Sunday, October 23, 2016

New release from Melissa Foster: Tempting Tristian

Tempting Tristan (A Sexy Standalone M/M Romance)
Series: Harborside Nights Author: Melissa Foster
Release Date: October 19, 2016
Tempting Tristan is a stand-alone M/M romance featuring two sexy, hot alphas.
Fresh off the heels of yet another bad relationship, Tristan Brewer is taking a break from men to try and figure out where he keeps going wrong. He knows his biggest fault--he leads with his heart, not his head--and that's never going to change. But after several introspective weeks, he's beginning to get a handle on things. That is, until badass heartthrob Alex Wells walks into his bar...
Alex has spent eight years in the Army, months in a hospital bed, and far too long hiding his sexual identity. He's guilt-ridden, damaged, pissed off, and up for a Silver Star--for the incident that nearly cost him his life, and kept him from his grandmother's funeral. But all he wants to do is forget his stint with the institution that allows but doesn't necessarily accept, and live the life he's always dreamed of.
The chemistry between Tristan and Alex ignites from the moment they meet, and the more time they spend together the hotter the flames become. But the closer Tristan gets, the more Alex's walls go up, and when the two walk onto a military base, Tristan finds out Alex's physical scars aren't the ones that run the deepest.
***
HARBORSIDE NIGHTS is a sexy, hot, and evocatively real series of stand-alone romances that follows a group of friends who have known one another for years as "summer" friends, and now come together after college to build their lives. They're tough, edgy, and accepting--most of the time. This series is written in the same loving, raw, and emotional voice readers have come to love by New York Times & USA Today bestselling, award-winning author Melissa Foster with LGBT themes.

"Melissa Foster is synonymous with sexy, swoony, heartfelt romance!" New York Times Bestseller Lauren Blakely
"With her wonderful characters and resonating emotions, Melissa Foster is a must-read author!" New York Times Bestseller J. Kenner
We step forward at the same time, and he presses his rough hand to my cheek. “I don’t know what kind of pussies you went out with before, but I wanted to fucking claim you in there.”
He slides a hand around my waist, tugging our bodies together. I feel every hard inch of him, and he’s got me so hot I’m sure we’re going to combust.
“I’ve spent almost nine years hiding who I am, and I’m not willing to do it anymore,” he says through clenched teeth. “Not here, where I came to start over. Where I came to live on my terms without the goddamn military hanging over my head.”
“I have no interest in hiding,” I assure him.
“You’re sure? Because I really want to kiss you right now, and I don’t care who sees us.”
I respond by pulling his mouth to mine, my break from men long forgotten. We stumble backward, crashing into the railing, fighting for dominance as we did yesterday morning. The passion between us has a life of its own. My hands claw over his ass, up his back. I want to strip him down and take all of him. I want to discover why he’s so rough and learn what about those shadows that are lurking behind his gorgeous eyes. Instead I take, and give, and take more of the angry kisses. When we finally tear our mouths apart, my body’s still reeling, and we both curse under our breaths.
“Okay?” he pants out.
I nod, knowing if I open my mouth, I want to fuck you, is going to come out.
“Can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer.”
Tristan shrugs. “Have at it.”
“Why were you taking a break? I get that your ex was a prick, but is there more to it?”
He looks down the street, across the street, and then his hand cruises through his hair as it has so often that I’ve already come to expect it when he’s nervous.
“Ian was a prick, but the rest is going to make me sound like a pussy,” he admits.
“I’ve only known you a day, and I already know nothing can make you sound like a pussy.”
He meets my gaze, and his jaw tightens. He lifts his chin and I recognize the struggle between feeling proud and worrying about looking weak. I fight that battle on a daily basis.
“I give away my heart too easily, and I end up getting hurt.”
His eyes never leave mine, and that trust, that confidence, is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.
“I was right. Nothing can make you sound like a pussy.” I slide my hand to the hard ridge of his jaw and lean in closer. “I’ve never given my heart away. That makes you braver than me.”
Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes sexy and heartwarming contemporary romance, new adult romance (M/F, M/M, F/F), romantic suspense, thrillers, and historical fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Melissa's emotional journeys are lovingly erotic and always family oriented. Her books have been recommended by USA Today's book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the World Literary Café. When she's not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on Fostering Success.
Melissa has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Her interests include her family, reading, writing, painting, friends, helping others see the positive side of life, and visiting Cape Cod.
Melissa is available to chat with book clubs and welcomes comments and emails from her readers. Visit Melissa on Facebook or her personal website.
Never miss a brand new release, special promotions or inside gossip again by simply signing up to receive your newsletter from Melissa.
HOSTED BY:

Two broken men. One with scars on the inside. One with scars on both the inside and the outside. Can the two men, whose mutual attraction at first sight, fix each other? If so, how? can each man deal with the others' baggage as well as their own? These questions need to be answered, but are there answers? The answers lie in the heart of Tempting Tristian.

It's easy for me to identify with both men as I've been where both are and I still have the scars. I'm sure there are many others out there who can identify as well. Like Tristian, I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. Like Alex, I had to hide my sexuality while in the military.

That being said, I can attest to the well thought out, realistic plot. Some of the plot points are handled with delicacy, some not so much.

The lovable characters are an interesting mix. They'll make you laugh. They'll make you cry. They'll make you ask 'really?'. They'll make you want to hit them upside the head with a two-by-four. The interactions of these in-depth, well-developed characters provide the ultimate answers to the questions above.

And what might those answers be? Read Tempting Tristian and find out for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I rate Tempting Tristian a 5 and everyone should put it on their 'must read' list.

Well done, Ms. Foster. Well done.
 

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Blog tour: Touchdown (Game Day Series Book 1) by TS McKinney

Title: Touchdown
Series: Game Day Series Book 1
Author: TS McKinney
Publisher - Dark Hollows Press
Genre: M/M Romance
Published: September 7, 2016
Alexander Bryant has lived his entire life making everyone else happy. After meeting Lincoln, will he have the courage to finally do what makes him happy?
Alexander – I like to consider myself a rebel – an ass-kicker that takes what he wants regardless of what others think. I make my own path and flip off the people who don’t agree. I laugh in the face of conflict. Nobody tells me what to do.
In reality, everything about me is a lie – past, present, and future. The Bryant family name requires certain things and all my decisions are based on those requirements. I like football, but the family name demands I love it. I want to be an artist, but the family name demands I be a lawyer. The family demands I fall in love with a nice girl, but I’m falling for, well, the opposite of nice AND girl. I’m a coward and a liar.
Lincoln – I like to imagine myself a loner – a cold heartless bastard that takes what he wants. I lived the biggest part of my life with parents that were ashamed of me for more reasons that one could begin to count, so I trust no one. I have a low tolerance for bullshit and hate liars. So why did I go and fall in love with the biggest liar of them all?
“Sexy, charming, hot and delightful book!” - Amazon Review 
“Touchdown is funny, naughty and delightful” - Amazon Review 
“Super sexy and sassy!!” - MM Book Escape

Alexander
I lay there, or at least I think I’m lying down on some sort of soft surface. Soft and cozy. Smells nice. Yeah, it feels like a mattress, but it also feels like I’m floating on a fluffy cloud. I can hear things, some soft music playing, but it sounds like everything is so far away. I’m toasty warm. Even in my sluggish mind I know I’ve never felt this relaxed in my entire life. I can’t explain it – other than I never want the feeling to go away.
I should probably open my eyes and try to at least wake up, but it feels so damned good that I keep them clenched tightly together. There’s a nagging twitch in the back of my mind, telling me something isn’t quite right and I should be concerned, very concerned, but I don’t want to listen. I try to shut out my mind and focus only on what my body is saying.
I want to relax and enjoy whatever the hell this is. I don’t use drugs, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to start if this is the result of pill popping. Did I drink too much? Nope; if I had, I’d be feeling more like a rattlesnake being poked instead of a cuddly slug cocooned someplace…that smelled so damned nice. What the hell was that scent? I liked it. I’m pretty sure if I was able, it would turn me on. For the first time in my life, I feel like I might not have the energy to even get it up…and it feels so good that I don’t even care.
What had I been doing? Where was I? What had happened and how could I make it happen again?
“Alexander.” A husky voice invaded my state of peace and relaxation.
I peeked an eye open and immediately wished I hadn’t. Fuck. Fuck. Double fuck. What the double fuck? I tried to scramble away from the man looming over me but my limbs felt like fucking jelly that had been left out in the sun. My arms wouldn’t work. My fucking legs wouldn’t work. The only thing that was fucking working was the voice inside my head screaming for me to run for my fucking life. Well, shit. I’m naked. Yep, naked and apparently I’m in another man’s bed. I don’t belong in the beds of other men. Nope, not me. Especially not the bed of Lincoln Montgomery, spanker of bare asses.
“Calm down, Alexander,” Lincoln said in that deep, sexier than sexy voice. “You’re going to feel weak after our scene. It’s natural so don’t be alarmed. Don’t move,” he ordered as he turned away to reach for something. Before I could even consider trying to at least slide across the bed and belly crawl for the window so I could jump to my death, he was back around and offering me a bottle of water. No way was I drinking that shit. I’m sure it’s drugged; just like whatever I drank last night had to have been drugged. That’s why I was feeling so weak. And fucking wonderful.
Oh, shit. The scene! I had actually let another man spank me with a crop. In front of a crowd. Practically naked. I’m pretty sure I begged for it. I eyed the window again, calculating if I could make it before Lincoln grabbed me and hauled me back to his bed. Sure, I’d die naked and humiliate my parents and grandparents, but that would have to be their fucking problem. For the first time in my life, they would just have to deal with me breaking the rules. Technically, I suppose, I wasn’t breaking them. Mother just always said to have clean underwear on in case you are in an accident. I suppose in her mind no underwear would surely beat dirty underwear.
“Stop acting like a child, Alexander. We’re on the tenth floor. You would splatter,” Lincoln scolded. “Now drink your water. After an especially intense scene, you need plenty of rest and fluids. You’ve gotten the rest, so let’s drink our water, shall we?”
Apparently he could read my mind. Perfect.
“I don’t want your water, Lincoln. You’re probably just trying to drug me again,” I spat. Hell, I knew he hadn’t drugged me, but it sounded a hell of a lot better than I was stone-cold sober when I stripped in front of strangers and let a grown-ass man spank me. Oh wait, I’m also naked in his comfy bed. We probably fucked, too.
It gets better and better.
I wiggle a bit to see if I’m sore in places I shouldn’t be sore. Yep, I sure the fuck am. Of course that could very well be from the spanking I received, but, then again, it could be from something much worse. Shit, did I let this man fuck me? Double shit, why does the thought of that not piss me off like it should?
“Are you implying I’ve drugged you, Alexander?” Lincoln asked as he opened the bottle of water. I opened my mouth to tell him I damned straight thought he drugged me, but before I could get it out, he had scooped up my head and forced the bottle against my lips. “Drink,” he ordered.
So I drank it.
“Very good,” he praised and I glowed like a fucking moron. Why the hell would I care if he was happy or not? I should be feeling the opposite. Actually, I should probably punch him the face – if only my damned arms didn’t feel like a ton of lead. Since an angry glare was the only weapon I possessed at the moment, I glared. And glared. And glared.
He laughed – the motherfucker.
“You’ve got a pretty pout, Alexander. I’m sure you use it to get your way on most occasions, but it won’t work with me so put it away. Don’t waste your time and mine.”
His voice sounded like a growl. A very sexy, very arousing growl. Something inside of me wanted to purr. I settled for, “Fuck off, Lincoln.”
“Do you remember what happened earlier?” He pulled a chair right up against the bed and leaned closer to me than I felt comfortable with. No, scratch that. He leaned closer than I wanted to feel comfortable with. As it turns out, what I think I want and what my body wants might be two different things, as in on opposite ends of the chart. My head is screaming “no” but my body is dying to get closer to him. As my nostrils flare, I realize the scent that has been driving me crazy with lust is none other than Lincoln Montgomery. Could it get any worse?
“I’m straight,” I blurted out, trying to convince myself more than Lincoln. “Not gay.” Yeah, clarify it like he didn’t have a clue what straight meant. I’m a fucking idiot.
He smiled. It was one of those indulgent smiles that parents give children when they say or do something ridiculous. “Yes, thank you for telling me, Alexander. Again.”
Oh yeah, I had already told him that. Shit.
“Don’t worry. Straight men end up on the other end of my crop and then naked in my bed all the time.” Another indulgent smile. “It happens alllll the time.” He mocked.
“Did we?” I asked. I had to know. Shit, I didn’t want to know.
“Did we what?” Lincoln asked with a smirk. He knew damned well what I wanted to know. “Did we fuck?” I hissed, furious he made me say it and even more furious at the blush creeping across my body.
Lincoln remained perfectly quiet and I knew the delay was only meant to make me suffer as long as humanly possible. His eyes, a deep midnight blue, twinkled with merriment at my expense. I wasn’t sure of a hell of a lot of things at the moment, but I was one hundred percent certain that if Lincoln had fucked me, I enjoyed it. There was an aura of arrogance that he wore like a second skin – not the stupid kind of arrogance, but the kind that one got from being told how incredibly awesome they were. At fucking. He was probably awesome at fucking.
Finally, he said, “Trust me, Alexander; you would know it if I’d fucked you.” He leaned closer to me. “Every inch of you, inside and out, would know you’d been properly fucked.” His hot breath tickled my cheek as he spoke the words…the words that tickled me somewhere else. Fuck. How horrifying would it be if my cock got hard right about now? Pretty fucking horrifying.
“Plus, you’re straight, remember?”
T.S. McKinney lives in East Tennessee with her high school sweetheart/husband and all the countless dogs she picks up from deserted country roads. Her professional career has been in business but her heart has always belonged to the fantasy world found in books.
Creating wicked worlds where one can meet the perfect hero – and then do anything to him that you want – has been a hobby that has brought her plenty of hours of fun and naughty entertainment. When not working, reading, or writing, she loves to spend time with my family and forcing them (because they don’t really have another choice) to allow me to redecorate their houses…and listen to my naughty…sometimes sadistic stories.
HOSTED BY:
When I first agreed to review this book, I didn't realize exactly what I was going to be reading. As I read on it didn't take me long to understand that I was almost complete ignorant of the lifestyle being depicted here. Some things I knew about like safe words, others were completely foreign. In my ignorance I had considered the BDSM lifestyle to be abusive. I was wrong.

I learned quite a bit about it from reading Touchdown, and one aspect stood out and that the Dom took care of the Sub afterwards and I was happy to see that there is love there.

That being said, I found Touchdown to be amazing. Seeing the two sides of Alexander, the hidden self and the forced self, the contrast was unbelievable as what caused Alexander to hide his true self and how his forced self came about.

Even though the BDSM lifestyle is not for me, I found it quite interesting. For that, I give kudos to the author.

I do have to say that I was a little disappointed in the ending. I felt there were situations unresolved.

Being as Touchdown is billed as Game Day Series Book 1, I'm pretty sure that the unresolved situations will be resolved in book 2.

On a scale of 1 to 5 I give it a 4.75 and will definitely be interested in reading the next book in the series.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Review: Rogue Soldier (Shadow Unit Book 2) by Jamie Lynn Miller

Jamie Lynn Miller 

Rogue Soldier (Shadow Unit Book #2)


October 21 - Bonkers About Books

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | KOBO | B&N | AllRomance 

Blurb

Shadow Unit may have overturned the illegal arms cartel in Kuala Lumpur, but the harrowing undercover op left emotional scars on Sergeants Shawn Weller and Connor Finley. Slowly, patiently, they piece their partnership back together, closer now than ever before.

But the arrival of Julian Montgomery, Shawn’s former CIA handler and lover, threatens to tear them apart. Julian knows all of Shawn's secrets as well as the past Shawn has kept hidden from Connor. Now the self-serving Julian wants Shawn back—with the CIA and with him. No one will get in his way. Including Connor.

When the joint Shadow Unit/CIA mission to stop the supplier of a deadly biological weapon goes sideways, Connor is captured, tortured, and used as a human test subject. It’s a race against time to save his life. But who can Shawn trust?

And who has gone rogue?


Author Bio

Jamie Lynn Miller has been writing fiction since childhood and decided to take the plunge and go pro in 2008, finding to her amazement that people truly enjoyed her love stories. She’s a romantic at heart, and her tales reflect the desire we all have to find “the one,” persevering through trials and heartache for that happy ending.

Jamie has a degree in fine arts and has spent the last twenty years working as a graphic designer, though she’d much rather be writing. She was born in Chicago and still lives there today with her husband and their two furry, four-footed children, er… cats.

If she’s not brainstorming story ideas, you can find Jamie at a sci-fi convention, in front of a furnace doing glass blowing, or on a mat twisted into a yoga pose.

Email: jamielynnmiller@live.com
Blog: http://www.jamielynnm.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jamielynn.miller.3




Shock. Awe. Fear. Gratitude. Love. Happiness. Anger. Hope.

These are some of the emotions that ran though me as I read Rogue Soldier.

Once again we are brought into the world of Shadow Unit and what they do to help keep this country safe.

In Broken Soldier, Connor helped Shawn with his forced (and I do mean forced) drug addiction. Now it’s Shawn’s turn to help Connor through something that threatens to tear him apart.

If there existed an organization like Shadow Unit, I hope they’re manned with soldiers like Connor, Shawn, Mandy, Cloe, Liam (you’ll have to read the book to find out who he is), and MacDonald.

One of the things I like about Rogue Soldier is that you don’t have to read Broken Soldier to understand the very realistic plot that is Rogue Soldier and its incredible characters. Important points from Broken Soldier are covered in a way that provides the readers with enough background information without it taking up a lot of Rogue Soldier. As I said, you don’t have to read Broken Soldier, but readers will have a fuller and more pleasurable reading experience.

Both of these books deserve to be on your eBook reading device and on your bookshelf. Read them. You won’t be disappointed.

On a scale of 1 to 5 I give it a solid 5.

I hope we get to read more about the heroes of Shadow Unit:  Shawn, Finn, Chloe, Mandy, Liam, and yes, even MacDonald.