Spotlight: Cruisin' For A Seal by Sharon Hamilton

Cruisin' For A Seal
(SEAL Brotherhood #5)
By Sharon Hamilton

Blurb: 
Marc Beale and several of his brothers from SEAL Team 3 board a cruise ship to bury a fallen buddy's aches at sea. A risky affair with a beautiful Italian the night before they leave begins to ease his survivor’s guilt.

Sophia Negri, suffering jitters over her engagement, falls for the handsome SEAL and pretends she speaks no English, letting their bodies do the talking. When Marc finds her on the ship and learns Sophia is half American, he is angry at first, but falls for her all over again as they set sail.

Terrorists take over the ship and hold the passengers for ransom, Marc and the other SEALs are the only ones who can stop the plot. Will Marc’s actions be enough to save Sophia or will he have to sacrifice himself to save the woman he loves?

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Excerpt

ARC Review: Screwups by Jamie Fessenden

From the blurb:

In 1996, Jake Stewart is starting his third year at the University of New Hampshire. Even as a successful business major, he is absolutely miserable. Not only is Jake pursuing a field he hates when he’d rather study art, he is utterly terrified of what will happen if his father finds out he’s gay. When he finally gets up the courage to move into the creative arts dorm on campus, his new roommate, Danny, is openly gay—and there’s no denying the attraction between them. 
Danny Sullivan has been out since high school, and he appears comfortable with his sexuality. But something happened in Danny’s past—something that gives him nightmares he refuses to talk about. Unknown to Jake, the way he mistreated his friend, Tom Langois, when Tom came out to him in high school, is mild compared to the way someone very much like Jake treated Danny. 
It may be too late to fix the mess Jake made with Tom, but if Jake wants to be with Danny, he’s going to have to fix the mess made by another closeted jock he’s never even met.

Heather's rating:




A M/M college student romance with a virgin by Jamie Fessenden?? I mean, Me-----> drooling. Yes, yes please!

I'm a big, BIG Jamie Fessenden fan. He is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. I love his heavy stuff Billy's Bones, I love his light stuff We're Both Straight, Right?, and I loved this one, which was light with dollops of angst.

This book appeals to the geek in me. The MCs are LORP fans (Live Action Role Playing) and Dungeons and Dragons obsessed. I loved the quirkiness of the characters, their artsy dorm, and the dorm dynamics. I even liked the 1996 time setting, which was refreshingly cellphone-free. It was kind of... quaint.

The best part was the sexual tension between Jake and Danny. Some of those dorm room scenes... I died. They had a slow build kind of relationship that felt organic and HOT. They were just adorable together and it made me feel all squishy and floaty inside.

Blog Tour: The Cruelty by S. Bergstrom (#TheCruelty @samijolien @bergstromscott)

Today we shine the spotlight on S. Bergstrom's debut novel

The Cruelty

Blurb:

When her diplomat father is kidnapped and the U.S. Government is unable to help, 17 year-old Gwendolyn Bloom sets off across the sordid underbelly of Europe to rescue him. Following the only lead she has—the name of a Palestinian informer living in France—she plunges into a brutal world of arms smuggling and human trafficking. As she journeys from the slums of Paris, to the nightclubs of Berlin, to the heart of the most feared crime family in Prague, Gwendolyn discovers that to survive in this new world she must become every bit as cruel as the men she’s hunting.

About the author:


Scott Bergstrom is a writer and traveler fascinated by the darker, unloved corners of the world’s great cities. His books and articles on architecture and urbanism have been widely published both in the United States and Europe. The Cruelty is his first novel.

        

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time, happy reading.








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ARC Audiobook Review: My Roommate's a Jock? Well Crap! by Wade Kelly

From the blurb:

It's easy to become cynical when life never goes your way. 

Cole Reid has been a social recluse since he was fifteen, when he was outed by his high school baseball team. Since then, his obsessive-compulsive behavior and sarcastic nature have driven away most of the population, and everyone else hates him because he's gay. As he sees it, he's bound to repulse any prospective friends, let alone boyfriends, so why bother? 

By the time Cole enters college, he's become an anal-retentive loner—but it's not a problem until his roommate graduates and the housing department assigns Ellis Montgomery to move in with Cole. Ellis is messy, gorgeous, straight, and worst of all, a "jock"! 

During a school year filled with frat buddies, camping expeditions, and meddling parents, Cole and Ellis develop a friendship that turns Cole's glass-half-empty outlook on its head. There must be more to Ellis than a fun-loving jock—and maybe Cole's reawakening libido has rekindled his hope for more than camaraderie. 

Heather's rating:

**Audiobook edition**

Wow... okay... that wasn't exactly what I expected.

Anyone else expect a really light, fun romance from the cover and the title? That's what I thought it would be. I was expecting another book like Frat Boy and Toppy but this was more serious than I expected. It had a lot of highs and a few lows. I'll break it down for all of you below ;)

First I'll talk about the narrator because the narrator can make or break an audiobook. Jason Lovett did a really nice job with the story. He sounded age-appropriate (KEY for a book about college students!) and was really easy to listen to. He had a nice, even speaking voice that had a lot of expression to it. My one complaint is that all of his characters sounded kind of the same, but other than that, I really liked his narration. (And I checked out his youtube videos and he is adorable so, bonus points!)

Now on to the story. I'll begin with what worked for me. I have a thing for gay first-timers so when I realized that I had a virgin on my hands I was like, ::booty dance, booty shake:: So, major score for me! Also, I think the whole difficulty with beginning a relationship and transitioning from friends to lovers rang true. It felt honest and funny and I liked all of the awkwardness and sexual tension there.

This book is also surprisingly religious in the way that it paints Christian characters in a really good light. The religious character of Rob was a loving, patient, understanding, intuitive friend and I actually liked seeing an example of someone who is religious but also open-minded in M/M. It wasn't heavy handed, but if you don't like any religion in your books, be forewarned.

Now what didn't work for me? Well, I'll be spoiler-tagging below so click at your own discretion.

I didn't like the POV changes, especially how they jumped from 1st to 3rd person. Some were okay, like the POV of Rob or Ellis, but the POV of Mike and Ellis's mom were just terrible. I don't mind characters that are flawed but I hated being in Mike and Ellis's mom's heads and felt like it took away from the story.

On that note, Mike's storyline was just random and sort of over-the-top, and Ellis's mom was annoying to the point that I wanted to skip over her section. I think if Ellis's mom's part was cut completely out of the book it would have been better. She was too self-centered and self-involved for my taste.

I also wasn't a fan of the WTF-engagement. I got married young so I don't mind young people getting married but this couple felt nowhere NEAR the point in their relationship where they should even be considering marriage.[WTF-engagement. I got married young so I don't mind young people getting married but this couple felt nowhere NEAR the point in their relationship where they should even be considering marriage. (hide spoiler)]

Also, I liked most of the characters but I thought that Cole veered a bit towards the whiny side. He was too complain-y and shrill for me at times.

So, yeah... this book was a mixed bag for me. Parts I really liked and parts I didn't so averaging out, this gets three stars.

Buy this book: Dreamspinner, Audible, Kobo, Amazon

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