Release Day Review: Summer Ride by Susan Laine

Title: Summer Ride
Author: Susan Laine
Release Date: March 30, 2018
Category: Contemporary
Pages: 112

Dreamspinner Press

High school best friends Toby Billings and Jim Maverick went their separate ways after graduation. Five years later, they meet by chance. Toby needs a ride, and Jim offers to give him one.
During a journey across several states, with stops at roadside diners, state parks, and cheap motels, small talk turns to serious discussions of lives that didn’t turn out the way either of them dreamed. Their choices are catching up to them, and neither is on an innocent summer vacation. Renewing their friendship will mean painful admissions and secrets coming to light. Yet they discover they have more in common now than they ever guessed, and going their separate ways at the trip’s end won’t be easy.

After aimlessly wandering the country, all roads lead back home. But first they must decide what home means.

Guest Post ~ The Island in the Stars by Susan Laine

GoodReads ~ Dreamspinner ~ Amazon

Blurb:

Sam, a geeky college freshman, has bigger problems than lusting after Marcus, sexy jock, college junior, and his big brother’s best friend. Chasing after a beanie caught in the winter wind turns into a tumble down the rabbit hole for them both—science fiction style.

Sam and Marcus find themselves trapped on a tropical island in the middle of a strange ocean on an alien moon. The sole structure is a ruined temple devoted to the art of love. Flustered, confused, and unable to return home, they need to figure out a means of escape from a hostile jungle teeming with dangerous life-forms.

In this tale where opposites attract and secret crushes are revealed, two very dissimilar young men discover they actually have a lot in common after all, but it will take their differences as much as their points of connection to survive on an island in the stars.

Release Day Review ~ Kissing Lessons (Before… and After: Book Two) by Susan Laine

Release Day Review ~ Kissing Lessons (Before… and After: Book Two) by Susan Laine

Title: Kissing Lessons

Series: Before… and After: Book Two

Author: Susan Laine

Release Date: April 26, 2017

Category: Contemporary, New Adult

Pages: 81

Dreamspinner  Amazon  Goodreads

A kiss is just a kiss. It doesn’t have to mean anything. Does it?

At seventeen, Merry’s never been kissed. Since he doesn’t want to disappoint his prom date, he asks his more experienced best friend, Boone, for some pointers. Surprisingly, Boone agrees to give him a hands-on lesson.

But they have no idea what they’re getting into.

They explore hundreds of ways to make out, but somehow it isn’t enough. A week later, they’re back together for another session. This time things go further than either of them planned, and their relationship becomes awkward and uncomfortable.

Have they learned enough to salvage their friendship and help it evolve? Their lessons have come to an end. They can either part ways forever… or share a true love’s kiss.

Release Day Review ~ After the Romance Novel by Susan Laine

Release Day Review ~ After the Romance Novel by Susan Laine

Title: After the Romance Novel

Series: Before… and After

Author: Susan Laine

Release Date: February 22, 2017

Category: Contemporary, New Adult

Pages: 63

Dreamspinner  Amazon  Goodreads

Romance novels always end with a happy ever after. Right?

Evan and Adam are best friends, but they don’t know everything about each other. For one thing, Adam doesn’t know Evan writes and publishes gay romance novels until he discovers one while snooping on Evan’s laptop.

This revelation changes their relationship in ways neither could’ve imagined. Adam’s reaction to reading Evan’s stories is not what he expected, nor is the new way he’s looking at his lifelong pal. After all, Adam is straight, or so he’s always thought, and that is what Evan believes about Adam as well.

When Evan admits he might be bisexual, Adam suggests he try dating girls to find out for sure, but when Evan follows his advice, Adam is caught off guard by his feelings of jealousy. And when the date proves Evan isn’t bisexual, but gay, Evan’s request that Adam find him a guy might be the last straw.

How can Adam admit he wants that guy to be him? His epiphany will either end their relationship—or change it into something wonderful in their very own friends-to-lovers romance.

Release Day Review: The Disciple by Susan Laine

Title: The Disciple
Series: The Wheel Mysteries: Book Four
Author: Susan Laine
Release Date: October 21, 2016
Category: Murder Mystery
Pages: 200

Dreamspinner Press ~ Goodreads

Gus Goodwin witnesses a young man acting strangely at his occult shop—and a day later the same youth is found brutally murdered at a secluded Radical Faerie sanctuary in the mountains. Gus and his private detective boyfriend, Niall Valentine, once again find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery.

First to cross their path is Professor Alex Kittridge, Gus’s ex-boyfriend. Then into the picture stumbles Autumnsong, the biggest enigma they’ve ever encountered, to complicate the already confusing case. As Gus and Niall try to decipher the meaning of the cryptic poems left at the murder scenes, their pasts not yet laid to rest put a strain on their relationship.
Gus and Niall must uncover a slew of secrets within a spiritual group of queer social rebels before the vile killer strikes again—or the investigation could very well end up being their last.