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.
Falling for his teammate wasn’t in the game plan….
Blurb
Hockey is Gabe Martin's life. Dante Baltierra just wants to have some fun on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Falling for a teammate isn't in either game plan.
But plans change.
When Gabe gets outed, it turns his careful life upside-down. The chaos messes with his game and sends his team headlong into a losing streak. The last person he expects to pull him through it is Dante.
This season isn’t going the way Dante thought it would. Gabe’s sexuality doesn’t faze him, but his own does. Dante’s always been a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy, and having to hide his attraction to Gabe sucks. But so does losing, and his teammate needs him, so he puts in the effort to snap Gabe out of his funk.
He doesn’t mean to fall in love with the guy.
Getting involved with a teammate is a bad idea, but Dante is shameless, funny, and brilliant at hockey. Gabe can’t resist. Unfortunately, he struggles to share part of himself that he’s hidden for years, and Dante chafes at hiding their relationship. Can they find their feet before the ice slips out from under them?
BOOK 2
Book Title: Scoring Position (Hockey Ever After 2)
Author: Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: LC Chase
Length: 98 000 words/ 285 pages
Release Date: October 18, 2022
Genre: Contemporary M/M romance
Tropes: Opposites attract, roommates to lovers, age gap
Themes: Mental health, self-improvement, family pressure
Heat Rating: 5 flames
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Ryan Wright’s new hockey team is a dumpster fire. He expects to lose games—not his heart.
Ryan’s laid-back attitude should be an advantage in Indianapolis. Even if he doesn’t accomplish much on the ice, he can help his burned-out teammates off it. And no one needs a friend—or a hug—more than Nico Kirschbaum, the team’s struggling would-be superstar.
Nico doesn’t appreciate that management traded for another openly gay player and told them to make friends. Maybe he doesn’t know what his problem is, but he’ll solve it with hard work, not by bonding with the class clown.
It’s obvious to Ryan that Nico’s lonely, gifted, and cracking under pressure. No amount of physical practice will fix his mental game. But convincing Nico to let Ryan help means getting closer than is wise for Ryan’s heart—especially once he unearths Nico’s sense of humor.
Will Nico and Ryan risk making a pass, or will they keep missing 100 percent of the shots they don’t take?
Excerpt from WINGING IT
Dante waited in the lobby, curled into a chair that wasn’t quite big enough to be comfortable. He kept his back to the flow of people and his nose buried in his phone. Any other night, sure, he would be happy to sign autographs. Tonight… his brain was going to endlessly replay the scene he’d just walked in on.
How had he not known Gabe was into men? It seemed obvious now. Of course he never picked women up in bars or brought a girlfriend to a team event. Dante felt stupid for not noticing.
Somehow Dante had stumbled onto a huge secret.
And now he had to work out what to do about it.
First, though, apparently he was going to think about Gabe’s broad palm on his partner’s chest. Gabe was a big guy—two inches taller than Dante, even if Dante was more solidly built. His partner had been clinging to Gabe’s muscular shoulder.
He should stop thinking about it, but his brain was trying to fill in details. Where had Gabe’s other hand been? Had it been placed on his partner’s thigh? Had he been putting his weight on it to steady himself? Or maybe he’d used it to tilt the man’s face to the right angle.
Dante exhaled sharply. This was really, really not his business. Dwelling on it would not do him any favors. He needed to pretend everything was normal. And obsessing about your teammate feeling up some guy—and kissing, can’t forget the kissing—was not that.
So. Normal. He’d been sexiled by a roommate. That was fine! It had happened before. Today, actually. He hoped Yorkie was having a better night than Gabe.
Most importantly, sexiling was normal.
Was it hot in here?
Footsteps jarred him out of his spiral, and he looked up to see Gabe walking toward him, head down, shoulders hunched. He didn’t exactly have the look of the freshly laid about him.
Fuck.
Or, like, probably not.
Gabe dropped into the chair across from him. He was loudly projecting that he would rather stand in front of fifty of Kitty’s slap shots than have this conversation.
At least they were on even footing in that respect.
Dante put his phone away. “So, uh, sorry for cockblocking you.” Even if it’s kind of your fault. Who doesn’t use the Do Not Disturb sign? Why didn’t you tell me to pound rocks when I asked to share?
Considering the circumstances, he kept a lid on these criticisms. He could bring them up later, when Gabe didn’t look like he was about to puke all over the hotel lobby.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be a problem,” Gabe said. He slumped farther, but Dante thought his shoulders were relaxing too. “Did you strike out or something?”
“Sort of. We passed her ex on the way back to her place and she made it like ten more feet before she burst into tears. So we stopped at Dairy Queen for ice cream, and then she went to the bathroom and fixed her makeup and we took a selfie for her Instagram, and I came back here.”
The color returned to Gabe’s face and he met Dante’s gaze for the first time since that hideously awkward moment upstairs. “Guess neither of us is getting laid tonight,” he said, a little tentatively, like he wasn’t sure Dante would laugh.
“I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“Deal,” Gabe said. The lines of tension in his face disappeared under a relieved half smile.
Good. Dante was glad they’d settled that. “Great.” He yawned. “So can we go upstairs now? I’ve had just enough booze and ice cream to make me sleepy.”
When they got up to the hotel room, Dante said, “I wish you’d told me you liked guys.” His shoes thunked dully against the wall as he kicked them off. “I wouldn’t have tried so hard to hook you up with chicks last season.” Or last week.
Gabe stared at Dante’s shoes. Then he lined his own up neatly under the desk. “It’s not something I advertise.”
“No shit.” Dante shimmied out of his jeans.
After a beat, Gabe said, “You’re being really cool about this.”
Dante sat in the desk chair. He had a habit of saying the first thing that came to mind, and right now that was Actually, I’m kind of freaking out. He needed to take his time. “I mean, obviously I’m not mad or upset or whatever. I’m—accepting? Ugh, that’s a garbage word.” He huffed, frustrated with himself. “Look, you’re… gay?”
The muscle at the hinge of Gabe’s jaw bunched. “Yeah.”
“Cool.” He drummed the fingers of his left hand on the desktop, realized he was doing it, and forced himself to stop. “And obviously if you haven’t told the team, you’re expecting some of them to be assholes. And that sucks. Because as far as I’m concerned, my reaction? Is, like, a pretty low bar.”
Gabe rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, it’s not like you could come in and introduce yourself.”
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Dante was losing his grip on reality. “Yeah, maybe not. You mind if I shower now? I stink like dance club.”
“Sure. I’m just gonna….” Gabe picked up the television remote.
The television came on, and a moment later Dante closed the bathroom door behind him and started the water. Mechanically, he removed his clothes and stepped under the spray. The hot water sluiced over him, washing away the sweat and club grime and what had maybe been just a little too much hair gel.
But the image of Gabe kissing another man on the bed in their hotel room stuck with him, and now, in relative privacy and naked, alone with his thoughts, Dante was forced to confront the truth of his own semi.
“I did not see this coming,” he muttered as he reached for his shampoo.
About the Authors
Ashlyn Kane likes to think she can do it all, but her follow-through often proves her undoing. Her house is as full of half-finished projects as her writing folder. With the help of her ADHD meds, she gets by.
An early reader and talker, Ashlyn has always had a flair for language and storytelling. As an eight-year-old, she attended her first writers’ workshop. As a teenager, she won an amateur poetry competition. As an adult, she received a starred review in Publishers Weekly for her novel Fake Dating the Prince. There were quite a few years in the middle there, but who’s counting?
Her hobbies include DIY home decor, container gardening (no pulling weeds), music, and spending time with her enormous chocolate lapdog. She is the fortunate wife of a wonderful man, the daughter of two sets of great parents, and the proud older sister/sister-in-law of the world’s biggest nerds.
Morgan James is a clueless (older) millennial who’s still trying to figure out what they’ll be when they grow up and enjoying the journey to get there. Now, with a couple of degrees, a few stints in Europe, and more than one false start to a career, they eagerly wait to see what’s next. James started writing fiction before they could spell and wrote their first (unpublished) novel in middle school. They haven’t stopped writing since. Geek, artist, archer, and fanatic, Morgan tends to pass their free hours with in imaginary worlds and people on pages and screens—it’s an addiction. As is their love of coffee and tea. They live in Canada with their massive collection of unread books, where they are the personal servant of too many four-legged creatures.
It’s trick or treat for two smitten lovers in this seasonal holiday romance as Halloween approaches and a little unleashed magic lets the ghoul times roll. Forrest’s to-do list: 1. Convince Jonathan to move in with him. 2. No, seriously. That’s it.
It’s been nine months of playful bickering and bliss for Forrest Wilde and his boyfriend, Jonathan. But in order to move their relationship forward, Jonathan needs Forrest to find closure from his past.
Alexander Adler is back in town and dragging all of Forrest’s ghosts screaming into the light. Is there still a spark waiting to ignite between Forrest and his ex, or are they nothing more than toasted history? Forrest isn’t exactly eager to find out, given that sometimes the monsters under the bed are people who haunt us from days gone by.
Every autumn, the town of Sunset Surf comes alive in celebration of the season. But this year, when Forrest falls under a mysterious spell that forces him to forget the person he loves most, there will be plenty of spooks in store for the fun-loving and eccentric residents of this seaside village. Torn between flight and fright, Forrest must face his fears in order to make his way back to true love—or risk losing it forever.
Bone to be Wilde is a contemporary gay rom-com set in a small beach town on the Southern California coast. The story features an amnesia plot, hijinks and banter, corn maze capers, ghost stories, and a little black cat. Stop in for a spell if you’d like a Halloween treat! * This story follows the events of the first book in the series, Merry & Sprite, but may be read as a standalone.
Excerpt
The ghost story is read word for word until the bewitched dildo appears.
“That’s not ... you’re messing up the entire book, Forrest!”
Jonathan is sending him a withering glare from the worn and well-loved armchair he’s occupying. Forrest blinks lazily back at him, letting his mouth curve into a slow smile until Jonathan can’t resist and his frown breaks, the corners of his mouth lifting up too.
“That’s not how we learned it in school,” Jonathan says primly, but he’s biting at his cheek, trying not to laugh. That right there is one of Forrest's favorite things about his boyfriend. Ruffling his feathers and then watching him completely eat it up.
Which is preciously the reason he’s turning The Legend of Sleepy Hollow into gothic erotica as he reads aloud to Jonathan, tucked away in the reading nook at the local book shop. The try-before-you-buy section of the store is brimming with used paperbacks, each one more dog-eared and dusty than the last, scattered in senseless piles on shelves and spilling onto the floor.
It’s one of their usual haunts for a late afternoon date, and on this particular Saturday in mid-October, Forrest is trying to draw out their time together as much as he can.
“And then,” he continues in a sinister tone, “the women of Sleepy Hollow tied Ichabod up in the horse stables and gave the naughty schoolmaster his own education ... on strap-ons.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“Ichabod-od-od,” Forrest calls out, in a tone meant to annoy. “A curious and kinky spell had been cast upon him to bend over for anyone, at any time. Ichabod became the town—”
“Hush! Don’t talk about spells in front of...” Jonathan’s eyes go wide as he nods towards a little black cat, curled up soundly in a reading chair nearby. Lilith, he mouths silently.
There’s this kooky idea Jonathan’s latched onto about Lilith possessing magical powers. This came after he was struck on the head by a Christmas ornament and the fairy godfather capers that followed brought the two of them together. Forrest doesn’t like to think he got a boyfriend due to a braining, but here he is.
He’s not going to deny the possibility that Jonathan may have been under somebody’s spell when he mysteriously started getting psychic visions that led him into granting the wishes of local townsfolk. But Forrest is resistant to boarding the Lilith train without any proof other than Jonathan thinking she winked at him. And sparkled, like some sort of glitter fairy of cats, which definitely isn’t a thing that exists.
But the matter of wish-granting was not the first peculiar situation to occur around here, and many of these unexplained events happened long before Lilith trotted into town and charmed the entire village into taking her in. Though lately, she’s chosen Forrest’s bed to call her own. To be fair, he can’t blame her. His eight-hundred-count sheet set is amazing.
The truth is, there’s always been something in the water at Sunset Surf, and he’s not just talking about the radical waves.
About the Author
DANI LAKELY is a recovering people-pleaser who loves a proper cup of tea, days spent at the ocean, and helicopter parenting the birds who frequent her yard in a small seaside town on the West Coast of the United States. Pretty much, if your granny's into it, so is Dani!
Often to be found with a book in hand, she reads across many genres, but her favorite is queer romance. Dani's fondness for love stories carried over from reading to writing, and she is genuinely happy to share her kissing books with you.
Since she broke up with me, I get my needs met any time I want, without putting my heart on the line. Exactly how I like it.
But when she is called overseas and leaves me with our child, my bachelor lifestyle ends faster than you can say, “Daddy, I want a pony.”
I need help.
Problem is, help’s come in the form of an incredibly hot nanny.
My employee.
Who is much younger than me.
And also … a guy.
I watch Scott care for my kid and can’t help feeling like he clicks into place in her life.
When he looks at me, though … I get an entirely different feeling. One that makes me long for things I can’t have.
Like him.
Unmanageable is a contemporary m/m age gap romance about a starry-eyed nanny who wants hot-air balloon rides and singing telegrams and a grumpy single dad who most definitely does not.
Excerpt
I wish I had Murph’s confidence. Before that dustup with Edsel, I was positive he was the one, but now my optimism has left me, never to return.
“What do I do while I’m waiting for ‘the one’? And how do I solve my money issues?” My voice cracks. “I might lose my place.”
“How can I help?” He bites his lip. “Do you need to borrow some money?”
“No.” My tone comes out much more forcefully than I intend. But hell no. “I’m not getting into more debt, especially not to a friend. I just need to put my job search into hyperdrive. I have to get myself a job that pays more than the greeting card gig.”
“Now, that’s a solvable problem.” Murph’s eyes light up, and he claps. “What do you want to do for work? What skills do you have?”
“None.”
He glares at me. “You have to be good at something.”
“Well, I’m very good at arranging romantic dates, but that’s not exactly a salaried position.”
He tilts his head to the side. “You could be a wedding planner!”
I scratch the back of my neck. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.” My shoulders slump. “But I don’t know how to break into that business. And I need money fast.”
“Who needs money fast? You’re still job hunting?” A body hovers over us, and I look up to see my friend Jeremy Everett. After he and I got a tiny bit sauced one night here at V and V, he adopted me as a member of his booklover gang. Like Murph, Jeremy’s a force of nature, only he’s a bit more reformed fuckboi and a bit less princess. He runs a hand through his halo of dirty-blond hair. “You could sell plasma. Or sperm.”
“Hey,” I say, scooting over in the seat to let him in. “And, um, no.”
“I’m not gonna judge,” Jeremy says, holding up his hands. “You gotta do what you gotta do.”
“Even if I were desperate enough to bring the product of my ham candle to market, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to pass on my genetic material. The recipient might end up in as dire straits as me.”
“Product of your ham candle?” Murph and Jeremy say at the same time.
Shrugging, I hide my smile.
They burst out laughing, and then Murph clucks his tongue. “I’ve had about enough of ‘Bag on Scottybear’ time. No more, okay? We’re problem solving.”
“Fine.” I grimace. “Just no, uh, dissemination of my, um, semen. For profit. I mean, I don’t have a problem with it, but it’s not for me.”
They crack up again, and now we’re getting looks from around the bar. Vino and Veritas is all chatter and good vibes, but there is a point where you can be a little too loud. We might be getting there.
“Do you have to get back to work?” I ask Murph.
He checks his phone. “I have a couple minutes left of my break. And this is more entertaining than that time Jason and Tai lost bets to me and Emmett and had to stand on the street corner across from city hall in Speedos holding signs that said, ‘Love me, love my Nantucket Nad Bucket.’”
Jeremy raises his eyebrows. “I missed that one.”
“You did,” Murph and I say together.
About the Author
Leslie McAdam is a California girl who loves romance and well-defined abs. She lives in a drafty old farmhouse on a small orange tree farm in Southern California with her husband and two children. Leslie's first published book, The Sun and the Moon, won a 2015 Watty, which is the world's largest online writing competition. She's gone on to receive additional literary awards and has been featured in multiple publications, including Cosmopolitan.com. Her books have been Top 100 Bestsellers on both Amazon and Apple Books. Leslie is employed by day but spends her nights writing about the men of your fantasies.
At least that’s what I believed, until I met him. Julian Hill. The most famous rock star on the planet. A music god with untidy hair and the voice of an angel.
I’ll never be anything but out, and he has very good reasons to stay in the closet. After all, every move he makes is dissected, critiqued, and shared on social media, so he just wants a little privacy. I understand that. Truly, I do.
But no one makes me feel the way he does, and I’m pretty sure he has feelings for me as well. Which is inconvenient since his record label just hired me to sue him. Guess I should’ve sorted things out before I kissed him… Oops.
Ambiguous is an addictive MM bisexual romance novel about a fashion-forward rock singer who hates labels of all kinds (except for clothing), a dapper attorney who already has a (fake) boyfriend for a very good reason, and the possibility of love saving the day in a sensually stimulating “opposites-attract” romance story. In addition to the compassionate, big-hearted main characters and engaging, steamy interactions, LGBTQ+ romance readers are raving about the refreshingly honest discussions about homophobia, acceptance, bisexuality, and gay rights, which flow seamlessly into the heart-warming, soul-stirring love story.
About the Author
Leslie McAdam is a California girl who loves romance and well-defined abs. She lives in a drafty old farmhouse on a small orange tree farm in Southern California with her husband and two children. Leslie's first published book, The Sun and the Moon, won a 2015 Watty, which is the world's largest online writing competition. She's gone on to receive additional literary awards and has been featured in multiple publications, including Cosmopolitan.com. Her books have been Top 100 Bestsellers on both Amazon and Apple Books. Leslie is employed by day but spends her nights writing about the men of your fantasies.
Gorgeous movie star, workaholic, and the ultimate laid back, can’t-help-but-love-him kind of guy.
Oh, did I mention gorgeous?
But the reason I, Westley Lee, hid my attraction to the man was two-fold.
I loved my job. As his personal assistant, he depended on me and I’d come to crave being wanted by him, even though it wasn’t exactly as I imagined. Also, being part of his life, even in the peripheral, was better than not being with him at all. And while it screamed desperation on my part, every intimate thought I had about him was locked in the recesses of my mind as I kept up appearances.
Until one night changed everything.
Seeing Spencer in pain crumbled all the walls I’d built between us to protect my heart. And in a moment of pure weakness, he saw through my barriers and I was unable to keep him in the dark about my feelings.
But will we find our happily ever after when a threat endangers our entire future?
Excerpt
The downside, or sinful temptation as I defined it, of living behind the man and being involved in everything from having groceries delivered, overseeing the few household staff he employed on a part-time basis, and having full access to his house and his finances was my life became inundated with everything Spencer Atreus.
The man was stunning. The fact he was also a straight cis movie star with people always wanting something from him or craving the man himself never went to his head, and I refused to be a sycophant.
Regardless of the images flashing behind my eyelids of the man with a gorgeous smile and beautifully sculpted body and what he could do to me in that bed, I locked all the fantasies down in the private recesses of my mind and drifted off as blackness descended.
A familiar, yet distant ring jolted me out of bed. I tried to blink the sleep from my eyes, but the gritty, dry discomfort meant I’d left my contacts in when I’d dropped off into slumber. Ignoring the irritation blinking caused and concentrating on the insistent sound, I scrambled toward it and on the fourth ring, I answered with a short, “What?”
“Lee?”
All the years of daily reminders I’d given, lecturing at him about how much I hated being called by my last name, Spencer refused to call me anything else. But at that moment, I shoved back my irritation as the urgency in his voice caught me off guard and worst-case scenarios ran through my head.
“What’s wrong? Do you need me to pick you up?”
There was a shuffling, as though the phone was being wrestled away, and then another voice came on the line. One I avoided at all costs.
“Hey, sexy? Someone threw a punch, and it struck—”
“Where are you?” I demanded in a low growl.
I whipped around and strode toward the bathroom, holding the phone against my ear with my shoulder, and washed my hands. After I cleaned my fingers, leaving them wet, I yanked the dried contacts from around my corneas and sighed in relief. I added eye drops to clear up the redness and irritation. In a rush, I cleaned my glasses before I pulled on some jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. It was March in California and the nights could get cold.
He was still rambling about something that had nothing to do with the current location of one Spencer Atreus, so I barked, “Where?”
“At the house, but you—”
Not proud of my actions, I hung up on Spencer's friend and constant flirt, Mason Dawes, and stuck my feet in sneakers before I snagged my keys and wallet, locked up, and started up toward the main house.
It wasn’t as though I didn’t like Mason. I hadn’t allowed myself to get to know him because something about the man felt… off, and so I avoided him. He was never serious about anything, aside from maybe his career, and I refused to tolerate his attempts at chatting me up. Although it’d never come up during my employment with Spencer, Mason spotted me at Bayou, a West Hollywood gay bar early in my employment. That night, I tried finding another man who’d allow me to get over the stupid fascination I had with Spencer, but it was one of several nights of turning down offer after offer before I understood I’d have to live without. There was no substitute for Spencer in my eyes. And as far as I knew, Mason hadn’t yet told his friend.
About the Author
Valerie resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband. While she had been interested in writing a romance novel for years, it wasn’t until she wrote her first book that she really became hooked, and now she can’t stop. She has notebooks full of ideas, and she plans to write most of them in the years to come.
When she’s not writing or learning about the craft of writing, she can be found surfing the internet way too much, watching Investigation Discovery and thinking that her neighbors are up to no good, and finding new ways to get her husband to laugh.
Luca Bassani enjoyed a quiet, ordinary life. As an IT guru, most of his time was spent engrossed in technology and away from people. Now all that’s changed. As the one man who is a compatible donor, he’s suddenly essential to keeping his alpha healthy and preventing him from succumbing to The Slow Death. But serving his alpha, Zander Kingston, is something Luca is proud to do.
Diesel Jones is an enforcer. Following in his father’s footsteps, he has big boots to fill. But he’s focused and dedicated to the East Territory pack and avoids anything that distracts him from his duty. His dedication, together with his brawn and brains, ensure his reputation as being the best at his job.
When a possible threat on Alpha Zander Kingston’s life is uncovered, tensions rise within the pack. Security is increased and Diesel is assigned as the personal bodyguard for Luca. They find themselves paired against the enemy while battling their growing attraction.
Diesel must keep Luca safe and ensure his alpha’s life by doing so. But pack rivalry is strong and when threats become actions, suddenly Diesel is in the race of his life to ensure the future of the pack and to save the person who has come to mean everything to him.
The Final Salvation is part of the Four Packs Trilogy. While it can be read as a standalone, to ensure maximum enjoyment, it is best read in series order.
“Alpha, we came as soon as we got your message. We’re here to accompany to you to the North Territory as soon as you’re ready.” The one that spoke was the head enforcer, a big man with grey hair that somehow made him seem less intimidating—until he turned his eyes on Luca. They were not the warm, friendly eyes of someone’s grandfather, but the cold emotionless glare of a serious enforcer.
“Luca and my mate will also be joining us. I want one of you on each of them,” Zander directed.
The head enforcer bristled but bowed his head in respect. “Of course, Alpha. I suggest we take two vehicles. That way it won’t be quite so obvious that we’re all traveling together. The less conspicuous the better.”
One of the enforcers was familiar to Luca, but he couldn’t place where he knew him from. He was younger than the others, but in height and bulk he was bigger than them. He scanned the room while Zander spoke more in depth to the older enforcer, as Marrok watched on. He had yet to start the transfusion, and Luca wondered if they’d still be doing a treatment. When Luca’s and the enforcer’s eyes locked on each other, the strange feeling Luca had earlier intensified. The enforcer’s eyes widened in shock, but just as suddenly as it had happened, he looked away. Luca narrowed his eyes as he focused on the enforcer. His hair was cut short, and his eyes were both intelligent and vigilant. He seemed to see everything and analyze it as either a threat or a minor annoyance. He was all muscle, and it was no small feat that his shirt didn’t explode from all it contained.
Luca laughed at his thoughts, making everyone look. A blush crept up from his neck to his cheeks. “Sorry, I was just remembering something funny I saw on television,” he mumbled.
About the Authors
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.
Nic Starr lives in Australia where she tries to squeeze as much into her busy life as possible. Balancing the demands of a corporate career with raising a family and writing can be challenging but she wouldn’t give it up for the world.
Always a reader, the lure of m/m romance was strong and she devoured hundreds of wonderful m/m romance books before eventually realising she had some stories of her own that needed to be told!
When not writing or reading, she loves to spend time with her family–an understanding husband and two beautiful daughters–and is often found indulging in her love of cooking and planning her dream home in the country.
You can find Nic on Facebook, Twitter and her blog. She’d love it if you stopped by to say hi.
