Arc Review : Redesigning Landry Bishop by Kim Fielding

Blurb :

Love never goes out of style.

Landry Bishop fled his tiny hometown and never looked back. Now his expertise in food, fashion, and décor has earned him all of Hollywood’s glittering perks. But with his husband deceased and his personal assistant retired, Landry has nobody to rely on—and no one to help him indulge his secret cravings.

Casual, plainspoken Jordan Stryker seems a dubious choice of a PA for someone as formal and self-controlled as Landry. Jordan’s questionable fashion sense and limited kitchen skills don’t exactly enhance his résumé. But as Landry soon realizes, Jordan has many attractive qualities too.

With a strong pull toward Jordan, new career opportunities on the horizon, and a persistent tug from family back home, Landry is in a quandary. He can advise others on how to make their lives special, but what should he do about his own?

Christelle's rating :

First of all, when I read a book from Kim Fielding, I can’t help swooning at the thought of her fantastic book Rattlesnake: one of my favorite read. But I digress.

"Redesigning Landry Bishop" is a contemporary MM romance, with low-angst, a little bit of steam and a touch of banter, a “comfort” read with two truly nice characters slowly but steadily developing a romantic relationship between LA, Las Vegas and Nebraska, and a gentle HEA.

On one side, you have Landry, who left his Nebraska’s little home-town for LA where he met his now deceased husband and made his career to give nice ideas about food and clothing to sparkle daily life on blogs, books and TV shows : he’s committed, he’s successful and he’s a workaholic. But he might have lost his way to interact with the people around him and to have feelings.

Comes around Jordan : younger, more extraverted, and a carer, as he says about himself. And it’s such in its nature that even Landry can feel that he’s right to give Jordan a chance to fill the PA’s position despite a lack of experience and that in the process, he might be a sweet risk to open up to people, especially his family and specifically Jordan.

ARC Review: The Doctor's Secret (Copper Point Medical 1) by Heidi Cullinan

Blurb:

Dr. Hong-Wei Wu has come to Copper Point, Wisconsin, after the pressures of a high-powered residency burned him out of his career before he started. Ashamed of letting his family down, he plans to live a quiet life as a surgeon in this tiny town. His plans, however, don’t include his outgoing, kind, and attractive surgical nurse, Simon Lane. The problem is, St. Ann’s has a strict no-dating policy between staff, which means their romance is off the table, unless they bend the rules. But a romance that keeps them in the closet (literally) can’t lead to happy ever after.

Simon doesn’t want to stay a secret, and Hong-Wei doesn’t want to keep himself removed from life—not anymore. To secure their happiness, they’ll have to change the administration’s mind. But what other secrets will they uncover along the way, about Copper Point and about each other?

Dani's rating:

Let's begin with Aaron Yan, who, according to Simon, looks a lot like Hong-Wei. Can we just agree that Aaron Yan is ridiculously gorgeous? Also, rumor has it that he's very gay. So is Dr. Wu: gorgeous AND gay.

Hong-Wei Wu goes by Jack, but Simon calls him Hong-Wei. Simon is obsessed with Asian pop culture: K-pop, Asian dramas, handsome Taiwanese actors.

Hong-Wei being Taiwanese is just the icing on an already decadent cake for Simon, although he is mildly disappointed to find out Hong-Wei isn't one for K-pop.

One of my favorite things about Heidi's work is that she seeps her books in pop culture and music. I still remember the songs Mitch & Sam (from Special Delivery) danced to in Vegas and cannot listen to RuPaul's Sissy That Walk without thinking of Baz & Elijah. While reading The Doctor's Secret, I had an overwhelming urge to crank up some K-pop.

I loved many things about this story:

Blogtour: The Doctor's Secret by Heidi Cullinan

Please welcome Heidi Cullinan on the release day of her new novel

The Doctor's Secret 

Blurb:

Dr. Hong-Wei Wu has come to Copper Point, Wisconsin, after the pressures of a high-powered residency burned him out of his career before he started. Ashamed of letting his family down after all they’ve done for him, he plans to live a quiet life as a simple surgeon in this tiny northern town. His plans, however, don’t include his outgoing, kind, and attractive surgical nurse, Simon Lane.

Simon wasn’t ready for the new surgeon to be a handsome charmer who keeps asking him for help getting settled and who woos him with amazing Taiwanese dishes. There’s no question—Dr. Wu is flirting with him, and Simon is flirting back. The problem is, St. Ann’s has a strict no-dating policy between staff, which means their romance is off the table… unless they bend the rules.

But a romance that keeps them—literally—in the closet can’t lead to happy ever after. Simon doesn’t want to stay a secret, and Hong-Wei doesn’t want to keep himself removed from life, not anymore. To secure their happiness, they’ll have to change the administration’s mind. But what other secrets will they uncover along the way, about Copper Point… and about each other?

Thanks for having me today! This series has been a long time coming, so it’s a litte crazy that it’s finally here! Here’s an excerpt of The Doctor’s Secret to give you a taste of the story. Hope you enjoy it!

No one had told Simon the new doctor was beautiful.

He hadn’t wanted to drive the hour and a half from Copper Point to Duluth and back again to pick up the new surgeon, especially when he’d been asked at the last minute during an extended shift. He’d worked odd hours seven days in a row, and then they’d wanted him to fetch the doctor everyone had been raving about as if he were some kind of second coming for St. Ann’s? It wasn’t as if Simon could refuse, though. Erin Andreas, the new human resources director and son of the hospital board president, had asked him personally.

“It’s fitting for the surgical nurse to pick up the new surgeon, don’t you think?” Andreas had punctuated this remark with a thin, apologetic smile. “I’d originally planned to go myself with a team of physicians, but everyone was summoned for call, and I have an internal crisis I need to deal with. So, if you would do this for us, please.”

He hadn’t waited for Simon to agree, only given him directions on when and how to meet Dr. Wu. He’d also sent along another copy of what Owen called That Damned Memo, the one reminding everyone of the strict new penalties for dating between staff members. Simon had no idea if Andreas meant it for him or for the new doctor.

As he clutched his hastily cobbled welcome sign, his pulse quickening with each step the surgeon took closer, Simon decided he’d definitely been the memo’s intended target. Dr. Wu could have starred in an Asian drama, he was so beautiful. In fact, he looked a lot like Aaron Yan, one of Simon’s top five favorite DramaFever stars. He was also tall. Simon wasn’t particularly short, but he was compared to Dr. Wu.

Tall. Handsome. Chiseled. Short black hair, not dyed, artfully styled into messy peaks. Dark eyes that scanned the airport terminal with sharp focus, then zeroed in on Simon. A long, defined jaw lightly dotted with travel stubble below the most articulate set of cheekbones Simon had ever seen.

I’m going to work beside this man every single day. Hand him instruments. Follow his every instruction. Except if he smells even a fraction as good as he looks, I’m going to pass out in the OR before the patient arrives.

Mentally slapping sense into himself, Simon straightened and smiled, holding his sign higher as the man approached. “Dr. Wu? Hello, and welcome. I’m Simon Lane, the surgical nurse at St. Ann’s Medical Center. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Dr. Wu accepted Simon’s hand, but he also looked around, searching for something. When Simon realized what it probably was, he lowered his gaze, his cheeks heating.

“I…apologize that it’s only me here to greet you. We’re a small hospital, as you know, and the team members who planned to greet you were all called away on emergencies. I hope you’re not offended.”

Wu cleared his throat, not meeting Simon’s gaze. “Of course not.”

Simon was sure Wu was at least a little offended, which made Simon feel bad, but it wasn’t as if the man didn’t have a right to be upset. It was also pretty much on par for the administration to shove a nurse into the middle of its mess to take the heat for a mistake he had nothing to do with.

This wasn’t the time to feel sorry for himself or sigh over the man. Dr. Wu had traveled a long way and deserved some professionalism. Forcing a smile, Simon gestured to the hallway. “Shall we collect your luggage?”

ARC Review: Don't Fight the Spark (Soldiers & Mercenaries, #1) by Kasia Bacon

Blurb:

As the Light Festival draws near, the Něssyrians craft paper lanterns, awaiting the most important holiday of the year.

The Lyliňg Fighting House, too, prepares for celebration—by laying fresh sand onto the arena and setting up a match against their top pit fighter, the unrivalled Yüuzuki Ōren.

His last match. One he can’t win.

With the odds more than stacked against him, the gorgeous Barbarian is as good as dead. Unless his lover, healer Ĥaiatto Ẽkana, proves himself every bit as determined as he is clever and finds a way to protect the man he'd stop at nothing to save.

Jewel's rating:



Ĥaiatto Ẽkana and Yüuzuki Ōren have been lovers, in secret, for three years. Always being cautious because the grandson of the head of Lyliňg Fighting House is a vengeful jerk who, for some reason, has had it in for Yüu for three long years. Ĥaiatto and Yüu live on stolen moments, and as much as Ĥaiatto wishes for more, he fears the worst is yet to come.

Ĥaiatto is a healer and his duties include patching up fighters from the Fighting House, including Yüu. Unlike his family, for whom magic is second nature, Ĥaiatto is but a Spark -- one who can wield magic, but can not produce it. He left his homeland so that he wouldn't have that constant reminder.

A hostage to the state, Yüu has no choice but to fight, but he has honor as well as skill, and no matter what gets thrown his way, he prevails. Yüu has been undefeated since he started fighting at Lyliňg Fighting House. Lately, however, his fights have been getting more and more violent, and less and less fair, and if nothing can be done, Yüu will lose more than just his next fight.