Release Blitz + Giveaway: Let Your Heart Smile by JB Buell

Author J.B. Buell and Gay Book Promotions celebrate new JMS Books release, Let Your Heart Smile! Discover more about the circus themed friends to lovers romance and enter in the giveaway to win your own eBook copy!

RELEASE BLITZ

Book Title: Let Your Heart Smile 

Author: JB Buell

Publisher: JMS Books

Cover Artist: JM Snyder/JMS Books 

Release Date: July 31, 2021 

Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance

Tropes: Friends to lovers

Themes: Hurt/comfort, reunited, pining, happy ending, disability, interracial relationship, different languages, travelling circus, clowns.

Heat Rating:  1 flame   

Length: 15 015 words

It is a standalone story with no cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

JMS Books  |  Amazon US  |  Amazon UK

Who can make this sad clown smile again?

Blurb

Niki Georgiev lives and works in Draganov's Flying circus as a disabled clown. Each day he paints a smile onto his face, though he hasn't felt like smiling for some time.

When the circus gets a new act in, flashy stunt bike riders, Niki gets a surprise. His childhood friend Conner Flinn is one of the riders and has returned to the circus a big star.

Niki doesn't expect Conner to remember him, much less want to spend time with him as he's just one of the clowns.

But not only does Conner notice Niki, he also asks him to join his act. Will Niki finally have a reason to smile?

Excerpt 

Niki turned around to see it was Conner, flanked by two more people. His stunt team, most likely, as they were all in costume.

The pretty Black woman with curly hair on Conner's right was in a red catsuit with a zip up front, and white stars down her arms and legs. The cute Black guy on Conner's left was in a similar suit of blue and white stars, with a deep V-cut on the chest held together by see-through mesh to show off pecs and abs.

And Conner, his suit had the same deep V-cut with the see-through panel, showing off some serious muscle definition there. Niki's eyes didn't know where to land. He noticed that Conner's costume was red, white, and blue like the American flag.

"Niki," Conner said, gesturing at his companions, "this is Jesse, and Dwight. Guys, this is Niki."

"Nice to finally meet you," Jesse said, offering out her hand. "Conner hasn't shut up about you since we got here."

Niki was mildly surprised, but he shook hands with her, forever thankful he had his right arm so he didn't have to offer the wrong hand in social situations.

"Hey, man, how's it going," Dwight said, offering his hand next. "Looking forward to hearing any embarrassing stories you got about Conner."

Niki smiled wickedly. "Oh, there's plenty of those. Now please tell me you guys wear protective gear when you ride?"

This had them smiling and Dwight pointing a finger at Conner. "I told you people would ask!" Dwight said.

"We do, though," Conner replied. "Yeah, don't worry, Niki, we got the proper bike leathers to put on, and helmets of course."

"Well, good," Niki said, not quite able to let go of his old health and safety habits. "Make sure you wear them."

"We will," Jesse assured him. "We just came out to do some promo so we put on our pretty gear."

He glanced between Conner and Dwight, then gestured at their chests. "You should cover up all those rippling muscles, there's kids out here, y'know."

He was only teasing. All the big acts wore revealing Spandex, that was half the attraction.

Conner and Dwight found his joke highly amusing and laughed about it.

"This is why I have a zip," Jesse said, tugging the zipper on her chest. "Zip it down a bit for promo, and zip it up again later when there's kids about. It's so practical."

"Yeah." Dwight laughed. "And you can always tell if Jesse likes someone when the zipper comes down a little more while she's talking to them."

Jesse swatted him on the arm as she laughed. "Stop giving away all my secrets, man."

"Uh, why don't you guys go on ahead," Conner said to them. "I'll catch you up in a minute."

"Sure, Flinn." Dwight waggled his eyebrows at Conner, as Jesse pushed him away.

"C'mon, Dwight," she said, tugging Dwight with her. "It was great meeting you!" she said to Niki as they left.

"You, too," Niki replied, then looked at Conner. "What's wrong?"

"Hm?" Conner blinked in confusion. "Nothing's wrong. Why?"

"Oh. I thought something was wrong?"

"No?" Conner broke into a grin. "I just wanted to talk to you."

"Oh," Niki said, as a blush broke out over his face. Never had he been so thankful for his thick clown make-up.

"Do you want to hang out between shows tonight?" Conner asked.

"Um, sure."

"Great!" Conner grinned at him. "I'll come find you. Will you be in this outfit?"

"Yes," Niki said, feeling shy all over again. "I'm Cho-cho the clown now."

"I like this bit," Conner said, reaching out to touch the ruffle around Niki's neck. "You look like that little clown doll my mom used to collect."

"Pierrot," Niki said. "Yeah, that's the idea."

"It's cute." Conner smiled. "You make a cute clown."

An approaching parent with a kid interrupted them, and Conner took his cue to leave. He waved to the little kid as he walked by. He really did look amazing in that figure hugging costume.

Niki noticed the mom gape after Conner's retreating form, and he had to press his lips together so he didn't smile.

Me, too, lady, he thought.

About the Author 

J.B. Buell is a non binary writer (they/them) of m/m romance and gay rom com stories. They are a cat person, and can’t decide if they’re more of a coffee or tea person but is quite happy to drink both.

Social Media Links

Blog/Website  |   Twitter

Giveaway

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an ebook copy of Let Your Heart Smile.

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Hosted by Gay Book Promotions

Guest Review: Drawing the Devil (Leather and Grit #1) by Jon Keys

Dustin rides a ton of beef battling to do away with his rider while Shane makes certain the bull doesn’t succeed—and that’s the easiest part of their relationship.

Dustin Lewis is a barely contained twenty-one-year-old bull rider who was disowned by his parents when his father discovered Dustin with another teenage boy. He has spent the time since traveling the rodeo circuit and, after years of honing his skills, he’s in contention to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

Shane Rees is a twenty-six-year-old rodeo bullfighter-rodeo clown. While Shane’s family still love their son, they are not pleased with the sexuality they believe he chose. He knows the potential consequences of being gay among the rodeo crowd. As a result, Shane keeps his sexuality a guarded secret. When combined with the scars he’s earned over the years of bullfighting, Shane has little sense of self-worth.

The two meet when Dustin’s draw for the night is Diablo, the same vicious bull that gave Shane his most notable scar. Dustin’s ride ends with him trapped in the rigging as the bull tries to pound him into the arena dust. With a good bit of bravado and nerves that have earned him a reputation among the bull riders, Shane frees Dustin before he is seriously injured. This chance meeting leads them through heartwarming highs and near-crushing lows as they struggle toward their goal of winning the National Finals and maintaining their personal relationship.

Publisher's Note: This book was previously released by another publisher. It has been revised and reedited for release with Pride Publishing.

Reviewer: NeRdyWYRM


Ride 'em Cowboy!

Give me a hot, gay, Bible Belt cowboy. Any. Day. I don't know what it is about these rodeo guys that do it for me but shewwweee. Maybe the lack of book smarts appeals to my robotic gray matter, I'm clueless here, but something about that whole schtick just does it for me. Might be my latent inner Texan, too. You can take the girl out of Texas, but ...

Did Texas even make an appearance in this story? I think so, but honestly, it's irrelevant to the matter at hand. What is that, you say? Well ... Hot. Rodeo. Bull. Riders. Of course! I've got Garth Brooks songs running through my head right now. That's way more important.

It's bulls and blood, it's dust and mud,
it's the roar of a Sunday crowd.
It's the white in his knuckles, the gold in the buckle
he'll win the next go 'round.
It's boots and chaps and cowboy hats,
it's spurs and latigo.
It's the ropes and the reins,
and the joy and the pain, and they call the thing a rodeo.

I've always been a tomboy grubby-muffin. Dirt, mud, blood. Yep. Right up my alley with the dirty boys I guess. This book might have been a little too predictable in some respects when I consider that particular angle. You've got a bullfighter who was mauled by a bull named Diablo and an up-and-coming bull rider who 'draws the devil'. Mean-ass Diablo. That bull was a real fucker, but still, it's a little predictable. Only ... who cares?

Add in the gay with the homophobes on the rodeo circuit, two somewhat relationship-clueless guys trying to make something out of not much in the midst of all that turns into a helluva good story clichés or no clichés.

Shane and Dustin had chemistry. They were hot together. They had hangups, so there's hurt-comfort. There was bad family and good family. Good friends and horrible strangers. The relationship took time to develop and deepen. There were speed bumps along the way. There was action, there were lulls, there was the everyday and the extraordinary. You name it, if you can imagine it in this setting, it's probably in there somewhere.

I loved it. You might, too.

More reviews by NeRdyWYRM can be found on Goodreads here.
Images (when present) may be subject to copyright.
An ARC copy of this title was provided for an honest review.

Review: Coke's Clown (Roughstock #4) by BA Tortuga

How does Dillon take care of Coke when Coke’s destroying himself?

Bullfighter Coke is having a rough time in the Roughstock universe.

When his dear friend Sam Bell is injured at the finals of the bull riding season, he takes that and his injuries pretty hard. His very own clown, Dillon, is determined to take care of Coke, which is tough when Coke is usually the one to care for everyone.

Coke has a huge secret from his past, though, and, when Dillon digs to discover what it is, the skeletons in Coke’s closet threaten to destroy both men.

Publisher's Note: This book has been previously released elsewhere. It have been revised, re-edited and significantly expanded for re-release with Pride Publishing.

Coke and Dillon are learning to live together, and heading out to Dillon’s ranch in Ohio after the Rodeo tour season is over for a few months. Dillon wants to spend some alone time getting to know Coke a little more, and just being together. But Coke is the cornerstone of their Rodeo family, and everyone constantly wants a piece of him. Nevertheless he loves spending time with his clown, and is thankful for the blessings he has, and the time off to just be.

I haven’t read “And a Smile” which is the story where these two get together, so I’ve come into this a little bit blind, and I definitely felt it. There was a lot of back story that I needed to get a complete picture of Dillon and Coke’s dynamics, as well as Coke’s dynamics with the wider group of characters. I had to fill in the gaps by assumption at this stage, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this story. For those who haven’t started this series, I’d probably recommend you go to Roughstock - Blind Side and work your way up from there.

This was a great story. I enjoyed the established relationship, but it still being new enough for Dillon to be learning, which helped me as a reader learn more about them both. Dillon is a Rodeo clown, and has the personality to fit. He is happy, bubbly, and bounces around a lot. This helps keep Coke in a state of happiness too, but a little more mellowed out than Dillon. As a bullfighter he gets injured a lot, and his body is starting to wear down. From what I gather he has a recent neck and back injury, but not the first one, so he needs the rest to get stronger.

There isn’t much in the way of Rodeo in this story, because it’s the end of the season and focuses on this couple during the holidays. It was nice to see how they got along, and all the behaviours each of them displayed while being with each other, instead of the crowd.

As the story progresses Coke is the go to man for everyone in their circle of friends, and Dillon struggles to balance being supportive and pushing Coke to say no more often. Coke doesn’t seem to mind at all, and this is a pretty low angst relationship, with a lot of fun and hot sex.

Coke has some pretty heavy demons that he doesn’t like to dwell on, but is forced to revisit it because Dillon is inquisitive and asks some invasive questions. Coke tries to dodge most of them, but little bits filter in which make Dillon even more curious, and he starts to poke around with friends. This causes some minor angst as the secrets are revealed but they were handled well, without a great deal of emphasis on the drama, and more on the resolution.

I was definitely intrigued by this story, and I will be going back to the beginning to work my way through this series. I really enjoy the writing style, although some terms are foreign to me, being an Australian. There is a roughness to the writing that is endearing, and enjoyable to work through.

The erotic scenes were smoking hot, and the chemistry between Coke and Dillon was strong. There was a particularly sexy dance scene that gave a kick.

The plot points worked well, and showed how Coke and Dillon fit into the broader cast of characters. I was a little lost, but only because I haven’t read from the beginning. I’m sure once I go back it will make more sense to me. If you’ve read through the previous books, this gives a bit more insight into Coke and Dillon as a couple and how they are fitting with each other as an exclusive couple living together.

Recommended for those who enjoy western erotic-romance between men, and some pretty adorable puppies.

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