Tanya Chris's Blog

Relationships Are Complicated

Aren’t they? If you’re interested in hearing some of my thoughts on the subject, check out the interview I did for RelationshipAreComplicated.com.

Now available: Hell’s Bedroom box set

If you haven’t gotten around to reading the Hell’s Bedroom series yet, or if you read it in KU but would like to own a copy, pick up this box set that includes all three books plus the prequel and epilogue in one handy volume.

It’s going to take a whole kinky village

Someone is taking advantage of the subs at Boston’s elite BDSM club Hell’s Bedroom, using their vulnerabilities to lure them into unethical and possibly dangerous situations. Private Investigator Harrison Fisher, Boston Police Officer Cade Brixby, and Deputy District Attorney Sebastian Gage join forces with a vigilante group of Hell’s Bedroom patrons to save the subs and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Kitchen Sink Dom: Harrison’s case isn’t going well. Wearing a collar, pretending he’s submissive, searching for a Dom who’ll get him into Hell’s Bedroom—his first time working undercover is stretching his boundaries. He’s always wondered if BDSM might be for him, but how can he be honest about what he wants sexually when he can’t be honest about anything else?

Chicken Soup Dom: When Arlo turned himself over to a master he’d never met, he thought he would finally have both the sex he craved and an authority figure to care for him. But what he got was worse. Much worse. Now he’s been rescued, but where does that leave him?

Upsy-Daisy Dom: Tripp likes his sex on the fun side of risky. Which means he’s got his eye on Sebastian Gage, the incredibly handsome, incredibly rich, incredibly dangerous Dom. Sebastian makes subs cry, and he’s not sorry about it. He is sorry his penchant for emotional sadism means none of his playmates ever stick around, but he’s not going to let any of his new-found friends know that.

Includes bonus material:
Always Home: Emmett’s nervous about playing at Hell’s Bedroom, the elite BDSM club in Boston where he and his husband, Wade, have recently relocated. But with Wade swinging the paddle, Emmett’s sure to make a good first impression and find a new place to call home. (Always Home is also available as part of the Unchained Desires anthology.)

Switch: Harrison finally gets to experience a bullwhip as we check in where all the Hell’s Bedroom characters ended up. (Switch is also available on the Free Stories section of my website.)

Now available: A Dirty Dozen

Note: this is a compilation of short stories, some of which you may have read before because they were available on my website.

Whether it’s shy cowboys or arrogant dragster drivers, A Dirty Dozen has a man for every occasion. These men meet in twos (and occasionally threes!) for sweet romance and hot fun. Each of the twelve included stories is guaranteed to feature a very happy ending.

City Slick: Rex and Caleb have spent five years eyeing each other across a border fence. It’s going to take a pretty slick city boy to bring these two cowboys together at lastSeek & Ye Shall Find: Maybe Alejo has the answer his straight friend Gil’s been looking for all this timeThe New Guy: Gannon wants Elliott wants Mike wants Gannon. Go around once or twice with three hot menBoo!: Lathan hates being scared, so why is he in this haunted house? The only way he’ll make it through is with the help of a heroAnytime, Anyplace: One jock, one geek. Not what you thinkCape Cock Block: Leith is looking forward to a week in Cape Cod with his family and his older brother’s best friend until a change in sleeping arrangements makes alone time hard to arrangeDemi-Love: Sara thinks it’s about time her BF and his BFF took it to the next levelHere Cutie, Cutie: When Paul gets called in to rescue a kitten from a tree, he find the kitten’s owner just as cute and skittish as the kittenHot Rod: Luke and Gino are racing for a trophy but also for bragging rights and certain bedroom favorsLollipop, Lollipop: Ari and Joel find an alternative to attending their graduating class’s lollipop partyHorndog Says Woof: After Kyle and Roland meet at the dog park, wine on the deck and an upstairs romp might lead to something more, but only if Roland and Snowball can change their horndog ways.Buddy Lift: Travis is in the process of relocating from New York City to Atlanta, and it’s going to take more than one muscular, sweaty man to thoroughly move him

A Dirty Dozen is $2.99 to buy and is currently enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

What I’ve Been Up To

Admittedly, I haven’t been writing. My newsletter subscribers know I’m taking a hiatus and possibly a permanent retirement from M/M Romance. But I haven’t been doing nothing. So here are some updates that might interest you:

On October 14th, I’ll have a new T. M. Chris release – an uncle/nephew incest story that will be part of an anthology of M/M incest stories, each with a different pairing of relatives. My entry is called His Brother’s Brat, and if you read incest, I think you’re going to love it.

I donated a kidney! That’s a very non-writing related thing, but it did keep me busy for a while. I was inspired to make a non-directed donation, meaning I don’t know who the kidney went to. It was quite the process. Lots of tests to make sure I was healthy enough to donate and then I got matched with someone (they received my kidney in LA, but that’s all I know), and then a long 4 week wait for surgery. I kept myself busy during that time by trying to get as in-shape as possible to ease my recovery, and I guess it worked because my recovery was very smooth. I’m now two months post-surgery and if it weren’t for a small scar that’s already fading, I’d hardly know I did it.

I was on a podcast. We finally had those 2020 Olympics I wrote about in Aiming High, which included sport climbing for the first time, and I was on a podcast to talk about my own climbing, the book, and the kidney donation. You can listen or watch, whichever you like better:

YouTubePodcast

Lastly, I’ve spent a lot of time ruminating on where I’m going from here. I’m getting closer to starting a new project, but I’m still not sure which one. Thanks to those of you who participated in the survey I sent out via my newsletter, and if you haven’t had a chance yet, you can do so here: https://tanyachris.com/quiz/what-should-tanya-do-next

New free story: Switch, a Hell’s Bedroom epilogue

Switch is an epilogue to the Hell’s Bedroom series. Catch up with all your favorite couples and then watch as Harrison finally gets his date with a bullwhip. Read this after reading Upsy-Daisy Dom.

Free to read by clicking here or on the picture.

Now available: Upsy-Daisy Dom

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It’s almost here! Upsy-Daisy Dom, The last book in the Hell’s Bedroom trilogy is now available for $3.99 or read with KU.

It’s really rude to wish you’d been kidnapped. Especially when your best friend actually was. But Tripp wishes something would happen to him. He likes his sex kinky, and he likes his kink on the fun side of risky. Which means he’s got his eye on Sebastian Gage, the incredibly handsome, incredibly rich, incredibly dangerous Dom.

Sebastian makes subs cry, and he’s not sorry about it. He is sorry that his penchant for emotional sadism means none of his playmates ever stick around, but he’s not going to let any of his new-found friends know that. All they know is that he’s a cruel Dom and a brilliant attorney. And right now it’s time to concentrate on the brilliant attorney part instead of getting sidetracked by a gangly young sub with a smart mouth and a penchant for danger.

Sebastian will do anything to make sure the perp who’s been targeting vulnerable subs in a human trafficking scheme gets what he deserves. Maybe even sacrifice Tripp, the only one who can take everything Sebastian has to offer. The only one who’s ever stuck around.

This is the final book in the Hell’s Bedroom series.

A Little Priest

I didn’t grow up religious. So I think it’s only coincidental that three of my favorite M/M romances feature clergymen. Two of them have BDSM elements, which is… another coincidence? They do happen to be by three of my favorite M/M authors, so there’s that. Anyway, whether you have a priest kink or not, these are all worth checking out.

I’ve never read anything by Lyra Evans I didn’t enjoy, but A Consecrated Heart is undoubtedly my favorite. Lyle is a demon whose job is to harvest souls but his heart hasn’t really been in his work lately. Then he meets Father Aaron who has the most pure soul he’s ever seen.

It’s a question of who’s going to convert who here. Aaron has a pure soul but a tortured heart as he struggles with his sexuality. He dreams of being punished for his sins and Lyle begins to fill that role, first in his dreams and eventually in real life.

This has some harsher BDSM in it, but the scenes are pure lust and emotion. You really feel Aaron’s need for what Lyle can give him and vice versa.

A Taste of Sin is a second chance romance by Kate Hawthorne in which Dominic returns to find the man he was torn away from as a teen. Since then, Reed has become the principal of a Catholic school and his faith is very important to him. Dominic also lives in faith, but in the Episcopal faith where he can be both a priest and gay.

There are some great scenes showing how faith that doesn’t condemn LGBT+ children can give them a place to grow safely, but the real magic is between the two men. Reed isn’t just gay (and hiding it). He’s also kinky (and hiding it). There’s a lot of repression going on, and Nic is the right guy to help him gently (and not so gently, as they get into some mild D/s) unwind it.

Great chemistry, lots of emotion, and a satisfying resolution that doesn’t feel like anyone has to give up his faith to be both gay and happy.

If you have a priest kink, you’ve probably already read Vespertine by Leta Blake and Indra Vaugh, but I love it not just for its exploration of faith vs. sexuality but for its treatment of addiction and recovery.

This is another second chance romance. Nicky and Jasper were in love as teenagers, but Jasper’s family steers him away from Nicky—who they see as destined for trouble—and Jasper ends up hearing the call to become a priest. Nicky does, in fact, end up in trouble. The book start with him coming back home to continue his recovery from drugs and the generally unhealthy lifestyle he’s been living as a rock star.

I don’t like when books act as if love is the answer to addiction, because it’s quite the contrary. Love is a dangerous drug to be messing with in early recovery. But Vespertine acknowledges that Nicky has a long, difficult road in front of him, and I appreciate the fact that all the struggles aren’t on Nicky’s side. Jasper has almost worse ones as he owns up to his sexuality and tries to figure out how to reconcile it with his calling and his faith.

This is another book that shows how LGBT+ children can be either helped or harmed by faith. When Jasper makes his decision at the end, it’s partly for Nicky and partly for the kids who need his example and support.

So there you have it—three priestly books you can read that are all seriously hot but also explore some deep topics. If you want to see my take on reconciling faith with sexuality, check out my free (also BDSM) short story, One Man’s Hell, which features not a priest but Satan himself.

Happy Birthday to Hooked by the Bell

Why won’t anyone read this book????!!!!

Honestly, this is one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. It’s fun. It’s campy. It’s hot. So why doesn’t it get read? Is it because there are cartoon characters on the cover? Is it because one of the characters is a fairy? (He dresses up as Tinkerbell). Is it because the guys are both asses? They really are, too.

Hooked by the Bell is an enemies-to-lovers where I just went ahead and let the guys be rotten to each other. I usually stick by my promise that my characters will treat each other well, so I guess this book steps outside my normal form. But Harper and Matt are just overgrown children playing pranks on each other and refusing to admit they’re perfect for each other. The cover is cartoon characters because the whole thing is a laugh.

Anyway, ranting aside, I wrote this for an enemies-to-lovers anthology and then, even though it’s short, decided to publish it once the anthology went out of KU because I liked it so much. I wanted people to read it, but they refused. What can you do?

You know, this book is a lot like Among Heroes, actually, which is another book people don’t read enough of (in my personal opinion). I guess my immature, snarky characters aren’t to readers’ taste. But everyone deserves love. Even guys who are marinating in so much testosterone it’s poisoning their brains.

Coming Soon: Upsy-Daisy Dom

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It’s almost here! Upsy-Daisy Dom, The last book in the Hell’s Bedroom trilogy is now available for pre-order now for $3.99. Release date May 25, 2021 and eligible for KU.

It’s really rude to wish you’d been kidnapped. Especially when your best friend actually was. But Tripp wishes something would happen to him. He likes his sex kinky, and he likes his kink on the fun side of risky. Which means he’s got his eye on Sebastian Gage, the incredibly handsome, incredibly rich, incredibly dangerous Dom.

Sebastian makes subs cry, and he’s not sorry about it. He is sorry that his penchant for emotional sadism means none of his playmates ever stick around, but he’s not going to let any of his new-found friends know that. All they know is that he’s a cruel Dom and a brilliant attorney. And right now it’s time to concentrate on the brilliant attorney part instead of getting sidetracked by a gangly young sub with a smart mouth and a penchant for danger.

Sebastian will do anything to make sure the perp who’s been targeting vulnerable subs in a human trafficking scheme gets what he deserves. Maybe even sacrifice Tripp, the only one who can take everything Sebastian has to offer. The only one who’s ever stuck around.

This is the final book in the Hell’s Bedroom series.

Now available: Chicken Soup Dom

Chicken Soup Dom, book 2 in the Hell’s Bedroom series is now available for $3.99 or read with Kindle Unlimited.

When Arlo boarded a bus to Philadelphia to turn himself over to a master he’d never met, he thought he was on his way home, that he would finally have both the sex he craved and an authority figure to care for him in a way his parents never had. But what he got was worse. Much, much worse. Now he’s been rescued, but where does that leave him?

Officer Cade Brixby immediately bonded with the young sub they rescued—a curly-haired, blue-eyed cherub who needs to be taught the right way to engage in power exchange. But not by him, and not until Arlo has had a chance to process his traumatic past. Brixby’s only taking care of Arlo for now, keeping him safe and making sure he eats. He has no business playing with the boy. Even if Arlo asks. A lot.

Professionally, Brixby is off the case. Or so he’s been told by his captain. But he and his band of vigilante kinksters won’t rest until every kidnapped sub has been found and the kidnappers brought to justice. Arlo might be able to provide them with some valuable information.

Or he might be bait.

Content warning for disordered eating. The opening chapter details an abusive situation that may be disturbing to some readers.