Happy 9th Anniversary Unicorns!

BMBR is nine! 

 


And BMBR is taking a much needed break. Consider this a hiatus period!

 

We want to thank all the readers, authors and friends we made along the way! We will still post a review here or there of books that we just have to share, as we always will be readers first and foremost! 

 

We'll leave our reviews up for any curious readers out there! 

 

Thanks for visiting us at the unicorn pony paddock!

 

Sincerely,

 

Halloween Tour + Giveaway: Spooky Thrills & Sexy Chills by Morgan Brice


 

Spooky Thrills & Sexy Chills—Explore the Worlds of Morgan Brice

Welcome to Morgan's Brice's Halloween Tour.

Check out the first books in each of Morgan's different Spooky series.

ALSO LOOK OUT FOR SOME FREE TREATS IN THE VARIOUS BLOG POSTS ON THE TOUR - SEE BELOW

Genre: Urban fantasy MM paranormal romance

Heat Rating: 4 flames

Each book is the first in a series. They standalone and do not end on a cliffhanger.

CHECK OUT THE FIRST BOOK in EACH of MORGAN'S SPOOKY SERIES! 

BOOK 1

Book Title: Witchbane

Length: 246 pages (Also in audiobook)

Release Date: February 19, 2018

Tropes: hurt/comfort, forced proximity, bodyguard, second chance, learning to trust

Themes: dealing with grief, letting go of the past, being willing to accept a new perspective, found family, 

Goodreads  |  Buy Links

Blurb 

Seth is used to risking his neck. He never intended to risk his heart.

Seth Tanner swore to avenge his brother’s death. But when his quest for vengeance brings him to Richmond to stop a dark coven’s next ritual murder, he’s hell-bent on keeping Jackson Evan Malone from becoming the warlocks’ next victim. He just didn’t expect to fall in love with the man he’s sworn to protect.

Evan thinks Seth is crazy. Maybe that’s true—but Seth could still be right about the danger. Evan doesn’t believe in witches, and he’s still healing from past betrayals. He might trust Seth with his life—but what happens when he starts to fall for his handsome, dangerous protector?

Witchbane is a supernatural, second chance at love thrill ride packed with hurt/comfort, deadly magic, immortal witches, determined hunters, spells and curses, true love, impressive explosions, spooky chills and sexy thrills!

Witchbane Series Blurb

Love and vengeance. Seth Tanner swore to destroy the dark coven responsible for his brother's death. Falling in love with Evan Malone, the next intended victim, wasn't part of the plan. Now they hunt the warlocks from city to city, a deadly game of cat and mouse, outwitting supernatural enemies. On the road, in love, and on the run.

BOOK 2

Book Title: Badlands

Length: 286 pages

Release Date: June 16, 2018

Tropes: hurt/comfort, second chance, enemies to lovers

Themes: found family, starting over, learning to trust, letting go of the past

Goodreads  |  Buy Links

 Blurb 

A psychic and a skeptical homicide cop team up to hunt a supernatural killer in Myrtle Beach. Medium and clairvoyant Simon Kincaide owns a Myrtle Beach boardwalk shop where he runs ghost tours, holds séances, and offers private psychic readings, making a fresh start after his abilities cost him his lover and his job. Jaded cop Vic D’Amato saw something supernatural during a shootout and reporting it nearly cost him his badge. He’s still skeptical about the paranormal. But when the search for a serial killer hits a dead end, Vic battles his skepticism to ask Simon for help.

As the body count rises, Simon’s involvement makes him a target, and a suspect. But Simon can’t say no, even if it costs him his life and heart.

Badlands is a thrill-packed urban fantasy MM paranormal romance with plenty of supernatural suspense, hurt/comfort, found family, ghosts, magic, a second chance at true love, spooky chills and sexy thrills!

Badlands Series Blurb

A sexy psychic and a skeptical homicide cop team up to solve murders in Myrtle Beach. Simon Kincaide sees visions and talks to ghosts. Detective Vic D'Amato doesn't believe in woo-woo, but he's hit a dead end in the search for a serial killer. Can they work together to solve the case, or become the next victims?

BOOK 3

Book Title: Treasure Trail

Length: 250 pages

Release Date: June 26, 2019

Tropes: hurt/comfort, second chance, starting over

Themes: found family, learning to trust, keeping an open mind, 

Goodreads  |   Buy Links

Blurb 

A web of lies, danger, and deception might make Erik and Ben Cape May’s newest ghosts!

Erik Mitchell traveled the world uncovering art fraud, which pitted him against spoiled billionaires, unscrupulous collectors, mobsters, and cartels. When a sting goes wrong, Erik is injured, and his relationship falls apart. He decides to stop globetrotting and buy an antique shop in scenic Cape May, NJ, rebuild his life, and nurse his broken heart.

Undercover Newark cop Ben Nolan went down in a hail of bullets when a bust went sideways after a tip-off from a traitor inside the department. When his aunt offers him the chance to take over her rental real estate business in Cape May, it seems too good to be true. Now, if he could just believe he could ever be lucky again in love.

Sparks fly when Erik and Ben meet. But a cursed hotel’s long-ago scandals resurface, setting off a dangerous chain of events that will test their bond—and might make them Cape May’s newest ghosts!

Treasure Trail is a suspenseful MM paranormal romance mystery-adventure filled with second chance love, hurt/comfort, soulmates, awesome tattoos, dangerous secrets, restless ghosts, psychic visions, helpful witches, angry mobsters, and a haunted hotel.

Treasure Trail Series Blurb

Erik Mitchell gave up a jet setting career busting art thieves to run an antique shop in Cape May. Ben Nolan's a disillusioned Newark ex-cop running a vacation rental business. When their dangerous pasts and the town's Mob ghosts return to haunt them, can Erik and Ben solve the cold case killings without becoming ghosts themselves?

BOOK 4

Length: 212 pages

Release Date: May 21, 2020

Trope/s: hurt/comfort, second chance, 

Themes: family, loyalty, forgiving, starting over, 

Goodreads  |   Buy Links

Blurb 

Fast cars. Outlaw country boys. Snarky werewolves, vengeful ghosts, and menacing monsters.

Dawson King’s family has been hunting things that go bump in the night in Transylvania County, North Carolina, since before the Revolutionary War.

Dawson was never happier than when he was racing his souped-up Mustang along winding mountain roads and hunting monsters with his best friend, Grady. Then Grady fell in love with him, which should have been perfect since Dawson had already fallen hard for Grady.

But Grady was only seventeen, and Dawson feared that sooner or later, Grady would realize his feelings were just a first crush, and then he’d be gone, leaving Dawson devastated. They both needed space to figure things out. So Dawson joined the army, while Grady stayed on the mountain.

Four years later, Dawson is coming home. He’s more sure than ever Grady is his forever love, and they’ve both agreed to begin this new aspect of their relationship as soon as Dawson gets back.

Then Grady’s father is killed in a werewolf hunt gone wrong. Grady is devastated, and he’s throwing mixed signals about moving forward. Dawson knows he needs to hold off on this new thing between them until Grady has time to grieve. But monsters never sleep, and one hunt after another throws Dawson and Grady into constant danger, while tension and unresolved feelings ripple between them.

Making it even harder, Dawson’s got a secret. He’s dreamed of death omens—which point to something stalking Grady. Can Dawson figure out who’s trying to kill Grady, save his life, and win back his heart?

Plenty of mutual pining, hurt/comfort, spooky chills, sexy thrills, and a very happy ending. The Kings of the Mountain is the first novel in the series. 

Kings of the Mountain Series Blurb

 Fast cars. Outlaw country boys. Snarky werewolves, vengeful ghosts, and menacing monsters. A love that can't be denied. Dawson and Grady grew up together and fell in love, then life pulled them apart. They're trying to start over, but something deadly is stalking Grady. Can Dawson figure out who’s trying to kill Grady, save his life, and win back his heart?

BOOK 5

Length: 190 pages

Release Date: July 20, 2020

Tropes: fated mates, shifters, hurt/comfort, second chance, starting over, 

Themes: learning to trust, found family, 

Goodreads  |   Buy Links

Note—this series is the only one in KU

Blurb 

A grieving wolf. A hunted fox. Fated mates, thrown together by chance, and the looming threat of a fabled Huntsman who might tear them apart forever.

Fox shifter Liam Reynard is running from a killer. He uproots his life to find sanctuary in Fox Hollow, deep in the Adirondack Forest in New York.

When his car breaks down, sexy wolf shifter Russ Lowe comes to the rescue, and one touch makes it clear they’re fated mates. Neither man was looking for love, and both are still mending from past heartbreak. When mysterious fires and disappearances threaten Fox Hollow, Liam fears the killer is hot on his trail. Can he protect the town and his fated mate from the evil hunting him, or will an ex-lover’s betrayal cost Liam everything he loves?

Huntsman is full of sexy shifters, hurt/comfort, second chance love, sincere psychics, hot first responders, found family and fated mates.

Huntsman-Fox Hollow Zodiac Series Blurb

The small town of Fox Hollow is a sanctuary for misfit shifters and psychics. A grieving wolf. A hunted fox. Fated mates, thrown together by chance, and the looming threat of a fabled Huntsman who might tear them apart forever. 

About the Author 

Morgan Brice is the romance pen name of bestselling author Gail Z. Martin. Morgan writes urban fantasy male/male paranormal romance, with plenty of action, adventure and supernatural thrills to go with the happily ever after. Gail writes epic fantasy and urban fantasy, and together with co-author hubby Larry N. Martin, steampunk and comedic horror, all of which have less romance, more explosions. Characters from her Gail books make frequent appearances in secondary roles in her Morgan books, and vice versa.

On the rare occasions Morgan isn’t writing, she’s either reading, cooking, or spoiling two very pampered dogs.

Series include Witchbane, Badlands, Treasure Trail, Kings of the Mountain and Fox Hollow. Watch for more in these series, plus new series coming soon!

Author Links

Facebook Group  |   Pinterest (for Morgan and Gail)  |  Twitter: @MorganBriceBook    

Sign up for my newsletter and never miss a new release

Read a copy of my Badlands short story Restless Nights here for free

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Giveaway 

Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win

one of three ebooks from Morgan's backlist

a Rafflecopter giveaway

VISIT THESE BLOGS AND CLAIM YOUR FREE HALLOWEEN TREAT FROM MORGAN BRICE

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Review: Bully for Sale (Heat for Sale #2) by Leta Blake

Bullied and outcast, Ezer has seen firsthand the cruelties of the world. He knows what’s expected from his kind—timid compliance and submission to his “betters.” But Ezer isn’t one to roll over and conform to the role society has forced upon him.

Despite his defiant nature, Ezer is coerced into partnering with a man of his father’s choosing. One his father promises will love and care for him for the rest of his life.

A night of nameless and faceless passion later, Ezer is horrified to find himself bound to Ned, a bully who has done so much to make his life hell. Ezer’s determined to hate Ned but he can’t help the way his body craves his touch.

Ned is young, privileged, and hopelessly in love with Ezer. Too bad his pack of so-called “friends” have targeted Ezer for torment. Ned has a lot of regrets, but none greater than his role in Ezer’s misery. When Ned’s offered the contract of a lifetime, he sees it as the only way forward with the man he loves.

The dual biological drives of heat and its aftermath might be all that’s keeping them close now, but Ned is determined to prove he’s worthy of Ezer’s love.

While Ezer is just as determined not to fall for his bully.

 

Bully for Sale is the second addition to the Heat for Sale series. If you haven't read book #1- Heat for Sale (I suggest you do- the audiobook is fantastic!) The books can be read as standalone.

Leta Blake is definitely one of the few published authors' A/B/O that I can read and tolerate. If you're not familiar with the omegaverse the author set up, women do not exist, men can be carriers (omegas), while betas are relatively human and alphas are the top of the chain, with their knots and life saving semen. Omegas have less rights and are treated as breeding machines mostly. Let's get the triggers out the way: attempted rape, dubious consent, eating disorder.

In this newest addition, the main characters are still in high school. (Don't worry, they're all legal.) Omega Ezer Fersee is nineteen, dyslexic and the bane of his wealthy alpha parent. His omega parent has been kicked out of their home, his older omega brothers seem to care only for themselves and he has know one. And to top it off, he's bullied mercilessly and labeled as the 'weird kid'. After an attempted rape by three rich alpha bullies, Ezer's life couldn't get any worse right? Wrong. Wealthy omegas usually have their heats and bodies sold to the higher bidder or Ezer's family's case, an arranged 'heat cycle'. But the person who is chosen for him... one his alpha bullies, Ned Clearwater. 

Ned is a coward and a follower, two bad combinations to have in life in my opinion. He's idealistic and romantic. And fell for Ezer the moment he saw him. Ned is trying to redeem himself and that's the crux of his arc for the majority of the book. He was loathsome and he's trying to better himself. He's a gentle giant that isn't too set in his ways that he can't be changed as he enters adulthood. I'm not a fan of cowards and Ned most certainly is one. But, he's likeable too. 

Ezer is prickly and remains true to his self for the book too. He's had a crap hand dealt to him and he learns more about himself, you can't help but feel sorry for him too. 

Essentially, this is new adult, but the adults in their lives are their puppet masters and they get thrown into too many adult things that they're not ready for. There is smut but since most of it due to their biology, I wouldn't say it was gratuitous. They need it at a molecular level. ;)

Why not rate it higher? While the story is paced pretty quick despite being 404 pages, the romance is mainly one sided for the majority of the book. (Which for me, works for the characters especially with the way Ezer is portrayed.) Thankfully, there's an epilogue! But we don't get to read the changes Ned needs to go through on page.I don't mind bully romances but something about Ned's cowardly ways got under my skin a bit.

Overall, it's a solid new adult story. I was happy Heat for Sale's main characters (Heath and Adrien) showed up a for a few. I did like the pair.

P.S. I do hope there's a story for each of the adult Fersee brothers, especially Shan. I'm so anxious at all the possibilities that could happen with Ezer's family. 


A copy provided for an honest review.



Blog Tour + Giveaway: Resurrection Men by Steven Harper


 

Resurrection Men - Steven Harper

Steven Harper has a new MM historical romance out: Resurrection Men. And there's a giveaway.

Arthur Tor steals the dead for a living. As a resurrection man, he creeps around graveyards with his shovel, hoping to dig up corpses so he can sell them to the local medical college and pay his tuition there. He also holds a strange position in underground society. If someone is dying a slow, painful death, the family members come to Arthur and beg him to end their loved one's pain. Arthur can never refuse, and he helps the dying cross the threshold without more pain in a process he calls the Black Rounds. Unfortunately, the local judge has gotten wind of Arthur's activities and has sworn to send him to prison—or the hangman's noose.

Jesse Fair has fled his corrupt family in Baltimore and landed in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he becomes the town gravedigger and, eventually, the undertaker. He works hard to help grieving families through their pain with warmth and compassion. Some of these families make odd requests for their dearly departed, and Jesse discovers that the undertaker often has to deal with the absurd side of death. But his nefarious family is still searching for him. Relentlessly. And once they find him, Jesse will have to make a terrible choice.

When Jesse catches Arthur in the act of robbing a grave, the two of them form a strange friendship and even stranger partnership that digs deep into social taboos—and into their own souls.

In his first book since his critically-acclaimed novel The Importance of Being Kevin, Steven Harper spins a heartfelt, uplifting story of suspense, life, and love against the backdrop of a Michigan town at the edge of the frontier.

Universal Buy Link


Giveaway

Steven is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47262/?


Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

A resurrection man watched the funeral, and his expression was hungry. He stood behind the huddle of funeral-goers clustered around the grave and didn't speak with anyone, which was how Jesse spotted him. Dead giveaway, so to say. Jesse stared at him from the corner of one dark eye. The resurrection man wasn't yet twenty. Brown as a dead tree. Straight brown hair under a frayed brown cap, long nose, sharp jaw, long brown coat mended twice, worn brown shoes that were nonetheless carefully polished. Someone who was used to hiding who he was.

The resurrection man met Jesse's eye for a flick. He had good eyes, that one—clear and blue and strong—and Jesse touched his cap in salute. Jesse had a gravedigger's build, wiry and a little short, able to throw an eight-pound shovelful of dirt six feet toward heaven, and he could hold his own in a fight against two men half again his height. The resurrection man was taller, whipcord, and Jesse bet he wore gloves to keep his hands clean when he robbed night-time graves. No one who saw him by day would know what he did at night.

When their eyes met, blue on brown, it created something interesting and indefinable, like that boundary moment when water touches a burning coal, or warm ocean air brushes chilly shore. The resurrection man looked away. Jesse clicked his tongue in mischief—and the chance to make some money.

The coffin rested on a pair of beams set across the grave Jesse had dug only that morning. Jesse always put a scattering of sawdust and few pine branches in the bottom of his graves so the coffin wouldn't rest on dirt. It made no difference to the deceased, mind you, but it made the family feel better. Two solemn boys pulled the beams away, and the pall bearers lowered the coffin with ropes braced around their necks like pulleys while the preacher said his final bit. While all this was going on, the resurrection man slipped away, confirming Jesse's suspicions that the man was a grave robber who knew the best time to leave was when the family was occupied.

As the family drifted off, Jesse barely overheard a man and a woman in conversation. The woman murmured, "He won't get up and come after us, do you? He's stubborn enough to try."

"Jesus, I hope not," the man muttered back. "That copper-plated sumbitch was bad enough when he was alive. I can't think what he'd be like lurching around dead."

Death brought out the truth among the living. Jesse looked in the direction the resurrection man had taken and gave himself a private nod. It was going to be an interesting evening.

Jesse finished filling the grave of Mr. Elmer Pitt (b. 1803, d. 1889), then went home to the little shack he occupied at the edge of Highland Cemetery, made himself a pot of strong coffee on his bachelor stove, dropped a slug of Irish in it, and waited until sunset. When the early autumn night slid in cozy among the gravestones, Jesse put his shovel back over his shoulder and strolled toward the grave of Elmer Pitt. There was time to enjoy the walk and think about how to spend the money he would shake out of the resurrection man. It had been a while since he'd passed a good night's drinking and fighting at a pool hall. Or maybe he'd buy a new pair of boots.

The trek was easy. Didn't matter that it was dark. Jesse had dug plenty of graves in Highland Cemetery and knew the place like the end of his shovel. He even had a map of the place tacked to the wall of his shack, with every grave picked out in careful precision. People thought that graveyards laid out the dead in neat, cornfield rows, but Highland's graves made a swirling mosaic that twisted around the hills and trees, creating stars and flowers and teardrops that only god and Jesse's map could see. Jesse had taken over as the main gravedigger in Ypsilanti from Mr. Suggs two years ago. Mr. Suggs himself currently rested in a grave well back from the road that Jesse himself had dug with extra care. Jesse didn't run the cemetery—that job belonged to the great and gloomy Frederick Huff, who issued daily orders from the caretaker's house and only emerged to complain at Billy Cake and the other fellows who worked the cemetery. But it was Jesse who dug the graves.

Highland Cemetery had opened twenty-some years ago, a little ways before Jesse was born, and it had stolen away all the business from Prospect Cemetery. Didn't seem to matter that Prospect was half a mile closer to downtown Ypsilanti, with its growing Normal School and expanding railroad system. Prospect still failed to prosper.

Problem was, Prospect had both proven too small, so the city had bought a big chunk of loamy hillside outside Ypsilanti and named it Highland Cemetery. The local Catholic community had been scandalized at the idea of sharing eternity with Protestants and even Lutherans, so they had bought a bit of land right across the road for their own dead, keeping Mr. Suggs, and now Jesse, busy digging graves for both. Meanwhile, the townsfolk stopped using Prospect Cemetery entire, and no one seemed interested in paying Jesse Fair or Billy Cake to even trim its trees, so these days the verge ran wild. The inhabitants didn't complain.

It was a serpent night, with the chill breeze hissing in the leaves. Jesse wound through the stones until he came to the new grave of Elmer Pitt. The thin glow of a little lantern on the ground illuminated the markers from the bottom up, and the familiar quiet sound of a wooden shovel biting earth came to Jesse's ears. Resurrection men always used wooden shovels. They made less noise. Jesse crept closer.

The resurrection man had already made good headway and was knee-deep in the ground at the head of the grave. Two canvas drop cloths lay beside him, one to catch the dirt, and the other to receive Elmer Pitt. Jesse noted the well-worn leather gloves covering the resurrection man's hands. The man also had a crowbar and a length of rope.

"So you're from the University Medical School," Jesse said in the dark.


Author Bio

Steven Harper

Steven Harper Piziks was born with a last name no one can reliably spell or pronounce, so he usually writes under the name Steven Harper. He grew up on a farm in Michigan but has also lived in Wisconsin and Germany and spent extensive time in Ukraine.

So far, he’s written more than two dozen novels and over fifty short stories and essays. When not writing, he plays the folk harp, lifts weights, and spends more time on-line than is probably good for him. He teaches high school English in southeast Michigan, where he lives with his husband. His students think he’s hysterical, which isn’t the same as thinking he’s funny.

Author Website: http://www.stevenpiziks.com

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/steven.piziks

Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/StevenPiziks

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/250784.Steven_Harper

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