Break Me Daddy by Skyler Snow

Title: ⟫ Break Me Daddy 

Author: ⟫ Skyler Snow 

Blurb: ⟫ I did something stupid. 

Something needlessly, hopelessly, stupid and now my past is catching up with me. 

I knew when I saw that cash I should have left it alone, but I needed it. And doesn’t the world owe me a little bit of luck? A little reprieve from the constant BS? 

 

Sorry. I can’t help but to rant about my situation because the truth is that I am royally screwed. You see, I stole money from the mob. 

One stupid decision made in the heat of the moment and now I’m running for my life. A friend gave me enough money to hide… 

But he’s coming for me. 

Amadeo wants to possess everything that I am and punish me for what I’ve done. Maybe I could take that if he wasn’t so intent on making me call him ‘Daddy’. 

And maybe I wouldn’t care about that title, if it didn’t make me tingly all over. But I despise him and I always will. No matter what my stupid body…and heart…has to say. 

Break me Daddy is a full-length MM Daddy romance with morally gray characters, a possessive and demanding Daddy, a willful and bratty boy, a load of bloody violence and a well deserved HEA. 

Review: ⟫ I seem to have come across a lot of stories lately that are Mafia based, but I was very interested in the whole Mafia Daddy thing so I went with it. 

For a start, this story does include some bloody violence, unlike other ‘dark’ books that I’ve read recently. And it was interesting how Six reacted to the violence – he didn’t look at Amadeo through rose-tinted glasses, he knew that he was a gangster. 

And Amadeo did a few things throughout the book that made me wince more than once – I mean, his reaction to Angelo upsetting Six made my jaw drop! 

 The sex was pretty hot, and the storyline was relatively engaging. I think the main issue I had was that I found I didn’t really care for either of the main characters – they didn’t grab me in any way, and I kinda lost motivation for reading when I realised that I didn’t like them. 

I actually found Six to be really irritating a lot of the time, and although he admits that he often does things without thinking them through, I wanted to smack him a couple of times for his unthinking actions. 

The story was well written and had an interesting plot-line apart from the relationship between the two leads. I really enjoyed reading the interactions of Amadeo and his siblings, and thought that was very realistically conveyed. It was all in all an enjoyable read. 

I received an arc from GRR.

Bad Wrong Things by C.P Harris

Title: ⟫ Bad Wrong Things 

Author: ⟫ C.P Harris 

Blurb: ⟫ One promise. 

One summer to see it through. 

One explosive love fuelled by mutual obsession. 

The day Clint sees his son, Joey, off to basic training, the young man he’s devoted his life to extracts one promise from him: spend the summer doing something selfish for a change. The request seems harmless enough until Joey puts his best friend, Raven, in charge of seeing it through. 

Raven would do anything for the people who took him in as a teen, and, when it comes to Clint, anything comes without limits. When encouraging Clint to explore his selfish side reveals Raven’s love for the older man, Raven is shocked to discover his feelings may not be unrequited. Not only are they returned, but all his darkest, most hidden desires have finally found their match. 

Clint’s possession feeds every craving Raven’s ever known. Raven’s openness provides Clint the freedom he’s longed for to take whatever he wants, and soon boundaries are abandoned at the bedroom door. 

As summer’s promise bleeds into winter, and the threat of Joey’s impending return looms over their heads, Clint and Raven love faster and harder. When Joey’s disapproval ends up being the least of their concerns, Raven and Clint go to desperate extremes to stay close because something is better than nothing. 

Facing an uncertain future, both men are left wondering if you can ever go too far or risk too much and still come out on the other side whole. 

Bad Wrong Things is an age-gap, best friend’s dad romance with two possessive MCs and themes of hurt/comfort and second chances. Both MCs are consenting adults and eventually get their hard-earned HEA.  

Review: ⟫ Oh my days, you had better buckle up for this one because it is a seriously hot and wild ride! 

From the first chapter, I was absolutely gobsmacked and enthralled by this romance. This was not the typical Best Friend’s Dad romance that I was used to reading – this went straight into hurt/comfort and man, did it hurt! 

I loved how flawed all of the characters were, but most importantly, I was fully in with Raven and Clint as they explored something that quickly became possessive, obsessive and all the way bad and wrong. This book never ceased to amaze me and was a real page-turner, if only because you knew something BIG had happened, but you were waiting for the explanation. 

My heart bled for Joey – far away from home and unaware of the bombshell that he had not only dropped, but also the one that awaited him. And what a homecoming! 

Raven and Clint! Well, I don’t think I have proper words for how Raven and Clint made me feel. They were so deeply into each other, it was hard to see how they could have a happy ever after – their relationship might have been exactly what they both needed, but it wasn’t healthy. 

As shown by some of the depths that they fell to. 

The sex scenes were hot (and numerous), but it was actually the moments of quiet, the times when they talked, encouraged each other to follow their dreams, peeled themselves raw for each other that really spoke of how deep their relationship was. 

I was gutted with how things went, but also incredibly hopeful – it didn’t seem right that two men who were so obviously meant to be together should be kept apart. 

I devoured this in one go and then just sat thinking about it and how I felt after reading it. They both had growing to do, and it was necessary that they did it the way they did, but it hurt. And I couldn’t imagine having to make the choices that they did. 

All in all, I really did love this book. I need a breather but I think I’ll probably re-read it because however much pain there was, there was also a lot of love in there, and so much hope. It spoke of families that are chosen, the scars that people can leave on our hearts and minds, and how far you can come if you are prepared to fight but also know when to walk away. 

I received and ARC from the author, but all views are my own.

To Not Date My Best Friend by Gianni Holmes (The Simple Rules #2)

Title: ⟫ To Not Date My Best Friend (The Simple Rules #2) 

Author: ⟫ Gianni Holmes 

Blurb: ⟫ What do you do when you meet the man of your dreams, but you’re already engaged? You become best friends and hope for the best. 

BAZ 

It was a meet-cute that should have come with a happy ending. I was hardly at my best when I caught Andy snapping photos of me topless in the name of street photography. I fired angry words at him. In exchange, he gave me his jacket to keep me warm. 

Thus began our friendship and an unrequited crush on a man who was about to get married. 

ANDY 

After a photography assignment in the Middle East left me scarred, I have no choice but to face the many issues in my life—my marriage is over, my wife has moved on, and I may never hold another camera between my hands. 

But there’s no hurdle I can’t get over once I have my best friend, Baz, in my life. When he tries to transition from a stylist to a journalist at the magazine where he works, he enlists my help in writing a column. 

How can I prove to him that moving from best friends to lovers makes sense when he’s determined to prove the opposite? 

To Not Date My Best Friend is a bi-awakening romance between a plus-sized stylist who’s claimed his place in the fashion world and a bi-curious photographer who happens to be his best friend. 

This book can be read as a stand-alone and has mild angst in some parts. 

Review: ⟫ I should preface this to say that I think this is more about me than the book. 

I wanted to like this story, I really did. I thought the premise was excellent and I loved the idea of the two of them dating whilst Baz was trying to confirm that it couldn’t work whilst Andy wanted to prove that it could. 

But that wasn’t what the story was. 

I wanted to learn more about what Andy went through that made him decide he needed to face his issues; the whole friends-to-lovers thing happened in a flash with what seemed like very little thought about the consequences if things didn’t work out; and I can’t fully explain it, but it felt like it held little substance. 

I didn’t like the cheating thing with the wife and thought it was unnecessary to the story, and perhaps that affected my perception? I don’t know, this just didn’t work for me. 

It was very well written, descriptive and interesting in parts, but somehow didn’t strike a chord for me. 

3.5/5. I received an ARC from GRR.

If You Want Me Close by Skye Kilaen

Title: ⟫ If You Want Me Close 

Author: ⟫ Skye Kilaen 

Blurb: ⟫ Falling in love with your best friend is wonderful… until tragedy means fighting for the romance and the friendship. 

 Bisexual event coordinator Simon Novotny thrives on connection. He cherishes his large, queer-friendly family and his friends—especially his cute, brilliant work bestie, gay IT geek Ziah Holdaway. It’s taken forever for Simon to to coax Ziah out of his shell. 

Time and again people have let him down, especially those who should have loved him unconditionally. But Simon would do anything for Ziah: text him jokes when he's down, bring him home-made lunches, change his tire in the rain. Heck, if Ziah needs a kidney, Simon’s got two. 

Minor crush? Maybe, but Simon’s not a make-the-first-move kind of guy. 

So when an unplanned hookup with Ziah proves their chemistry is off the charts, it also shakes Simon to his core. Because for Ziah, it's not casual, it's love. Before Simon can fully process his feelings, a life-altering tragedy upends Ziah's world. Simon throws himself into helping and also rallies his family. 

But for Ziah, family means rejection, and Simon's uber-helpful clan sets off major alarm bells. Can they find a middle path through the storm, or will this crisis cost them both their romance and their friendship? 

A high-heat contemporary M/M romance novel with a guaranteed HEA. 

Tropes: friends to lovers, hurt-comfort, grief, nerds in love, bisexual disaster, single parenting. 

Detailed content warnings will be available in the book's front matter and on the author's website. 

Review: ⟫ This was a well-written story, with careful and considerate descriptions of anxiety and depression, as well as one of the main characters dealing with feelings of rejection from family due to their sexual orientation. 

The characters were well defined, clearly distinguishable, with very human reactions to the situations they found themselves. The background characters were also well written, with issues of their own that didn’t overwhelm the main story but made them defined as more than just ciphers for the main characters to play off of. 

Which is why I’m really confused as to why I just didn’t like the story. I didn’t like Ziah at all – I sympathised with his plight but didn’t like the way he handled things at all. 

I found Simon annoying and slightly wishy-washy, and some of the background characters struck me as far more interesting. I didn’t feel the connection between Ziah and Simon and found their sex scenes to be perfunctory and lacking in real heat. 

Perhaps it was just the frame of mind I was in when I was reading the story? I felt a distant sympathy for both men, but apart from that I didn’t really engage at all, which is a shame as the subject matter, the struggles they were both experiencing and their story was a very good one. 

3.5/5 from me. I received an ARC from GRR.

The Final Stroke by Daniel May (Taste of Ink #3)

Title: ⟫ The Final Stroke (The Taste of Ink Part 3)
Author: ⟫ Daniel May
Blurb: ⟫ “I’m not a people person, but I’m also not an idiot. I know what it looks like when someone is trying their best to sabotage a good thing.”

Trinket’s affair is coming to a close. After living with boyfriend Zee and side piece Mini under one roof for weeks, his ability to play the game has finally hit a wall. It isn’t just guilt, and it isn’t just the impracticality of cheating on Zee right under his nose. It’s the fact that Zee and Mini actually seem to <i>like</i> each other.

Zee’s patience seems like it can hold out forever, his care for Trinket expanding to cover the abrasive tattoo artist. As Mini settles in as house-guest, he gets cozy with more than Zee’s credit card. The two of them talk art, kink, and baggage. Opening up comes alongside new opportunities in the bedroom, and the inevitable question of ‘What’s next?’

When the time comes, Trinket isn’t the only one finally forced to make a choice.

Review: ⟫ I didn’t think this series could get any hotter but I was so, so wrong! How Trinket didn’t explode with having Mini and Zee under the same roof, I really don’t know! The relationship between Zee and Mini is incredible – it was like two lions circling each other and I was on the edge of my seat, wondering when/if they were going to attack each other!

I really didn’t know how this whole situation was going to be resolved – I couldn’t see how there could be a happy ever after with how things had started and I was fascinated to see just where it was going to go.

Daniel May handled this whole thing masterfully – Trinket, Mini and Zee felt real; their reactions, emotions, actions – it all felt real and I was immersed from the first page to the last. I wasn’t sure if there was any way in which I could be satisfied with how this trilogy ended but I completely am. There are too many ways in which I could spoil things and I am trying to be as vague as possible. All I can say is if you can get past the cheating angle, this series is a hot, intense read and I cannot recommend it enough.

5/5 from me and I may re-read once I’ve managed to get my brain cells together after reading all three of these books in one weekend.

I received an ARC from GRR. 

The Guilty Canvas by Daniel May (The Taste of Ink Part 2)

Title: ⟫ The Guilty Canvas (The Taste of Ink Part 2) 

  Author: ⟫ Daniel May 

Blurb: ⟫ “If he gives you everything you need, then why are you here?”   

Trinket has everything he wants, and it’s not enough.   Perfect boyfriend, architect Siebold AKA ‘Zee,’ adores him. Originally best friends, it took them a long time to confess their feelings, and Trinket should be elated to finally have what he always wanted.   

But the night of their confession went horribly wrong. Two years later, their relationship has yet to recover. Zee has the love, the money, the unending patience, but it isn’t enough. Trinket is still insecure in bed — even afraid. Despite his best efforts, Zee can do no right.   

Tattoo artist Mini can do no wrong. From the minute he and Trinket met — when Trinket tries in vain to mend his relationship with a two-year anniversary tattoo — no taboo has been off the table.   

Trinket didn’t mean to cheat.   

But he also doesn’t mean to stop, or to leave his boyfriend. For the first time in his life, he plans to get everything he needs… or lose it all trying.   

  The Guilty Canvas is the second book in the revised Taste of Ink trilogy. It was originally published as the fourth through sixth books (A Stanza on Skin, A Darker Palette, and The Color of Need). The books contain one continuous plot-line, share the same characters, and cannot be read as standalone.   

The trilogy is an extremely high heat, slow burn MMM with a happy ending. 

  Review: ⟫ I’ll admit, I half thought that as this was part two of the trilogy that it might be a kind of ‘holding’ book but I was completely and utterly wrong. With Zee away, Trinket goes to stay with Mini to fully experience what they can be together, even though he has absolutely no intentions of leaving Zee. 

 And oh boy, does Mini deliver on the new experiences. I absolutely loved how well Mini seemed to understand Trinket – how he reins him in whilst allowing him to learn more about himself and what he desires. I also really enjoyed the way in which Trinket began to come into his power – he was beginning to really get the effect he had on Mini as well as Zee – and appreciate that he wasn’t just a cipher, there for other people’s desires. Trinket is really coming into his own. 

 The situation with Zee – how Trinket is taking what he learns from Mini and incorporating it into his relationship with Zee – was fascinating, and we get more of an insight into their whole thing. There is more detail on how they got together, that infamous night, and just how much Zee is under Trinket’s spell. 

 Zee became more of a real person in this instalment, which was fascinating since the premise of the book was ostensibly to show Trinket and Mini having uninterrupted time together. 

 Again, this was an extremely hot read, with Mini teaching Trinket some of the intricacies of BDSM – heavy on the sane, safe and consensual. This felt much less like a car-crash waiting to happen and more like a window into people’s lives, and an absolutely fascinating view it was too. I don’t know just how this is going to turn into a HEA but I cannot wait to find out! 

 Another 5/5 from me – insightful, sexy, fascinating, well-written and absolutely intriguing story. 

 I received an ARC from GRR.

Bedside Manners by Ella Fenn (Living Situations Book #2)

Title: ⟫ Bedside Manners (Living Situations Book 2) 

Author: ⟫ Ella Fenn 

Blurb: ⟫ A freak windstorm. A life-changing accident. An unlikely helping hand. 

 After years spent suffering under the weight of his father’s expectations, Max Castillo-Grant is celebrating his shiny new law degree by drinking, partying, and bed-hopping around Seattle. Max isn’t stupid—he knows the good times never last—but if the world’s going to bring him low, he might as well enjoy the high. 

 Six years ago, a broken heart and a deep loss turned Ben Greer bitter and reclusive. Formerly the life of the party, he quit his job, rejected his friends, and hid from the world. Now, he spends his days alone, working on occasional custom carpentry commissions, with only his dog, Judith, for company. Two severe weather events conspire to leave Ben in need of a full-time caretaker for his injuries, and Max in need of a respectable job. 

Despite a rocky start, Ben is begrudgingly won over by Max’s good humor, and the two form a lasting connection. But emotional wounds leave deep scars, and both Ben and Max are damaged. Can they find a way to heal hurts that go far beyond the physical before it’s too late? 

 The second book in the Living Situations series, Bedside Manners is a gay romance featuring an age gap, light BDSM, and 4-6 terrible puns about woodworking. If you like steamy situations, hurt/comfort, and grumpy mountain men, then you’ll love Ella Fenn’s latest novel. 

 Pick up Bedside Manners and let Ben and Max sweep you off your feet today! 

Review: ⟫ Ben and Max didn’t sweep me off my feet. 

What they did do was give me an absolutely delightful story about two men, forced together through less than ideal circumstances, learning about each other and about themselves and falling in love in the process. 

 Ben was the quintessential grumpy mountain man and the imagery was gorgeous – I could picture him quite clearly in my mind and I could well understand Max’s attraction. And Max was a sweet, caring, lovely man who just needed help to get out from under his father’s machinations and come into his own. The way they communicated – even when things got difficult – and their story unfolded, you were rooting for them. 

There was very little in the way of drama between them (more than enough in the background), but it certainly wasn’t a case of it all being easy. Ben almost died and was suffering from PTSD and Max is feeling the stranglehold his father has on his life. 

 I really enjoyed this – it was peaceful, lovely, a little bit sexy, but more than anything it just gave me the feels. There’s no other way to describe it – them getting their happy ever after felt well earned, and I needed that. We also got to see Colin and Simon from the first book which was really nice. Very enjoyable and recommended. 

 I received an ARC from the author.

Perfect Pitcher by Lee Blair

Title: ⟫ Pitcher Perfect (Tap That Brewery Book One) Author: ⟫ Lee Blair 

 Blurb: ⟫ When a workaholic brewer and a lonely chef team up to win a prestigious food and beer competition, they might find the perfect pairing in each other. 

Austin 

 Me and my friends knew that when we joined forces to open Tap That Brewery, we needed to do more than just make great brews to break into the crowded Oregon beer scene. When we get an opportunity to enter a beer and food pairing competition, I know our best bet is to join forces with Caleb, a.k.a. the cute as hell new food truck chef in town. The brewery keeps me too busy to date, but I can’t ignore his sexy sincerity or disarming smile. 

Spoiler alert: My feelings are growing faster than the head of foam on a badly poured beer. 

 Caleb 

It’s hard to be a newcomer in a charming small town like Dahlia Springs. I’m determined to live my dream of upgrading my food truck to a restaurant, and I even found the perfect space. But the cantankerous owner is reluctant to trust an outsider. Maybe teaming up with the local queer brewery is just what I need to prove I’m here for the long haul. 

The problem is, Austin, the adorable brewer who likes chefs about as much as food poisoning, also happens to be the key ingredient to the family I’ve been craving. 

Pitcher Perfect is a low angst, steamy, and sweet MM contemporary romance about two men who discover they’re the perfect pairing. It’s the first in the Tap That Brewery series, which features four best friends who co-own a queer brewery together. It’s full of teasing as a love language, found family, more f-bombs than necessary, and a small town you'll wish you could visit. Each book can be read as a stand-alone, though you may find it most enjoyable to read the series in order. Happily ever afters are guaranteed, and no cliffhangers! 

Review: ⟫ 

Pitcher Perfect is pretty much exactly as described – a low angst, falling in love story about a brewer and a food truck owner. The background characters were sweet and funny, and the storyline was fine. I learned a lot about brewing and what goes into it which was interesting, and the relationship that built between Caleb and Austin was sweet. The towns-people were fun, as were the guys who lived together – some of the pranks, chats and things they did made me smile widely. 

This is book one in a new series which I imagine will feature the other brewers mentioned in the story. If you’re in the mood for something gentle and easy to read, I would imagine this would be a great read. I give this a rating of 3/5.

I received an ARC from GRR.