Random Review: Yield by Mickie B. Ashling #Review #Giveaway

Title: Yield
Author: Mickie B.Ashling
Bay Area Professionals #5
Publication date: November 13, 2018
Length: 227 pages

Reviewed by Truus


Synopsis

A promising encounter takes a dark turn.

Captain Sami Soros and Father Jay Blackstone cross paths at a major European hub. When systems shut down due to a cyber-attack, flights are delayed and the resulting chaos is unprecedented.

After having served three tours in Afghanistan, recently discharged Sami struggles with his new civilian status. Emotionally depleted, and dangerously edgy, he views most of his fellowmen with utter contempt.

Jay is returning to his parish in San Francisco after a month-long retreat meant to shore up a crumbling vocation. All vestiges of spirituality melt away when he sets eyes on Sami.

They begin a clandestine affair fueled by a shared addiction to extreme forms of BDSM. Their relationship goes off the rails, and Jay reaches out to Rino Duran, a former seminarian. With the help of Dr. Ethan Marshall, Rino’s full-time Dom, the established couple attempt to separate truth from lies to give Jay and Sami a shot at happiness.

This novel can be read as a standalone.

Purchase on Amazon

Review

Jay and Sami (and actually Rino and Ethan too)

What an incredible layered story this was. Stunningly written with memorable scenery, extraordinary circumstances, and a baffling good plot.

A story about a priest and an ex-military. Every turn in this read was unpredictable, I got somewhat delirious by it, all this awesomeness on my screen!! 

Jay and Sami meet each other at the airport, continuing their delayed flight together.

Jay isn’t honest about who and what he is, and he just goes with the temporary flow called Sami.

Sami is lethal and strong; he has a military past where he interrogates the enemy. Ending up with PTSD and a lot more, his life takes unwanted turns and he struggles to handle those. 

Also with Jay’s life getting out of track, their time is up. Their actions with extreme forms of BDSM is something they can’t handle.

Their connection has no ground to survive, it’s unmanageable, harsh, cruel, and destroying.

“my stubborn soul refused to give up”

As a fallen angel, Jay has no one he can reach out to but Rino.

Besides Jay and Sami there is a story with Rino and Ethan, respectively sub and Dom 24/7. 

Rino, as a novice, has trouble obeying without questioning. Ethan is quite the right Dom and he is honest with so much unconditional love! To watch them compromise and work through every bump in their road is magnificent. They are of enormous help to Jay and Sami.

Both men, and a network of competent people, are the saviors for Jay and Sami to see the light. The healing process was heartbreaking, devastating, and worrisome.

The proficiency of writing was excellent. The profoundly worked out characters were breathtaking. A deep look in their beautiful minds let us understand them. We are witness to extremely complicated behavior, disturbing lies, deception, despair, damaged souls and strong furious language, and at the other side we see hope, light, submissiveness, dominance, redemption, rising above themselves, and love with a capital L.

An intriguing, intelligent, consistent, and respectfully written expedition, taking us to the utmost corners of the human mind and their behaviors. This was quite a masterpiece!!

Highly recommended 

Giveaway

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Release Day Review: Ten by Tia Fielding #Review #Giveaway

Author: Tia Fielding
Title: Ten
Series: Love By Numbers
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Garrett Leigh
Publication Date: January 15, 2019
Length: 218 pages

Reviewed by Racheal


Synopsis

Can two broken men build one life?

Ten years.

That’s what Makai lost for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s been exonerated, but the abuse he suffered in prison isn’t so easy to leave behind. He heads to the one place he remembers being happy: Acker, Wisconsin, where he spent summers with his grandpa. Unfortunately, not everyone wants Makai there.

Ten days.

That’s how long Emil, now twenty-one, was held prisoner as a teenager. The mental and physical injuries he suffered at the hands of a drug trafficking ring still haunt him.

Nightmares, anxiety, and PTSD challenge the connection forming between Makai and Emil, though together, they might find a way to move beyond their pain and into a future—and a relationship—that both had thought impossible.

Now they just have to convince Emil’s father, the town sheriff. It won’t be easy with danger closer than they know….

Buy Links

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon 

Review

Tia Fielding's Ten, is a very heartfelt story about two slightly damaged souls that seek friendship at first then, slowly and carefully, bridge that gap into a powerful loving relationship. 

Makai was arrested and found guilty of a horrid crime and due to circumstances that were out of his control served a ten year sentence. After all the smoke had cleared he was finally exonerated but he decides to leave his hometown and move to a small town called Acker, where he once spent summers with his grandfather. Hoping to rebuild his life and try to reenter society again. Even though he was found innocent, people tended to still look at him as a convict.

Emil will never fully recover from what happened to him five years ago and apparently, neither will this small town. He once saw himself with so much potential for greater things but his slight handicap, PTSD, makes his life a bit harder and the looks people give him just remind him even more. 

Maybe that's why the connection, for me, with these characters was so deep and understandable, even with the physical differences, Makia's appearance as a gentle giant and Emil's slightly frail smaller physique; these two characters connected on such a deeper level, one of understanding. They looked different but they both suffered from injustices and circumstances that were out of their control. The way they were able to help each other heal and begin to rebuild was just beautiful.

Giveaway

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Contest ends January 31st

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Blog Tour~ Release Blitz: Unsteady by Melissa Collins #Review #Giveaway

 

Happy Release Day!

Unsteady by Melissa Collins A stand alone, M/M romance IS NOW LIVE! Free to read with Kindle Unlimited

Grab your copy here --> AMAZON

Cover design: Sommer Stein at Perfect Pair Creative Covers

Photography: Wander Aguiar at WANDER AGUIAR :: PHOTOGRAPHY

Models: Jacob Cooley and Ryan Dick

BLURB:

Micah Hudson and Jude MacMillian were both lonely teenagers. One the new kid and one the target of relentless bullying, they quickly became friends. But when friendship grew into more, the relationship was too much for either to handle. As their tenuous bond was tested, everything tumbled down, leaving them lonely once again.

A decade later, Micah is on the brink of losing his will to live. Beyond exhausted from lying to everyone, including himself, Micah thinks of the one person who knows his deepest secret. Desperate and alone, Micah makes the only decision he feels he has: he must leave. But his need for closure depends on one thing.

Can Jude make room in his Unsteady life for Micah once again?


Review

Unsteady is the third book in Melissa Collins's emotional On Solid Ground series. Collins has given us a group of broken men all dealing with the effects of PTSD and how they each deal with their painful and heavy issues. If you're looking for a set of books that are light and fluffy, these definitely aren't the books for you. BUT if you're wanting to immerse yourself into complex characters with compelling story lines then by all means you want to read this series and this book. 

Not only is Unsteady gritty, emotional, and raw, it's a second chance love story and those just happen to be among my favorite kind. We've seen Micah Hudson before in the first book of the series, and if you're read that one and you're like me, you've been wanting more of his story. It's been ten years since Micah and Jude MacMillan were teenagers and the best of friends and both men have had a lot happen to them to cause pain in the time they've been apart. There is no question these men are hurting or harboring secrets. There's also no doubting that they need one another. Watching Micah and Jude come together and work through all the angst that each carries made my heart hurt--and shed more than a few tears--but the romance between them made me have big sighs. 

There was some frustration as each man takes steps backward, but Collins deftly writes Micah and Jude in such a way that they're likable (most of the time) and believable. There is some flipping from past to present as backgrounds are revealed, but I didn't find it was too distracting or took me out of the story. There is a lot of pain and hurt in Unsteady, but there is also a great deal of love and hope. I really liked that the intimate scenes focused more on the emotional aspect rather than the physical, it made them that much more engaging. And their HEA is so deserved and left me with a gooey heart and a smile on my face. Be sure to check out this emotional and powerful story, you'll be glad you did!

Giveaway

Join me on Facebook where you will find a $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! Melissa Collins Author Page

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Collins has always been a book worm. Studying Literature in college ensured that her nose was always stuck in a book. She followed her passion for reading to the most logical career choice: English teacher. Her hope was to share her passion for reading and the escapism of books to her students. Having spent more than a decade in front of a classroom, she can easily say that it’s been a dream. Her passion for writing didn’t start until more recently. When she was home on maternity leave in early 2012, she read her first romance novel and her head filled with the passion, angst and laughter of the characters who she read about it. It wasn’t long before characters of her own took shape in her mind. Their lives took over Melissa’s brain and The Love Series was born.

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Release Day Review: Rekindled Flame by Andrew Grey #Review #Giveaway

Author: Andrew Grey
Book: Rekindled Flame
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication Date: June 13, 2016
Length: 182 pages


Reviewed by Meredith



Synopsis

Firefighter Morgan has worked hard to build a home for himself after a nomadic childhood. When Morgan is called to a fire, he finds the family out front, but their tenant still inside. He rescues Richard Smalley, who turns out to be an old friend he hasn’t seen in years and the one person he regretted leaving behind.

Richard has had a hard life. He served in the military, where he lost the use of his legs, and has been struggling to make his way since coming home. Now that he no longer has a place to live, Morgan takes him in, but when someone attempts to set fire to Morgan’s house, they both become suspicious and wonder what’s going on.

Years ago Morgan was gutted when he moved away, leaving Richard behind, so he’s happy to pick things up where they left off. But now that Richard seems to be the target of an arsonist, he may not be the safest person to be around.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

Review

Andrew Grey does love to write Firefighters… and he does it so well. Morgan is the firefighter in this story and when he rescues a paraplegic he has no idea he’s rescuing a piece of his childhood he loved. 

Richie hasn’t had an easy decade that’s for sure. He’s lost so much but when Morgan saves his life he ends up saving his heart as well.

This was a beautiful and at times suspenseful tale. Rekindled Flame is the perfect title for this book. A friends to lovers story that stands the test of time. We all love those “How did you meet” stories and Morgan and Richie’s is absolutely one for the books.

I really loved the growth in this story for Richie and how, he will live with the demons, he won’t let them devour him like he once did. 

The secondary characters, Angus, Kevin, and all the furbabies! All were such a great delight and added to this already wonderful story.

This was a great read!

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Contest ends June 30th!

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