Review - Prince's Gambit by C. S. Pacat
My rating: 
Kindly note: This is the second volume in a tightly linked series. If you haven’t read the first book, you may find a few spoilers in this review of the second. Damen and Laurent lead a rather rag-tag group of soldiers towards the border, where they know Laurent’s uncle the Regent has something in store to get rid of the troublesome prince. As their fate draws nearer, the two men gain a new respect for each other, and their feelings for each seem to be harder and harder to contain.
Tags: Fantasy
Review - The Bisti Business by Don Travis
My rating:
Private investigator BJ Vinson from “The Zozobra Incident” is back with another case. This time, BJ is hired by a rich, and rather homophobic, California wine maker who wants him to find his son, and his boyfriend. The two lost contact while on a vacation in New Mexico. Did something happen to them, or is the son just avoiding his disapproving father? This second outing for BJ Vinson lives up to the first.
Tags: Mystery Private Eyes
Review - The Layover by Roe Horvat
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Slovakian Ondro is on his way back to the home he left several years ago to escape bad memories and homophobia. There’s just one hitch in his plan: a delayed flight means he missed his connection in Basel, and has to stay the night. It may not be a total loss, though, since another passenger in the same predicament, Jamie, catches Ondro’s eye. “The Layover” puts a refreshing spin on what could be a rather clich&eqcute; story of two ships that pass in the night.
Tags: Contemporary
Review - The Rain Never Came by Lachlan Walter
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Kindly note: A complementary copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review. In a post-apocalyptic Australian outback where rain is a distant memory, a few hardy — or fool-hardy — souls have resisted forced evacuation and try to eke out a life from the parched earth. Bill and Tobe are two of the denizens of a small town that’s barely hanging on. The two men are as close as brothers, true “mates” in the Australian sense of the word, but their pasts cast a long shadow over their relationship.
Tags: Speculative Fiction post-apocalyptic
Review - Permanent Ink by Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn
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Twenty-something Poe is a young man without any direction. He’s not a bad person, but since about the only thing he has any passion for is graffiti, Poe is headed for trouble sooner or later. He still lives in his father Landon’s basement, and the man is near the end of his rope about what to do about his son. Hearing about Poe’s problems, Landon’s friend Jericho offers to take Poe on as his apprentice.
Tags: Contemporary
Review - Coins Not Accepted by Chris Quinton
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Miles lives a relatively quiet life on the east coast of England. Most of his excitement comes from dealing with his two younger siblings. That all changes when Miles receives a message from his grandfather, who he hasn’t seen since he was 15. The request contained in the message, and the revelations that follow, plunge Miles into a world he didn’t know existed. Although reunited with his first love, will Miles risk his life to stay with his boyhood friend?
Tags: Fantasy Parallel Worlds
Review - Selling Out by Zen DiPietro
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To most people on Dragonfire Station, Cabot Layne is a simple, friendly shopkeeper, selling trinkets and other things of interest to the different species flowing off the many ships calling on the station. A few know that Cabot is a much more skilled trader than he lets on, with the connections to acquire almost anything one could want, even if it’s not quite legal. So, when a rogue coalition at the edge of planetary alliance space starts to threaten the peace, Security Chief Fallon calls on Cabot to make the deal of a life-time by negotiating a special pact with the reptilian Briven.
Tags: Science Fiction
Review - Captive Prince by C. S. Pacat
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While his father the king lays on his deathbed, Crown Prince Damen is seized by troops loyal to his half brother Kastor, who seizes the throne. Rather than simply kill Damen, Kastor packs him off to be a pleasure slave at the court of Vere, traditional enemies of Damen’s people, with whom Kastor has made peace, for now. If anyone in Vere realizes who he is, Damen will be dead. Until then, he has the humiliation of being a slave to deal with.
Tags: Fantasy
Review - The Zozobra Incident by Don Travis
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BJ Vinson is a private investigator and former police detective based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. When BJ’s ex boyfriend Del comes to him for help, he approaches the case with mixed feelings. It seems that the rent boy who broke the two up is blackmailing Del with some racy photos of the two. What seems to be a relatively simple case at first eventually escalates into a deadly game of cat and mouse where everyone, including BJ’s new love interest, is a suspect.
Tags: Mystery Private Eyes
Review - Dim Sum Asylum by Rhys Ford
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In an alternate San Francisco, the human and magical worlds have collided in a big, messy way. Fairies, dragons and other magical creatures mix with humans, and it’s the job of the San Francisco Police Department’s Arcane Crimes unit to make sure nobody misuses magic for nefarious purposes. The Chinatown headquarters, known by its officers as the “Dim Sum Asylum”, is where most of the action is, and where Detective Roku calls home.