Random Review: The Rules by Jamie Fessenden #Review #Giveaway

Author: Jaime Fessenden
Book: The Rules
Self Published
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Publication Date: September 6, 2017
Length: 275 pages


Reviewed by Meredith


Synopsis

WHEN HANS BAUER, a college student in New Hampshire, accepts a job as a housekeeper for an older gay couple, he soon learns the reason they've hired someone with no experience is that professional agencies won't work there. Thomas is a successful businessman whose biggest goal in life appears to be giving his husband anything he wants. Boris is a writer who immigrated to this country from Russia, and suffers from depression and PTSD because of the things he endured in his native country.

He also refuses to wear clothes—ever.

While Hans is working alone in the house with Naked Boris all day, things start getting a little weird. Boris gets flirtatious and Hans backs away, not wanting to come between him and his husband. So Boris calls Thomas at work and asks permission.

At that moment, The Rules are born—rules about touching and kissing and pet names that the three men use to keep jealousies at bay, as they explore the possibilities in a new type of relationship....

WARNING: This story deals with themes of sexual assault and past abuse.

Purchase on Amazon

Review

Okay… Where does one start to review when the book has blown your mind and stolen all your words? No, really, where? I will do my best and hope I do this book justice.

I didn’t know what to expect from The Rules by Jamie Fessenden. I knew I was ultra-picky about ménage books. I’m overly critical of them. Why? Because it’s my favorite trope/sub-genre. It fails when the psychology and mental connection between the triad is nonexistent. Sex cannot sustain any relationship and when I see that happen I start to shut down. The Rules, well, it was the best balance I’ve read in a triad relationship book in a very VERY long time.

This relationship actually starts out as a polyamorous. Thomas and Boris are married. They hire Hans, a college student, to clean their home. Hans needs the money and Thomas and Boris need an open-minded person. Thomas is a great man. Wonderful husband. He spoils Boris and takes care of him. He looks like a 1950’s movie star and has an inner strength that is honorable.

 Boris is from Russia, a writer, likes to be naked all the time, has depression, anxiety, and some interesting quirks. He loves Thomas with his whole heart. Then there’s Hans. He steps foot into their home and all their lives change.

So we have Thomas and Boris. Then Boris wants to fool around with Hans. Thomas then fools around and then the three become one. Yes, that’s a super short synopsis but I won’t give away anything and I have to tell you watching this relationship come to fruition was breathtaking. 

Boris has a secret that he has never told a soul. It’s not until his past threatens someone he loves he’s forced to confront it and in doing so embrace the fact he’s loved no matter what.

I can’t put into words how this book affected me. The emotions mingle and tangle and get all lumped together. There’s  no way you walk away from this book and wish you could forget it so you can experience it all again for the first time.

The Rules is one of the best books of 2017 in my opinion and I very highly recommend it!

Giveaway

Enter the monthly review giveaway!

3 ebooks!!

Contest ends September 30th

thanks.

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Halloween Reads: Part Five

So many books to put us in the Halloween spirit!!! I was overwhelmed by the responses I received via email, G+, and Facebook! WOW! You people know your Halloween books :D

Here was the question: "Halloween is fast approaching I'm looking for your favorite dark, thriller, horror, suspenseful, or mystery that would fall into a good Halloween read...
Title and author name please!!!!!"

Here are the first four parts:
Part One 
Part Two 
Part Three 
Part Four 

Now I give you Part Five. I believe it will be the last part in this Halloween Reads Collection! 
Thank you all for all your recommendations and thank you to all the authors for writing them.

Please remember if you read it, review it! It makes a difference :)


Murder on the Mountain by, Jaime Fessenden

When Jesse Morales, a recent college grad who aspires to be a mystery writer, volunteers to work on the summit of Mt. Washington for a week, he expects to work hard. What he doesn’t expect is to find a corpse in the fog, lying among the rocks, his head crushed. The dead man turns out to be a young tourist named Stuart Warren, who strayed from his friends while visiting the mountain.

Kyle Dubois, a widowed state police detective, is called to the scene in the middle of the night, along with his partner, Wesley Roberts. Kyle and Jesse are instantly drawn to one another, except Jesse’s fascination with murder mysteries makes it difficult for Kyle to take the young man seriously. But Jesse finds a way to make himself invaluable to the detective by checking into the hotel where the victim's friends and family are staying and infiltrating their circle. Soon, he is learning things that could very well solve the case—or get him killed.

BUY LINKS:
DSP 
Amazon 


Motel. Pool by Kim Fielding 

In the mid-1950s, Jack Dayton flees his working-class prospects in Omaha and heads to Hollywood, convinced he’ll be the next James Dean. But sleazy casting couches don't earn him stardom, and despair leads to a series of poor decisions that ultimately find him at a cheap motel off Route 66, lifeless at the bottom of the pool.

Sixty years later, Tag Manning, feeling hopeless and empty, flees his most recent relationship mistake and takes to the open road. On a roundabout route to Las Vegas, he pulls over to rest at an isolated spot on Route 66. There’s no longer a motel or pool, but when Tag resumes his journey to Vegas, he finds he’s transporting a hitchhiking ghost. Jack and Tag come to find much-needed friends in each other, but one man is a phantom and the other is strangely cursed. Time is running out for each of them, and they must face the fact that a future together may not only be a gamble... it may not be in the cards.

BUY LINKS:
DSP 
Amazon 


Prey by Andrea Speed

Infected, Book One

In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds.

The murder of a former cop draws Roan into an odd case where an unidentifiable species of cat appears to be showing an unusual level of intelligence. He juggles that with trying to find a missing teenage boy, who, unbeknownst to his parents, was “cat” obsessed. And when someone is brutally murdering infecteds, Eli Winters, leader of the Church of the Divine Transformation, hires Roan to find the killer before he closes in on Eli.

Working the crimes will lead Roan through a maze of hate, personal grudges, and mortal danger. With help from his tiger-strain infected partner, Paris Lehane, he does his best to survive in a world that hates and fears their kind… and occasionally worships them.

BUY LINKS:
Amazon 
B&N 


Inheritance by Lissa Kasey

As the only male studying magic in a female-dominant society, Seiran Rou’s life is already on a precarious perch. Then he finds a dead co-worker on his doorstep, and Sei realizes someone is trying to set him up for the fall. It could be anyone—including his own mother, a powerful witch and leader of the Dominion, the ruling body of elemental magic.

Sei’s only saving graces are his on-again, off-again vampire boyfriend, Gabe, and the mysterious Jamie, who wants to help him for reasons Sei doesn’t understand. They may be all that stand between Sei and the Dominion’s demands to control his magic. One man’s devotion could be the key to save Sei’s life and pull him back from the brink of losing his humanity to the magic he possesses.

BUY LINKS:
AMAZON 
 DSP 

Irregulars: Stories by Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Ginn Hale and Astrid Amara

 
 
"NATO's Irregulars Affairs Division is a secret organization operating in thousands of cities around the globe. Its agents police relations between the earthly realm and those beyond this world, protecting us from terrible dangers as well as enthralling temptations. These agents-irregulars, as they are known to the few who know them at all-are drawn to the work for their own reasons and close cases in their own unique ways."--P. 4 of cover.

BUY LINKS:
Amazon 
B&N 

 
 
 
 

Halloween Reads: Part Four

Okay... Part Four! I told you there were a lot. I've weeded through these. There were close to 50 recommendations and of course I'll do my best to get as many up before Halloween!
Here was the question:
"Halloween is fast approaching I'm looking for your favorite dark, thriller, horror, suspenseful, or mystery that would fall into a good Halloween read...
Title and author name please!!!!!"

Here are parts 1-3:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Now... HERE are your Part Fours...

Abercrombie Zombie by KZ Snow:

A tale of life, love, death, and other mysteries of the universe . . . including the importance of a good wardrobe.

Dead folks are the best friends of Quinn McConnell and Hunter Janz. Dead folks pay the bills for this team of psychic mediums . . . but just barely. To make it into the financial comfort zone, they need to outshine their competition.

Quinn needs even more than that. He’s been infatuated with his partner for the nearly three years they've been together, and if he can’t either get over his crush or make something happen with Hunter, they’ll have to split up. Sexual tension and unrequited love can wreak havoc with a psychic’s reception.

Salvation comes hobbling along in the form of a well-dressed but ravaged-looking man who can clearly see and converse with the dearly departed. Why? Because, he claims, he has something in common with them: He’s also been dead. The zombie who calls himself Dustin DeWind needs the psychics’ help in finding the man who made him what he is. In return, he promises to steer them toward the often elusive spirits that are their stock in trade.

But something more goes on when Quinn and Hunter forge an uneasy alliance with Dustin DeWind. It seems he’s also nudging them toward each other . . .

BUY LINKS

AMAZON 
DSP 

A Little Bite of Magic by MJ O'Shea

In a family full of powerful witches, Frankie Vallerand is the black sheep. He doesn’t care about honing his magic. All he wants is to open up a restaurant and spend his days serving up delicious food. But when he sees a customer crying and wishes for her to be happy, he inadvertently transforms his old wooden soup spoon into a wand, and realizes that maybe a little bit of kitchen magic is just what his customers need.

Addison Allbright is The Phantom Foodie, an anonymous food critic notorious for his scathing reviews. For most people, being paid to eat would be a dream job. Not for Addison. He doesn’t care for overpriced designer food. He’s a tea and toast kind of guy. Until both the food and the owner of L'Osteria Di Pomodoro sweep him off his feet and throw his neat, orderly life completely off-kilter.

Frankie isn’t sure how to tell Addison he’s a witch, or that he charmed Addison’s food the night they first met, without sounding totally crazy. But little does he know that Addison has secrets too. Not only did he snark Frankie’s restaurant in his last review column, he’s also engaged to be married…to a woman.

BUY LINKS:
AMAZON 
B&N 


Spirit by John Inman

Jason Day, brilliant designer of video games, is not only a confirmed bachelor, but he’s as gay as a maypole. One wouldn’t think being saddled with his precocious four-year-old nephew for four weeks would be enough to throw him off-kilter.

Wrong. Timmy, Jason’s nephew, is a true handful.

But just when Timmy and Uncle Jason begin to bond, and Jason feels he’s getting a grip on this babysitting business once and for all, he’s thrown for a loop by a couple of visitors—one from Tucson, the other from beyond the grave.

I’m sorry. Say what?

Toss a murder, a hot young stud, an unexpected love affair, and a spooky-ass ghost with a weird sense of humor into Jason’s summer plans, and you’ve got the makings for one hell of a ride

BUY LINKS
DSP 
AMAZON 

  
A Reason to Believe by Diana Copland

Detective Matthew Bennett doesn't believe in ghosts. So when the spirit of a murdered child leads him to her body, he's shaken to the core--and taken off the case. Unable to explain his vision, or to let go of the investigation, Matthew turns to renowned medium Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Though he has doubts about Kiernan's claims to communicate with the dead, Matt is nevertheless drawn to the handsome psychic, who awakens feelings he thought were long-buried.

Haunted by the lingering spirit of the little girl, Kiernan is compelled to aid in the search for her killer. The chance to get closer to the enigmatic Matt is an unexpected bonus. Although Kiernan's been betrayed by people who turned out to be more interested in his fame than in himself, with Matt he's willing to risk his heart. As the two men grow closer, Kiernan helps Matt rediscover that life offers no guarantees--but love offers a reason to believe...

BUY LINKS
B&N 
AMAZON 


Billy's Bones by Jaime Fessenden

Kevin Derocher was thirty-two when he walked into Tom’s office, newly married, a baby on the way, and the collar of his red flannel shirt pulled up to hide the bruises around his throat from when he hanged himself in his garage. After his initial consult, therapist Tom Langois believes he’ll never see Kevin again—but Kevin turns up three years later to make repairs on Tom’s new house.

Kevin and Tom become fast friends, and Tom begins to suspect Kevin may be interested in more than friendship. However, Kevin remains haunted by something from his childhood—something so terrible he blocked it from his mind. These suppressed memories make it impossible for Kevin to get close to anyone without panicking and lashing out, sometimes violently. But as his past begins to surface, it becomes apparent that Kevin may hold the key to a twenty-five-year-old mystery: what happened to Billy?

BUY LINKS
DSP 
AMAZON