fact that within an hour of meeting Morgan, Roul has her beneath him in bed, he does learn to compromise.

Now, Roul’s twin Ranulf is the Beta.  In Runaways, Ran meets a woman on a train and instantly wants her. However, he doesn’t get up from his table in the dining car and approach her. It’s not until some Goth kids push him into her that he takes the opportunity to hit on her. And Dante is the one who invites Ran to her sleeper cabin, not the other way around. It’s not that Ran can’t take charge because he can. And he does, the instant he has a naked Dante all over him.

Ran’s used to being Roul’s right hand and dealing with pack business in an aggressive manner. But personally, he lacks that instantaneous urge to dominate that his older twin has.  Where Roul made the decision in moments to pounce on Morgan, Ran let Dante come to him and then he took control.  The Beta therefore has slightly less strong instincts to possess and has a bit more finesse when it comes to dealing with their mates. Think of it as the Cro Magnon man compared to the Neandertal.

My quintessential Beta has always been Weylyn Randall. But in Common Ground, you don’t necessarily get the impression that Weylyn is Beta. Set beside Marius, you wonder about both men.  Marius has a lot of confusion about his mate for an Alpha.  Fortunately, I give the reasons for it. When Colin ogles Marius’s mate, the Alpha surfaces and Marius takes his younger brother to task for it. Colin, who is also Alpha, but often doesn’t come off that way (see the beginning of Hot Water where Eden thinks Colin is Beta because he’s so laid back), does back off. For one, Marius is his older brother and for another, he already has a mate. Had Colin not been mated, he might not have backed down so easily.

As for Weylyn, you discover that he has an Alpha, a female Alpha whom he respects and would do anything for. You see that Weylyn is the laid back type who often lets his mate take charge. But like any good Beta, when needed to bring a situation or a person to heel, he can bring some major force to bear. Reading Weylyn you’ll find that he shares a lot of the same qualities of Ranulf. If there’s no Alpha to take charge, they will automatically rise to the challenge.  Betas are not weak. In many ways, they have far more strength than an Alpha because they must always hold themselves ready to support the Alpha. Second in command is often a tougher job than leading because not only do the lower ranks look up to you, the leader himself looks to you for support. So it’s no surprise that Weylyn Randall doesn’t come off as weak beside the Alpha, Marius Granville.

In the Pixie Prince, Max doesn’t come off as Alpha when sharing the page with Alexa, his snapping, growling, take charge vampire best friend. Yet, with his mate Bliss, it becomes much more obvious. The fact that Max is a nice guy tempers his aggressive tendencies. And besides, the fae aren’t as territorial as werewolves and vampires anyway.

The obvious Alphas in my books are the ones who are Doms. Ride the Lightning’s Vahid Delrey may brown nose his boss Sean Antaeus (the most Alpha of Alphas in the Tales series) but in his own domain, his own dungeon, Vahid is a Dom. He controls his mate Emily sexually. The submissive Emily comes off as Alpha while at work because she is in charge of the finances of a multi-billion dollar empire. At home, she has a penchant for pain and submitting to Vahid is what makes her happy. Readers may have thought she was Alpha, but she is not. They may have thought Vahid was Beta, but he is not.

In their case, it’s a question of business versus sex. Just because you are an Alpha doesn’t mean your job lets you be one while on the clock and vice versa. However, at home, their true natures are obvious as Vahid takes control and Emily revels in it.

My other Dom is Aric Calderwood in Insolence. Aric is a total Alpha male and his best friend Ainsley Connor is Alpha too. All Aric has ever known of Ainsley is her strong personality and her need to lead. As children, their similar personalities are what made them best friends. As adults, Aric doesn’t want Ainsley on his turf – his BDSM club Insolence -  because he can’t bear the thought of watching her with another man, even if it’s a Beta or Omega.

For Ainsley, her love for Aric is so strong that she would do anything to have him, including shoving her Alpha into a box and nailing it shut so she can sub for her best friend. The very fact that she has the strength of will to subdue her Alpha tendencies for Aric tells you what she is. And for these two, life has a dividing line similar to Ride the Lightning’s. Sexually, Aric has control. He is the Alpha in the relationship. Outside the bedroom, the two resume the give and take they have known all their lives and Ainsley’s Alpha has free rein.

Over all, my heroes tend to be Alphas, but often my heroines are as well. And my Beta heroes are strong while some of my Alphas must bow to other Alphas. There’s Garret and Holden in Fire Season who must learn to work together despite both of them being Alpha. And in the office, Garret answers to Emily while Holden looks to his older brother Sean. Both of these Alphas have had to learn to compromise in business and in their private lives, but they make it work.

The same holds true of Declan Antaeus who also answers to his brother Sean.  But in Shifting Winds, we also learn that an Alpha who gives control over to the woman he loves can be hotter than the Mojave Desert in August. When Declan lets Elysia fuck him with a vibrator…well, it’s not exactly a very Alpha thing to do. Or is it? Declan still controls the situation. He’s asking her to do this, giving her the toys to use, the whole scene is orchestrated by him very subtly but still. He may be the one being fucked, but it’s what he asks for in order to achieve a certain level of pleasure. He’s definitely still in control.

With the M/M dynamic, you have to be a little more subtle about things when you have a pair of Alphas. Of course, it would be a lot easier to write if one was Alpha and the other not. I don’t tend to take the easy way out of emotions when writing though. In Where There’s Smoke, Zander is clearly Alpha with the aggression to prove it. His mate Voth is Alpha too, but Voth is a bit less aggressive, a little bit more cerebral, and his emotions aren’t as Neandertal as Zander’s. Of course, Voth was raised in a very different culture than Zander and his future was always destined, not something he’d have to fight for. The very fact that Zander’s spent his life fighting makes him appear more Alpha than Voth.  They are essentially equals, but it manifests itself in different ways. When Voth gives in to Zander, it’s because intellectually, logically, it’s the thing to do. Or in the case of sex, he just wants to cause he knows his turn is coming.

So where does all this leave us with regard to the Greek alphabet? I’m not sure. A character like Roul Verlaine is obvious to a reader. A character like Declan Antaeus or Weylyn Randall may not be. There are subtleties to these characters and things that they may have to do to survive in their world that may not fall strongly under the label of Alpha or Beta. Personally, I think the blurring of these Greek lines is what gives a character depth and endears them to readers. But what do I know? In the end, it’s all Greek to me.

It’s All Greek To Me is a post from: Lex Valentine

I’ve decided that my cure for pain isn’t painkillers but books. However, I totally empathized with Elliot Mills, the hero of Fair Game. Elliot is a former FBI agent who had his knee blown away in a shoot out some eighteen months or so before the opening of this novel. I may not have been shot, but the damage to my knees was more like having been shot out of a cannon at 60 mph into the dashboard of my car. On a good day, I limp. On a bad day, I stay in bed and cry. For the past couple of nights which were bad, very bad nights, I read Josh Lanyon’s newest offering.

As a dyed in the wool fan of Josh Lanyon books, I look upon his new releases the way a child does Christmas morning or a birthday. Pressie for me? Oh, yum! And I had been waiting for this book ever since seeing a snippet of it on a Yahoo group. Waiting for Josh is like waiting for dessert and the first bite sends you into an orgasm of delight…and you’re so incredibly happy that your wait is now over.

Fair Game’s hero is a wounded hero. Elliot’s bad knee is like a character in and of itself because of how it impacts so very much in the book. The knee led to his break up with his lover Tucker Lance, another FBI agent, after he was shot. And the knee is the catalyst that puts him right back into Tucker’s arms when the two meet up again over the disappearance of a gay student at the university where Elliot now teaches. The knee is the best inanimate character ever and I could feel every twinge and pull and pop and throb and bone melting stab of agony that Elliot had. Not so much because I have plenty of that pain myself, but because Josh sure does know how to describe it right down to how you have sex when your knee feels like a zeppelin.

I don’t want to go into the missing student-murder mystery part of the book. For one, suspense isn’t my preferred genre and I only read a very select few authors who write it. For another, with my propensity for spoilers, I’ll ruin the book for you. What I do want to talk about are Josh Lanyon’s characters.

Elliot Mills is razor sharp to me. Far more cerebral than the characters of Dangerous Ground and far more macho and physical than the characters of The Dickens With Love. Elliot the professor is still finding his way around academia while trying to put his old life as an FBI agent behind him. The fact that he becomes so intensely drawn into the missing student investigation is a testament to how much he misses his former life and how good at it he was.

When Elliot comes face to face with his former life via his ex-lover Special Agent Tucker Lance, everything he loved most about that life is brought sharply into focus, yanked there from his pain-fuzzed memories.  The pain of his knee is nothing compared to the pain he determinedly hides over the loss of that former life. Elliot lies to himself about that pain and loss through much of the book and it’s not spelled out in so many words for the reader either. You have to be as much of a detective as Elliot is to figure it out. But it’s there in what he refuses to think about and how he focuses on the mystery rather than his emotions and Tucker’s.

The most surprising part of this book for me is Tucker Lance. Elliot is a true hero. You love him almost immediately. Josh draws him with a fine nibbed pen and you can’t help but be in love with such beautiful lines. Tucker is about as far from that as you can imagine. He’s gruff and rude and the reader isn’t sympathetic to him at first because of course, you’re already in love with Elliot and if you love Elliot then you have to hate Tucker because he hurt Elliot.  Right?

I’ve never been a fan of the red-headed, freckled faced man. Makes me think of  Tom Sawyer or something.  But Josh and his way with words has me lusting for the redheaded Tucker. The man grows on you throughout the book. Probably because slowly but surely, Tucker’s emotions come to light. And man, does this guy FEEL. You get more of his emotions than you do Elliot’s.

With a profound sense of shock, you discover that Tucker tried to apologize for his behavior after Elliot’s knee was shot. He sent letters, emails, and called only to be turned away. (The reader goes awwww because it totally smacks of begging.) You find out that fear fueled his rough unsympathetic actions at the time of Elliot’s injury. It’s Tucker who offers Elliot whatever he wants when they land in bed together again. He gives to Elliot sexually and emotionally and it’s our hero who holds back in the emotion department.

Tucker reveals how much he cares when he saves Elliot from sniper fire. He confesses straight up that he wants them to live together. His eyes are bright with tears and emotion and his face is pale when he finds Elliot passed out and injured after catching the bad guy.  He treats Elliot far more gently than our hero treats him. And best of all, Tucker says the L word first. Big, bad superhero FBI agent who can be the worst kind of asshole is a sucker for the man he loves.

There is something about an author who can draw tears from you without both heroes getting downright mushy. These men retain their Alpha masculinity and yet you feel their emotions very keenly even when they aren’t admitting them or are hiding them. The sex scenes are not detailed like the kind I write, yet they are blazingly hot. The sexual tension is exceptional. The emotions will wring you out.

Josh Lanyon does not waste a single word. Every word he writes has a purpose and serves to make you love these characters. I didn’t think he could top The Dickens With Love as far as I was concerned. Sedge’s simple acceptance of love in that book seemed to be the zenith for me. But oh, no. Never underestimate Josh’s talent with the written word. Elliot and Tucker are my new favorite heroes.

“If you even try to die, I’ll kill you myself.”

Tucker’s words hit home for a romance fan like myself. I cried. Really. And that in a nutshell gives Fair Game five Valentines.  Buy it. Read it. Immerse yourself in the most amazing prose and let Josh Lanyon take you away far better than any ole box of Calgon.

Now, if he would just revisit these two like he did Will and Taylor of Dangerous Ground, I would be in 7th Heaven.

5 Valentines

Fair Game

Carina Press

Novel

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Blurb:

Fair Game is a post from: Lex Valentine

So I have a thing about series…you knew that right? I write them. I read them. I love them. The latest in my reading adventures started out simply enough, read a short story by Mia Watts about two cops, partners who have a little too much beer and do something two straight guys would never do. Bad Boys, Bad Boys turns out to be the first in the Boys in Blue series and when I discovered that the heroes of Bad Boys, Bad Boys were in another longer story I had to have it.

These first two books in the series (at least I hope this is only the beginning and not the sum total) are about Geo Wilson and Mack Sullivan, two detectives who’ve been partners for several years. Bad Boys, Bad Boys, as I said, is a short story. In it, we meet the two cops tying one on. Or rather, Geo is tying one on while remembering all the erotic dreams he’s had lately about about his partner Mack. Both Geo and Mack are straight with a long history of women in their pasts. Still, something’s happened recently inside Geo and his dreams are filled with lust for Mack. When his inebriation leads him to kiss Mack, it’s a domino that begins to drop a lot of other dominoes and inhibitions in succession.

Mack questions himself and his reaction to the kiss as he drives Geo home. His cock obviously liked it. And Mack finds himself filled with confusion mixed with a reluctant lust. At Geo’s house, things escalate as Mack tries to get Geo into bed so he can sleep off the drunk. Instead, Geo yanks down Mack’s pants revealing a hard cock that Geo instantly goes for. The resultant blow job blows the doors off of Mack.

Of course, Geo doesn’t remember it except in snatches after Mack confesses what happened. Mack acts like he wants to forget it, but Geo isn’t afraid to turn his back on what happened.  The rest of the short is about Geo chasing Mack. Not literally so much as figuratively. He wants to pursue the attraction and Mack is filled with denial and trepidation not to mention confusion. Through it all, Geo shines brightly as a man who isn’t into lying to himself or others. His attraction for his partner isn’t something he’s willing to compromise on. He wants Mack and he wants Mack to acknowledge that he wants Geo too.

The HFN leaves lots of questions in the reader’s mind. And it leaves this story open for author Mia Watts to return to it. Luckily for the reader, she does revisit Geo and Mack a year later in Reasonable Doubt. In the last year, the two men have grown closer and are now living together. They are in a committed relationship albeit a relationship that’s in the closet. They love each other and are at the stage where they express that freely. However, each man has doubts, albeit about different things.

Reasonable Doubt takes Geo and Mack’s relationship and adds a huge bump in the road to their HEA. First, there’s Geo’s ex, an FBI agent who walked out on him and never looked back. Then, there’s her partner, a snarky twink with a crush on Mack.  Geo allows Lauren to crawl all over him, thinking that Mack’s jealousy is a good thing because it means Mack loves him. Mack pushes Geo away and right at Lauren, thinking that if they had something commitment worthy, Geo wouldn’t let her touch him. At cross purposes, their relationship deteriorates into arguments and unhappiness. It’s not until Andy the twink FBI agent points out to Mack that he’s not much of a man to let a woman take his man away.

When Mack explodes out of his broody, sullen behavior and lays it all on the line, Geo instantly pushes away his ex and comes clean to Mack about his feelings. Their case escalates and comes to a close as Geo and Mack talk commitment and bring their relationship out into the open.

The longer story this time around gives the reader a more complete picture of Geo and Mack, their relationship and their emotions. Sure, there’s hot sex too, but it’s the emotions that I always look for in a book. Personally, I could have stood to have more emotion and description in the sex scenes. I like lots of internal thought about what they are feeling as well as how the sex itself feels. However, while Watts only delivers that at a what I’d call a basic level (she describes the acts themselves sparingly), she does make up for it in two ways. One, she has a way with sexual tension that will make your panties wet. And two, she’ll capture you with a sparkling dialog that shows the depth of the emotion between the two men. Sure, I was rooting for more hot descriptives, but I love good dialog and Mia Watts is great at it.

I’m not sure if there will be other books and if there are, if they will be about other couples or a return to Geo and Mack.  I’d sure like to see more of Geo and Mack. There seems to be more to their story than we’ve seen thus far. Maybe in future installments they’ll only be secondary characters, but still, more Mack and Geo is only a good thing.

I give Bad Boys, Bad Boys, a 4.5 and the longer, hotter Reasonable Doubt gets 4.75 which gives this series (at this point anyway) 4.75 Valentines.

4.5 Valentines

Bad Boys, Bad Boys: Boys in Blue Book 1

Total e-Bound

Short Story

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Blurb:

What you gonna do when they cum for you? A police force partner submits to his desire while under the influence of alcohol. But since neither of the men are gay, what do they do with their lurking lust?

Geo Wilson has been partnered to Mack for three years. Sharing the same muscular build, dark hair, and olive complexion, they’ve been dubbed ‘the twins’ by the department. But lately Geo’s dreams have taken an erotic twist to centre around Mack.

Mack values his friendship with Geo, would give his life for the man. Then one night Geo has a few too many beers and plants a kiss on him, he can’t forget. He might have been able to pass it off as beer-haze except in helping Geo get back to his apartment, Mack is taken off guard by Geo’s tackle and a mind-numbing blow job.

Now the partnership has to redefine itself while the criminal world continues around them. They could lose their badges, or lose each other.

4.75 Valentines

Reasonable Doubt: Boys in Blue Book 2

Total eBound

Novella

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Blurb:

Geo and Mack have faced a lot of problems, but when the problem is within their relationship, will Mack come clean and claim his man, or lose him to an old flame?

Geo Wilson’s feelings for his partner Mack Sullivan run deep. But formerly straight Mack grows distant when Geo’s old flame, a former female detective gone FBI, comes to town to take over the lead on their case. Geo makes no effort to discourage the woman, and Mack wonders if he missed the break up memo.

Geo’s apparent rejection hurts and Mack begins to have reasonable doubts about where they stand.

For Mack, taking the next step is a huge risk and one Geo has never taken before. Geo’s friendliness with the former girlfriend could be a sign of changing affection. It wouldn’t be the first time Geo has left a broken heart in his wake and Mack’s beginning to wonder if he’s just become another notch in Geo’s belt. All that’s left now is the case and as it comes to a close, will Mack and Geo catch the killer only to lose each other?

Boys in Blue is a post from: Lex Valentine

First, let me welcome you to Lex’s world of wild writing adventures! Well, maybe not too wild and adventuresome unless you count the fact I write about vampires, dragons, werewolves and other creatures.  Your last stop on this blog tour should have been #12 Kate Richards at http://katerichards.wordpress.com/ and I’m the 13th stop.  To be entered to win prizes on this tour, you need to start at 1RomanceEbooks.com and REGISTER. The grand prize is a Sony eBook reader and there are lots of other prizes as well so make sure you register, visit all the stops on the tour, and comment! The more you comment, the better your chances are to win the ereader.

Normally, I’m not much into blog tours and heavy promo. For one, I just don’t have the time. But it’s fun to do once in awhile and since I have a brand new book out, I thought this might be a good vehicle to maybe find some new readers for the Darkworld.

My newest release is Common Ground, Tales of the Darkworld Book Five.  This series has been growing in popularity and I like to think that it’s fueled by the fact that I don’t really write about shifters and vampires the same way that other authors do. My books are contemporary in nature. My characters would fit right into our world for the most part. Coming from the Darkworld just means they are a species other than human.

These characters have jobs and homes, families and responsibilities, passion and angst. The vampires walk in the sun. (Well, they prefer overcast days since they’re sensitive to direct sunlight and get sunburnt easily.) The werewolves don’t get furry with the full moon.  The Magia (the magical race) don’t use wands. (They can, but they don’t have to.) The dragons don’t lay eggs. (They have live births.) And so on.

The first four books in the series focused on the dragons. This book shifts the focus to the vampires and werewolves. In fact, it’s really the introduction to the werewolves because until now, they’ve only been mentioned in passing and I’ve not written about one of them.

This is also a turning point in the series. Up until now, the books have truly been stand alones. With this book, which is stand alone as well, the tide begins to shift toward readers needing the rest of the series to fully know and enjoy what’s happening to these characters and families. There’s a very big picture drawn by this series as a whole. The Tales of the Darkworld is a series about family, relationships, friendships, and love. Every story is a tale of courtship and love that revolves around three friends who help each couple find their happily ever after. There are no boundaries in the series as it goes from couple to couple, male/female to male/male, from BDSM to menage, from those who are alive to those who are dead…and everything in between.

The fifth book in the series is the story of one of the three friends who helps orchestrate the HEAs in the other books. Marius Granville is a broody vampire who thinks love has passed him by. Then he meets a freedom loving werewolf who is involved in a menage. Sair McCallan’s love teaches Marius that love doesn’t have to be strictly monogamous and that there is great freedom in indulging your passions – whatever they may be – with your mate.

Common Ground, Tales of the Darkworld Book Five (M/F/F/M, menage a quatre)

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Blurb:

Werewolf Sair McCallan escapes the confines of her brother’s pack with the help of a mated werewolf couple who believe in open sexuality and relationships. With Weylyn and Keir Randall, Sair experiences freedom in all things for the first time in her life. When she meets her mate, she’s shocked to find he’s a boring, broody vampire. Uptight Marius Granville has his staid and orderly life completely shattered by the arrival of his bloodmate, a beautiful werewolf who steals his heart and expects him to join in her kinky play with the Randalls. Marius is forced out of his hum drum existence and opens himself to new sexual experiences to please Sair. As her new mate strives to give her everything she needs, Sair battles internal demons that threaten their fragile new relationship.

Warning: This book includes sex on a washing machine, a make out session ala From Here to Eternity, sex between best friends (F/F), double penetration of a female (oh, baby!), and the best blowjob in the world (M/M) all within the confines of the hottest ménage a quatre the Darkworld has ever seen.

I hope you enjoyed this look into the Darkworld. Please leave me a comment to be entered in a drawing to win a pdf copy of Common Ground. Don’t forget to leave comments all along the tour stops to up your chances of winning a Sony ebook reader. And now, off you go to stop #14, Bryn Colvin at http://blogspot.loveyoudivineinfo.com/!

Thanks for coming by and participating in 1RomanceEbook’s anniversary blog tour. Have a great time along the tour!

An Anniversary! is a post from: Lex Valentine

~

The Project Alpha series by N.J. Walters is a futuristic story with an Armageddon storyline. In these three books, Earth has gone through the “Great Change” and much of the world is contaminated, polluted, and basically destroyed. On the part of the planet where the series takes place, the rich and powerful created an inner city behind the Gate where the air is pure, flowers and grass grow and everything is pristine…on the surface. However, the underpinnings of this society are corrupt and evil.

In the outer city, the air is polluted and often smoggy and foggy like the London of Jack the Ripper’s day. Buildings are in ruins and the trappings of the 21st century society litter the rubble…burned out cars, televisions, etc. The people who live outside the Gate are desperate to survive which can make them dangerous.

The plot of all the books in this series is similar. Thirty years before, the rulers of the inner city had scientists create the perfect soldier. The Piedmont Corporation created genetically enhanced men with microcomputers in their brains.  These men were called Alphas. Midway through the project, most of the Alphas were destroyed for various reasons – they weren’t developing fast enough, they botched their assignments, etc. When the remaining two Alphas figured out how to bypass some of their programming, they were slated for execution too, but they escaped.

The corrupt General who runs the inner city seeks to destroy these two Alphas while the Alphas, in turn, seek to destroy General Caruthers and the Ruling Council. They believe clean air and plentiful fresh food should be available for everyone, not just the rich and powerful.

In the first book, Embracing Silence, a tracker for the Resistance trails a strange man through the outer city. The strange man is Tienan, Alpha One, and he knows he’s being tracked. Eventually, he decides to capture his tracker and is surprised to find that it’s a woman.

Silence is an orphan who was named by her adopted brother Adrian when he rescued her at age twelve. She’s smart and resourceful, but no match for an Alpha. Tienan is shocked by his instantaneous sexual attraction to Silence. He keeps her locked up for several days as the sexual tension between them grows.  When this couple finally comes together it’s explosive.

What happens afterward isn’t exactly what the reader expects yet it’s not unexpected either. Betrayal, overwhelming sexual attraction, undeniable love, sacrifice, and the unveiling of long held secrets all lead to the HEA shared by Tienan and Silence. It also leads to an ending where the reader knows more in this world is coming.  General Caruthers is still after them. The Resistance is on the move. And there’s another Alpha – Tienan’s friend Logan known as Alpha Two – still out there.

The second book, Have Mercy, takes up the story by following Logan as he is pursued by the security police from the inner city. Unfortunately, he’s shot by them and although he eludes them, he passes out in a shack. He’s found by two teenagers who take him to a woman healer.

Logan awakens tied to a bed but bullet free with his wounds neatly stitched up. His attraction to the healer, Mercy Dockins, is instantaneous and mutual. The two share a quick, incendiary encounter in a pantry, setting up the rest of the story in a similar manner to Embracing Silence. Lust turns to love almost immediately with Logan’s Alpha genes telling him right away that Mercy belongs to him.

Logan discovers that Mercy lives in a community beyond the northern border of the outer city. Her house is filled with orphans from the city. Their community is walled in and they have animals and vegetable gardens.  Logan’s longing to belong and Mercy’s longing for a family dovetail as each realizes how much they want to be together and how impossible that would be.

The ending of Have Mercy is a little more surprising than the end of Embracing Silence.  How Logan and Mercy get their HEA isn’t that predictable. But it also sets up the reader for the third story in this series that leads to the battle against the inner city and General Caruthers’ forces. There is yet another Alpha who needs a HEA, after all.

In Sweet Charity, the third Alpha is Adrian whose secret (that he’s an Alpha) is revealed in Embracing Silence. In Have Mercy, we discover that he’s actually Alpha Ten. Here in his own story, we find him matched with his enemy’s daughter.

Abused both mentally and physically by her father, Charity has spent her life as the General’s pawn. She knows nothing of love and affection from men, yet when she meets Adrian, that changes. Escaping from the inner city, risking her life to take a dying man’s message to Adrian, Charity takes control of her destiny for the first time. And the instant Adrian lays eyes on her, he knows she belongs to him.

There are some twists and turns to the battle that ends this book. They are all related to the General, his machinations, Charity and Adrian. I’ve probably given enough spoilers about this series so I’m not going to divulge anything about the battle. You’re all smart enough to know that Adrian and Charity survive otherwise we’d have no HEA. However, I’m not about to tell you the how.

What I will tell you is that this book is a timeless tale of an abused woman who risks torture and death for the man she’s come to love. It’s a journey from her past filled with pain and fear to her present where she takes control of her life by offering it up to save another while facing down the biggest demon she has…her father.

Sweet Charity has all the elements any reader of romance could ever want. It will make you bite your nails, ache with tears, and laugh along with the characters as they find happiness at last. It leaves you with the promise of love everlasting as the hero and heroine truly do conquer all.

The theme of good versus evil, illustrated by a beautiful city that seems so perfect but is actually more polluted than the one outside it’s gates is a compelling one. The evil underpinnings of the inner city make it more ugly than the ruins that comprise the outer city where good souls just seek to survive. The theme of steadfast love that grows quickly and strongly in the harsh environment of fear and betrayal parallels the two cities. And over all lies the notion that this could be humanity’s fate if our society continues to leech our planet of its resources.

This is a gritty series, but the passion between each set of lovers is intense. I preferred Embracing Silence slightly over the others if only because of the climax between Tienan and Silence when she thinks he does not care about her and thinks her adopted brother doesn’t trust her. I’m a sucker for a heroine who lifts her chin and puts one foot in front of the other despite being ravaged by heartbreak and the overwhelming sense of being alone and unloved. N.J. Walters does this really well and that ending gives Embracing Silence 5 Valentines.  Sweet Charity with it’s gripping battle and the answers to so many questions raised in the first two books comes in next with 4.75 Valentines. Have Mercy may only rate 4.5 Valentines, but it’s still an amazing story, sexy and incredibly sweet. The series as a whole rates a 5 from me. If you like sci fi rom, you should read these.

5 Valentines

Project Alpha: Embracing Silence

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Blurb:

Earth 2133

Tienan is an Alpha—an assassin who has been genetically and computer enhanced. He has escaped from the lab that created him and the Ruling Council that controlled him. He is now outside the Gate—a high-tech shield that protects the enclosed city from the contaminated and lawless land outside. Tienan must constantly evade security forces sent to eliminate him, his only goal to destroy his former masters.

Silence is a tracker with the Resistance on the trail of a dangerous stranger. The hunter becomes the hunted and when Tienan kidnaps her, she thinks her life is over. But both captor and captive are enthralled with one another. Desire and need ignite each time they touch. Enemies become lovers.

Treachery and mistrust drive them apart. But nothing can diminish the sexual heat smoldering between them. With enemies all around, they must confront each other one final time. With time running out, sexual longing and trust battle with betrayal for supremacy.

4.5 Valentines

Project Alpha: Have Mercy

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Blurb:

Earth 2133

Logan is an Alpha—a genetically enhanced assassin—who has escaped from the lab that created him. He is now outside the Gate, a high-tech shield that protects the enclosed city from the contaminated and lawless land outside. Shot while evading security forces sent to eliminate him, Logan’s only goal is survival.

Mercy Dockins is a healer. Her world is shaken to its foundations when a stranger is brought to her near death. As she heals him, her body and soul respond to him, overwhelming her with sexual desire. With little more than a look and a touch, passion flares out of control, consuming them both.

But this stranger is dangerous to not only her well-being, but also to the safety of everyone she loves. And he has brought the security forces right to her door.

4.75 Valentines

Project Alpha: Sweet Charity

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Blurb:

Earth 2133

Adrian is an Alpha—a genetically enhanced assassin—thought dead by the people who created him. Living outside the Gate, a high tech shield that protects the enclosed city from the contaminated and lawless land outside, he is the leader of the Resistance, living only to bring down the Gate and the people who sought to kill him.

Charity Caruthers is the daughter of one of the most powerful and brutal men in the inner city—the General. She risks everything sneaking outside the Gate to get a message to Adrian.

Passion explodes, ripping apart the foundations of both their lives. Charity begins to understand true sexual desire as Adrian teaches her the passion to be found in dark fantasies. Loyalties are tested and trust pushed to the limits as the final confrontation is at hand. Some will die. Some will live. And Adrian and Charity’s fragile relationship could be the final casualty in this war of retribution and freedom.

Project Alpha is a post from: Lex Valentine

The blog on this site is meant to be about writing, books, and publishing. Why shouldn’t I just do mini reviews of the stuff I’ve read and enjoyed? I talked about Neil Placky’s Gaylife.com on Sunlight Sucks. I talked about Kim Knox’s Breaking Chance on Flirty Author Bitches. And when I talked about The Dickens with Love and The Christmas She Rules here, I thought of it in a more promotional light rather than what it truly was…a review.

So while that Christmas post was a review, this shall serve as my first official “Valentine Review.” As such, I’m going to break the mold a bit.   I will try not to give spoilers, but I have to admit that may be tough for me. Also, I may mention some grammatical or structural stuff from time to time, but the main thrust of a Valentine Review will always be positive because, to be frank, I don’t want to come on here and talk about BAD books. I don’t want to give bad books unwarranted attention. There are other review sites out there who are happy to do that in their own snarky way. They get a lot of traffic from rubberneckers with a reality show mentality who thrive on seeing train wrecks. Sorry, folks. Move along. No train wrecks to be seen here. Only the stuff I like will have the privilege of a Valentine Review.

~

For my first official forage into this area I’ll be telling you mostly about one book, but also a little about the other two in the series. Laurann Dohner’s Cyborg Seduction series at Ellora’s Cave may not be a comfortable fit for a modern woman who only wants to read about enlightened societies where women have true equality to men. There are some shades of the old romance bodice rippers with forced seduction themes in these books.  That’s not to say that the heroines aren’t fiesty. They’re far from submissive, but the societies in this series dictate the circumstances they find themselves in where they have to bargain to the lesser of two evils. The lesser usually being that they have to submit to sex with a cyborg.  Like those old romances where the pirate captures the lady and seduces her into loving him, these heroines fall for the cyborgs. But it’s not pretty at first and readers who aren’t a fan of this type of storyline had best just steer clear.

My most recent read, and the most recent release in this series, was Melting Iron. In the first two books, Burning Up Flint and Kissing Steel, the hero of Melting Iron is a total and complete asshole and you pretty much hate him.  However, what I noticed most about Melting Iron is that the author really has learned how to take a cold, nasty cyborg and turn him into a true hero that the reader adores.

As a reader, I didn’t like Flint all that much and it truly takes the entire book for him to get to the hero point and show that he loves the heroine. Steel, in the second book, warmed up a lot quicker. In the third book, Iron shows he is the hero almost from the beginning. Which is amazing considering how horrid he was as a secondary character in the first two books.  This growth in the author as a writer gives me a lot of hope that if she does further stories in this series and world (yes, please! I’d like Ice’s and Coal’s stories!) that I’ll be able to identify with the heroes right from the start.

The world Ms. Dohner has built is a harsh one. Humans created the cyborgs on Earth and when they realized they couldn’t control them and use them, they tried to have them all exterminated. Since the cyborgs had enhanced intelligence, they escaped and found a new world to colonize, Garden. On Garden, men outnumber women by quite a bit because the majority of the cyborg females were lost during escape from Earth. Because of the unequal numbers, laws are put into place to ensure that breeding occurs and the cyborg race is continued. The laws become a huge problem when love enters the mix.

In the first two books of the series you discover that the lost cyborg women have been found. This creates a shift in numbers that affects the laws and helps to ease the path of true love between the human females and cyborg males of the series. Sure, it’s a plot device but it’s an acceptable one, and as a reader, I mostly sat on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen with the laws to help the poor heroes and heroines achieve their monogamous HEAs.

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, but I loved the third one which is weird because I didn’t expect to like Iron AT ALL. In Melting Iron you have a fiesty red-headed female mechanic (human) pitted against a cold, almost brutal cyborg male with a long red braid. The red hair is a key factor in this story and I’m not going to go into the nuts and bolts of it, but I will say that the heroine’s utter fascination with seeing Iron’s long hair turned  loose hit a special nerve with me. (I beg Rott to let his long curly hair loose too.)

Dawn, the heroine, is a woman I can identify with much more than the first two heroines. Her mercurial moods and Irish temper are a lot closer to my own personality and the fact that she’s techie and works as a mechanic is also way more like me. So, I could totally identify with her.  Dawn’s evolution from captive slave to Iron’s family unit (it’s kinda like being married) follows an arc I can empathize with.  But it’s still the development of Iron’s character that shows how the author’s skills have grown as this series has gone along.

It’s here in this third book that the reader discovers why Iron is so harsh in the first two books. Learning his background through Dawn’s eyes puts his prior behavior into perspective finally. And this book comes across much more richly in terms of the emotions of the hero and heroine than the others did. The detail with which their emotions are drawn suck you right in, something I applaud.

I noticed more telling and structural issues in the first two books, not enough for me to dislike them, but enough that I wouldn’t give either top marks. Melting Iron, however, is deserving of the top spot. The Cyborg Seduction series as a whole is deserving of top marks and is definitely a series I would recommend to those who like or are interested in reading sci fi rom.  If you don’t believe me, just read em yourself and decide.

5 Valentines

Melting Iron: Cyborg Seduction Book 3

Laurann Dohner

Ellora’s Cave

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Blurb:

Being a female mechanic on a space station for eight years has taught Dawn a lot of tough life lessons that have hardened her heart. She’s got a temper and a mouth to match her red hair and has never backed away from a challenge. Then she’s kidnapped and blackmailed into agreeing to be a cyborg’s personal sex slave.

Iron is one big bastard with long, fiery red hair, intense, dark blue eyes and a stubborn streak as thick as his dense muscles. If Iron thinks he can tame her, he’s about to learn that “meek” is not in Dawn’s vocabulary. But with that handsome face, a body to die for, a wickedly talented tongue and those magical hands, the guy just doesn’t fight fair.

Dawn is intent on melting Iron’s icy resolve to never fall in love with a human. He’s winning her heart and she’s determined to win his right back. These two redheads have just met their matches. Let the battle for love begin.

Reader Advisory: The big cyborg using his “research” on his new captive during a smoking-hot bondage scene. Woot!

Cyborg Seduction is a post from: Lex Valentine

Tomorrow is an event that I always enjoy. I’ve put a song here for it too. It’s been in my head all day as I’ve prepared to write this post and invite you all to come by for a chance to win prizes.

Share Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon (Main Version) by Backstreet Boys

Yes, it’s the last Sunday of the month again! Time for Ethan Day’s Gay Day!

After I got the official notice, I went into my kitchen in search of a drink. It’s warm here in SoCal so Rott has all the windows open and the front door cracked open to let air through the screen door. He asks me why I’m smiling and without even a thought for how open everything is I reply in my usual big mouthed way, “Oh, I just got the notice for Gay Day. You know, that big chat I go to the last Sunday of the month.”

Rott rolls his eyes and points to the open windows. “Could you say that any louder? Let’s confuse the neighbors even more about how weird we are.”

For a moment, I think I was offended. Then it struck me as funny. It’s true that our neighbors don’t like us and think we’re weird. But I think a lot of that is the parking wars we’ve been having. Still, it did kind of give me a chuckle to think of them trying to figure out our sexuality because I’m all excited about Gay Day. LOL

Here’s this month’s information. If you enjoy this genre and want a chance at some freebies, join Ethan’s group and come on by!

Gay Day Notice from Ethan Day

Sunday, June 27th is Gay Day at my Yahoo Group.  Gay Day is the one day a month when the best authors in GLBT Romance stop by to post excerpts of their new and upcoming releases.

The following authors will be generously offering giveaways you can enter to win:

WILLA OKATI – BECAUSE ITS TRUE

NEIL PLAKCY – DANCING WITH THE TIDE

LEX VALENTINE – WHERE THERE’S SMOKE

ANDREW GREY – PUMP ME UP

TRINA LANE – LOVE’S RETURN

DEVON RHODES – THROUGH THE RED DOOR

KATE MCMURRAY – IN HOT PURSUIT

SOPHIA TITHENIEL – SADIE’S KISS

STEPHANI HECHT – DOUBLE SHOT CAPPUCCCINO

Z.A. MAXFIELD – JACOB’S LADDER

The amazing Authors below will be popping in and out to chat & post excerpts from their latest books:

AKM MILES – STONE CANYON

LYNN LORENZ – SILENT LODGE

SOPHIA TITHENIEL – MORGANS VIGIL

P.A. BROWN – L.A. BYTES

TC BLUE – THE ONE THAT BROKE FREE

CHARLIE COCHRANE – SAND from the LAST GASP ANTHO

ETHAN DAY – AT PIPER’S POINT

The day will begin from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CST in the Ethan Day Yahoo Group where we’ll be posting excerpts, running contests for free books, and chatting about all the new and upcoming releases from your favorite authors.

From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. CST we’ll be hosting another LIVE Chat which is pretty much a free for all, anything-goes-chat that’ll inevitably have you uttering the phrase, “What the f**k?” : )

***You will need to have Downloaded Skype in order to take part in the Live Chat.***

Once you’ve downloaded the FREE software, simply add me as a contact: ethandayonline — and I’ll be able to add you to the chat room!

I hope everyone will stop by to catch up with your favorite authors and join in all the fun!

Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon is a post from: Lex Valentine

Lex walked into Which Wich and carefully ordered her sandwich, a cookie, and a pineapple milkshake. After paying, she moved to the far end of the sandwich shop and leaned against a wall, watching the staff make sandwiches. Absently, she sucked on the straw, thinking about her current WIP and what needed to happen next. She never realized that she must have somehow presented some sort of strange picture sucking on the straw, wrapping her tongue around it, eyes narrowed to slits as the creamy shake oozed from the straw onto her tongue all the while with a faraway expression in her big brown eyes.

A movement across the room caught her eye and Lex looked up from her shake to see a tall man with impossibly broad shoulders barely contained in a navy tank top. He was headed right for her. She blinked in astonishment. The man wore shorts and flip flops and walked with a cock-first kind of stride that she recognized from what she liked to call her “slutty past.”

Cocking up her right brow just slightly, she eyed the young man who had to be at least twenty years her junior. He had the kind of hotness women got drooly over. Raven hair, a lean, chiseled, stubbled jaw… and oh, those shoulders. The muscles rippled as he walked, yet he wasn’t muscle bound like a bodybuilder. He had lean hips and the thighs beneath his loose khaki shorts spoke of wiry muscle not bulk.

Sky blue eyes beneath impossibly black brows focused directly on her… and no one else. He walked toward her, ignoring the stares of men and women alike as he crossed the busy sandwich shop. Beauty like his commanded attention and it had Lex’s too, but for a different reason.

For all of three seconds she remembered what it was like to be twenty years younger and on the prowl. A plethora of sexual double entendres hovered on her tongue born from an instant spike of animal attraction. Then her lips twitched as amusement took over. Of all the people in the shop, he had to make a beeline for her. She wondered why until he spoke.

“Is that a pineapple milkshake?” he asked as he stopped a mere two feet from her, oozing sexuality.

His eyes blinked slowly, a move probably designed to make her melt. He was obviously used to people falling all over themselves with him. She could see the anticipation in his gorgeous eyes as he waited for her to get starry-eyed over him.

Her brow arced a little higher and her mouth curved up in a wry smile. ”Yeah. It is pineapple,” she replied coolly, her gaze stroking over the perfect lines of his shoulders and arms. He sure was pretty, she thought to herself and stuck the straw back in her mouth, her tongue twining around it before she sucked.

The young man’s eyes glittered knowingly. He watched her suck on the straw, his own tongue peeping out to lick at the corners of his mouth. “I was going to get that, but I didn’t know if it was any good,” he murmured and Lex wondered if he realized that someone might think his words weren’t about the milkshake.

“Oh, it’s good, but it’s not real pineappley,” she told him smoothly.

She sucked on the straw again and the young man started to move forward. He jerked then, bumped from behind by a friend. He turned away as they discussed their drinks and sandwiches. Lex leaned on the wall, her mouth quirked up in a smile of immense amusement. She didn’t look like much that day. Black suede flats. Black and white tweedy baggy pants with cuffs. An off white henley type shirt with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows. Her hair was fuzzy from the humidity and shoved into a scrunchie. As usual, she wore no makeup but her expressive eyes rarely needed any.

The young man and his friends moved away. As the other two men pushed in front of the beautiful man, he looked back over his shoulder at Lex. She noticed that the back of his left arm had an Old English R tattooed on it. The back of the right arm had an L. His sky blue eyes flicked over her from her grey streaked, mussed hair to her wry expression, and the body that was no longer trim and muscular as it had been twenty years before.

And then he smiled, white teeth flashing. As he turned back to his friend, his left eyelid dipped in a wink. Lex let the tip of her tongue spiral around the straw and the young man laughed, his hand lifting in a sort of wave to her as he left the shop. Returning to her shake, Lex looked around the shop and found every eye, male and female alike, on her. This time, both her brows rose. Apparently, weeks away from her 49th birthday, overweight by more pounds than she would ever admit to, and definitely not dressed for success, Lex still had an indefinable something that sparked hot men.

The counter person called her name and she took her sandwich, walking out of the shop with that wry smile still on her face. More than one of her boyfriends had said her eyes could seduce a monk. A man young enough to be her son seemed about on a par with monks to her these days so she figured she was doing okay for an old lady who wrote sex scenes in her spare time and called them novels.

She unlocked her non-descript Dodge and tossed the sandwich in, eyeing the pineapple milkshake. “Yeah, I’ve always loved a good pineapple shake. You just never know what will happen when you’re sucking on something you love…” she murmured wickedly.

If you’re interested, the guy sorta looked like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC7sGAf6dUY

Lunch With Lex is a post from: Lex Valentine