GRL 2019 AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT - Ride: The Chance of a Lifetime by B.L. Maxwell

In my attempt to cover some of the attending authors for this year's GRL,
I am reviewing 

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BLURB

Kace Hallard leaves Sacramento, bound for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, something he and his father had always planned to do together. When his father realizes he won’t be able to make the trip, he makes Kace promise to go on his own.
He takes off, not sure he’s up to the challenge. When he has mechanical trouble a few hours away from home, he questions his choice even more.
Striker Johnson is just out buying lunch for the guys at the shop when he notices the handsome stranger in the parking lot checking over his Harley and looking confused. He approaches him and offers his help.
The next few hours fly by, and Kace asks Striker to join him.
It’s the trip of a lifetime for them both, one man looking to ease his grief, the other riding toward emotions he has no hope of controlling. One way or another they’ll have to decide if they ride together or separately, when life throws them one more curve.

REVIEW

My Rating - 5 Stars!

BL Maxwell's Ride is a wonderful read. 

Kace's reason for the road trip is bittersweet, starting the book off on a tender note. As his bike breaks down, he meets Striker and spends some time with him. Immediately the connection is strong, and the attraction is even stronger. Soon the two are off on the ride of a lifetime together.

Their story is one of healing, of getting a chance to enjoy life. Their story is one of fulfilling a promise and saying goodbye. Kace and Striker are incredibly adorable and romantic together.

I love the tone of this book, and the flow. It sucked me in from the start and kept me intrigued throughout. The author writes with great descriptions of the scenery, while never overdoing the details. I could feel everything along with the men and felt like I was with them.

I definitely enjoyed every second of Ride. BL Maxwell managed to create a sweet romance with a meaningful, emotional adventure.

BL Maxwell

BL Maxwell grew up in a small town listening to her grandfather spin tales about his childhood. Later she became an avid reader and after a certain vampire series she became obsessed with fanfiction. She soon discovered Slash fanfiction and later discovered the MM genre and was hooked.
Many years later, she decided to take the plunge and write down some of the stories that seem to run through her head late at night when she's trying to sleep.

Fair Isn't Life by Kaje Harper

• Release Date - Nov 16, 2018
• Type - Novellas
• Words - 52,090
• Pages - 148

Amazon Link

Goodreads Link

Blurb

Luke Lafontaine survived the past year by not thinking about the father he lost, the dairy farm he couldn’t save from bankruptcy, or his way of life that vanished with the rap of an auctioneer’s hammer. Cleaning up city folks’ trash at the Minnesota State Fair is just another dead-end job. But at the Fair, surrounded by a celebration of farm life,  ambitions he’d given up on and buried deep start to revive. And seeing Mason Bell in the parade—gorgeous, gay, out-of-his-league Mason—stirs other buried dreams.

Mason left his hometown for college in Minneapolis without looking back. Student life is fun, classes are great, gay guys are easy to find, but it’s all a bit superficial. He’s at the State Fair parade route with his band when he realizes a scruffy maintenance worker is Luke, his secret high school crush. Luke should be safely home working on his dad’s farm, not picking up litter. Mason wishes he hadn’t fallen out of touch. He’s an optimist, though, and it’s never too late for second chances. Now he just has to convince Luke.

States of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the United States. 

Cover Artist: Brooke Albrecht

Review 

My Rating - 5 Stars!

Kaje Harper's Fair Isn't Life is an amazing story. 

Luke struggles with grief, loneliness, and is just trying to get enough work to make ends meet. 

Working at the fair, Luke runs into a former friend, Mason. Mason's life is completely different than Luke's, as he's in college, living a typical college student's life.

Mason's openly gay, while Luke has been in the closet. Luke, who'd been targeted for being big and stupid, didn't want to give people one more reason to bully him. 

Their story is beautiful and tender; a story of overcoming grief and hardships and accepting love. Mason and Luke are clearly so good together, and I appreciate the ways in which the author helps them to fit into one another's lives.  

The author includes a knowledgeable and harsh look into the current economy and way of life facing farmers. This part is both enlightening and somber.

Fair Isn't Life is written well, with a whole lot of heart and care. Kaje Harper does a wonderful job with this remarkable romance. 

RELEASE BLITZ & REVIEW - Center Of Gravity by Neve Wilder

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Length: 98,000 words approx.

Cover Design: Jay Aheer

Goodreads

Blurb

When life comes apart at the seams, love is the only thread that can repair it.

Accountant Rob Macomb has a stable job that he’s good at and… that’s about it. A year of nothing but heartache leaves him seeking refuge from loneliness and grief behind spreadsheets, punishing daily runs, and the occasional anonymous tryst. He wants only to bury the past and focus on his career, but he has one last task to complete: pack up his parent’s quaint beachside house and put it on the market.

Alex Andrews is a budding artist with a penchant for Converse, Cracker Jack, and piercings. Family turmoil sidelines his dreams of finishing art school and building a career in three-dimensional design, and now he’s doing whatever he can to keep everyone afloat.

When Alex shows up as a part of the moving crew hired to help Rob clean out the house, what should be a simple move becomes far more complex. Because it’s not the first time they’ve met, and their last encounter was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

The attraction between them is undeniable and intense, but Rob’s hell-bent on pushing everyone away, and Alex is on the verge of spinning out of control. Can a grumpy accountant and a bootstrapping artist find their center of gravity together, or are they on a collision course to heartbreak?

*An emotionally-charged, slow burn m/m romance featuring an age gap, hurt/comfort themes, and a hard-won happily ever after. This is the standalone first in the Nook Island, Georgia series.*

REVIEW

My Rating - 5 Stars!

Center of Gravity delivers way more feels than I ever expected, as Neve Wilder does a superb job with this romance.

This story is emotionally charged, full of grief, mourning, tragedy and attraction. Rob is grieving the loss of his father, as he cleans out his dad's house. Alex is one of the moving guys hired to help out, and the two form a friendship, as Rob hires Alex to fix up some things around the house. 

And Alex is certainly someone who understands what Rob is experiencing, as Alex's dad is dying. The attraction is immediate, but Rob is certainly not ready to be with anyone, as he continues to push everyone away. In the end though, they are both exactly what the other man needs, as they not only work their way through their grief together, but also reassess what they want out of life. 

I absolutely love Center Of Gravity, as it's sweet, touching, hot, and takes on you an captivating journey. Neve Wilder's writing is magnificent as it's realistic and powerful as they two men fight hard for their happily ever after. I highly recommend this book!

Excerpt

In this excerpt, Rob is on the phone arguing with his sister, who oh-so-helpfully set up the impending move with a company called College Buffs Hauling Stuff. Rob is not pleased to begin with. As the truck arrives and the two movers get out, Rob has a moment of awkward realization:

Another door slammed and a guy with short, dark hair ambled around the front of the truck. Cracker Jack opened the door and leaned back inside, soon emerging with a silver clipboard in one hand that he checked before saying something to his coworker. In contrast to the stupid caricature on the side of the truck, Cracker Jack met all the qualifications of college buff from what I could see of his profile. He was an endless summer kind of golden blond, and lean, a bit of leftover sunburn on his cheeks laying over the warm, cabana boy tan beneath. He looked as if he should be holding the handle of a pool net rather than the dolly he deposited at the front gate. “Two Men and a Truck would have worked just fine. Or 1-800-Junk,” I argued.

“The Buffs get five stars on Yelp. Don’t be a stick in the mud,” she replied, knowing it’d get me right in the accountant’s tender spot.

Cracker Jack glanced up at the front door of the house and for the first time I saw his face in full, the dangerously carved cheekbones, the sensually bowed mouth, a bit of silver—incongruous against the golden backdrop of his face—ringed through his lower lip. I froze, first trying to place him, then in frazzled denial. But it was too late: my gut already knew and had twisted up like a pretzel. The memory came in saturated fragments that exploded behind my eyelids.

I narrowly missed being speared by the coat hook as my shoulder slammed shut the faux wood door of the stall. I fumbled the lock with one hand, pulled him to me with the other, fingers spanning and raking the damp sheen of sweat gathered low on his back. A hot wash of breath across my throat, his lips dragging over the curve of my jaw, the tickle of his lip ring against my stubble. He smiled against my teeth and murmured, “A guy who knows what he wants. I like it.”

I felt the color fleeing my face in humiliating mutiny as Cracker Jack stared at the door. I took a backward step. Summer droned on about how she’d just been picking the best option and it was hard to do from far away, that she’d not wanted to interrupt me with something so insignificant during tax season and on and on and on, but it hardly registered.

A rush of cool air over my cock—how had he gotten my zipper undone so fast?—and then the warmth of his touch. The brush of his thumb over my crown. “Fuck, you’re already slick,” he groaned, biting his lip. His forehead bumped my cheek as he looked down at his hand, watching as he stroked me. He paused long enough to spit on his palm then stroked faster, the noise obscene cutting through the piped in music of the club, but the feel of him on me was pure velvet bliss. When I reached for his waistband, he brushed my hand away. “Not yet. I like to concentrate. I’ll get mine in a minute.” He licked at the side of my neck where my pulse was hammering, then tightened his fingers around my shaft, pulling a moan from me. I just wanted him to shut up. Just wanted him to shut up and get me off.

Except he never got his.

And I couldn’t remember his name.

Neve Wilder lives in the dirty South, where the summers are hot and the winters are...sometimes cold. She is a mom to three rambunctious weebeasts who have joined forces in a mission to carpet the family home with toys and small items that really suck to step on at six in the morning.


She reads promiscuously, across multiple genres, but her favorite stories always contain an element of romance. Incidentally, this is also what she likes to write. Slow-burners with delicious tension? Yes. Whiplash-inducing page-turners, also yes. Down and dirty scorchers? Yes. And every flavor in between.


She believes David Bowie was the sexiest musician to ever live, and she's always game to nerd out on anything from music to writing.


And finally, she believes that love conquers all. Except the heat index in July. Nothing can conquer that bastard.

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Spirit Bear by RJ Scott

Amazon Link

Goodreads Link

BLURB

Animal expert and TV personality Dominic Novak left more than a legacy for conservation and an instinctive love for animals behind when he was killed.

He left a son, Aiden, who craved the instinct with animals that his father had ... and a pupil, Mitchell, whose life changed after hearing Dominic lecture on conservation at college.

Aiden is hiding, scared of people finding the real him, hiding his identity from the world, and keeping a lid on his grief.

Could working together at a census on a grizzly bear sanctuary in British Columbia be the making of Aiden. or will it end up destroying him?

REVIEW 

My Rating - 4 Stars!

RJ Scott's Spirit Bear is a fun novella. 

Aiden grew up in the public eye, and wants to spend 2 weeks without anyone knowing who he is. It's a great story, as I love the hidden identity idea and it's wonderfully executed. And I adore Aiden's awkwardness, as he's so realistic. He suffers from self-esteem issues and has been keeping to himself, and it shows.

The bear trip is fun and enlightening, as the two young men not only discover their mutual attraction, but also become friends. The writing has wonderful descriptions of the scenery, making me feel like I am there and enjoying the view with them. Neither man expected to fall in love, but sometimes you just can't pass up on the prefect person for you.

RJ Scott really manages to make Spirit Bear come to life with some well developed characters, a fun storyline and a whole lot of things that just make you feel good. It's a story full of love, tenderness, and a whole range of emotions. It's a great read when you want a quick pick-me-up.