Talon P.S.'s Blog, page 9
February 2, 2016
BOOKS ‘n COZY SPOTS BOOK REVIEWS – Dream Gods by J. Johanis
3.5 Stars
Review of DREAM GODS by J. Johanis
Fantasy-Gods / Dark Erotica / M-m and menage / brief M-f / Non-con / Dub-con / Abuse-Violence
Copy provided by author for honest review
Reviewed by Jaycee ~ for Books ‘N Cozy Spots Book Reviews, www.Talon-ps.com
For the first time in three years, Aya is finally free, but with his freedom comes the pain of all he’s lost. Seeing Akad and Marduk together makes him realize how badly he has messed up. By betraying Marduk, he ruined his chance with the one god he desires more than anything.
Aya needs time to heal and put his world back together, but the trial against the Order looms over him. As the trial begins, Akad, Marduk, and Aya are ensnared in a web of jealousy, backstabbing, and cut-throat politics. Were they crazy to think they could stand up to the Order? If the gods of the Order can still rip their lives apart, their chances of receiving justice may be next to impossible. But if they fail to bring the Order down, Aya may never truly be free.
“Dream Gods” picks up where book one in the series, “Claimed by the Order”, left off, and yet the opening scene and various flashbacks will get the reader who missed book one up to speed quite satisfactorily, I think.
If you want a Fantasy tale full of every kind of excess, of Master-slave dynamic in all definitions of the concept, then this is your book. If you want it fluffy, not gonna happen. This is a dark, gritty tale that is sometimes consumptive in its level of murk and depravity. I recall feeling as desolate as Aya and Marduk at times, as they relived their experiences with and pursued justice against, the higher Gods; “higher” being a relative term in this case.
Aya dared to dream of a God who made him feel, and because of his abilities as a Dream God he placed himself in a 4 year nightmare that nearly broke him, and certainly caused him to abandon principles to save himself and to lose his soul mate in the process.
Marduk, having originally been duped by Aya, however unwillingly on Aya’s part, found himself in exactly the same position as a slave and plaything to a secret Order of the Higher Gods. Marduk is something of a strategist however, and finds some powerful help and love with another God.
The gist of this second book, without giving away any details, is the “legal” process if you will, of shedding light on the Secret Order, dismantling it and punishing the perpetrators. Testimony will force the principals to relive the personal atrocities and degradation they faced, and success is not a given, but ultimately it is the only way of putting the nightmare behind them.
The parallels one can draw to reality when a less powerful victim must face the influence and all the forces that influence can bring to bear, and the price they pay in the doing of it, are neatly drawn and are no less daunting mentally, simply because this is fiction. I found the tale a difficult read at times. It is very graphic and descriptive in the violence and abuse and subjugation. Yet it is also a tale of right-versus-might that ends with a victory for Karma, and personal victories for the victims.
DREAM GOD also received the following ratings: –
HEAT FACTOR ~ 4 Flames
STING FACTOR ~ Extreme ~
TWIST FACTOR ~blackmail, manipulation, political intrigue in the extreme~
January 29, 2016
HAPPY BIRTHDAY & RELEASE DAY for the Twins!
AND
HAPPY RELEASE DAY FOR
RIGHT ONE 4 DIESEL
iTunes: https://goo.gl/V2uknM
Amazon: http://goo.gl/uSwS5U
Barnes&Noble: http://goo.gl/WbC0IM
Smashwords: https://goo.gl/YUW3zs
Kobo: https://goo.gl/FIEzTt
ARe – All Romance Ebooks: (link coming soon)
Goodreads: https://goo.gl/FjRbHC
January 27, 2016
Backstage with the Twins – Adjusting to Amazon & the renumbering of the DoB series
Amazon is always making changes to their sight. Changing and improving on how books are displayed and how readers can find them. So its important Authors do the same. Regardless of your thoughts on Amazon they are in fact the largest retailer of books and if you want your books to reach your readers you sell on Amazon. What’s important is keeping up. Amazon gives authors more control over their product page than any other retailer around, yet many authors don’t use it to their advantage. Consider your product page the window display to your store. Amazon gives you the chance to dress it up and I’m here to say… you should!! It also requires some regular maintenance. Sometimes when the wide spread rearrangements take place a book or two might get dropped from your author listings. Such as the case for us, finding just today that Quantum Mates: What Torin Wants was no longer showing up under Talon’s author page. An easy fix, but would have remained absent if we didn’t make regardless house calls. Another reason to always make checks is sometimes our blurb and details can get jammed together. and don’t check just the kindle page, check your paperback edition, and refresh your pages regularly. Now on to what’s new!
One of the newest gadget added is the series display widget on the product page of books listed as part of a series and I have to say its an attrative feature.
Going from this
to this…
This also makes it much easier to promote your series. But one thing you might have to take a look at is how you number your books. For us, The Dominion of Brothers series presently has 6 books out, but in way of the title numbers one of the books is listed as 1.5 so when viewing the series on Amazon there appears to only be 5. Amazon’s listings doesn’t allow for so called ‘.5 ‘ books and the results is such book are left out of the series listings. For us it meant Domming the Heiress doesn’t show up and the results has hurt the books over all sales. Readers don’t always know to look for it. We had spoken with Amazon several times over this and at one point we did have the book connected to the series link but without a title number. Now, with the new look Domming the Heiress has been dropped. But there is a way to get around it and that is to simply change the listing number in Amazon. This doesn’t have to change the book. DtH is still book 1.5 in the DoB series, but from now on will be listed as book 2 on Amazon, so that it will finally be included in the series display.
Readers can click on the link to the left of the display which will take them to the series product page, it lets them see which books in that series they have already purchased and down at the bottom they can leave a review for the series all together. Pretty nifty.
Another super cool thing Amazon has it a Book Preview widget you can use to embed right into your own website, so that readers can preview your book without having to be redirected to another site called Kindle Instant Book Previews. With a few options available, you can use either the resizable embed codes or use the url code to get one of these!!
The only glitch I am seeing so far on these is the limit of browser support, but hopefully other browsers will get on board with this. Still, its a nice bell and whistle to impress blog visitors. Well now that I’ve just dumped a bunch of homework in your lap, I think I’ll stop there.
HAPPY WRITING!!!
January 26, 2016
Right One 4 Diesel is available now in print!
Yes, you read that right. Want to get your hard copy heading your way right now? Well then you can; just hop over to Createspace and order your copy now!!
January 22, 2016
Book Tour – Hades: Of Gods and Monsters by Wulf Franco Godgluck
******WARNING*******
This is not a story about a hero, or some bad boy-badass-antihero.
This is a love story between two monstrous villains and one valiant kid, held together by their entwined heartstrings.
It won’t be pretty.
It won’t be pleasant.
There’s no fluffy good feelings about it.
It will rip out your heart and never give it back.
Breno Hades el Oscuro took no bullshit from anyone. He ruled the crime world of the United States. When the King fell, what was left in the ashes was not the small boy that grew up without his father, not the same kid that chose a life of crime at seventeen, nor was it the King who had killed and clawed through a river of blood to stand at the top.
The King was dragged from his throne of bones into a deep dark pit, leaving only the raw flesh of a savage monster to crawl out of Hell.
One that knew love, but didn’t want it again.
Kemono Orochi was destined to inherit the legacy of his father, known as The Dragon’s Tongue. It was an inheritance he never wanted it, never desiring the power that came with the title of Dragon. Kemono ended it all by tearing off the Dragon’s head, watching the serpent’s remains be consumed in hellfire. Now tormented by the scars of his past inflicted by his father, he is struggling to come to terms with the Akuma he has become.
One that wants to devour everyone in his path to protect the only one that matters to him.
The only person that had ever made his icy heart beat.
His heart. His love. His beautiful pride.
Rex Hunter dreams of becoming a principal ballerino…all fierce, like a Phoenix. But this Phoenix has lost his wings and fallen prey, straight into the clutched claws and callus hands of two vicious beasts. Each bore the blackest of hearts, each desiring to keep him safe, cherished and loved unconditionally. Or was Rex just destined to be the goo that would stick two shattered souls together and prevent them from forever falling to pieces?
There will be blood, gore and nasty shit.
There will be watersports, crude, angry, sometimes sensual and other times just downright dirty and dysfunctional sex.
BUT…
There will always be LOVE…
Because even villains understand the tortured scars love leaves in her wake.
Pages or Words: 118,000 words
Categories: Contemporary, Crimed Fiction, Erotica, Gay Fiction, Romance, Thriller
Excerpt:
Hades stood in front of the abandoned warehouse a couple of miles away from the one he’d set Scar on fire in. Wendigo on his left, Viper on his right. Cracker not far from him, while Witch twitched in excitement behind Hades. These were his boys, the ones who would go to Hell with him, bust every bitch down there, and stand by Hades’ side as he claimed the throne for himself.
The bitter taste of his own blood filled his mouth from biting his lip—fuckin’ Scar should have been here too, this went motherfuckin’ deeper than Hades had first thought. And Hades was gonna get Scar out of prison, he was going to go on his fuckin’ knees and beg his brother for forgiveness. And still plant a fist in your cunty face for not being honest with your brothers.
Scar could have told Hades the Russians were holding his lover as ransom, part of their plan to get Hades’ ass into the Big House and out of the way.
The Russians had gone too fuckin’ far. For some reason, the fuckin’ swine thought they could fuck with whoever they wanted and that everyone should tremble in their presence. They didn’t do fuckin’ Barney and Friends with the other crime lords, they were too busy making enemies. Khaiton was clawing at Hades’ balls, scratching it where it wasn’t even motherfuckin’ itching, in a whole new fucked-up way. Hades had a lot to do before he could put those fuckin’ pigs out of their miserable existence.
His chest pulled painfully tight as he closed his eyes, reflecting on the past two days of sheer hell, aside from him being a screwed-up mess of worry, emotions and fuckin’ revelations and shit. Hades didn’t think his heart could rupture again. It had. Fucking blew the shards of scrap metal Beo’s train wreck had imbedded in Hades’ stapled-together-heart and ripped them right the fuck out when he’d opened that apartment door.
Buy the book:
Amazon: http://goo.gl/W9fzMt
All Romance: https://goo.gl/mtnWW3
iStore: https://goo.gl/qysemF
Kobo: https://goo.gl/bKaV5v
Barnes and Noble: http://goo.gl/tnzQyb
Meet the author:
They come to me in the night, creeping into my head. Their voices are all different, their stories all dissimilar, but they keep saying the same thing…
“Show us, tell us, bring us into your world, and make us known.”
Then I sit and they take over. They tell their tales of love, loss and sinister misfortune. Not all of them get a happy ending, but they are pleased when their part is written.
I sometimes find myself lost in my own mind; a world very similar to our own yet so different. Things don’t go bump in the night— they squeal and crawl under your skin, making you grind your teeth, and making your stomach turn over and putting your nerves on edge. Then there’s the drama. Oh, the drama!
Wulf Francú Godgluck hails from South Africa. His work is not for the faint-hearted! In his books you’ll find… all the beasties with their nasty claws and teeth, and some you didn’t even know existed.
But the monsters aren’t all real. Some live inside us. Who knows what he will make you discover about yourself, lurking in your heart, behind the closed walls in the deep, black recesses where no light penetrates? Wulf will steal your heart and never give it back. More than likely, he’ll pin it to the wall with a bobbypin and sit there sipping his tea while you writhe and squeal on the floor…
Where to find the author:
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheWulfChronicles/?ref=hl
Twitter: @turboverse
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7083639.Wulf_Francu_Godgluck
Publisher: Wulf Francu Godgluck
Cover Artist: Wulf Francu Godgluck
Tour Dates & Stops:
Parker Williams , KathyMac Reviews , Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings , MM Good Book Reviews , Bayou Book Junkie , The Hat Party , Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words , Inked Rainbow Reads , Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents , BFD Book Blog , Happily Ever Chapter , Wake Up Your Wild Side , Unquietly Me , Book Lovers 4Ever , The Jena Wade , Boy Meets Boy Reviews , Charley Descoteaux , Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews , Molly Lolly , Alpha Book Club , the Twins: Talon ps & Princess so , 3 Chicks After Dark , Lee Brazil , Love Bytes , Divine Magazine , My Fiction Nook
Rafflecopter Prize: E-copy of ‘Hades’ by Wulf Francu Godgluck
Rafflecopter Code: a Rafflecopter giveaway
January 20, 2016
The most anticipated couple: Diesel Gentry and Paris Dalqeaute are here!!
JANUARY 29th !!!
~~ FROM THE BESTSELLING, FIVE TIME AWARD WINNING BDSM SERIES OF MF AND MM MIXED EROTIC ROMANCE~~
The Dominion of Brothers Series finally brings you the most anticipated couple: Diesel Gentry and Paris Dalqeaute in—
Dominion of Brothers Series: Book 5
MM / some MMfM, MMMM, & Mf / Erotic Romance / Drama / Action / BDSM – D/s / Explicit Hot Language
Diesel Gentry knows exactly want he wants. Like his brother, he wants a Unicorn, a life slave to surrender her every desire and need to him— who is, in essence and body, the very same woman his brother, Trenton Leos, already possesses. He also wants Paris Dalqeaute.
He had that powerhouse body in his domineering grip once before, but Diesel purposely let the fallen angel slip through his fingers. Being a Master of Doms within the BDSM lifestyle, Diesel knew he had to set Paris free— thinking and hoping Paris would eventually come back to him, submit to Diesel willingly, and not just because Paris’ job description required him to. After all, Paris had been hired as the director for the fetish and BDSM events down at the island resort Diesel and his brothers owned. Except Paris never did return; while he proved his value to his title, he has also been using his work to hide from Diesel.
It’s been a year now and Diesel’s bed and life have remained empty ever since. It’s time the running stopped.
Finding Paris wasn’t going to be the hard part— breaking down his walls to trust the two of them to commit to a life together was going to be the real challenge.
But even if Diesel succeeds, there is a problem with their future— what’s to come threatens the lives of everyone Diesel loves— and he doesn’t even know it yet.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Right One 4 Diesel is a part of a series that, until now, has been comprised of largely standalone books. In this next installment to the series, that readability is no longer the case. Right One 4 Diesel is not a standalone read; it is an action-packed novel that does not allow room for re-introduction of its supportive characters who were introduced in Books 1 through 4 of the Dominion of Brothers series. While it is recommended that you read all of the books in the series, Books 1 and Book 4 are needed to be able to follow along with the least chance of encountering “holes” in information or plot.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
BUY LINKS
EXCERPT:
Trenton dropped down on one of the benches and sat in silence in front of the funeral home while Katianna, his last rock in a stormy sea of emotions, knelt at his feet. Together the two watched the four funeral brigades drive by in a somber parade.
The last vehicle remaining was his Knight Conquest, its glossy black armored body soaking up sunlight as if remiss that someone he knew had been killed doing a job he gave them, and equally obtuse that he could not follow any one of them without dishonoring the others.
Song birds chirped from trees and it was just one more thing to remind him life went on and often without a care to the loss of others. He couldn’t bear it. He had been given a job to protect that family and now he had failed and at the cost of his own.
“Kat, why don’t you go inside and use the restroom before we go.”
“I’m o—”
“Go.” His order somber and quiet, but insistent. She was hesitant, but finally got up and headed in. He waited— stared at his truck, the epitome of protective vehicles and yet he had not protected them. The upsurge of anguish became too much to keep restrained any longer and he was suddenly to his feet, his gun pulled from his shoulder holster— he aimed for the Knight and opened fire. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhh!”
Bullets hit and bounced off the Knight, leaving shattered pock marks in the armor-glass coating then ricocheting in all directions. Trenton didn’t stop squeezing the trigger until the gun clicked with an empty chamber. He still wasn’t finished and wasted no time, pulling another clip from his lapel pocket, reloaded, and opened fired once more until it, too, ran dry.
The outburst drained him. He crashed to his knees, folded over into a ball until his head cracked on the pavement where he remained, and cried.
Katianna was suddenly there next to him. Wrapping around him like a soothing blanket to shield him from the storm. If only the storm had been out there.
WEBSITE ~ GOODREADS ~ FACEBOOK
ABOUT THE TWINS
We Came— We Saw— and then we made it sexy.
And that’s pretty much how the Twins came to write Erotic Romances and Dark Fantasies. Both Talon P.S. and Princess S.O. have been writing together since they were kids, always challenging and competing with each other, and always each other’s biggest supporters.
Writing has always been an affair creating Fictions of Dark Apocalyptic Fantasy and Film Scripts in the Action/Drama and a few Sci-Fi’s. It wasn’t until they began an ancient history tale that the works turned to the Erotic Genre and they’ve been hooked ever since.
After a life time of gathering experiences, and honing their story telling skills, they have finally started putting them to novel size tales. Sadly, Talon passed away in 2012 leaving the books he started with his twin, entrusting her as his ghost writer, making her promise to see them completed before joining him.
So have those book moments ready, as Talon always says—
RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY
BOOK RELEASE ~ TOUR STOPS
Jan 21st – Nessa Book Reviews
Jan. 25 – Grace R Duncan ; Rainbow Lyrics & Mellow Mushroom
Jan, 26 – BDSM Book reviews
Jan. 27 – Blogger Girls
Jan. 28 – Love Bytes
Jan. 29 – The Twins: Talon ps & Princess so
Feb 23rd – The Novel Approach
January 13, 2016
Two Writers Rambling – Tips for writing First Person
Maybe it’s just me, but I seem to be seeing another mass wave of published books coming across my news feed where the authors are largely uneducated in basic writing rules. I’m never one to discourage writing, but I am one to call out blatant mistakes if you’re planning to publish. Because if you’re making them, you’re not ready to publish. Now before anyone gets disgruntled and their feathers ruffled, hear me out.
(mostly) Writes write because they love to write and have a story to tell. But publishing isn’t done for fun, and regardless of what your reasons are, it’s a business. You’d never open a restaurant if you had cockroaches crawling up the floor, right?
SO I’ve decided to start sharing some write tips Take them with a grain of salt if you wish, but I hope you take them to your writing. First up – common mistakes made when writing in First Person.
To start here are some examples of the various writing perspectives:
First Person
(there is actually even a snip of second person in it)
Second Person
(when the story or character talks to ‘you’ and often in reference to the ‘reader’. This is intermittent with First person)
Third Person
(third person with a finishing quip in second person addressed as ‘who’)
SOME TIPS FOR WRITING IN FIRST PERSON:
Writing in First person can be a great POV to work from. It gives you so much more access to the recess of your character’s mind than writing in any other form, but it comes at a price. In first person you cannot know what any of the other characters are thinking, you also can’t know what they are doing outside of line of view. Doing so is a form of distant perception and unlike first person distant perception in which only falls under poor writing, 2nd person distant perception can’t even take place realistically unless your character is a telepath. For this article we’re going to leave all telepaths and hidden overhead mirrors out of the argument.
While most writers, even novices, do well to not cross that first line of scrimmage; it’s the second one that gets ignore far too often. Here are some erroneous examples plucked randomly out of teasers I’ve seen lately:
~ * ~
EX 1: “No, I am reading,” I whined and he reached down and took my kindle. “Hey that is grounds for divorce,” I shouted as he read over the first paragraph on the page I was on.
While there are a number of things wrong with the sentence I’m only going to address the second person distant perception: ‘He read the first paragraph’. He did? How do you know? Were his lips moving? There are no overhead mirrors (**refer to rule above).
This may seem like a small offense, but where there is one there are others. What’s happening here is this. Unless the 2nd character read allowed or told the First person he’d read the first paragraph the FP can’t possibly know what part the 2ndP read if they read it at all.
So how to fix this.
ONE SUGGESTION: “No, I am reading,” I whined when he grabbed the kindle from my hands. “Hey that is grounds for divorce,” I shouted as his eyes appeared to scan over its contents.
~ * ~
EX 2: I waited out in the truck, digging for a cigarette to pass time while John went around the corner to take a leak behind a dumpster and play target practice with the rats crawling about.
Here the line of scrimmage came in the form of a large wall or building, yet the author still managed to give x-ray vision to the MC enabling them to see through walls and around corners where he somehow knew his buddy was using his yellow squirt gun to shoots rats. Really?
ONE SUGGESTION: I waited out in the truck while John went around the corner to take a leak. When he didn’t come back right away I started digging around for a cigarette. It shouldn’t have taken this long, but knowing him he was probably back there making target practice on the rats, because he was that much of an asshole.
This helps lessens the distant perception by turning it into a self-suggestive possibility based on the assumption the MC knows his friend rather well.
~ * ~
EX 3: Jackson’s hand hovered over the rook, then withdrew to scrub at his chin. He wouldn’t look at me, wondering if he could risk a cheating move using his bishop to D-3 to corner my knight and I wouldn’t catch it. He’d be wrong.
What he’s like all up in the other character’s head block. Thing is the FP can’t possibly know what they are thinking, (**telepathy is not allowed see rules above) certainly not to this point, no matter how much the two characters might know each other. The FP might be able to read several expressions and there for speculate with only a margin of error what ‘might’ be going on the 2nd character’s head, but even that should be clarified.
ONE SUGGESTION: Jackson’s hand hovered over the rook, then he withdrew to scrub at his chin. He wouldn’t look at me. He had to know he was stuck and I wondered if he was the sort who might consider cheating. Because the only way out would be to do so. But if he thought he could get away with it… he’d be wrong.
Perspectives are boundaries that really need to be respected in storytelling, no matter what genre you write. Breaking them only shows the reader that in order to get your story written, you cut corners rather than fleshing the story out so that l characters and elements were contained within their own perceptions. This is the lazy way out and with poor writing quality.
So when writing in First Person remember that your character can—
Only know what is going on in their own head – unless they’re telepathically mind probing
Can only speculate facial expressions – the more the FP know a person the more expression that might recognize, but they would not have that same familiarity with a stranger or someone they just recently met.
Can only see what is in front of them – unless they are superman with x-ray vision
Can only know of events they have been informed of – In other words, they can’t possibly know the Intergalactic space villains are plotting an attack on their home world unless their spies came back or sent word of it.
HAPPY WRITING
January 12, 2016
BOOKS ‘n COZY SPOTS BOOK REVIEWS – Pleasure, Pain and Pastries by Oliver Lixx
~ 4 Stars ~
Review of PLEASURE, PAIN AND PASTRIES, by Oliver Lixx
Contemporary Romance / F-f / M-f-f / BDSM
*copy provided for honest review *
Reviewed by Jaycee ~ for Books ‘N Cozy Spots Book Reviews, www.Talon-ps.com
What happens when you cross two sexy female switches, a handsome, budding erotica author and a sweet shop? PLEASURE, PAIN, & PASTRIES!
By day, Moira and Siobhan are the proprietors of the Tasty Tarts bakery, the fastest growing sweet shop in downtown Philadelphia, but when the lights go down, the kinky side of them kicks into overdrive. As Switches, they takes turns playing Mistress and Submissive, but soon they both realize they want to enjoy the spoils kink together. Moira’s past has sworn her off men forever, but the path towards finding a mistress proves harder than they thought. Then, on a chance meeting, they come in contact with Jeremy, a hot, new erotica author that has penned a Dominant male of which the likes of fantasies are made of. The three form a budding relationship, but as things progress, can Jeremy become the iconic character of his own imagination that will sate the woman’s needs and help Moira heal from her broken past?
How rewarding, when a story breaks through not one, but two of my preconceived impressions, and resonates the way a good story should.
Number one preconception: Short stories. I generally groan inwardly and moan outwardly about getting another short story to read. And yet, every now and then, I get one splendidly executed by someone who knows how to deliver. Short stories are a definite art, they leave zero room for error in the telling of a full tale, but when well done they are like every good quickie should be: a star-aligning, hands-to-the-wall-blockbuster, perfect moment. Or five. In 60 some odd pages, the reader comes to really know three full characters, what made them, and the lives they inhabit. Their being, their place in time and their coming-together fit seamlessly and it felt like a story a novel-length could have delivered.
Number two preconception: F-F romance. Personally, I have rarely read a F-f tale that contains a believable overall relationship dynamic. It is as though the stories try too hard, or misrepresent by being too heavy-leaning on erotica (a place where too much F-F gets relegated) or conversely, on allusion versus substance. As a result, I rarely find this sub a satisfying read. What I appreciated about this story was two female leading characters who were full individuals placed in a story that was all-encompassing as a setting, and as such, everything flowed believably instead of being contrived and hollow. Introducing Jeremy into the dynamic did not change the fundamental people they are, but rather enhanced them. No man jumped in to save the day, but he did fulfill a place in each, that for now at least, completes the whole. That feels authentic.
If I have an “I wonder” moment, it would be: just where Jeremy went, who he met with, and how he…got up to speed, so to speak, over the course of a single weekend. Oddly though, it didn’t bother me in the read, and didn’t leave a gaping chasm in the storyline. In fact, I liked the assumption that I, as a reader, could fill in that blank myself and as such, be…almost a participant in the story. And my version might be slightly different than yours, but that’s what its all about anyway.
This is a full-bodied ‘romance’ in the old fashioned sense of the word, while still being a vivid, contemporary look into several lives as well as relationships. And while I don’t often like an ending that, well…doesn’t end, I did like being able to use my own imagination to decide what might happen next. And tomorrow, I might just imagine something a bit different…
PLEASURE, PAIN AND PASTRIES also received the following ratings:
ROMANCE FACTOR ~ 3 Hearts ~
HEAT FACTOR ~ 2 Flames ~
STING FACTOR ~ 1 Paddle ~
BONUS FACTOR ~ Pastries!!!
January 11, 2016
January 7, 2016
BOOKS ‘n COZY SPOTS BOOK REVIEWS – Paradise Inn by Ava Snow
4 ~ Stars!
Review of ~ PARADISE INN by Ava Snow
Romance / MM / Contemporary / Fiction
(copy provided by author for honest review)
Reviewed by Terry ~ for Books ‘N Cozy Spots Book Reviews, www.Talon-ps.com
Shane Foster is a former Navy Seal on his way home to see his dying father. On his deathbed, Shane’s father makes his son promise to keep the generations old family inn from falling into the chasm of cookie cutter chain motels. With the rising cost of gas and the cost of living remaining stagnant, families aren’t vacationing as they were before. Business is declining and the family inn is in danger of becoming extinct. Enter Marco Jenkins, king of the cookie cutter chain motels and a threat to Shane’s heart and soul.
Marco Jenkins, Jenks as his close friends call him, is a man on a mission. He has built and owns some of the finest hotels on the East Coast and abroad, but needs the small beach front inn on the Virginia Coast to accomplish his latest and greatest goal. There is only one thing standing in his way, Shane Foster.
When these two strong minded men face off, sparks fly in more ways than one. But when an old love shows up and threatens more than the fragile relationship building between the two, will they be able to survive the aftermath or will it destroy both their worlds?
If you are looking for a MM Romance that is not love at first sight but good old fashioned lust Paradise Inn by Ava Snow is one worth taking a peek at.
I have stayed at a lot of hotels some very nice and some not so nice but after reading Paradise Inn, I’m thinking I want to stay at a Bed and Breakfast the next time I travel. The setting of this story was perfect, a little off the beaten path but not out in the middle of nowhere. It gives the story and characters a friendly homey feel or better yet it felt like the story took place in a real community.
I really enjoyed our main characters Marco Jenkins, Jenks and Shane Foster, Shay. Shane or Shay as only a few can call him is a retired Navy Seal and I really liked the fact that he did not fall into the stereo type of now being in some type of law enforcement or investigator roll. He owns the Paradise Inn and also has a talent in the kitchen that will make the readers mouth water for some of his tasty treats. I imagined Shay to be somewhat like John Besh from The Food Network. Like most readers I do like to add my own images to the story.
Now Marco I wasn’t sure I was going to like him in the beginning. He is one of those big business men who get what they want when they want and he wanted Shane’s Inn. The plan he was cooking up to get the Inn was downright wrong and either makes you eye the handsome man in the suit with lust or disgust. But as Marco is thinking “I love it when a plan comes together” we get to think “The best laid plans of mice and men!”
I think Ava had a good time with her plot bunnies in this story. I know I enjoyed them. The story moved at a pleasing pace and the twists and turns were timed so that it keeps you turning the pages and enjoying each one. We also were given a few wonderful secondary characters that enhance the story with humor, intrigue and danger.
I know this is supposed to be a standalone story but I do hope there is at least one or two more in the future. As I told you I was not sure about Marco I feel there is so much more about him we have not been privy too and I would love to get his story or at least more of it. I also fell in love with Tracy, Shane’s best friend; this feisty female deserves a HEA too. I’m sure Mrs. Jones agrees. *wink*
PARADISE INN also received the following ratings:
ROMANCE FACTOR ~ 4 Hearts
HEAT FACTOR ~ 2 Flames
TWIST FACTOR ~ 3 shady business man, crazy ex-lover, plans
BONUS FACTOR ~ a bed and breakfast by the beach, feisty bestie, surprises
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