Review: Red Hot (Sex & Mayhem #5) by KA Merikan

--- Live fast. Die young. Fuck hard.---

Red Jack. Rude. Crude. Horny ginger mess. In love with… himself.
Loki. Deadbeat. Volatile. Stalker. Terminally ill. Fatally in love.

When it comes to men, Red Jack has three rules. The guy has to be hot, out of town, and not up for repeats. It’s a good way to keep the gay flings far away from the eyes of his brothers in the Coffin Nails Motorcycle Club, and he will make damn sure it stays that way. When a hookup takes an ominous turn, and the sexy stranger turns up at his house, the heat is on. Loki invades his life and just won’t leave, wreaking havoc wherever he follows Jack, but getting rid of him becomes harder with every kiss.

The world crumbles around Loki when he finds out he has cancer. As if his life wasn’t shit enough already. With only a few months left, he decides to live to the fullest and get every last wish on his bucket list fulfilled. One of those is fucking the hot bearded biker he meets the same night he got the bad news. Big, confident, and dangerous, Red Jack is all Loki ever wanted in a man. After all, he deserves one last shot at love. Who cares if Red Jack is a stubborn, closeted asshole? Loki knows what he wants, and he won’t settle for anything less. Even if it kills him. 

Well, holy shit and fuck-me-sideways, this was good.

First, the cover. *stares* *drools* It's gorgeous! Amiright?

Second, LOKI! Crazier than shit, he is. Loki was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. With not much time left, he made a bucket list. He added "fuck a ginger" to his list. I mean, who wouldn't, really? To fulfill this item he scheduled a hot meet-up with Red Jack.

Red Jack was mean, rude and arrogant. When he hooked up with guys, it's a one time thing and only blow jobs. That way he wouldn't be gay. He did his thing with Loki and moved on. Until Loki turned up at his house, making himself comfortable.

Loki inserted himself into Red Jack's life. He showed up and decided he's going to be Red Jack's boyfriend. It was awkward, to say the least. It was so awesomely awkward.

"Never in Red Jack's life had anyone pursued him this intensely. It was... weird. 'Invasion of privacy' didn't cut it."

Loki took things to an extreme level, but really made no apologies for himself. He was dying, he wanted this guy as his boyfriend and he was going to have it. Beyond the cray-cray, he really just wanted someone there for him in his last months. He wanted someone to miss him and he was going to make Red Jack that person.

"You know I won't change, right? I'm not gonna become some super-gay dude, no matter how much bacon you make for me?"

Oh, Red Jack. Ha! If you only knew. He constantly complained about Loki and his craziness, but he totally loved it at the same time. Red Jack has this huge ego. He overcompensates for his insecurities from his red hair with his arrogance. So even though Loki is driving him insane, all the strokes to his ego are never a bad thing.

"'Yeah? I'm all you can think about?' Red Jack grinned."

Uh huh. He loved all of Loki's unwanted attention.

Hot sex was hot. Dirty talk was dirrrrttttyyyyyyy. All wrong and degrading. *smack lips* These two were sexy. There were sexy-times aplenty, but also some very, very graphic and violent scenes. Red Jack went to great lengths for Loki and it was so wrong, but it warmed Loki's little crazy heart. And that's all that mattered to Red Jack.

Loki and Red Jack's story was hot, graphic, brutal, and sometimes a little outlandish, with a few sweet moments sprinkled in. Completely unputdownable.

A copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Rainbow Connection - Vol. 1 by BJ Sheppard

Living a care-free party life-style, junior journalist and gay lifestyle reporter, Liam Adams thought he had it all; the money, the job, the endless supply of men in his bed. But when his work causes him to question the very foundation of the life he has built for himself, Liam finds certain areas are glaringly lacking. All it takes is one assignment to unravel the very fabric of his promiscuous antics, compounded by the arrival of a long-forgotten tryst. With the rusty screech of the mailroom guy’s trolley wheels, Liam lands head-first in the arms of something bigger; something more.

As the romance burgeons between Liam and the Mail-Manny of his dreams, each article he writes proves to uncover something new and never realized about himself, namely that all the one-night-stands in the world could never give him what he truly wants; love. In a slapstick commentary through the eyes of the world’s most hypersensitive journalist, watch as Liam’s story unfolds in the most ridiculous of fashions, leading him straight into the arms of love, via The Rainbow Connection.

I . Loved. This. Story. So much. It’s a quick read, full of snark, humor and ends with super hot sexy time. Liam’s voice is pretty much my favorite thing and his inner musings had me chuckling out loud and cringing (in a funny, ha-ha, ewwww) way repeatedly. And while he’s hilarious, he’s also brave enough to tackle the questions about the fans of MM romance. Why are they mostly woman and why does that even work? The author did an AMAZING job of getting the ideas and personalities together of MM fans in general. It was sweet, smart and thoughtful never pandering or patronizing.

Liam is questioning his ideals and the path his life is on while he is tasked to write an article for the Rainbow Connection. His research has consisted of cruising online porn to an endless stream of writes and rewrites and nothing is working for him. His struggles with his article (and his newly discovered wants) are punctuated by his colorful coworkers and his commentary on them is priceless.

Then Liam finally finds his path and admits that his life is missing an important thing or two and the words start to flow. He learns about more than just the MM fandom, he also learns about himself and he sees it’s ok to want more than what he has gotten use to settling for.

“I wanted to cry that male-male romance writers had stolen my happily ever after, that I never knew I wanted but now could not stop thinking about. I wanted, in all honesty though it is embarrassing to admit, to ask if anyone in the office thought they could love me (*note to self: desperation is a home shopping channel fleece covered in picture of wolves that is in no way a good look for you).”

I love enlightened Liam.

I also love slightly buzzed Liam and Liam under deadline pressure with “more caffeine in his bloodstream than humanly possible”. There are more parts to this story and I can’t wait to read them. This one ends with an incredibly steamy (and hopeful) HFN. Nothing may come of this particular encounter, but dammit I hope it does. At least Liam leaves us at the end of Volume 1 satiated and with a hopeful and completely amused heart.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**

For more information on Goodreads!

Review: The Need To Touch (Stay True Series #1) by Natalya Parks & Brooke Johnson

Ryder and Ben, college roommates from separate backgrounds, collide in this emotional book. Both are determined to fight for their love, but their family and friends may make things more difficult than either imagined. Will they be able to stand strong together, or will those around them try to destroy their plans.

You can only win someone’s heart once you’ve captured it.

Nineteen year old Ryder Harrison grew up near a small town in Montana, working on the family’s ranch and in love with his best friend, Landon Pennington. That was until his Grandfather decided he needed to go to college in California. Ryder promised his Mom before she died that he would finish his education. Staying true to his word, Ryder packs his clothes, and heads to California, confident that it would all be one big disaster. The only thing he hadn’t planned on was meeting Bentley Carter.

Twenty year old Bentley Carter has enough emotional issues to write his own ‘How to Cope’ manual. Surviving an abusive childhood, he made a personal promise to always stay true to himself, and never let emotions overrule his common sense. Content with his current life and friend with ‘benefits’, Ben is determined to not let his new roommate affect him.

Uncertain about their places in the world, and with each other, Ryder and Ben struggle to understand the person who is not what they thought they wanted, yet who they are unable to live without. Living in a sometimes cruel and unforgiving world they are determined to embrace the reality of falling in love and the challenges that follow.

What did I just read? This is by far one the zaniest contemporary romances I've ever read.

I'm not even sure where to start....

First let me say there were parts of this book that I loved. They are what drove me to keep reading. Every time I wanted to give up another good chapter would keep me from doing so. The bones of this story are good. Really good. The execution, not so much.

This read like a daytime soap opera in more ways than one. A daytime soap opera never ends and that's the way this book felt. It seemed to go on and on and on. Amazon says 169 pages. It felt like 369. I feel a good content editor would have helped tighten this up quite a bit. There was too many unnecessary details and conversations and scenes that did nothing to enhance the story and at times really detracted from it.

This also needed a line editor. Sentences like this really pulled me out of a story I was already struggling to finish: "It had been awhile since we had sex and once the close were gone...." Ummm, yeah. I started highlighting spelling and grammar errors but somewhere around 25% I gave up. Also see blurb.

If you've ever watched a daytime soap you know how ridiculous the plot can get. Unfortunately there were several instances of that here. Perhaps the most bizarre, a video chat with one of the MCs and at the other end his mother's tombstone! I'm not joking here, it happened.

There was lots of sex in the story. It seemed excessive but that may be just me. Some of it was really well written and made me sit up and take notice, so to speak. And then there's stuff like this: "I felt every burst, every drop of cum that filled my ass as his body convulsed under me." Say what?

There's also a really big cliffhanger at the end, just like the Friday episode of the daytime soap. Not sure I'll be there for the next installment of this one unless a trusted friend reads it first and gives the green light.

There was some humor here that I enjoyed. There was some sweet and romantic times that made me swoon. I didn't dislike the book and I've seen much worse as far as editing. I guess I just had really high hopes after seeing all the great reviews and felt very disappointed and let down with what was here.

If you like daytime soaps, this may be right up your alley. For me it was Days of Our Lives meets Beverly Hillbillies. Toss in the editing, or lack of, and it just didn't work out so well.

I have to point out there are lots of 4 & 5 star ratings and reviews on Goodreads and Amazon so it's entirely possible that this is a case of "it's me not you". I desperately want one of my friends to read this just so I can see if there reaction is similar to mine. Hummm, who wants to volunteer and take one for the team?

Find more info on Goodreads!