Tag Team Review: Lovers Leap by J.L. Merrow

If they looked, would they ever leap?

Good-looking, confident, and doted on by his widowed mum, Michael is used to thinking only of himself. Getting shoved off an Isle of Wight pier by an exasperated ex ought to come as a wake-up call—but then he meets Rufus and he’s right back to letting the little head take charge. Rufus is cute, keen, and gets under Michael’s skin in a disturbing way.

Would-be chef Rufus can’t believe his luck when a dripping wet dream of a man walks out of the sea on his birthday, especially when Michael ends up staying at the family B&B. Life is perfect—at least until Michael has to go home to the mainland.

Rufus can’t leave the island for reasons he’s entirely neglected to mention. And though Michael identifies as bi, breaking his mum’s heart by coming out and having an actual relationship with a guy has never been his plan. With both men determined to keep their secrets, a leap of faith could land them in deep water.


A Tag Team Review for J.L. Merrow's Lovers Leap by Sheziss and Cupcake

Contains SPOILERS

Guest Reviewer: Sheziss

***DNF 62%***

***Why I suffered here: spoilerish review***

This is too ridiculous to be taken seriously.

When I was 16 I went with the class to see a theatre play in English. It was The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. The play was good enough, and I liked the leading actor a lot. But in one moment of the play a character told a joke and the rest laughed. And then awkward silence from the public. Until one of my mates from the first row said: “Humor inglés”, and THAT’S when we ALL laughed.

Because the joke was stupid.

Not because it was British.

Oscar Wilde’s irony is the best.

But this? This is a mussel abortion.

I could definitely not find the normal here.

And by normal, I mean common sense.

The MCs truly deserve each other.

They only have 3 neurons: one begins in the left ear, another one begins in the right ear, they find each other somewhere in the middle of the empty head and that’s where a third one connects them both directly to the groin.

There is no other explanation for this nonsense.

I felt like an idiot reading this.

It’s not a feeling I would want to share with you.

Michael is an asshole. Egocentric, arrogant, selfish, disgusting and disrespectful. His jokes are out of place. His comments are offensive. Everything he says or does rubs me the wrong way with almost no exception. Not even clumsiness excuses him, because he has no conscience and no ability to put himself in another person’s shoes. 0% empathy.

Saying “you can suck me” or objectifying your partner in such a rude way is not sexy at all. Nobody says you have to give flowers and hearts to all your dates but there is class and then there is class.

His dick thinks for him.

Oh man, that sucks. Now what do we do with you?

Oh, right.

So you may think I was pleased when his girlfriend pushes him from the pier and he falls into the sea in February. Error. This crude attempt to make us feel sympathy for him and get the sense that “he got what he deserved” didn’t fool me. I saw it for what it was, a stupid action from a stupid girl who fucked a stupid guy for a stupid reason. He was there for fun and the girl having dreams with him when he obviously had demonstrated he only wanted the fun and nothing else doesn’t make him guilty. Even when he’s a dick. It was so preposterous I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was reading this scene.

That’s when Michael gets to the beach and Rufus has a vision of Neptune coming out of the sea James Bond-like. And he thinks that’s the best that could ever happen to him. Are you for real? This is so ridiculous and frivolous I almost can’t bear it.

So they go to Rufus’s place to give Michael some clothes and warm him up. No, this is not the porn movie you were watching yesterday, although it may ring a bell. So of course that leads to some sex with Michael’s gems coming out of his mouth (he should shut up, he’s prettier that way) and me myself pulling my eyes out with a fork in the room next door. But the climactic moment came when Michael writes his phone number on Rufus’s forehead with a permanent marker.

That was. Epic.

So what does Rufus do?

Look at him with enamored eyes.

No, I’m not kidding here.

He stares at him as if he was the best man in the universe.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Hilarious.

Even though he’s getting out of the door in that exact minute.

I personally believe “humiliating” is the word you are looking for for this mindfuck.

You are welcome.

Rufus needs therapy. Seriously. Falling for this guy. Don’t you have a little of self-respect? You need to work on that, man. I also strongly recommend to check your eyes to discard a blindness, after the required electroencephalogram, of course. Could be serious.

So Michael flees and goes to the hotel. And surprise surprise, just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, Murphy proves you wrong. The hotel manager informs him his ex-girlfriend is gone and that he himself has to pay for the whole stay, even when the are several more days reserved. His bag is ready and the lady denies him the right to have a room because he doesn’t give anything to “people like him”. Meaning, assholes.

I agree with the diagnosis but not with the treatment. Not even when he’s soaking wet in England in the height of February.

This attitude is outrageous. A hotel manager behaving like this? Jumping into a client’s business and having an opinion about what had happened and taking a side all of a sudden and kicking him out because you don’t like them is apparently enough justification for this. Do you really believe it’s normal seeing a doctor kicking a grumpy man out of the operating room just because he’s not easy-going? A pilot saying that he won’t take an idiot to his destiny because he had argued with his mother at home? A policeman letting someone die because their jokes are terrible?

Nobody believes this! NO WAY a hotel manager would behave like this. This lack of professionalism is unprecedented. Above all when she’s making you pay the whole stay even though she doesn’t allow you to stay throughout it. It would be more honest to let the person leave and not demand any money back, or at least only make him pay the days he had indeed stayed, if the client is so against someone’s beliefs. It goes without saying you are taking advantage of the situation, and also that your motivations and morals are pretty weak and embarrassing. I would sue her and write on the book of complaints and with a good reason. It would come down hard on her and her bullshit would be erased sooner rather than later. What face would you have then, bitch?

I forgive her; she’s just another brainless girl in a cast full of brainless characters.

What does Rufus do meanwhile?

He stares at his forehead in the mirror seeing the phone number as if it would tell him the meaning of life AND the next largest unknown prime number.

Wrapped up in one forehead.

Isn’t it amazing? I want a forehead like that one.

He stares and stares and is close to meet the criteria of brain dead and/or intracranial hemorrhage when he suddenly realizes one thing and that’s when the Earth stops its rotation: “Oh no, daddy is going to see this!”

Pretty mature.

He tries to clean it.

Oh no! He forgot to write the number down.

Pretty clever.

He tries to save the skin cells with the ink still stuck between them.

Phew, the cells and the ink are still there.

Becaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaause… it’s a permanent marker?

No, because he “has the best stratum corneum in a forehead, yay!”, he must have thought instead.

Anyway, Michael is still wet and with no place to be. But he still has grey matter. Even when you don’t believe it at this stage of the game. He goes to Rufus’s house.

Best idea EVER.

And you say, “Wow, that’s brave, that guy is going to kick you out for sure”.

But Rufus is the same way as before, with the puppy eyes and a bandanna on his head covering his first class stratum corneum.

I can’t keep talking about this, I only want to add that the ONLY moment in which I liked ONE character was that scene in which Rufus introduces his best friend, Liz, a lesbian, to Michael. She says something of the sort of “Do you really like this asshole? AYFKM?”. Bravo, girl, you said what I had been shouting for hours at the wall with no response.

But then she was just another stupid character in the large list. What a pity.

The humor here didn’t humor me. It was painful. And the worst thing is that all of this is supposed to be funny! No, it’s not because it was British humor and I was not clever enough to catch it. It was just a stupid book. And I’m becoming allergic to bullshit lately. That’s all.

I can’t believe this is the author who wrote “Muscling Through”. Even more, I REFUSE to acknowledge this little fact. I’ll draw a thick veil over this. Ignorance is a bliss. It’s ironic, in Muscling Through the MC is supposed to be dumb and he’s not, whereas in Lovers Leap they are supposed to be skilled, and they are not.

Reviewer:  Cupcake

In 2016 I've been trying to diversify, drink different Kool-Aid, if you will. J.L. Merrow's books have been a fixture in my feed, so when I saw this on NetGalley I thought carpe diem. And let me just say that I get it. I get why she's popular. This is an easy, low angst read. I get it, but I just didn't connect with it. Everything is too easy breezy, too corny, too cutesy, things happen too fast. I guess I need for there to be some struggle, something I can hold on to. I need some depth in my cuteness and Lovers Leap is trope-y like a sitcom with caricaturish characters. It's trying too hard and maybe pandering?

I still have no idea what Rufus sees in Michael other than he's hot. I understand wanting to fuck the hot guy. EVERYONE wants to fuck the hot guy. But you don't date the hot guy you fucked 15 mins after you met him. You set up a "friendship" and by "friendship" I mean fuck buddy. That's why god invented fuck buddies, so you can fuck the hot guy and not have to put up with his douchedom on the regular. And make no mistake Michael is a tool. 

What's even more incomprehensible to me is the level of reality suspension required to believe that these two guys met, fucked, had a duck, some black pudding and a BJ over the course of three days and during that time decided to radically change their lives and ride off into the sunset.

I'm a logical person and I realize trying to apply logic to something as illogical as love is a fool's errand, but within the context of romance lit the author's sole job is to convince me of precisely that. Show me it can happen in three days. Everything between these two happens at lightening speed. Why does Michael decide 26 yrs and 3 days is the time to come out as bisexual to his hyper religious and homophobic mother? AND introduce her to the boyfriend!

Why would Rufus drop the bomb of a secret on his parents after three days and a boat load of unanswered questions about Michael's past, present and future? 

I need more than a day sightseeing on the Isle of Wight to believe a lasting love connection has formed and moving in together seems a good idea.

Just DOOOOOEEEETTTTTTTT!

Otherwise I'm left thinking both characters are capricious nimrods, a boatload of disbelief and a crick in my neck from all the head tilting. Good thing I've got my chiro on stand by. Merrow's breakneck pacing, predictable storyline and lack of depth in her characters has left me with the feeling that we're probably not well suited. I did like Rufus with his nervous energy thing and that he likes to cook I can identify with, but why in the Sam hell does he want to hitch his wagon to Michael? 

I'm certain this hokey brain candy fluff will work for others. If you need a light, easy read, that's cutesy and you're able to really stretch that suspend reality rubber band this is a book for you.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Find out more on Goodreads.

Release Day Review: The Queen and the Homo Jock King by TJ Klune

Do you believe in love at first sight?

Sanford Stewart sure doesn't. In fact, he pretty much believes in the exact opposite, thanks to the Homo Jock King. It seems Darren Mayne lives for nothing more than to create chaos in Sandy’s perfectly ordered life, just for the hell of it. Sandy despises him, and nothing will ever change his mind.

Or so he tells himself.

It's not until the owner of Jack It—the club where Sandy performs as drag queen Helena Handbasket—comes to him with a desperate proposition that Sandy realizes he might have to put his feelings about Darren aside. Because Jack It will close unless someone can convince Andrew Taylor, the mayor of Tucson, to keep it open. 

Someone like Darren, the mayor’s illegitimate son.

The foolproof plan is this: seduce Darren and push him to convince his father to renew Jack It’s contract with the city.

Simple, right?

Wrong.

I let this book make me its bitch and I loved every minute of it. You have to read Tell Me It’s Real to appreciate the sequel, no doubt. Sandy/Helena is too big for one book and knowing his backstory through Tell Me It’s Real makes him that much more amazing. Helena is all the things that Sandy is not but wants to be. Helena is bold and fearless where Sandy is shy and sweet. And, thank sweet baby jeebus, he has that special brand of manic that makes me love this authors characters. But, Sandy is more than Helena and to get the full scope of his character, you need both books. I loved reading about Paul, Vincent and Paul’s family again, I missed them. And, Charlie. Oh Charlie, I’m so glad I got more of his story. The Most Awkward Brunch was most awkwardly amazing. If you’ve read other books by TJ Klune, you know there is no better writer of awkwardly fucked up and hilarious family situations than him. No one, don’t even try.

I can’t give enough snortles and love to Sandy’s meltdowns. They are epic and insane and the ‘logic’ stream they follow amuses me greatly. Plus, they are cathartic to Sandy so we all win. But, as much as I love them, I love the fierce protective streak that Sandy has, he usually channels Helena at that point, but that is one trait that Sandy and Helena have in common. We saw it a lot between Paul and Sandy in Tell Me It’s Real, but I got an even stronger sense of it in The Queen. Sandy will cut a bitch if they mess with his family. As much as Sandy may have had an irritatingly incessant boner for Darren even with the lingering hate, as the story progressed, and they two of them worked together to save Jack It, that protective bubble expanded to include Darren and it was just damned sweet. That was when I totally bought into Sandy’s true feels for Darren. Lust for a hot homo jock king is one thing, wanting to protect him is another level all-together.

The plan of deception and shenanigans that Sandy and Darren have to save Jack It gets more involved and convoluted as the story progresses. Just like no one can write and awkward family gathering like TJ Klune, no one can write shenanigans like he can either. Every progression of the story added to the what-the-fuckery and it was hilarious to read. As fun as the story arc itself is to read, it’s the conversations and the rambling inner monologues that are the gold here. BUT, there was more than just the fun, there were serious feels that this author is so good at sneaking in on us readers. He really got me good a couple of times in this one. Good on you TJ Klune, you had me snickering, snorting in a most unladylike manner, swooning and heart rendered all within a page or two. It was an amazingly fun ride and I was ready to read again right after I finished. I’ll be anxiously awaiting the audio version to come out to relive ALL the moments again.

For more info and purchase links, head over to Dreamspinner Press.

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

Guest Review: Hoofbeats by A.J. Marcus and Nicole Godfrey

After a run of bad luck, gifted horse trainer Cole Frasier thinks he’s lost his touch. When he’s offered three times his normal rate to gentle a stallion, he needs the money badly enough he jumps at the opportunity, even if his boss is of questionable morality.

Once he meets Midnight Blood, he knows there’s something special about the horse, but he doesn’t know how special until he begins sharing dreams with the magnificent steed.

Derek Dancing Hawk is a horse shifter trapped in his horse form due to guilt over losing the wild herd he was guarding. When he meets Cole, as Midnight Blood, he wants to find a way to be human again. During a fight between Cole and the ranch foreman, he manages to shift and save Cole, but his transformation from horse to human is captured on camera. This not only gives Cole’s boss blackmail material, but also creates the need to warn the horse shifter council of the threat to their anonymity. The existence of shifters is a closely guarded secret, one they will go to great lengths to keep.

Guest Reviewer: Fantasy Living

Hoofbeats was a very unique experience for me. Horse shifter Derek Dancing Hawk was unique. I liked him as a character but I felt he was disconnected and naive about the community he belonged to. I didn’t quite understand how the community worked. There was talk of training as a boy, to become a guardian to wild horses, about how close he was with his grandmother, but there still seemed to be a disconnect between the family members, like once you were trained up, you were on your own, unless there was trouble, and then suddenly you were staring at shifter enforcers who would kill you because you did something wrong. It didn’t really gel with me. Some work on the world building was needed for me to understand the why’s of it all.

The relationship between Cole and Derek started off well while Derek was stuck in Horse form. I loved the dream sharing. That was really cool. I liked the reactions Cole had when he awoke and realised what was going on. It allowed the story to progress with the relationship building, without it seeming weird. It also allowed for information sharing, and backstory, without it turning into a flashback scenario that could potentially stall the story. Once Derek was able to shift to human again, I felt the relationship building grind to a halt.

Something that really irritated me was the internal monologuing. I prefer paraphrasing when reading internal dialogue, or short internal dialogue, accompanied by paraphrasing; not internal monologues. It caused the story to drag for me until they were able to communicate, and still it didn’t really end. It was thrown in every now and then. I didn’t like it at all. Without it, the story would have been much better.

The plot was decent. I didn’t love it, but it was acceptable. There were other ways the characters could have met, but I accept it for what it is.

The weird wife of the owner was … weird. I hope the authors are going somewhere with her, because it felt like an entire sub-plot was being developed but never fully made it to the light. I think it would have added an edge if that was developed further.

All in all I think this story was interesting. I enjoyed the bits and pieces of Native-American folklore thrown in to tie things together in this world. As an Australian, I don’t know a lot about this indigenous culture, but enough to understand the references that were made. I think there could have been more, and maybe if this turns into a series, or other stories are created with this same world, some additional work on the cultural, spiritual, and traditional aspects of the shifter community would help to take it to the next level.

Check out on Goodreads or Booklikes! 
Buy on Dreamspinner Press

Guest Review: Between Ghosts by Garrett Leigh

In 2003, journalist Connor Regan marched through London to add his voice to a million others, decrying the imminent invasion of Iraq. Eight months later, his brother, James, was killed in action in Mosul.

Three years on, Connor finds himself bound for Iraq to embed with an elite SAS team. He sets his boots on the ground looking for closure and solace—anything to ease the pain of his brother’s death. Instead he finds Sergeant Nathan Thompson.

Nat Thompson is a veteran commander, hardened by years of combat and haunted by the loss of his best friend. Being lumbered with a civilian is a hassle Nat doesn’t need, and he vows to do nothing more than keep the hapless hack from harm’s way.

But Connor proves far from hapless, and too compelling to ignore for long. He walks straight through the steel wall Nat’s built around his heart, and when their mission puts him in mortal danger, Nat must lay old ghosts to rest and fight to the death for the only man he’s ever truly loved.

Guest Reviewer:  Sheziss

I love Garrett Leigh and I liked the book. But I wasn’t feeling this.

I read it with pleasure because I love her style and her writing, her characters are interesting and more than they seem at first sight. She’s engaging and that’s why I kept reading. But the love story lacked passion, IMO.

Connor is a journalist, or a hack, as people keep calling him. His brother James died during service three years ago and he still has questions. He knows little to nothing about how James died, but what eats away at him is whether he had been supportive enough, whether his brother knew that Connor loved him and worried about him. Because he’s been fearing he didn’t pay enough attention to James as he should have. He applies to a time with some SAS soldiers in Middle East. To see how he lived, what he thought about, and why he did all he did.

Nat is a SAS soldier and a veteran one. He has seen too many people die, too many mates die. He claims he doesn’t feel anything, that he doesn’t care about what happens around him. But Connor notices it’s all a façade, and soon he’s head over heels for him, wondering what he is thinking, what he is doing, worrying about his well-being and obsessing over him and his sex-appeal.

At this point I feared it would be the typical don’t-stick-your-nose-in-our-business relationship. Because if you get a secretive soldier and a journalists who inquire about everything he’s doing and how and why and when, the normal result would be exasperation from both sides. That happened for a short while, but Nat soon discovers that Connor is in fact a nice person, and he develops a fondness that turns into friendship, and from the chemistry there is only one step to form a deeper and more significative bond.

But are they ready for that?

My problem here is that I didn’t feel any chemistry, not sexual nor any other kind. There was not any thought about “wow, this could completely work, I wanna see it happening” in me. I must say their friendship is believable, but I just couldn’t understand what they saw in each other romantically speaking. The first half of the book I was reading it all with a little sense of resignation. I was the whole way comparing it to Slide and Rare, my favorite books of this author's, and that’s not fair. They are completely different stories but I still resented I couldn’t perceive any spark from Nat and Connor.

Don’t get me wrong, the plot is solid and very well-built. I was very invested in getting to know their day-to-day routine and the conflicts they have to solve during their stay in Iraq and the hunt on one of the most wanted terrorists in the country. It’s a perspective I don’t get to see often in the books I read, and I have no background to say whether it reflects a reality or not, but it rang true to me, and that’s enough for me to get fully into a story.

Somewhere along the way I could connect with the characters, but it was very deep into the story when I felt a real feeling between them. It was quiet and I almost didn’t realize something was different in the air. It just came and I felt ansty about their love to last forever. The end is beautiful and gives a decent closure. But I must add that I could see it coming, that about James, Connor’s brother, and Pogo, Nat’s best friend, being the same person. Not a big surprise and I was a little disappointed because the author could have known this and decided to be less obvious, but she didn’t. In spite of it all, it was a good book, and it was worthy of my time.

***Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

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Review: The Innocent Auction by Victoria Sue

London 1810.

Their love was a death sentence.

Deacon, Viscount Carlisle, was aware of the slums and gin-lanes of London. Just as he was aware of the underground traffic that furnished the brothels and bath houses with human innocents. He was also aware that the so-called justice system would hang the accused without much of an attempt at a defense, unless the unfortunate had deep pockets to pay for it.

He just hadn’t expected to be directly involved in any of it.

It started with a plea for help and ended with forbidden love, the love between a Viscount and a stable-boy. An impossible love and a guarantee of the hangman's noose.

Will Deacon fight for Tom? Will he risk the death sentence and take that fight from the stately halls of his English mansion to the horrors of Newgate Prison and the slums of London?

Or will he realize that if he doesn't, death will be a welcome end to the loneliness of the sentence he is already living?

"Their love was so forbidden that their very touch could wrap a hangman's noose around them. The very reason they had come to London should send a warning racing through his veins, but it wasn't fear that warmed his blood, it was desire that snaked such a salacious path."

If I have to describe "The Innocent Auction" by Victoria Sue in a few words: passionate, intense, forbidden and well plotted.

This is a story about forbidden love between a Earl and his stablehand that would have never happened if not for circumstances, or a fine writer's hand pulling the strings. The story begins with an innocent auction, a private sale of young "virginal" boys to molly houses. Caught your attention? Let's get the triggers out the way: attempted non-con, death (minor character), kidnapping. This tale mixes grit, some realism and snapshots of the persecution gays faced in the Regency era - imprisonment, pillory, hanging. Horrific.

Deacon is a rescuer. He is the heir to an earldom that is up to its ears in debt. But he will fight for what is right. He is kindhearted to his staff, he truly was a good man. A rarity in the gentry. Know what else he is? A closeted homosexual. He didn't acknowledge that part of himself until later in life, late twenties. It was a young man, eighteen year old Tom, whom he rescued from the innocent auction nearly five years ago, that gets him to finally realize something. The reason why he was perfunctory (if that) with hetero sexual relations, had to close his eyes to get hard...was because he was attracted to the same sex. And he is very attracted to supple, blonde Tom. For Tom, it was likewise.

The attraction happens very soon in the book, like before 20% kind of soon. When that usually happens in books, I get nervous. Can the author have enough talent to carry the story for a novel length? I had nothing to worry about. The Innocent Auction had twists, turns and action. And it's also not a PWP, it has plot for days. Some subplots got a little indulgent and angst happy (my biggest quibble is the last action/suspense subplot in the the final 10% before the epilogue - how could that happen so easily?) But the intensity of Deacon and Tom's attraction was the main plot pushing this story.

"How had it got to this? [...] That feeling that there was something missing. That everything you wanted in life was condemned as a sin. Who were other people to judge?"

The story alternated in POV, it waited a little long in the beginning to get to Tom's POV but it improved somewhere toward the middle, it's not a 50-50 but it definitely gets the points and subplots across. Tom had a harsh life, at first I thought his attraction was just misconstrued gratefulness from being liberated from the evil pimp, Samson. But thankfully his POV finally kicked in.

In between the harsh realities for both characters, fighting their feelings though it's apparent they're made for each other, Tom not thinking he is good enough, Deacon trying to rebuild through an unwanted marriage proposal (he needs cash that bad) and trying to save his family and their reputation, the romance is yummy, a little quick especially for two men who have never acted on their attraction to men before. It could be considered insta-love but they had the depth of feelings to back it up.

"I want you desperately. I want to feel your skin, naked, beneath me. I want to hold you in my arms while I taste every inch of your body. I want to sleep in your arms. I want yours the last face I see tonight, and the first one I see tomorrow. I want to wake up in the middle of the night and be able to kiss you while you sleep, because I can. Because tonight society doesn't judge us. We owe nothing to no man, except to each other."

When the sex did finally happen, it was hot - erotic, great dirty talk...delicious.

What kept this from being a 5 Heart Read for me? The neat ending and insta-love (hey it's a double edged sword). The men struggle and at a few points, I could not see how a HEA could ever happen (it does) but after all of that, it felt like the chips got stacked pretty easily for that epilogue. There were a few editing mishaps for me like how one prisoner's sentence changed from hanging in one chapter to deportment in the next.

The story does a very good job of convincing the reader about Deacon and Tom's intense connection. They have a brief history where it was instrumental in making Tom into the man he became. His ending would have been far different and sad. I think the story's strongest points are the way the research didn't read like an info dump. We're taken to Newgate prison, we get to see the harsh realities for the poor and working class. We get to glimpse Regency London's underbelly.

Victoria Sue is a new to me author. And after reading The Innocent Auction, it most certainly won't be my last. I do love finding good MM Regency when I can, I think Regency period lovers might need to check this out...soon.

For more information on Goodreads or Booklikes!