Review of A Very Henry Christmas by N.R. Walker (The Weight of it All 1.5)

by N.R. Walker 

5 Stars

Henry wants to share his and Reed’s first Christmas Eve being engaged by hosting dinner with their closest friends. Henry loves food and he loves to cook—he plans an entire menu and decorates the house to rival a department store, but even though everything’s perfect, something’s not quite right.

As Henry and Reed prepare for a merry Christmas, no matter what happens, you know it will be a very Henry Christmas.

Yes, Christmas is over, but anytime is a goodtime with Henry.  N.R. Walker’s Christmas romance, and a visit back with our favourite boys, Henry and Reed made us see hearts!

Love?

- The characters:  We LOVE Henry and Reed, nd we missed these boys.  They are sweet, spicy and so together. 

- POV:  We loved the dual POV, it is nice to finally hear Reed’s voice, and his adoration of Henry.

- Fun:  A Very Henry Christmas is just that; all the good Henry things.  It is fun with great side characters, funny Christmas sweaters, and Henry’s internal dialogue. 

- Sexy:  Reed and Henry have some serious chemistry and even as an engaged couple we see their attraction to each other, and it is seriously sexy.

Dislike?

-     -     This is so short, only 12,000 words.  We love these boys, they are some of our favourite characters and we wished it was longer!

A Very Henry Christmas is a short, sweet, sexy read, perfect for a Christmas story.  It is true to the original book, Weight of it All, and hopefully we might see #2 coming soon??

Eight Nights in December by Keira Andrews

 

 by Keira Andrews

4.5 Stars

 

A geek. A virgin. One sexy holiday.

Orphaned Lucas figures spending the holidays with his obnoxious roommate’s family in New York City is better than staying alone on campus upstate. He ends up sharing a room again, this time with his roommate’s brother, Nate. Geeky photographer Nate isn’t at all what Lucas expects. In fact, he’s incredibly sexy—especially when he invites Lucas into his darkroom...

They hide their attraction during Hanukkah celebrations, but behind closed doors, Lucas and Nate can’t keep their hands (or mouths) off each other. Nate’s only looking for a bit of holiday fun, and amazing sex with a hot virgin definitely fits the bill. Yet as the candles burn, Nate and Lucas begin to realize eight nights will never be enough.

A really sweet holiday romance! This revised, expanded and rereleases Novella is everything a Christmas love story should be.  Keira Andrews writes engaging stories of people falling in love and Eight Days in December is a perfect example of her craft.

What did we love?

-  Hanukah:  We really enjoyed this story being set through Hanukah, instead of Christmas.  We don’t know much about the Jewish tradition so it was nice to read about a family that honored the holiday and learn a little more. So many stories are set against Christmas, so this was a nice twist on the traditional.

- The Love:  Normally we aren’t huge schmoopy love-story fans, but this time of year we want to feel the sweet and, Eight Nights in December delivers. The sweet, charming, enjoyable story brings home the holiday spirit.  The chemistry is hot between Nate and Lucas and we loved that the story and the love-story had equal value.

- The story:  This is an easy novella to read.  The story flows, the dialogue makes sense and we get just enough back stories to understand the main characters, and has very little angst. 

What we wanted more of?

- The boys:  We really enjoyed both Lucas and Nate, and LOVED the epilogue.  We would love to see a full length book of these boys awhile down the road.  They were engaging, fun and interesting characters (like we expect anything else from Keira Andrews) and really wanted to spend more time with them.

There are 1001 Christmas Love Story Novella’s out there but Keira Andrew’s Eight Days in December is a standout, it is a cute read, with delightful main characters falling in love.

Review of Backfire by David-Mathew Barnes

by David-Matthew Barnes

3 stars

Tired of keeping their love a secret in their small Southern hometown, Evan and Cameron plan to runaway together, unaware that someone is determined to stop them - no matter what it takes.

So so so so so so SO good!  This is our first KM Neuhold book and we can’t quite figure out why! Rescue Me takes the horror of being at the wrong place and the wrong time and shows the reader what it takes to move past a traumatic evet and hopefully fall in love.

29 pages.  That is all this little novella takes to tell the story of Even and Cameron, and living in a bigoted small town.  This is an interesting story, and although we enjoyed the concept, had a few issues, even in 29 pages. 

The POV changes back and forth, over and over, and we were confused who was who.  With such a short story it might have been better to keep to one narrator.  The other is the flashbacks, so many flashbacks. How they met, the first time they kisses, studying together.  I get what David-Mathew Barnes is trying to accomplish with the flashbacks, but it didn’t really work and added to our confusion. 

But it is 29 pages, the best 29 pages we have read?  Maybe not but still has enough story to keep you reading from the first words.

Review of Lace by KC Wells

 By KC Wells

2.5 Stars

 When Shawn’s best mate Dave breaks up with his girlfriend, Shawn tries not to get his hopes up. After all, Dave’s still straight, right? Wrong. Dave reveals he’s bisexual, and that pounding you hear is Shawn’s heart. He’s loved Dave for so long, but he’s not about to jeopardize their friendship by telling Dave how he really feels.

But when Dave discovers Shawn’s little kink, it opens up a whole new chapter for the two friends. Except Shawn can’t help but worry – if there was no kink, would Dave be there? And is Shawn brave enough to find out?

A standalone short story of lust, lace – and love….

A cute short story that deals with a taboo subject – men in panties!  

Shawn is an out gay man who likes lacey things against his skin, and love love loves his best friend Dave.  Dave has newly discovered he isn’t as straight as he thinks he is when he starts thinking about Shawn in all sorts of hot encounters.  But when Dave stumbles upon Shawn’s secret kink, they admit their lust and fall into bed.

We really like the premise of this short story, best friends that fall into bed, brought together by a little kink.  And we really liked the first few chapters, but fell apart for us for the second half.  The POV switches between Shawn and Dave, and you feel that attraction they have for one another, and their nervousness to take the next step and ruin a friendship.  But after they finally get over themselves they jump into a serious sex-fest.  We found the transition between their friendship and the between the sheets action a little stark.  One minute they are shy and sweet and the next, some hardcore kink and hardcore between-the-sheets. 

Don’t get us wrong, it was hot and we really enjoyed the kink.  We haven’t read much that features men in panties, but really enjoyed how main stream KC Wells attacked the kink.  Be warned that this is a book that will make you blush, woohoo, it is hot between Shawn and Dave.

But outside of the bedroom I didn’t feel the chemistry, and the mis-communication, or rather, lack of communication made the story just too predictable.  This book starts with BEST FRIENDS yet, they never seem to be able to talk?  Like how Dave deals with his bi-sexuality, by not talking to his GAY BEST FRIEND?  Okay, you get our frustration.  Just left us felling, well, disappointed.

Lace deals with an interesting subject, and makes it easy for the reader; unfortunately that wasn’t enough to save this book for us.  We believe this is going to be a series, and although felt Lace missed the mark, we are excited about the next in the series.

Review of Her Majesty’s Men by Marquesate

Her Majesty’s Men by Marquesate

4 stars

 Her Majesty's Men is the story of two soldiers in the British Forces and of a friendship taking unexpected turns. In the eyes of the Army they are just two mates who are close. But from the revelation of personal secrets, ensuing hatred and aggression, through terror and danger, to loyalty, triumphant strength and courage, grows their own realisation of what they are: comrades first and foremost, but something else too, something more significant. The two Royal Engineers, Sgt Tom Warren and SSgt Alex Turner, learn to understand the real meaning of loyalty and strength. Their fight for survival cuts through all the discipline and rules, to tie them together in a unique bond of companionship and trust.

This is a gritty read, and not an easy read of lust between military men.  We first meet Tom, a closeted gay man that is hiding his secret lust for his best friend and fellow soldier, Alex.  Alex is straight as they come and Tom struggles with being authentic and losing his best friend over coming out.  But in a drunken night he finally tells the truth to Alex who pushes him away in a shocking moment of homophobia. 

Marquesate tells the story from Tom and Alex’s point-of0-views, but instead of switching chapter to chapter, Tom’s story is the first half followed by Alex.  This is a story of love, but it isn’t sweet, or fun, it is intense ad sucks you in from the first moment.  While reading we wondered how Alex would make this work between these men, but we should have had faith.  Although their love-story isn’t typical, it is still there.  Alex comes to his senses and remembers that he loves Tom as his friend and even Tom being gay isn’t changing that. 

Although this is a military romance, it doesn’t really focus on the military part, yes there is reference, but we are so wrapped up in this gut wrenching, violent, sexual, heart-breaking story that we kind of forget about the military.  There is no sweet word, no flirty looks, no stolen moments, but throw downs, harsh words and hot hot hot sex.  Alex eventually softens around the edges, but their relationship will never be an easy one.

Okay, so there is so much to say about Her Majesty’s Men, we really enjoyed it, but it left us wanting more.  Instead of the 144 pages we could have ready so much more about these fantastic military men. 

Review of The Boyfriend Recipe by Alex Miska

 by Alex Miska

2 stars

What would you do if you humiliated yourself in front of a Naked Kitchen Adonis… and then he appeared in your bakery months later?

DAVID
I watched in horror as my sister shattered yet another poor guy’s heart… only this time, I can’t get sweet, sexy, straight Hunter out of my head. My daily latte runs to Moore Delicious, the bakery where he works, aren’t helping. And now I’m in a bind: my favorite cousin insists that I attend her wedding. With a date. So she whips up a half-baked scheme that will piss off the family that disowned me and secure an ally by my side: ask my sister’s ex to pretend to be my boyfriend. The question is, will Hunter agree to play along?

HUNTER
Six months ago, I walked into my apartment to find a gorgeous man standing in my kitchen, wearing only a towel and a smile. And what did I do? Instead of saying hello and joining him in nudity, I stormed into the bedroom and accused my girlfriend of sleeping with her brother. To be fair, I didn’t know he was her brother at the time, and she really was cheating on me (just not with him). So I hide in the back every time the Naked Kitchen Adonis visits Moore Delicious… until the day he asks for more than his usual coffee, cookie, and suggestively-shaped banana. His proposal is intriguing. I like it. And him. A weekend spent serving up a little revenge while cozying up to the N.K.A. is more than tempting. The lengths we’ll have to go to make it believable definitely won’t be a hardship… but if things heat up, David will be the first man I’ve ever slept with.

We love short stories, love little snippets of how people fall in love, and The Boyfriend Recipe is one our favorite ideas, the fake-relationship.  Although this book has all the right ingredients (see what we did there – Boyfriend ‘RECIPE’) it didn’t work for us. 

Hunter is a Bi man, very recently broken up with his girlfriend Tonya after finding a naked man in their apartment.  The man is actually her brother David.  On chance David happens into the bakery where  

The number one reason that we aren’t super-fans is that we got a bit confused with the POV.  Yes, the chapters are labeled of who is speaking, but maybe there isn’t enough distinctions between their voices.  We actually had to flip back a few times to remind ourselves who was speaking. 

We aren’t big fans of romance with a side of angst, and Boyfriend Recipe doesn’t have a lot, but it never really fulfils its big issues.  David’s parents think he can choose to be gay, and there is great workup from David, but at the wedding there really isn’t much of a confrontation, it fizzles. 

And finally the sex.  Yes in 103 pages there is some heat between David and Hunter, but once Hunter reveals he is a man/man virgin and refers to it as his ‘precious flower’, we almost DNF.  But, then even after his weird outburst, that the wedding party and other refer to the next day, he goes ahead and jumps between the sheets with David, someone he is playing at a fake-relationship.  Ugh, it just didn’t work.

So, all in all, this was not our cup of tea, and thankfully at 103 pages it was a quick read.