Release Blitz: The Truth Within by Sloane Kennedy

Love Has No Gender the brighter side of

Jo&Isalovebooks Promotions is proud to present today a new steamy MM romance in the Pelican Bay Series.

The Truth Within

by Sloane Kennedy

I'm not a fighter. I never was. So how do I make the one man who might just be worth fighting for see that?
At twenty-five years old, Ford Cornell should have his whole life ahead of him but instead, the would-be artist is drowning in denial and just trying to get through each day. And the boy who once believed life was about following impossible dreams has finally come to accept that it's really only about surviving a living nightmare... one of his own making.

But the bruises are becoming harder to hide.

So is the truth...

I refuse to fall for a guy who won't accept the truth about who he is or what he wants. Not again...
They say bad things happen in threes.

For Sherriff Camden Wells, it's more like fours... or fives... or dozens.

After an ugly lie destroys his career and the man he'd planned to spend the rest of his life with cuts him to the core with the ultimate betrayal, forty-year-old Cam is counting on his new job as sheriff of the quiet town of Pelican Bay to be the fresh start he needs. What he isn't counting on is meeting a young man who makes him want to break all his own rules.

He wants me to accept something that will cause me to lose everything. I may not have much but it's something and something is better than nothing... right?
Ford's gotten used to his role as his older brother's punching bag and being his mother's never-ending disappointment. They may not be the Cleavers but family is family and Ford's seen up close and personal what happens when you don't have anyone in your corner... or when you go against family.

And there's just no way he's strong enough to survive that...

Nothing about us should make sense but maybe that's why it does...
Two men... one living a lie and one knocking down the walls of the closet he was forced to live in for so long. When one white-hot encounter leads to another and then another, Ford and Cam are forced to accept that their need for each other isn't going away anytime soon. But being together means one will need to go against everything he believes in.

So which man will bend and which will break? And what will the truth ultimately reveal?

**This book CAN be read as a standalone, but you may want to consider checking out books 1 and 2 in the series to fully enjoy all the secondary characters you'll meet in this story.

Book Review: Atonement (The Protectors #6) by Sloane Kennedy

Title: Atonement (The Protectors book 6)

Author: Sloane Kennedy

Published: January 15, 2017

Pages: 304

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Amazon  |  Goodreads

“Once a fuck up, always a fuck up.”

Words twenty-six-year-old Dante Thorne has had to live with for more years than he can count and a title he finally earned at the tender age of sixteen when one careless decision led to tragedy. And since he can’t deny the truth of the words, why not live by them instead? Fucking up, fucking, it doesn’t matter; as long as it feels good and makes him forget the day he failed the one person he’d always sworn to protect. A good philosophy to live by until Dante meets the one man who might actually having him wishing he was something more…

At forty-one and with a distinguished career as a Texas Ranger under his belt, Magnus DuCane should have been in the prime of his life. Instead, he’s mourning the loss of the daughter he couldn’t save and contemplating a future that looks nothing like the one he had planned. The only bright spot in his life is the young grandson whose suddenly been returned to him after going missing two years earlier and the new family of men that he’s been welcomed in to with open arms. But with his iron will, unfailing self-control and unflappable discipline, Magnus knows he can start a new chapter and get his life back on track…if he can just get past the disturbing, unexpected feelings one young man stirs in him.

Because everything about Dante Thorne is wrong for Magnus. His arrogance, his cocky attitude, every single unfiltered word that falls unchecked out of his mouth and, of course, the fact that he’s a man.

But when his well-meaning friends send Dante with him as a bodyguard when he returns to Texas to testify in a high-profile case, Magnus begins to see beyond the brash words and endless sexual innuendo. And when he starts to discover that what he sees isn’t all that bad, suddenly the fact that Dante is a man instead of a woman no longer seems like such a big sticking point…

New Release Review ~ Unexpected (Protectors Book 10) by Sloane Kennedy

New Release Review ~ Unexpected (Protectors Book 10) by Sloane Kennedy

Unexpected (The Protectors, Book 10)

by Sloane Kennedy

Cover Design: Jay Aheer

• Publication Date: November 24, 2017
• Pages: 359 pages

Amazon  Goodreads

• 
  

I finally had the chance at a perfect life when I met the man I was supposed to be with. But he’s gone and chances like that don’t come along twice in one lifetime. Right?

Former president Everett Shaw had his whole life laid out for him from the time he was a child and he lived out every expectation to complete and utter perfection… until he met the one man who changed everything. With plans to leave public life behind after finishing his term in office, Everett was looking forward to a quiet life with the man of his dreams at his side. But one brutal act of violence stole that bright future away, leaving Everett struggling just to get through each day.

A decade later finds Everett nearing the age of sixty and living a shell of a life. Haunted by his loss, he finds solace in his roses and evenings sitting in front of the television. But when his estranged son is horribly injured while saving the life of another, Everett leaves everything behind in the hopes of mending the broken relationship and helping his son heal in more ways than one.

My job is to protect and there are rules that have to be followed. Even if there weren’t, I wouldn’t risk letting anyone close… not again.

Special Agent Jonathan Nash’s job is to keep the former president safe, not be his friend. Even if something about the lonely older man draws him in, he’s not about to risk what’s left of his career for anything. And it’s not like a guy like Everett Shaw would really see him anyway. Nor would he want him to, considering the ugly past Nash left behind to pursue his dream. No, he’s better off following protocol and doing his job. Let someone else deal with the broken man. It’s not his problem… it can’t be.

I learned a long time ago to live life on my terms and that sometimes you have to take that leap of faith to get what you want. But wanting two men at the same time? That’s new, even for me.

Flashback Review: Lost and Found by Lucy Lennox & Sloane Kennedy

Flashback Review: Lost and Found by Lucy Lennox & Sloane Kennedy 

GoodReads || Amazon

Blurb:

He promised to never leave me. But when I needed him the most, that was exactly what he did…
Wilderness guide Xander Reed has spent fifteen years trying to forget the night he turned to his best friend in his darkest hour, only to find the young man who’d sworn to always have his back was turning his on Xander instead. Two thousand miles and fifteen years of building a new life in the quiet backcountry of the Rocky Mountains should have been enough to put the memory of Bennett Crawford out of his mind forever, but old wounds run deep and when Bennett suddenly reappears in his life as part of a wilderness expedition Xander is guiding, the scars he thought long healed break wide open.

I’d only ever wanted to protect Xander from getting hurt again. I never considered the one he needed protection from was me…
Bennett Crawford was faced with an impossible choice the night his best friend needed him.

He chose wrong.

As the only son of one of the wealthiest families in New England, he should have had the world at his feet, but losing his best friend at the tender age of fourteen changed everything. And even though Bennett’s managed to hide behind a mask of contentment as he takes his place at his father’s side in the family business, inside he’s searching for the piece of himself that’s been missing ever since Xander Reed walked out of his life. Bennett’s only saving grace is his work with a group of inner city kids, and when he’s given the chance to show the troubled teens that there’s a bigger world out there waiting for them if they just have the courage to reach for it, he takes it.

Book Reviews ~ Redemption (The Protectors Book 8) by Sloane Kennedy

Book Reviews ~ Redemption (The Protectors Book 8) by Sloane Kennedy

Title: Redemption (Protectors Book #8)

Author: Sloane Kennedy

Pages: 

Published: May 18, 2017

Cover Design: Jay Aheer

Amazon  Goodreads

Blurb:

My job is to save lives. But what if the one that needs saving is the one I was sent to take?

At 33 years old, Phoenix Jones once had a stellar military career ahead of him. But when tragedy struck his family, he walked away from the path he’d chosen to be there for the one who needed him most. Except fate is a bitch and when she once again takes Phoenix’s future in the cruelest of ways, he must find a new path.

When a former army buddy introduces him to Ronan Grisham, the leader of an underground vigilante group, Phoenix knows he’s found a new family and nothing and no one is going to take that from him again. So when Ronan asks him to shadow a young man who participated in a brutal crime against Ronan’s husband, Seth, when he was a child and appears to be targeting him again, Phoenix doesn’t even hesitate for a second.
Even knowing what he must do if the young man proves to have gone back to his old ways.

Because family is everything…

I can’t come back from what I did. I’m not sure I even want to…

An ugly childhood left Levi Deming with little to do but dream of a day when he’d be free of his tormenters so he could carve out a simple life for himself, preferably somewhere far away from the family who never let him forget he was less than human. But one terrible choice at the tender age of 16 changed everything…

Wracked with guilt for the role he played during a home invasion gone horribly wrong, a now 24-year-old Levi is trying to piece together a life where he can maybe do a little bit of good, even knowing it won’t make up for the lives he helped take and it definitely won’t give back the future he stole from the young man whose agonized screams still haunt him night after night. If it were only about him, he’d walk into the nearest police station and happily tell them to lock him up and throw away the key.

But it isn’t just about him anymore…

I expected to find a hardened criminal. What I found was something else entirely…
With Ronan’s orders to terminate young Levi if he so much as even jaywalks, Phoenix expects an easy job with one clear outcome. But when a violent encounter forces Phoenix to interact with Levi, he quickly realizes the case might not be as black and white as he thought. Instead of finding a criminal with no conscience, Phoenix discovers a young man battling impossible odds and near crippling guilt.

When his feelings of disgust and anger begin to fade and turn into something else, the would-be hitman is forced to make a terrible decision between the family he needs and the young man more intent on seeking judgement than redemption.

Audiobook Review ~ Salvation by Sloane Kennedy

Audible

Blurb:

Trauma surgeon Ronan Grisham lost everything the day the man he loved was stolen from him in a brutal attack. Driven by a thirst for vengeance, he turns his hatred into building an underground group that can do what he couldn’t that fateful day…take the lives of the guilty to save the lives of the innocent. But years later, he’s forced to confront the one link to his past that he can’t sever.

Seven years after the loss of his parents in a violent home invasion that left him permanently scarred both inside and out, 21-year-old Seth Nichols is trying to put his life back together so he can take over the reins of his father’s global shipping empire. But the last person he expects to come back into his life is the man he drove away with one innocent, stolen kiss.

With one brush of his lips, Seth managed to do to Ronan what no other had since the day Ronan watched the light in his fiancé’s eyes go out forever. He made him need again. But Ronan can’t need anyone, least of all his dead fiancé’s younger brother. Because even one touch from Seth could shatter Ronan’s carefully constructed world and Ronan knows there’s no coming back from that a second time.

But when a series of escalating attacks against Seth forces Ronan back into his life, Seth knows it’s his last chance to show Ronan he can be the man the broken surgeon needs. Only the Ronan who returns isn’t the Ronan Seth fell in love with so long ago…

Can Seth be Ronan’s salvation or will he end up destroying them both?

AotM: Finding Hope by Sloane Kennedy (Reviews+Giveaway)

And with this post, we get to the end of our month promoting the very talented Sloane Kennedy and her amazing books. Thank you, Sloane, we loved having you here! 💖

Finding Hope (Finding Series Book 5)

by Sloane Kennedy

324 pages

Published March 2nd 2017

M/M/M

Amazon  Goodreads

Blurb:

At 19, Beck Barretti is living two lives. To his family, he’s a young man trying to find his way after years of battling a mental illness that nearly cost him everything. But to the rest of theworld he’s just another privileged kid with problems. The truth doesn’t even lie somewhere in between because Beck’s entire life is actually about keeping secrets.

From the people he loves.

From the ones he doesn’t.

From himself.

Spending a summer in Dare, Montana with family friends isn’t about starting fresh – it’s about escaping the crippling darkness that threatens to consume him.

Until one encounter that was supposed to mean nothing ends up changing everything…

Quinn Donovan had the life he’d always dreamed of until a brutal act of violence ripped it all away. Even though he’s found a new future working at the CB Bar Ranch in Dare, Montana, he’s not interested in trying to get back what he once had. All he wants is a quiet life that includes a job that’s worth getting up for each morning and hanging out with his best friend, a black and white Paint stallion named Koda.

But nothing prepares him for the strange twist of fate that brings not one, but two men into his life…

Brody Wilder is done hiding in the closet. As the son of a political scion, he’s spent his entire life hiding the truth about who he is just so he could inherit a legacy he never wanted. But those days are behind him and he’s starting a new life in rural Montana where he’s saving lives as a paramedic and building a successful construction business that would surely horrify his old-money, society-loving family.

After years of denying himself, he’s taking advantage of his newfound freedom by indulging in random, meaningless sexual encounters that are about pleasure, not emotion.

So no one is more surprised than him when one night in the back room of a sordid gay club leads to something more…

Can three men who came together by chance find the hope they need to build a future with each other, or will they end up letting their fears determine their destiny?

AotM ~ Finding Peace by Sloane Kennedy ~ (Reviews+Giveaway)

GoodReads ~ Amazon

Blurb:

"I knew it would like this...like finding something I didn't know was missing." --Luke

Author Gray Hawthorne has it all and he’s on the verge of having even more. His bestselling detective novels are being turned into a movie series that will make him a household name and he’s rubbing a lot more than just elbows with Hollywood’s elite. Money, fame and good looks mean an endless supply of men, both groupies and celebrities alike, which suits Gray just fine. He’s smart enough to know that his 5 minutes in the spotlight will be just that and he plans to enjoy every moment. Until he gets the devastating news that threatens to steal everything away…

Army Ranger Luke Monroe lives and breathes the military. They’re the family he never had and a life without his brothers-in-arms is unfathomable. But the ultimate betrayal has Luke on the run and a twist of fate leads him to the small town of Dare, Montana to seek help from the foster brother who saved him once before. Only the brother he’s searching for isn’t the man he finds and he has no choice but to keep running. Until an encounter on the side of the road with a stranger changes everything.

The last thing Gray wants when he seeks refuge at his cabin in the secluded Montana mountains is company but a run-in with the mysterious and very straight Luke has Gray offering the damaged soldier a place to regroup. And since a physical relationship isn’t even on the table, Gray finds himself enjoying something he hasn’t had in a long time…a real friend.

But what happens when friendship just isn’t enough? When a man who’s only been with women begins to crave more?

With one man running from his past and the other running from his future, will finding each other be enough to bring them peace?

AotM ~ Freeing Zane by Sloane Kennedy ~ (Review+Giveaway)

GoodReads ~ Amazon

Zane doesn’t do relationships and Connor is definitely the kind of guy who does…

Criminal defense attorney Zane Devereaux is on the verge of having everything he’s worked his entire life for. He’s on track to become his firm’s youngest managing partner and he has enough money in the bank to ensure he’ll never have to be at the mercy of anyone ever again. He’s left his past exactly where it belongs and refuses to look back. And he sure as hell isn’t going to risk a repeat of his former mistakes by letting someone as sweet, sexy and endearingly vulnerable as Connor Talbot into his life. His bed maybe, but not his life.

Connor Talbot has no regrets about serving his country, even if it did cost him more then he’d imagined. Two years after an IED took his leg and left him with permanent brain damage, Connor is still struggling to put his life back together, but he’s managed to find a makeshift family in Seattle that helps ease the pain of losing his own at a young age. Unfortunately, a string of bad relationships and an abusive ex have taken their toll on Connor and he’s given up on finding the lifelong partner he’d always envisioned he’d have. But a chance encounter with a man he has absolutely nothing in common with except for an intense, white-hot chemistry has him thinking that maybe a no strings, physical relationship is exactly what’s called for.

What begins as two men meeting each other’s needs between the sheets turns into something neither one was prepared for but the wounds of the past run deep and both men will have to decide if a future together will cost them too much or if what they could have together is worth fighting for.

AotM ~ Redeeming Rafe and Saving Ren ~ (Reviews + Giveaway)

GoodReads ~ Amazon

He wants revenge against the brothers who betrayed him but first he has to get past the one man he can’t resist…

At the tender age of eight, Rafe Barretti lost everything. His parents, his childhood, his innocence. And the brothers who were supposed to protect him let him go instead. Twenty years later and he’s finally ready to exact his revenge by taking away everything they hold dear – their company, their reputations, their futures. But even that isn’t enough - their loved ones will have to pay too and all their precious secrets are fair game.

Former mercenary Cade Gamble’s only job is to take down the hacker stealing sensitive, private information from Barretti Security Group and Cade is damn good at his job. But there’s more at stake because the co-founders of BSG, Dom and Vin Barretti, are like family and no one touches Cade’s family. The fact that the vengeful young man turns out to be the youngest of the Barretti clan doesn’t matter. But when their tumultuous encounters turn into something more, Cade will have to decide between protecting the only family he has and giving in to his need to save Rafe from himself.

Can Cade help Rafe find redemption so he can forgive the sins of the past or will Rafe’s quest for vengeance destroy them both?

AotM ~ Logan's Need by Sloane Kennedy (Reviews+Giveaway)

AotM ~ Logan's Need (Escort Series #3) by Sloane Kennedy (Reviews)

Title: Logan’s Need (Book 3, The Escort Series)

Author: Sloane Kennedy

Published: May 17, 2015

Pages: 320

Amazon  Goodreads

After Logan Bradshaw’s dreams go up in smoke, he’s left broken and haunted by a cruel betrayal from his former business partner, a man he once thought of as a friend. His life as a professional escort helped pay for his future once, so maybe a few more jobs can give him back what he’s lost. And if that means being a third for one night for a wealthy couple living out a ménage fantasy, then so be it. It might just be the final payout he needs to get his life back on track.

Dominic Barretti has everything money can buy, but it can’t save his beautiful young wife as cancer steals her away from him. He also can’t deny her one last request – a ménage encounter with another man. It’s the perfect excuse to meet the man who’s been haunting his dreams. On paper, Logan is the perfect choice to give his wife what she needs, but he doesn’t expect his own fierce desires to flare up when the young man enters their lives.

Dom and Logan don’t know it, but Sylvie Barretti has decided to play matchmaker from beyond the grave. Unfortunately, getting two broken men to find each other makes dying seem like the easy part.

Logan can’t deny his attraction to Dom, but the surprise desire for another man has left him reeling and questioning everything he’s ever known about himself. But when a threat from the past surfaces, will Logan be able to let go of the life he knew and embrace the one he needs?

Note: This book contains M/M sexual content and intended for mature audiences

***This is Book 3 in the series but can be read as a stand-alone story - no cliffhangers. However, more enjoyment can be gained by reading the series in order:

Book 1 - Gabriel's Rule

Book 2 - Shane’s Fall

(Note: Logan’s Need DOES contain spoilers for events first presented in Books 1 & 2)***

Book Blitz ~ Revelation (The Protectors #7) by Sloane Kennedy (Reviews + Excerpt)

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Revelation

The Protectors #7

By Sloane Kennedy

Hosted by Jo&Isalovebooks Blog.

“I trusted once. I won’t make that mistake again…”

An ugly childhood and devastating betrayal have left 25-year-old Cain Jensen scarred inside and out. Protecting himself means keeping everyone at arm’s length and protecting others means never getting emotionally involved. In the three years since he’s joined an underground vigilante group, every life he saves helps ease the guilt of the ones that were lost to him so long ago. So when he’s sent to a remote cabin in the Cascade Mountains just north of Seattle to follow up on the disappearance of his boss’s co-worker, his only thought is to see that justice is served, no matter what the circumstances.

But nothing he’s ever experienced has prepared the cold-hearted and very straight Cain for who he finds on that mountain…or the intense need to suddenly offer more than just protection.

“I’ve finally managed to break free, but I’ve never felt more trapped in my entire life…”

Ethan Rhodes has been running for six months, but it’s never fast enough, it’s never far enough. At 30 years old, the talented ER Doctor should be spending his days saving other people’s lives, not worrying about his own. But he knows that the four years of physical and emotional abuse he’s suffered at the hands of his volatile ex are nothing compared to what will happen when Ethan runs out of places to hide, especially after taking something from the man he once was sure would be the love of his life.

A violent episode that has Ethan narrowly escaping death leads to a quiet cabin in the mountains where his battered body will have time to heal before he and the young girl relying on him need to run again. But everything changes with the arrival of a mysterious stranger who threatens to give Ethan something he’d finally accepted was gone forever…hope.

“I didn’t see this coming. I don’t think he did either…”

To get to the truth, Cain must first get through Ethan’s defenses, but watching the other man’s walls start to come down forces Cain to face his own past. And as the tremulous connection between the two men grows and gives way to something more, both will need to decide if they’re willing to risk giving each other the one thing that has cost them so much in the past…trust.

Will two men who’ve vowed never to let someone close again let down their guard long enough to find each other, or will they let their pasts determine their future?

AotM ~ Vengeance & Protectors Christmas by Sloane Kennedy (Reviews + Giveaway)

AotM ~ Vengeance & Protectors Christmas by Sloane Kennedy (Reviews + Giveaway)

Title: Vengeance (Protectors book 5)

Author: Sloane Kennedy

Pages:494

Published: October 4, 2016

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Amazon  Goodreads

Memphis

At thirty-four years old, ex-DEA agent Memphis Wheland has lived, loved and lost…everything. The ultimate betrayal by the man he gave everything to has left Memphis with no family, no career and a bone deep bitterness that refuses to release him from its icy grip. His work with an underground vigilante organization is the only light in his otherwise bleak existence. That and the occasional no-strings hookup with men whose only focus in that moment, and for as long as Memphis wants them, is him and only him. No clingy exes, no unrequited love, no relationship drama. Period.

Because Memphis has one rule that he won’t break for anyone or anything. He doesn’t share.

Ever.

Now if only someone had told that to the young man who would come into his life in the most unexpected way…

Brennan

With his entire life ahead of him, graduate student Brennan Devereaux wasn’t expecting it to change in the blink of an eye. But when a case of mistaken identity nearly costs Brennan his life, it isn’t just his future that’s about to change, but his past too. Because for years he’s been in love with a young man who only sees him as a friend and nothing more. And while he was content to love Tristan Barretti from afar, he hadn’t expected to be drawn to the mysterious stranger who saved his life and changed it with a simple promise.

I’m not letting you go.

They were words spoken in the heat of the moment as the darkness of death had threatened to claim him, but even as Brennan’s love for Tristan refuses to wane, his need for the intriguing Memphis Wheland continues to grow.

But any relationship with Memphis means he has to let go of the one thing in his life he’s always valued above everything else…

Tristan

At nineteen, Tristan Barretti should have had the world at his feet. His musical gifts have garnered him prestige as well as admission to the famed Julliard School in New York and he has a family that most people would kill for. But the protective bubble his fathers have kept him in has burst and he’s discovered that life outside his unconditionally loving family isn’t as accepting of a kid born with HIV. A poor decision to find answers to questions better left unasked, along with the complications of living with his disease, have Tristan returning to Seattle and the solace of his family.

And to the young man he’s wanted from the time he was barely old enough to even understand what that meant.

But with an uncertain future that leaves him nothing to offer the gorgeous and successful Brennan Devereaux, Tristan knows the best he can hope for is to keep building on the friendship they’ve shared for years and not get his hopes up that Brennan will be the one man who sees him and not his disease.

Except all bets are off when danger follows him home…

Choices

Even though a physical relationship with Brennan was supposed to be just that, Memphis finds himself unable to refuse his young lover’s request to help put a stop to the threat against Tristan. Even knowing full well that Brennan’s heart lies with the man he claims is nothing more than a friend, Memphis accepts the challenge of ensuring Tristan’s safety.

But when the quiet music student stops being a “job” and starts being something much more, Memphis is torn between his growing feelings for both young men and the fear that he’ll be facing an even greater betrayal that he’ll never be able to come back from.

Except none of that matters when the threat that Memphis never saw coming puts Brennan and Tristan in the crosshairs.

And the cost of the vengeance he once craved suddenly comes at too high a price…