Friday, September 30, 2016

Release Day Post and Review: Long Road Home by JC Jaynes #Review #Giveaway




Author: JC Jaynes
Book: Long Road Home
Series: Hill Country Heat #1
Publisher: Via Star Wings Books
Publication date: September 30th
Length: 239 pages



Reviewed by Meredith



Synopsis

What should have been a beautiful new beginning is undone by the hatred and envy of another.

Ten years ago, Kaine Keeley watched in horror as the love of his life turned his back on him, taking with him his one true chance at happiness. Now that he's no longer the penniless, shy boy he once was, Kaine is ready to fight and take back what was stolen from him.

A long time ago, Graeson Hardin thought that Kaine was worth fighting for. But after witnessing a crushing betrayal, he ran and never looked back. He wants nothing now but to live his life of solitude, protected from a love that almost destroyed him.

When Kaine shows up ten years later with a heartfelt apology and a believable explanation, Graeson must decide if he can make peace with his past to have the possibility of the future he always wanted.

Having traveled different roads in life, will these former lovers be able to battle the evil that may still be working to keep them apart and find a way to begin their long journey back home?








Review


The Long Road Home is absolutely a second chance romance. Graeson and Kaine met in college and were friends first. So it was a friends to lovers. They fell deeply in love with each other. They were each other’s everything. I’m talking full on LOVE. But of course that couldn’t last and something happened, something horrible and Graeson walked out of Kaine’s life for what he thought was forever.

Fast forward 10 years later. Kaine is in a place in his life where he’s not the poor, shy, struggling guy anymore. Now he, and his amazingly fabulous friend Honey, are filthy rich and Kaine has moved his life to Perfect, Texas to win back the man he loves.

I really loved the challenge in this. I loved that it wasn’t easy. Graeson really and truly was beyond angry with Kaine and seeing it through his eyes I understood. But then knowing the truth through Kaine’s POV I found Graeson’s hatred upsetting. 

For the record this is told in the omniscient POV so we do get both of these guys thoughts and such but we also get everyone’s. We have jerk face Trent, Honey, Justin, Tyler…. The list goes on. So there’s no question where everyone’s feelings are at any time. I liked that even, though for some reason it takes me awhile to get used to omniscient POV.

When Grae and Kaine do finally fall BACK into love it was like a rubber band snapping. One minute Kaine was a whore in Graeson’s eyes the next he was sweetie so it did feel sort of like falling into a lusty ditch. 

There was a lot of story here from sabotaging Kaine and Graeson’s relationship, to coming out, to accepting life change, to forgiveness, and wow there was a lot of sex in this book. 

On a personal level I want to say this. I never mind the babes, hun, and all that. I’ve felt however it needs to fit the character. Take Honey for example he loves to call people Lover. And it works for him he could call them glitter gummy balls and it would totally make sense. I found when Graeson called Kaine sweetie that it didn’t fit and I hoped I’d get used to it but I couldn’t.

All in all this was a fun, exciting, romantic, sexy story and I will be looking out for book 2 in this series.





About the Author

I am a native Houstonian, with a deep love of Texas, especially our gorgeous Hill Country.  I am mother to five awesome children who, like their mom, are all weird and quite possibly a little bit nutty.  I attended the University of Houston and have BA in Business Administration. By day I am a Treasury Analyst in the Oil & Gas industry but by night, I let my inner freak-flag fly.
I have always been an avid reader.  I distinctly remember begging my poor mother to paint my room lavender so that it would coordinate with my Harlequin romance novel collection that had taken over my room.  My love of romance has evolved over the years to a passion for darker, more dangerous love that is hard fought.  After stumbling upon my first M/M novel I was blown away and from then on I was hooked.  My love of hot, sexy men aside, I love to read - and now write - stories with rough, sexy alpha males that struggle to find their HEA. My stories can be sparked by a name I hear, a delicious recipe I see, or even the lyrics of a song that move me.  I will hear it or see it and a complete character pops into my brain demanding that I write their story.

All Author links:
Email:  jcjaynesauthor@gmail.com





Giveaway

Enter to win a copy of Long Road Home.
Contest ends October 7th!
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Release Day Review: Babe in the Woodshop by Ashlyn Kane, Claudia Mayrant, & CJ Burke #Review #Giveaway




Authors: Ashlyn Kane, Claudia Mayrant, & CJ Burke
Book: Babe in the Woodshop
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication date: September 30, 2016
Length: 189 pages


Reviewed by Morningstar



Synopsis

When long hours and crushing stress push Bellamy Alexander to his breaking point, he walks away from his consulting job and drives until he runs out of gas. Fortune deposits him in front of Antonio’s, a place with decent pizza and an opening for a delivery boy. Even better, he finds an apartment right across the street from his new job. And best of all, Chris McGregor, the property manager who runs the custom furniture shop below Bell’s new digs, is super hot—and super into Bell.

It seems too good to be true—and maybe it is. Things aren’t exactly going smoothly. Bell avoids telling his mother the truth about his new job because he doesn’t want to hear how he should go back to the corporate world. On the other hand, he doesn’t think he wants to deliver pizza forever either. He’d like to think about settling down, but Chris runs hot and cold. Between Bell’s uncertainty and the hang-ups Chris refuses to talk about, they have their work cut out for them. Fortune may have caused their paths to dovetail, but it will take more than wood glue to hold them together.



Buy Links



Review


I freaking loved this story! The characters in this story were cute, funny, and full of sass and snark. One of my favorite things in stories is humor and Bell and Chris both have it in spades.

“Chris’s ears went red. “I can’t believe I did that in your parents’ house.”
“Me neither. Teenage me is fist-pumping right now.”

Bellamy Alexander, otherwise known as Bell, gets tired of the rat race and never seeing the sun so he bails on his Junior Consultant job in the big city and just drives. Where he lands is Pineville, a small town where everyone knows everyone and the new guy is a novelty. Oh and of course once you live there you never want to leave, or so they say. Bell is young and decides the life his parents and siblings live where it's all work and no play is not what he wants. He wants to experience life and have time to relax. One thing leads to another and he finds himself a pizza boy at Antonio’s, living upstairs from a woodshop and it’s sexy owner, and sharing a bed with Lady Frances. He also isn’t used to subtly because in the big bad corporate world you had to be straight forward so when he finds himself dating super gun shy Chris McGregor, owner of Good Wood, it’s a whole new ball game.

Watching these two dance around each other was so much fun and created a high level of unresolved sexual tension especially on Bell’s end who is not used to taking things this slow. But he really starts to like Chris and doesn’t want to push the sexy funny man too far too fast. Who knew beards were his thing?

“His libido seriously needed to chill. If he was going to start getting hard every time he saw a pile of wood scraps, it was going to be a problem.”

Chris has had a bad relationship that caused him some issues within himself and those issues cause him to very cautious and keep Bell at arm’s length especially when it comes to sex. The whole story is told from Bell’s POV but even through him we get a true sense of who Chris is. He such a gentle guy, one that is meticulous in his woodworking as he is in most everything else. He is also a work alcoholic.

When I say their relationship was slow build...I mean it! Chris is very standoffish when it comes to sex and Bell doesn’t find out the reason until much, much later. But not all things are going so well for Bell; he still hasn’t told his mother about delivering pizza’s or his new boyfriend since he knows she would not approve. A family emergency sends Bell home where he is forced to confront things with his family. Will Chris and Bell survive the experience?

“Because”...”he’s the best thing in my life right now, and I’ll be really upset if you make him feel like he’s not good enough.”

There’s funny banter, awkward naked run ins, meddling best friends, a pushy mom who just wants what’s best, and that secret tote full of goodies that Bell finds in the apartments closet of Chris’s. I highly recommend this book because it’ll have you laughing and full of love.

“Please keep putting up with me.”





Giveaway

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Contest ends October 31st!
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