Posts labeled Contemporary
Review - Sammy's Place by Sean Michael
My rating: 
Sammy seems to make bad choices when it comes to men. The young man likes a bit of pain play, but his latest boyfriend really just likes to beat him up. Fortunately, Sammy’s best friend Jason notices the bruises and convinces Sammy to come stay with him and his boyfriend Harry. Jason and Harry try to cheer Sammy up by taking him to a party. They invite Harry’s friend Peter along as well.
Tags: Contemporary BDSM D/s
Review - When Harry Met Jason by Sean Michael
My rating:
Jason is celebrating his university graduation at a fraternity party. Only, someone has drugged the beer. When the police are called, officer Harry finds Jason too out of it to say where he lives. Rather than let the young man spend the night in the drunk tank, Harry makes the dubious decision to take Jason to his place to sleep it off. When Jason wakes up the next morning, badly hungover but clearheaded, he finds himself strongly attracted to Harry.
Tags: Contemporary
Review - Drifter by Eden Winters
My rating:
Killian is riding high as the lead singer of the band Trickster, but things aren’t going so well behind the scenes. Killian’s brother Eliot, the band’s bass guitarist, is involved in an abusive relationship with Rob, the drummer. Rob’s drug addiction sends him off the rails and results in the crash of their tour bus, killing everyone in the band and the driver. Except Killian. The young man is left with serious emotional and physical scars.
Tags: Contemporary Music
Review - How Much For A Broken Heart? by RJ Scott
My rating:
August blames himself for the death of a man he was hired to protect. The man’s daughter was also kidnapped in the assassination and August has spent the last two years undercover to take apart the criminal cartel, get to the mystery man behind it, and get the young girl back. Ryder and his partner are tasked with extracting the little girl once August confirms her location in a compound deep in a forest.
Tags: Contemporary Thriller
Review - Touch the Lightning by N.R. Walker
My rating:
Tully and Jeremiah are dealing with the aftermath of the cyclone that heavily damaged much of Darwin. Jeremiah’s office is in ruins, so there’s not a lot for him to do, but the head office wants him to visit a remote island where another weather station has also gone offline. It seems like a great opportunity for the two men to have another adventure, alone on a deserted island.
Tags: Contemporary Australia
Review - Starry Nights by Julian Archer
My rating:
Jamal spots Xavier across a crowded room at the opening of an exhibition of Xavier’s paintings. Both men feel irresistibly drawn to each other, and it’s the start of a serious relationship. Can they withstand the pressures that will try to pull them apart? Sadly, this short novella feels like the outline of a story with a few sample paragraphs instead of a finished work. The writing that’s there is good, but it’s very disjointed.
Tags: Contemporary Novella
Review - Lost Along the Way by Marie Sexton
My rating:
Daniel’s parents are killed in a car crash. He had been estranged from them for 15 years over their refusal to accept his homosexuality, but they had started to reconnect in the months leading up to their deaths. When Daniel finally faces the task of cleaning out the family home so it can be sold, he finds that his parents had become collectors, bordering on hoarders. Fortunately, their neighbor Landon is there to help.
Tags: Contemporary Fantasy
Review - Southern Fried by Rob Rosen
My rating:
Trip returns home to his family’s South Carolina mansion for his grandmother’s funeral. The woman raised him after his parents were killed in a car accident, but she sent him away to university up north and never allowed him to return home. It’s a bittersweet return, of course. Many of the staff he knew as a child are still there, as well as a very friendly new stable boy, but there’s still the loss to mourn.
Tags: Contemporary
Review - The Thomas Flair by E.J. Russell
My rating:
Sol and Tony have been best friends since they met in gymnastics training as young teenagers. The Rio olympics should have been the culmination of their lives, even though Sol was only an alternate. After Tony wins a medal on the final day of competition, Sol plans to confess his love for the man he’s had a crush on for years. A sudden revelation makes Tony abandon the Olympic village and his friend, and embark on a career as a thrill-seeking internet sensation.
Tags: Contemporary
Review - He's The One by Barbara Elsborg
My rating:
Stonemason Col sees a block fall off the scaffolding and fall towards an unsuspecting employee of Asquith Hall. He dives for the young man and manages to get him out of the way. The guy isn’t Col’s type, but he still feels a spark of attraction to the man, Theo. What Col doesn’t know is that Theo is actually the heir to the estate. The two men are from vastly different worlds, and each has their own heavy baggage.
Tags: Contemporary UK Setting