Friday, July 31, 2015

Virtual Book Tour: MM ~ Protection by TT Kove (Excerpt, Giveaway + ARC Review)


Author Name: TT Kove
Book Name: Protection
Release Date: July 24, 2015

Blurb: 

Adrian isn’t looking for a boyfriend. He’s focused on school and social situations make him anxious. When his mother encourages him to make a friend and be more outgoing, he takes a chance at a party. It doesn’t live up to expectations. His classmates ignore him and the alcohol tastes bad. Worse? Oliver finds him moping in the bathroom.
Oliver, the class clown and know-it-all, might grate Adrian’s last nerve, but he’s the only one paying Adrian any attention. Not only does Oliver flirt him into a bedroom, he charms Adrian’s pants off. Adrian loses his virginity to a man he doesn’t even like and in the morning his anxiety spirals into full panic. They didn’t use protection and popular-with-everyone Oliver insists they need to get tested.
Adrian is sure this isn’t the kind of friendship his mother meant and he tries to distance himself. But it turns out Oliver’s brash personality is just a mask to hide his own insecurities and family embarrassments. Adrian can relate. Oliver may be a know-it-all, yet Adrian can’t abandon him. Besides, they still need their test results. But how can the popular kid be friends with him when Adrian doesn’t want to come out of his shell?

Pages or Words: 21,000 words

Categories: Contemporary, M/M Romance, New Adult, Romance


Excerpt:

I hate parties.
I hovered by the door leading into the living room. It was crowded with people drunk off their arses. They looked, quite frankly, ridiculous the way they tried to flirt and hook up with each other. It was disgusting. No one had better come over to me with their cheesy pick-up lines. 
I wanted to leave. But the front door was on the opposite side of the living room. To get there I had to cross said room full of people who would notice me. Not that anyone had spoken to me yet since I arrived, but I had been invited. Probably because I’d been within earshot when my classmates had been talking about it, but I had been asked nonetheless.
Why did I say yes? 
That was the million dollar question. I didn’t like parties, I didn’t like being sociable. I wasn’t good at it. Drawing attention to myself… I couldn’t do it.
People headed for the kitchen, almost shouting at each other to be heard over the music and everyone else.
I drew back and turned to find somewhere to hide.
My gaze fell on a door that had a simple WC sign on it. Really? What was the point of that in their own house? That was the kind of sign for public toilets. Maybe that was the point.
Still, it was a room. A door with a lock.
I could hide in there until the party calmed down and I dared to venture into that living room. I did this for you, Mum. I opened the door and found the room empty. I breathed a sigh in relief. You wanted me to be sociable and here I am. Never again. Never ever. This was the last time I tried. Being cooped up in my room was heaven compared to this.
I closed the door after me. A bottle clinked against the wood. I looked down at my other hand and the beer bottle clutched in it. I’d forgot about it in my panic facing the living room. Someone had pressed it into my hand when I’d arrived.
I crossed the small room to lean against the smooth wall, slowly sinking down to sit on the floor.
I should go home and enjoy my own company. Get on the laptop and get online. Play a game, do coursework, anything else but sitting here hiding. I didn’t even have my sketchbook with me, so I couldn’t draw. I could do that at home though.
I sat the bottle of beer on the floor next to me. I eyed it. I had drunk from it and it had tasted like piss. Not that I knew what that tasted like, but it was what I imagined it would taste like. I hadn’t ever drunk alcohol—never felt the need to. Not having any mates or being sociable meant I’d never experienced any peer pressure.
Tonight was, apparently, a night for new adventures though. I took another sip of the vile thing and almost choked as a result. I forced it down on sheer willpower. Perhaps tonight was the night I would experience being drunk. It wouldn’t take long if I got the beer down. Not being used to alcohol, I wouldn’t need much to feel the effects. Or so the internet told me. Why anyone liked beer, or would drink it to savour the taste, was beyond me.
I drank some more. Torturing myself was what I was doing. I should leave, but then I’d have to go through the living room where everyone was gathered. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t risk having all their attention on me—it would definitely leave me in a state of panic.
Slam! 


Sales Links:

Mari's Review: 

***ARC provided by Pride Promotions in exchange for a fair and honest review. ***

This was a short book, but it was pretty good! 

Adrian has never had much interest in sex, mostly because of his anxiety. He prefers being alone and not interacting much with anyone, being invisible is very good in his book.

Oliver is just the opposite, he's always making waves, be it in class or out with his friends. But things are not always what they seem to be as Adrian will discover.

After meeting at a party and having sort of drunken, unprotected sex, Adrian and Oliver start hanging out while waiting for the results of the HIV and STD tests they took. At first Adrian doesn't like Oliver all that much, but that changes slowly as they start knowing more of the other, and Adrian realizes Oliver is loud and brash to protect himself, just as Adrian is silent and invisible for the same reason. They start a relationship where they definitely start liking each other.

It was a sweet, fast read, not a HEA, but a HFN that left me with a smile in my face.

Rating: 4 Stars! 


About the author:
TT lives in Norway and writes about gay man living in Norway. She also occasionally write about gay men living in the UK, because she loves the UK. Norway might be too cold for her, but she ask doesn't like the summer, so she's learned to adapt. TT is happiest in front of her computer, creating emotional stories about men loving other men.

Where to find the author:
Website: www.ttkove.com

Publisher: TT Kove
Cover Artist: TT Kove

Tour Dates & Stops:
27-Jul
28-Jul
29-Jul
29-Jul
30-Jul
31-Jul
31-Jul


Rafflecopter Prize: An ebook of the winner’s choice from my backlist (including Protection) in mobi, epub, or pdf.


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Excerpt Only Tour: MM Synchronous Seduction by Havan Fellows (Excerpt, Giveaway + ARC Review)


Author Name: Havan Fellows
Book Name: Synchronous Seductions Trilogy
Release Date: July 20, 2015

Blurb:

Seven years ago one of them made a mistake.
That mistake will change six lives forever.
Today.

Ryder made a mistake Harlan can't forgive. Will Ryder cross a line no man should cross to obtain a second chance?

Ritchie won't admit he's heartbroken. Emery won't accept less than all of Ritchie's affection. How will arrogant Emery win snarky Ritchie for his own?

Fuzzy is an unsatisfied ladies' man. Geoff's a bear-loving man who satisfies. Problem? Convincing a straight man that satisfaction might be just around the bend.

Warning: This book is chocked full of domineering men who don’t like to take no for an answer. If arrogant alpha men make your heart beat faster and other places tingle, this is the book for you.

Pages or Words: 172 pages

Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, Humor, M/M Romance


Excerpt

He glanced up and went to wipe the steam from the mirror, but stopped. Ryde still, no doubt, lingered in the bedroom so he couldn’t scream like he wanted to. He took his finger and wrote in cursive I will not love Ryder Halloway again. Juvenile? Yeah, but seeing it in writing fortified him. He watched as the steam cleared from the mirror, and his message went with it. Gone, but never forgotten.

Realizing his clothes were, of course, in his bedroom, he reopened the door. Yep, there Ryde still leaned against the doorjamb. Steadying himself, Harlan walked across the room. “I have to get dressed, so you can go wait for me in the kitchen.”

Ryde straightened up and started walking toward him. Harlan backed up until his legs hit the bed, and he sat with a plunk. Ryde smiled. “Gotta use the bathroom, out in three minutes. Think you can dress that quickly or are you gonna give me a peep show?” Ryde cocked his eyebrow in what Harlan could only assume was humor, and he went through the door.

Harlan rushed to get dressed within his time limit, forgoing his boxer briefs to save precious seconds. He pulled his sweater over his head and heard a crash from the bathroom. He ran over and threw the door open to see Ryde standing in front of the sink with soapy hands, staring at his reflection.

“What the fu—” He followed Ryde’s gaze to the mirror and saw what had happened. The steam from Ryde’s hand-washing had brought his message back, front and center for the world to see, or more importantly for Ryde to see. His jaw dropped. Could the morning get any worse? He met Ryde’s gaze in the mirror and nearly lost his last trace of sanity when Ryde gifted him with a cocky half grin. “It’s not what you think.”

Ryde shook his head and laughed. “Har, my dream, I don’t know if you just made my job here easier or harder. But I do love a challenge.”

Sales Links:

  
Mari's Review: 

*ARC provided by Pride Promotions in exchange for a fair and honest review.*

This is a very enjoyable trilogy. I absolutely adored that all the stories were interlocked somehow and that the characters from the previous stories featured in the rest of them as we advanced before tying it all up.

Harlan's Ryde is the story that starts it all. Ryder makes a huge mistake seven years before, which sent Harlan into running away from him, when Ryder finally manages to track him down, he's set on making things right between them, but first he has to convince Harlan and that won't be an easy feat after the way they ended things.

I loved Ryder. Yes, he made a huge mistake, and yes, he should've realized beforehand that his actions would have dire consequences, but he was young and wanted to guard his heart. Once he realized the error in his ways, he tried to make it right, but had to wait seven years for that to happen.

Harlan, on the other hand, was a bit stubborn about accepting Ryder's apology, even after all the explanations and there were times when I just wanted to shake him up a bit. Still, he more than made up for it and  I really enjoyed their story and loved seeing more of them in the next installments.

Emery's Ritches, the second story was the one I enjoyed the least of the three, mostly because, while I loved Emery, I can't say the same about Ritch.

Ritchie was in love with Harlan and was his best friend, and hated Ryder with a passion. I didn't particularly cared for him all that much, and couldn't connect with him as a character. I loved Emery, though, and all his machinations as he tried to get Ritchie to love him back.

Geoff's Teddy was my favorite of the three stories. Both Geoff and Fuzzy were so likeable and relatable and perfect for each other! It was lovely to see their friendship just bloom into something more and the way they both dealt with the fact that Fuzzy was supposed to be straight. It was fun, sweet and hot with just a dab of angst and it brought it all up to a very nice conclusion.

Rating: 4.5 Stars!




About the author:

I annoy, love, respect, scare, seduce, hurt, anger, infatuate, frustrate, flatter, envy, amuse and tolerate everyone. I just do it better in writing thanks to a little thing called…edits.

Okay no, seriously…I'm a simpleminded person who enjoys the escape from real life through a book. I write with the group Story Orgy and hope to continue doing so for a long time. I also am privileged to be with the Pulp Friction writers, creating intermingling books in a world all our own.

I recently took the drastic step of quitting my EDJ (evil day job) and am now living in the gorgeous desert in Arizona making a go at this writing stuff full time…and I can’t see me regretting this decision ever.

Just like every other red-blooded human—I get a little bouncy when I get mail (any kind too…email, comments, private messages…you wanna do it, do it with me *winks*). So feel free to drop me a line—whether it's on my blog, twitter, PInterest, or you track me down on FaceBook or Google +…it's easy to catch someone who wants to be caught. 

I specialize in writing boyxboy though I read almost everything...and I fancy myself as slightly funny every once in a while. :)

Where to find the author:
Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/HavanFellowsauthor

Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25957430-synchronous-seductions?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr
Publisher: Appleton Publishing Avenue
Cover Artist: Allison Cassatta


Tour Dates & Stops: 
27-Jul
28-Jul
29-Jul
30-Jul
31-Jul
3-Aug
4-Aug
5-Aug

6-Aug
7-Aug



Rafflecopter Prize: $20 ARe gift card



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Thursday, July 30, 2015

Virtual Book Tour: M/M ~ Redesigning Max by Pat Henshaw ~ (ARC Review, Author Interview, Excerpt + Giveaway)

Virtual Book Tour: M/M ~ Redesigning Max by Pat Henshaw ~ (ARC Review, Author Interview, Excerpt + Giveaway)
Author Name: Pat Henshaw
Book Name: Redesigning Max
Series: Foothills Pride
Book: Two
Can be read as a standalone
Release Date: July 29, 2015
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: AngstyG

Buy The Book:
DSP ~ Amazon

Blurb:


Renowned interior designer Fredi Zimmer is surprised when outdoorsman Max Greene, owner of Greene's Hunting and Fishing, hires him to remodel his rustic cabin in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  Fredi is an out and proud Metro male whose contact with the outdoors is from his car to the doorway of the million-dollar homes' he remodels, and Max is just too hunky gorgeous for words.
When Max starts coming on to Fredi, the designer can't imagine why.  But he's game to put a little spice into Max's life, even if it's just in the colors and fixtures he'll use to turn Max's dilapidated rustic cabin into a showplace.  Who can blame a guy for adding a little sensual pleasure as he retools Max's life visually?
Max, for his part, is grateful when Fredi takes him in hand, both metaphorically and literally.  Coming out, he finds is the most exciting and wonderful time of his life, despite the conservative former friends who want to stop his slide into hell

Pages or Words: 73 pages
Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, Romance

Excerpt:

By the time we got to the Rock Bottom Cafe, I felt like I’d bottomed out. I was hungry, tired, and feeling the first twinges of a headache.
Max hadn’t exaggerated about how much I’d hate the Rock Bottom’s decor. It was the worst of rural cafe: hellacious plastic flowers, grotesque plastic-covered booths, peeling gangrene-painted beadboard walls, pockmarked linoleum floor, and faded food-stained menus. It made the cabin look almost palatial, except it didn’t smell as bad.
As Max slid into one side of a booth and I into the other, he said, “Food’s great here. Okay?”
I glared at him, but I had to admit the odors coming from the kitchen wove seductively around us.
After we’d ordered and had gotten glasses of iced tea, which I liberally dosed with artificial sweetener, Max leaned back in his side of the booth and blew out a little breath.
“So guess here’s what you need to know about me.” He was looking at the tabletop. “I was an only kid when my folks died. Raised by my aunt and uncle with their four boys. I was the youngest and nobody cared what I thought, so I don’t talk much.”
Oh dear. I wasn’t sure which of those statements I should answer, if any. My heart bled for the beautiful man in front of me who would give me a raging hard-on if I let my libido take control.
His words and lack of self-pity made me want to create a unique space where he’d feel completely at home and that would soothe him when he needed it. I probably wouldn’t end up his BFF or someone he could unbend with, but I could create a warm cocoon to shelter and coddle the man or let him entertain his friends comfortably.
The image of the young Max feeling like an outsider when he was thrust on his uncaring aunt and uncle to raise was banished by the waitress who put lunch in front of us.
“Oh. My. God!” I nearly drooled into the chili and homemade bread as I tasted them. “This is incredible.”
“What’d I tell you?” Max gloated. “Said you shouldn’t be put off by the decor. Some of us are more than our decor.”
I spooned up a couple of bites, then looked at Max. “You really do think I’m a snob, don’t you?”
Why was it so easy to get him to blush? I hadn’t a clue, but his quick, mercurial red cheeks had me intrigued.
“No, no, I don’t think you’re a snob,” he protested. “I mean, you’re just so….” He waved a couple of fingers at me, but kept his elbows on the table as if protecting his bowl of chili.
“I’m so what?”
Max shrugged. “I don’t know. Beautiful. And fancy,” he added, ducking his head over his bowl.
Ah, I understood now. Max was intimidated by my suit.
“Look, you came to get me in the coffee shop. I was dressed to take a rich lady through her house later this afternoon. I can work in jeans and a T-shirt”—did Max think I wore suits every day?—“or anything I want. Pajamas even. You just caught me on a suit day.” Which, I didn’t add, was too often for even my overblown sense of style.
Now Max was staring at me.
“Yeah, right. You wear jeans,” he scoffed, but looked interested, intrigued.
I shrugged. “Okay, not when I’m with a client. At home I’m way more casual.” I might have sounded a tad defensive.
“Yeah, right,” Max muttered with a grin.
I left it lying there. It wasn’t worth fighting about. But it bothered me that he saw such a divide between us. I was just a man, wasn’t I? Just like him, right? What was he going on about? Sheesh.


Author Interview:


Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Pat Henshaw, author of Redesigning Max.


Hi, Pat, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Hi!  I’m originally from Nebraska and have lived all over the U. S., landing here in Northern California.  Now retired, I’ve held a number of jobs including theatrical costuming for the Alley Theatre in Houston, public relations for radio and television at WETA in D. C., and teaching English comp at a junior college in California.

Redesigning Max, the second of the Foothills Pride novellas, revolves around the unlikely pair of interior designer and architect Fredi Zimmer and the CEO of an outdoors equipment store and wildlife guide Max Greene.  When he hires Fredi to redesign and update his Sierra Mountain mountain cabin, Max finds his life and heart undergoing a makeover too.

Not everyone in the small Stone Acres, California, community is as excited about Max and Fredi getting together as the guys are.  Because Max’s been in the closet so long, he not only has to convince his friends that he’s gay but he also has to convince Fredi, who keeps getting mixed signals from him.





  1. Do you buy a book because of the cover, the blurb, or something else?

Usually I buy because of the blurb and the sample chapters.  My Kindle is my constant companion, and I always have five or six samples on it at a time.  I’ve been known to do some of my best book buying between 1 and 2 a.m. when I can’t sleep and the Kindle store is always open.  If I had to say what the best innovation of my lifetime has been, the Kindle would be it.  I know, sad, but true.

  1. What does ‘romance’ mean to you?

First off, as far as I’m concerned, romance doesn’t equal sex.  Romance is that delightful time when two people are getting to know each other and find tiny but significant ways to show each other how much they care and want to please the other.  Romance is a person’s tiptoeing toward love and happily ever after.  It’s the dawning realization that the other person might actually be the one for the long haul.  It’s the sunrise of a lasting relationship and something to be savored.

  1. What are your current projects?

Oh, thank you for asking!  The third in the Foothills Pride series, Behr Facts, is in edits right now and will release in late October, 2015.  I’m writing the fourth Pride story, When Adam Fell, and the fifth, Cookie, which a friend says is an awful title.  

  1. What is the most difficult part of writing for you?

I struggle with active verbs in the first round of writing.  (Notice how many times “is” is in the answers here?  Aarrgghh!)  Rewriting is a pain, but has to be done because, well, as you can see, there was another “is” followed by a “was.”

  1. Open up your recipe box! Give us something that would thrill us.

My Cajun grandmother made a wonderful gumbo.  My grandmother’s gumbo has no real directions or quantities, so this is a true “Cajun Stew.” Wow this is very fitting for our blog! :)

Boiled white rice: Rinse rice two or three times to get the processing sheen off of it.  Cover the rice with water.  Cover.  Bring to a boil.  Once it’s boiling, turn the heat to low and let it cook until the water is absorbed.

Gumbo:
Whole chicken, cut up
Louisiana hot sausage (or Kielbasa or Summer Sausage) cut in
bite-sized pieces
Seafood (white fish fillets, shrimp, crab, crawfish, etc.)
Onion, cut up in bite-sized pieces

Cooking oil (Use whatever you have in your kitchen cabinets)
Flour (All-purpose)

Gumbo filé

Use an equal amount of oil and flour (1/2 cup to ½ cup, 1 cup to 1 cup, etc.)  Mix them until they make a syrupy paste.  Over high heat cook the paste stirring constantly.  Watch the color carefully.  When the color looks like milk chocolate, take the pan off the heat.  Do this quickly.  The mixture can burn very, very fast.  You have done the hardest part:  making the roux.

With the pot still off the heat, stir in the onions, sausage and chicken.  Coat the ingredients well with the roux.  When the ingredients are completely coated with the roux, add water, just covering the ingredients.  Return the pot to the stove.  Bring to a boil.  (If you’re an okra lover, as are many in the Eastern part of Louisiana, add the okra now.  It needs lots of cooking in order for it not to be stringy and tough.)  When the water is boiling, stir it, then cover the pot leaving a slight crack for steam to escape.  Cook until the chicken is done.

When the chicken is done, you can do one of two things:  leave it in the pot and don’t worry about the bones, or debone the chicken returning the meat to the pot.  (My grandmother NEVER deboned the chicken.  Everyone was always too hungry to wait.)

Put in the seafood.  Cook until the seafood is done.

To serve:  Put a bunch of rice at the bottom of a dish.  Spoon the gumbo on top of the rice.  (My Uncle D.J. always loaded on catsup at this point.  In fact, until I went to grade school I didn’t realize people ate catsup with anything but gumbo.  And I also didn’t realize D.J. was so odd by putting it ON gumbo.) 

Yeah, that's a bit weird. I have never put ketchup on my Gumbo, (Yuck!)but I did work with someone that put it in their Red Beans! o_o I've also Never had fish in my Gumbo, although fried fish and potato salad are common staples with Gumbo here!

The controversy:  Where to put the gumbo filé:  My grandmother and most people in Leonville, Louisiana, (all relatives) sprinkled the dried filé on the top of the gumbo.  HOWEVER, in Basile (pronounced baa-zeel) where some of my relatives moved through marriage, they add the filé to the roux before they added any of the ingredients. I’ve noticed that this makes the gumbo hotter to the taste—especially if you add green peppers and okra also.

Mari's Review:

***ARC provided via Pride Promotions in exchange for a fair and honest review.***

This was a delightful story! It was sweet and both characters fit well together despite being so different. 

Max was my favorite of the two. He's not exactly in the closet, but he's never advertised that he's gay or act up on it until he meets Fredi, who is as out and proud as can be. Because of that he has to prove not only to Fredi but to others that he's indeed gay. He's the big, strong, silent type, just the perfect counterpoint to Fredi, who is just the opposite.

Fredi might be smaller in size compared with Max, but he's no wimp, and is used to fighting for what he wants and against anyone who might be wanting to bash him for being gay.

They have to fight against several people that aren't all that happy of them being together, but they have a fantastic set of friends backing them up, and I really liked that. I enjoyed the coincidences that showed just how perfect Max and Fredi were for each other, like Max's cabin and other little tidbits that gave depth to what they found together.

I enjoyed the story a lot, it was a series of tender little moments as both Max and Fredi learn to know each other and fall in love, although I would have loved to see more of them together as a couple, like maybe having them kiss or make love in a more descriptive manner, rather than just being told it happened. Other than that, it was a pretty good, enjoyable read.


Rating: 4.5 Stars!


About the author:
Pat Henshaw, author of the Foothills Pride series, was born in Nebraska but promptly left the cold and snow after college, living at various times in Texas, Colorado, Northern Virginia, and Northern California.  Pat has visited Mexico, Canada, Europe, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Egypt, and regularly travels to Rome, Italy, and Eugene, Oregon, to see family.  

Now retired, Pat has taught English composition at the junior college level; written book reviews for newspapers, magazines, and websites; helped students find information as a librarian; and promoted PBS television programs.

Pat has raised two incredible daughters who daily amaze everyone with their power and compassion.  Pat’s supported by a husband who keeps her grounded in reality when she threatens to drift away writing fiction.

Where to find the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pat.henshaw.10
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6998437.Patois
Book website: http://whatsinanamenovella.blogspot.com
Website: http://patbooked.blogspot.com
E-mail: whatsinanamenovella@comcast.net
Tumblr: http://phenshaw.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @phenshaw
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