Blurb: Luke is desperate to save his people. A lifetime of sneaking in to human houses and watching movies has convinced him that if he can make a great movie about monsters, humanity will change its opinion of them. With his friends at his side, all in shiny new human bodies, Luke heads for Tinsel Town.

A rising Hollywood producer, all-business Lena knows a good story when she sees it. Luke? He’s just another amateur who wants to get famous. But Luke’s too gorgeous to pass up. And there’s something vulnerable about him that leads her to throw caution to the wind and invite him to dinner.

One night of incredible sex later, Lena wakes up next to the surprise of her life. She’s sleeping next to a monster. Literally. Appearances aside, she finds herself wanting to help Luke save his people. But they’ve got more to worry about than just human prejudice.Some of the monsters would rather stay in the closet—and to make them all stay there, they’re willing to kill.

My thoughts: This the first hetero romance I’ve read for ages. I have noticed the series “Monsters in Hollywood” some time ago and thought it sounded quite interesting, but then totally lost interest when I switched to m/m stories. Yesterday I read a review over at Literary Nymphs of the third book in the series (“Gone with the monster” – I love the title) which won me over so I went and bought the first one right away.

Lila Dubois cuts to the chase here. I don’t like long prologues and eternal back story on the first 100 pages, but, wow, Luke and Lena had sex so quickly, even I thought that was a bit premature. But then, they clicked from the start, so I could live with it. For a man/monster who never had sex with a human woman and who was quite insecure about how to do it, he was impressive, to say the least. It seems there’s more to monsters than meets the eye indeed. But as Luke’s fellow monster Henry tells him:

…I’ve never had sex with a human either, though she shouldn’t be that different from a succubus, they’re all cut from the same cloth.

Well, thank you!
By the way, the plural of succubus is succubi and not succubae, as referred to a few times in the course of the book.

After a night of the hottest sex of her life Lila wakes up next to a monster. Ok, her initial reaction was to kill the thing, since she thought it had eaten poor Luke, but once she realizes the monster IS Luke she’s ok with it. Astonishingly she accepts the fact hat monsters exist without batting an eyelid. That is explained by the fact that in LA all people are storytellers and believe in the unbelievable. I don’t know whether I can believe that. Just because I’m a storyteller doesn’t necessarily mean I believe in the supernatural per se. On the other hand I can’t blame her. If a gorgeous sex god needed my help and revealed to me that he was a monster I’d probably accept it pretty quickly as well as a given.  
Even Lena’s friends were quite cool about it and they didn’t have the benefit of the night before to help them. I’ve got to totally revise my opinion about the US film industry.

In the course of the book there were the inevitable misunderstandings between Luke and Lena, but to my surprise they were resolved rather quickly, i.e. immediately. They talked about the issues RIGHT AWAY and cleared things up. Unheard of in hetero romance, as far as my experience goes. Plus, Lena had some very sensible friends who actually helped them to overcome some misgivings instead of being a destructive force. Another thing that I haven’t encountered very often in that genre.

The conflict that is hinted at in the blurb is a minor one. When I read the blurb I thought that maybe those opposing monsters and the resulting fight against them would distract from the main couple, but this is not so. The plot focuses on Luke and Lena and all the other characters are simply a nice finishing touch.

Available at Samhain Publishing

Blurb: Kadin Mahoney is ten years older than his lifelong partner, Gregory. But when Gregory is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and winds up in a nursing home, Kadin decides to move there with him in spite of the fact that Gregory doesn’t even recognize him. His three children aren’t happy about this and his friends think he’s crazy. But Gregory is the love of Kadin’s life, and he’s not going to let him slip away without a struggle.

So he conceives a plan to help him remember their passionate, sexy past. With the help of a notebook computer and a personal blog, he begins telling him the story of two good-looking young men who fell in love with each other during the l950′s in Savannah. One is a recent college graduate, and the other is a thirty-year-old lawyer and divorced father of three. They meet by accident at the movies the day Kadin’s divorce is finalized, and wind up spending a full summer together engaged in every act of true love that is humanly possible.

But it all comes to an abrupt halt in mid-August, when Gregory’s family begins to suspect his forbidden feelings for Kadin. They drag him back to Atlanta early, where he enlists in the army to get even. Five years later, Kadin has moved on with his life and Gregory is engaged to be married. But Gregory sees Kadin on TV, and he goes back to Savannah one more time before the wedding. He only wants to find out what happened to Kadin, but the moment he arrives his clothes come off and their lives are never the same again.

My thoughts: This was totally different from “Pretty Man” the only other book by Ryan Field that I have read. In my review of “Pretty Man” I sort of complained about the lack of romance in it. Well, I can’t complain here.

Kadin and Gregory were obviously meant for each other, even though circumstances separated them for a number of years. That separation was a good opportunity to describe a few sexual adventures of Kadin and Gregory with other men that were pretty hot. I absolutely loved delicious Eddie. As an aside, I have no idea how this guy could drive around town and do things without scandalizing his fellow citizens… Even though I’m no fan of threesomes I almost regretted the fact that Gregory and Kadin turned down Eddie’s offer. That would have been real fun. I know, I asked for more romance and I got it and a scene with Eddie probably wouldn’t have added much to the romance factor, so I shouldn’t speculate about it, but I really liked Eddie.

The story switches back and forth between Kadin and Gregory in the nursing home and the past that Kadin writes down for Gregory to remember. The scenes in the nursing home were heartbreaking. How hard a situation like this must be I can only begin to imagine. The scenes in the past cover the time period from when Kadin and Gregory meet for the first time until when they finally settle down together. However, from conversations between Gregory and Kadin in the nursing home we know that the rest of their life together was just as we imagined a HEA.

I liked the supporting characters, especially Betsy. I liked the way she would have settled into a marriage with Gregory and being quite content with it. And I liked the way she accepted the fact that this was not going to happen. No fuss, no scene, no hysterical accusations. I’m glad for her that she has obviously found a happy life herself with Clem.

“Take me Always” was a great read. Totally different from “Pretty Man” and extremely romantic with a touch of sadness. For people who like a story that focuses mainly on the main couple this is highly recommended. 

Available at Ravenous Romance

Blurb: Stan Gordon, M.D., is well aware of the unwritten code forbidding sexual liaisons between a physician and those in his charge, but when he provides intimate care for Brian Storm, a seriously injured police detective, he comes dangerously close to crossing the line. When he does, he’s shocked to find desire is forbidden, not by the code, but by the emotional demons with which Brian wrestles.

Tortured while working undercover before they met, Brian knows police policy prevents him from sharing the full story with Stan, yet not revealing the trauma in order to heal his emotional scars threatens to destroy their new and deepening love. If Brian can’t overcome what’s been done to him, will Stan leave him to look for a more responsive man? And will Brian be able to resolve his secret fears that he’ll be unable to function as a cop again?

Review: This is only a novella, I knew this, but somehow I think this would have been much better had it been another format, maybe an extended novella or short novel. A lot of stuff is packed into this, but is not really developed properly. We get a glimpse into the past of Brian when he was working undercover. We were told a lot about how he dealt with it during his sessions with the therapist, but this all was rather vague. When Stan and Brian were together we were told a lot, but not shown. I don’t know, somehow I couldn’t connect to those two men. Not that they were unlovable or anything, not in the least, they were both likeable characters, but the short format reduced the whole story to a description of the story instead of delivering the full thing.

Amber Allure indicates the heat level is 2, which means “Love scenes are explicit, frequent, and often contain graphic language.” Not sure about this one either. There are a few sex scenes, but they are either interrupted (like in the excerpt) or not very explicit – at least not according to what I’m used to. So, no, heat level 2 is slightly exaggerated in my opinion.

Available at Amber Allure

Blurb: When Rowan Lee arrived in the small, liberal Provincetown, he heard tales of the eccentric, brilliant, possibly insane Finnegan Clark. A world-famous mystery writer, Finnegan’s been to the top of the bestseller list more times than anyone can count. It’s about the only place he goes, sequestered away in his mansion by the sea.

Enter Rowan. The free-spirited lovechild of aging hippies, Rowan believes all anyone needs is love, and when he makes a delivery to Finn’s mansion and meets the man himself, it’s infatuation at first sight. Not to mention lust. Never mind that Finn’s twice his age and snarls at him more than he speaks to him.

All Rowan wants is to make the world a better place, one person at a time, but all Finn wants is to be left alone. Sparks fly, and if Rowan can’t break Finn’s walls down, he’ll burn them down…one sizzling encounter at a time…

Review:  If I hear the term May/December romance one more time I’m going into rant mode. Really. Why May/December? I don’t get it. Rowan is 24, Finnegan is 49. So what is May and December about them? I prefer the term “age gap” by far.

Right, so Rowan meets Finnegan and from that point on he basically keeps him company, whether Finnegan wants it or not. And, at first, Finnegan doesn’t. However, he changes his mind rather quickly. Too quickly for me. After a second meeting he calls Rowan and asks him over, because “he wants him”. I don’t know, but what we know about Finnegan up to here doesn’t match up with that behaviour. I would have thought (and hoped) he’d put up a bit more resistance. Anyway, he doesn’t, and from then on, it all goes, well, not smoothly – there are a few bumps in the road, but not too many – but quite pleasantly along its way. The sex scenes are pretty hot, Rowan and Finnegan are two heroes you just have to like. Towards the end, to make the whole story not too sweet, and also to give Finnegan a chance to finally leave his house and go into the outside world, along comes Jake, Rowan’s so far best friend, who turns out to be some kind of creep who wants Rowan to himself. That whole incident was resolved rather quickly and without too many problems, and the story ended on a really positive note.

As far as the age-gap is concerned, there were some hints that Finnegan had misgivings about the whole thing between him and Rowan, but they didn’t seem to stop him to pursue what he wanted. So, the angst level here was kept within a limit.

If you like age-gap stories this story is a must read.

Available at Amber Allure

I found the link to this story at Whispered Words. The person who submitted it, falconer, added a short blurb: “The narrator has just accepted the fact that he is gay, after about 20 years of denial. Now the Copier Guy may well the one to help him embrace his sexuality.” He/she added that the plot reminded him/her somewhat of “mw smoker seeks seclusion”, a story I blogged about some time ago.

This is not totally far fetched, but for me the similarities ended on the second or third page. Yes, the first person narrator is gay, works as a secretary and sounds lonely at first, but he’s neither such a terrible cynic as Clyde, nor nearly as snarky or as misanthropic. Actually he is a really nice person and falls for the guy who comes to repair the copy machine – and vice versa. That bit reminded me again a bit of “Special Delivery” by Cassandra Gold. But all that aside, this is a really sweet story. Mike and Scott are such lovable, great characters. They meet by chance, meet again with the help of (clumsy) machinations of Mike and fall in love. This all takes place between Thursday and Sunday. I loved it.

You can get the story for free at Nifty.org or ladiesweb.net.

Blurb: Three years and Stefan’s yet to find that certain someone who can take him to the precipice of lust, dangle him over the abyss, and shove him headlong into the darkness of his own desire. Someone who drives him to the edge but won’t let him fall. Someone he can trust completely, body and soul, someone he can lose himself in. When a local gay bar called the Code hosts a fetish night, Stefan goes looking to be conquered.

There Stefan meets the man of his dreams, known only as “Master.” But when put to the test, can he prove himself worthy of such a man?

My thoughts: I read this book because I’m somewhat in the same position as Val when it comes to BDSM. She explains in a very good post about BDSM and her reluctance to read it why she isn’t a big fan of it and I wholeheartedly agree with her. However she recommended this story in her review of “Mastering Stefan”, so I gave it a go.

I liked the fact that Master was looking for a long term relationship. However, to “test” someone to see whether he is worth it, I’m not sure about that. Master’s name is never given, too impersonal for me. I couldn’t relate to Stefan’s fetish, but I found it interesting to read about it nevertheless. The whole story was sort of cut out of the characters’ everyday life. An episode without an anchor. Admittedly it is a very short story, but had I known a little more about Stefan and Master I probably would have enjoyed it more. But that is just me, I always need lots of background details to get into a story. Still a good read that taught me quite a bit about latex.

Available at eXcessica Publishing

Blurb: The power of heart and soul holds the key to the survival of the last of the ancient vampires. Kristair is running out of time. His race has faded away, prey to delusion and deterioration, and his only chance to live long enough to find a cure is to bind his psyche to a human vessel in a long forgotten ritual.
Kristair’s chosen vessel is Jacob Corvin, a man of passionate stubbornness and fierce loyalty; he has captured Kristair’s fantasies so completely that he is both the vampire’s greatest strength and most crippling weakness. Drawing upon Jacob’s spirit and Kristair’s resolve, they each bind a portion of their souls to one other. For as long as Jacob carries Kristair’s heart within him, the vampire can continue his quest.
Just when they have hope, their mission is threatened by The Syndicate, a group of younger vampires who attempt to force Kristair to teach them his secrets before he disappears like the rest of the ancients. Battling both The Syndicate’s attacks and his unexpected need and love for Jacob, Kristair’s strength begins to fade, forcing him to make a decision that will change his and Jacob’s lives forever.

Review: The story is told in alternating first person. One chapter it is Kristair’s, the next it is Jacob’s POV. Even though I’m not a fan of first person, I really liked it like that. Almost always the chapters start exactly where the last one ended. The excerpt should give you a good idea of what to expect.

I used to read a lot of paranormal romance, but usually when it comes to gay romance I prefer contemporary, non-paranormal settings. How come that it seems that my favourite series are paranormal nevertheless? I don’t know, but it’s true. Apart from Ariel Tachna’s “Partnership in blood” series, which is definitely my favourite, this one comes in a close second, even though only one book is out so far. It is the first volume in the Triquetra series.

I’m a total sucker for stories with couples having a mental or emotional connection. Thank God this has nothing of the sappiness that sometimes goes with it. Both men are self-assured, stubborn and don’t budge easily, yet their connection is very strong, they feel a lot for each other and will do anything to make sure the other is alright. I liked how the story developed, the problems they had with Jacob’s friends and the Syndicate. Jacob didn’t give in easily or quickly, but once he did, he was 100% committed.

SPOILER!

I absolutely loved the final confrontation with the syndicate, the fight, even though we only got glimpses of it, since Kristair and Jacob were otherwise engaged. The way Ussier rules his city is pretty impressive, he was a great supporting character. The ending left me totally stumped. I knew already from the blurb of the second book that this is what would happen, still I was speechless. I was very happy to see that Jacob killed Roland so ruthlessly without any qualms and that he was not forgiving towards Tony. I was afraid that he would go and accept what happened without taking some sort of revenge, which, I suppose, would have been the noble thing to do, but no, and thank God for that.

The last paragraph left me hoping for a happy ending some time later on. This was a great way to finish this first volume. Good thing that September is not too far away.

Available at Dreamspinner Press

There is a very long excerpt available that covers the first two chapters.

Blurb: Adam can’t wait to get back to civilian life after months of military life in a war zone. Things don’t go as he plans, though, when his Army buddy and lover dumps him without so much as goodbye, and his family starts pressuring him to make decisions he’s not ready to deal with.
When Adam does tell his dad his plan for the future, his father asks him to wait long enough to help out an old friend who lives in Texas, and sends Adam off to decompress some in the back country. There, Adam finds Calvin, a man who knows what it’s like to be lost, and who knows just what Adam needs to find his way again. Can Calvin and Adam clean up Calvin’s land, and Adam’s life?

Review: I read a review of “Recovery Ranch”, which is the sequel to “Recovery”, over at the Literary Nymphs. When I saw that this is another age gap romance I just had to have it. Not that I was too thrilled with the last cowboy books I read, but I hadn’t read anything by CB Potts, so I gave it a go.

This is a short story, which – for a change – did not go medias in res but took its sweet time to get going. In fact it took so long that I was wondering whether there was enough room left for the actual romance. Calvin and Adam meet on page 23 of 60, for me that didn’t leave enough room for the proper development of their romance. The remaining 30 odd pages stretch over quite a few weeks, even though we don’t experience a lot of them in detail. I suppose as far as timeline is concerned Calvin and Adam had enough time to fall in love (they slept together rather quickly), I just didn’t get to read enough about it. Also, in this story the age gap between the two men doesn’t play such a big part and is no cause for tension or anxiety. I liked both characters enough to want to read the sequel, though. Hopefully there will be more focus on the age difference and a possible conflict resulting from that.

Available at Torquere Books

Clyde, a chain smoking, snarky, misanthropic secretary falls slowly and against his will in love with Sam who worms his way into Clyde’s life. The story is told completely in first person from Clyde’s POV and in present tense. Clyde doesn’t change that much in the course of the book, he’s still the guy who hates people in general and his colleagues in particular. The only difference now is that he’s in love with Sam. I absolutely loved it. At a word count of almost 83.000 words it is a long read, so make sure you set apart some reading time.

Get or read it for free at Fictionpress

I wasn’t too thrilled with it. I liked Brandon’s character, but Ramon’s shilly-shallying really grated on me. He wanted to, but couldn’t go through, and that went back and forth for ages. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but I just didn’t connect with the story at all.

When Brandon couldn’t have Ramon, he went and looked for one night stands who resembled Ramon. Can’t say I cared for that much either.

Lily from I love books gave this a very favourable review, though. So check it out yourself!

Available at All Romance e-books (Publisher Lethe Press)