M/M Romance

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Lenni Reviews: “The Mystery of the Curiosities” by C.S. Poe

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

In this sequel to Mystery of Nevermore; Snow and Winter are back!

Sebastian Snow is enjoying a peaceful life running his antique store and spending his free time with his boyfriend; detective Calvin Winter. But it all too soon turns back into an irresistible mystery when a cryptic message smashes through the window of Sebastian’s store. But when bricks with notes become dead bodies with notes, Snow and Winter must unravel the identity of the killer and why the suspect is connected to P.T. Barnum’s lost museum.

What a fun and wicked sexy ride! I got to geek out over an old-timey mystery, thrilled by the action, and moved by the romance. Calvin and Sebastian are cute without being annoying and they are a blast to follow through the book. Like spiked dark chocolate, this is a sweet romance with a kick. If I had a complaint, I would want more backstory on the villain. It had this very “That’s the one! Okay, BYE!” sort of feel. But this wasn’t a deal breaker for me. 3.9 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Scorpio Hates Virgo” by Anyta Sunday

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+.

*This review is cross-posted to Otakus and Geeks.

After his aunt passes away, Percy Friedman moves into her home. Even though she left it to him, Percy is intent on selling it not only because it makes him miss his aunt so much, but it is also located in the same cul-de-sac as his childhood nemesis, Callagahan Glover. But, As Percy settles back into the tight-knit community and gets to know Callagahan all over again, he wonders if running away is the best plan.

I enjoyed this “enemies” to lovers story. There is no real malice between Percy and Cal so when their relationship forms, it feels real and relatable. Their sarcastic barbs are funny, the main leads are charming, and even the side characters have plenty of personality without derailing the main focus. It’s a nearly perfect bit of fluff but since there’s no closure regarding Percy’s relative, Frank, I felt as if that bit was incomplete. Other than that, a great sweet and sexy romance. 3.9 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Three Player Game” by Jaime Samms

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

Vince and Pete are in a relationship and are considering adding a third. Enter Lee, a surly grump who is staying with the couple while he heals from a back injury. Both Vince and Pete want Lee but past heartbreak and betrayal have left Lee with little trust and faith to be spared.

This book is number 20 in the Bluewater Bay series and boy, do you ever sense that if you haven’t read the others you are missing chunks of relevant information. I think I would have liked this book more if either the past was made more clear within this book or more focus was spent on the present story.

Overall, it’s not bad! A bit confusing but not bad. Our trip has particular needs and they all balance themselves out well and, despite an overall lack of connection to them for me (possibly because of needing to read the previous books in the series), I did get invested enough to want to see how it all shook out. And it’s good to see healthy depictions of BDSM. A decent story of three men coming together; 3.2 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Runner” by Parker Williams and Patrick Zeller (Narrator)

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*This audio-book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

*This review is cross-posted to Otakus and Geeks.

Matt Bowers has made every effort to isolate himself from the world after he was assaulted as a teenager. He lives on a large piece of land, has everything he needs delivered, and lives off of a sizable settlement account. All that changes when a man comes jogging across his property. Since the stranger isn’t doing anything illegal, Matt cannot get his officer brother to do anything about the man encroaching on his safe space. Faced with no other option than to accept him, Matt gradually learns to tolerate the man’s presence and even get to know him.

This is a sweet story about a traumatized guy learning to love again. It is a quintessential hurt/comfort story with realistic leads who follow a very natural progression as their relationship grows. Matt and Charlie do become an overtly saccharine couple, though Charlie seems almost too perfect in dealing with Matt’s OCD and agoraphobia. Charlie is positively saint like in his acceptance of it and that made him seem less believable in his own right. I mean, he barely blinks at some of the limitations he suddenly has to deal with where as I believe any normal person would at least express some sort of resistance to their life taking a complete 180 in terms of their freedom to do as they please.

I did enjoy listening to this book. Zeller is a great narrator who has a great range to make each character distinct to your ears. While the story kept me entertained overall, I did struggle to remember a lot of things when I sat down to write this review. Cute and romantic but not much staying power. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “The Aftermath” by Kay Simone

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This is the full novel from the short story I reviewed; The Hustler. So, for the summary, head over there to read it.

While the premise and the short story were interesting and entertaining, the novel drags itself though the remainder of the story at a snail’s pace. In this magical world in which condoms are not needed and jail is not a threat (as per the author’s introduction), I had a lot of trouble justifying why this book is so long. There is all this time devoted to how much of an asshole Will is but I didn’t get that about him at all. Clearly self-depreciating, thoughtless perhaps, he consumes a troubling amount of alcohol, but I have seen “asshole” and he doesn’t quite qualify. We also get pages and PAGES of shopping for food and cooking it. Enough that I feel it should have been integral to the plot but it’s just minutia. The lulls in the story felt torturous and only kinda worth the overall payoff. Written well but WAY too long. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “True Colors” by Anyta Sunday

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

Once childhood best friends Marco and Oscar are now back in the same town after Oscar fled years ago. Not knowing exactly why they had a falling out, it seems friends and families of both men are determined to get them to reconcile. But Marco’s emotional and physical scars run deep and his broken heart will not allow him forgiveness so easily.

The good: This book is a HOT second chance romance with great characters. I was on board the whole time; hoping Marco and Oscar would hash everything out and get their happy ending. I smiled, I blushed, I cheered for them.

The bad: I didn’t like how Marco was almost presented as the villain for being pissed off. Spoiler-ish talk here but Marco was horribly burned and scarred as a child in the same car accident that killed his mother and the same best friend who stood by his side through that mocked his scars and didn’t help when bullies held Marco down, forced his shirt off to expose those scars, then mocked him further. I mean, I get that they were kids when that happened and it is likely nobody else knows all those details now that Marco is an adult; but Oscar really hurt him and Marco is entitled to that pain. He shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for it; especially since he never got any closure for many years. That bugged me enough to feel the need to mention it.

This didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story otherwise so this book gets a satisfied 3.7 out of 5 out of me.

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Lenni Reviews: “Velvet Claw” by L.J. Hamlin

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

Dr. Evan Kidd is a brilliant researcher specializing in finding cures for mysterious diseases. When he is called upon to find out what is ailing several children in a small village, he is more than happy to help. But the village is inhabited solely by Felis, a cat/human shifter species and most are not fond of humans due to terrible discrimination. A Felis bodyguard is assigned to Evan; a hulking, brooding male with a major chip on his shoulders about humans AND doctors named Rene.

Rene may not be happy about babysitting Evan but the doctor’s earnest and hardworking nature has him more intrigued by the human as he feels he should be. But as the mystery around this illness unfolds, their taboo attraction is the least of the danger surrounding them.

While the premise seems awesome and the world building is interesting, the pacing seemed clunky and there were a lot of places where an idea or concept would be stated two times in two different ways in one paragraph. The redundancy completely threw me out of the book. Maybe this is because I got a galley and there’s more editing that needs doing? I hope so…

Overall, this book is just ok. The sex scenes and romance elements were alright even though they felt overused. The best bits to me were the parts concerning the illness itself and even there, I feel more could have been explored. 2.8 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “The Echoes of the Dead” by H.R. Harrison

 

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

When interpreter Oswin finds himself suddenly unemployed, he makes the journey back to his master. He takes shelter from a snow storm in a rundown castle inhabited by an elf named Calder. As the days go by, Oswin becomes more and more intrigued by the mysterious Calder and is reluctant to leave.

This is a cute little fairy tale with a m/m twist. There are some obvious Beauty and the Beast and Swan Princess parallels, which makes some of the plot points achingly predictable, but enough is different to keep the reader interested. As I was reading, I found I enjoyed Oswin and Calder but once I was done, they didn’t leave a real impact on me. A sweet short story though. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Paint a Story on Your Skin” by L.J. Hamlin

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*I was given this book in exchange for an honest review and is rated 18+

Mike, a gallery owner in his forties, puts out a call for local artists to be in his next show. His first candidate is the much younger Tommy, who is not only talented but attractive. Mike believes himself far too old for a twenty-one-year-old but Tommy isn’t about to let that stop him.

We got another one that’s too short for its own good, folks. It took me a minute to get used to the third person present tense point of view but I felt like I could have gotten more story and the age difference could have been a more important plot point – aside for Mike’s personal insecurities. The story sorta drops in, does what it wants, then ends. A pity, really, since there were some interesting elements that deserved more exploration. Gotta give it a 3 out of 5.

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