Blurb: Built from the bottom up: one perfect gentleman.
Tino Robbins’s sister, Nica, and her husband, Jacob, are expecting their fifth child. Fortunately, Nica’s best friend, Taylor Cochran, is back in town, released from PT and in need of a job.
Eight years ago, Ondro Smrek fled Slovakia and the bigotry that drove his first lover to take his own life. The demons proved impossible to outrun, though, and now, desperate for somewhere to belong, Ondro is returning to start over. During a layover in Basel, Switzerland, he meets Jamie, an American living in Scotland who is as brilliant as he is beautiful.
Jaded Ondro never would have guessed he could fall in love during a brief layover—until now. When he is put in a position to offer Jamie comfort without hope of recompense, Ondro doesn’t hesitate. Soon, he catches a glimpse of the home he longs for. But with their separation looming, confessing his feelings would only lead to pain and humiliation. Life has taught Ondro not to hope, but then, he never believed in love at first sight either.
Dani's rating:
When my parents packed up their lives and immigrated to the States from Poland in the 80s, they did so for religious and political reasons. They had no way of knowing that my little brother, then barely a toddler, was gay.
We are not idealists; we do not romanticize America. But despite living in a very conservative state, we know that my brother had a better chance at being his true self here than he would have in Poland. Poland's constitution is one of only seven in the EU to ban gay marriage. Slovakia's is another.
This book spoke to me on so many levels. I could feel Ondro's despair: the way he simultaneously yearned for and was repelled by his homeland, the way his loneliness had become a breathing thing threatening to choke him.
Despite his intense stare and lack of social niceties, Ondro is a good man. And when he meets the beautiful American expat Jamie at the airport, he can't walk away.
My rock, my savior, my prince. You found me when I was lost
What inspired Piper & TL to write Battered & Bruised, but not broken
I think our budding friendship and differences in our lives which is the same thing that drew us together. Piper's character is tormented and has been to hell and back. TL's character is someone who's suffered, but still managed to move past his anguish, or so he thought.
Battered & Bruised, but not broken, is an erotic, male/male, gay romance novel. It's the culmination of two lost souls finding what they didn't know they were looking for. Hunter's an ex-con, always in the wrong place at the wrong times, which is how he landed up in prison. He's looking to start anew, when in walks Elliott. Timid , sheltered, Elliott, has his life in order. Or so he thinks. That is until, Hunter, introduces him to a whole new world. Both are battling demons from the past, but what happens when their two worlds collide?
Where in the hell did I get that prissy, little take charge, bitch attitude from? That’s so not like me, I’m actually quite the opposite. Yet every time I’m around Hunter I turn into a fucking queen. But the way he freaked when I told him I was a virgin sent me into fight or flight mode and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him or his ‘my shit don’t stink’ attitude get the best of me. Tell me I can come and go as I please, it’s like ‘no fucking shit I can’, but right now, all I want to do is lose my virginity to this cocky man. Why him? I honestly don’t know, but twenty-three years of waiting can make a guy do crazy shit.
I know he wants me, it’s written all over his smug face. I see him grin when he thinks I’m looking the other direction. There’s a reason our paths keep crossing, call it karma, call it kismet, hell, call it whatever the fuck you want, but I know damn good and well there’s a reason for it. But last night, I saw a glimpse of his gentle side— the side that calls me to him when I shivered while he was undressing me.
As I lay here watching him sleep, I see so much more in him than he does. I see the gentler, need to be loved side that he desperately tries to hide behind his tattooed bad boy façade. But what makes him tick? Baggage he claims, fuck dude, we all have baggage. Try getting past a homophobic father who damn near beats you to death when he finds out you’re gay. Talk about baggage, I never let anyone in after that. Fuck, it’d been years before I even tried to so much as kiss anyone after that. Hook-ups were my chosen vice in college, but I never let anyone in. And lo and behold what happens the first time I do? I get my dick sucked by the most amazing man I’ve ever met. The same man laying here beside me sleeping. The same man who’s quickly winning my heart.
I was so nervous last night when he undressed me, so afraid he’d reject me in my vulnerable state of nakedness. My body still bears the physical scars from my father’s abuse which I thought would turn him off. But he looked right past them as though they didn’t exist. And when he called me baby, I lost it. A term of endearment from a self-proclaimed bad boy. That alone shows the depths of his humanity. I know the real Hunter’s in there, now all I need to do is prove to him that I won’t hurt him because clearly, something in his past has seriously fucked him up.
Fall in love with a shapeshifter in San Francisco, a ghost in Scotland, or a vampire in Russia. Time travel to 1920s Mesopotamia, 1600's Africa, or to ancient Greece before time even existed. Find yourself on a distant planet, in love with a creature whose very being can destroy you, or in a post-apocalyptic world, drawn to a mutation created by the destruction of Earth. Enjoy these 18 erotic stories about romantic encounters between men and not men--monsters and myths, gods and demons, science fiction and fantasy. Each story is the stuff of nightmares--and of dreams.
“I’m sorry,” Lucas said that night at dinner. We were at an expensive Northeast restaurant, a surprise, especially when Lucas paid.
‘You missed me,” I answered, more upbeat than I felt, still nursing my bruises and bites.
“It won’t happen again,” he promised. My disappointment surprised us both. “Unless you want it to,” he added, the look in his eyes fierce. He didn’t wink or grin to make it easy for me.
Welcome to Dim Sum Asylum: a San Francisco where it’s a ho-hum kind of case when a cop has to chase down an enchanted two-foot-tall shrine god statue with an impressive Fu Manchu mustache that's running around Chinatown, trolling sex magic and chaos in its wake.
Senior Inspector Roku MacCormick of the Chinatown Arcane Crimes Division faces a pile of challenges far beyond his human-faerie heritage, snarling dragons guarding C-Town’s multiple gates, and exploding noodle factories. After a case goes sideways, Roku is saddled with Trent Leonard, a new partner he can’t trust, to add to the crime syndicate family he doesn’t want and a spell-casting serial killer he desperately needs to find.
While Roku would rather stay home with Bob the Cat and whiskey himself to sleep, he puts on his badge and gun every day, determined to serve and protect the city he loves. When Chinatown’s dark mystical underworld makes his life hell and the case turns deadly, Trent guards Roku’s back and, if Trent can be believed, his heart... even if from what Roku can see, Trent is as dangerous as the monsters and criminals they’re sworn to bring down.
Listening Length: 9 hours and 44 minutes
Karen's rating:
I read 'Dim Sum Asylum' back in June when the e-book was first release...what can I say it's Rhys Ford so I'm all over that stuff. Plus...hello? Dragons. Needless to say I was not disappointed and I loved it 5 dragon stars worth. So when the audio book became available and it was narrated by Greg Tremblay...who was I to turn the opportunity down...my momma didn't raise no fools...ok, maybe one or two of them but trust me I'm not on that list.
So not to re-invent the wheel or anything but here's the link to my first review... Dim Sum Asylum Book Review
