Tag: Lee Brazil

Guest Review: Temptation by Lee Brazil

Posted June 27, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Temptation by Lee BrazilReviewer: Tracy
Temptation by Lee Brazil
Publisher: Breathless Press
Publication Date: June 7th 2013
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 76
Add It: Goodreads
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three-half-stars

After a hot interlude at a holiday party, Lake Wynters and Solomon Arsdale exchange phone numbers but not promises. Lake is fine with that until something happens he's never experienced. As days pass without Solomon calling, Lake discovers he just can't forget the sexy older man. Giving in to temptation, he takes matters into his own hands and visits Solomon at his office, breaking his own dating rules.

Waiting in Solomon's office, Lake is shaken to the core by how much Solomon's acknowledgement of their encounter means to him, and how much more he wants it to lead to.

But when the door he's eagerly watching opens, it brings new temptation in the form of Adonis Kosmias. Adonis isn't anything like Solomon. Not many would call him beautiful. His features are too harsh, his body too angular. But he moves with fluid grace and his hair falls in perfect waves and his eyes sparkle with warmth. From the first touch of his hand Lake is thrown into even greater confusion. So distracted by Adonis's touch is he, that when Solomon finally makes an appearance, their hands are still clasped.

Meeting Solomon again while holding hands with another man wasn't in Lake's plan. Neither was anything that happened afterward.

Lake is at a pre-Christmas party when he sees a man he wants to know better. He makes his intentions known from a distance and as the other man is paying rapt attention Lake knows that he has his man snared. After a bit Lake heads out to the hotel lobby and into a deserted hallway where the man, Solomon, eventually finds him. A short tryst occurs and they exchange numbers.

Cut to 3 weeks later and we see Lake pacing outside of Solomon’s office. You see Lake was interested in more than just a short tryst with Solomon and when Sol didn’t call – and according to Lake the men always call – he just couldn’t let it lie. When Lake finally makes it into Solomon’s office Sol introduces Lake to his partner, both in business and his private life, Adonis. Solomon and Adonis explain to Lake that they have an open relationship when it comes to trysts but never a second “date.” With Solomon he wanted to call Lake but Adonis put his foot down. Now that Adonis has met Lake he wants to get to know him better and the three start seeing each other. Unfortunately Lake has insecurities about being a third wheel in Sol and Adonis’s relationship and this makes Lake leave.

This was a quick short read that I enjoyed. I liked Sol and Adonis although we didn’t get to know them all that well. We heard about their past experience with a man but other than that not a whole lot. I liked what I saw though.

Lake is a young man (I’m not sure we ever learned his age) who is a model who lives more than comfortably and only takes jobs when he needs the money. He is smart about putting some money away for his future but he still spends more than he makes. He is immature and pretty self-centered but he gets a good kick in the head at some point during the book emotionally speaking and does do some growing. I was pretty happy that he got his shit together, I must say, as his constant running away from his problems was making me a bit crazy. He knew after he ran that he was wrong to do so but that didn’t make him pick up a phone and apologize which was wrong but he got it together eventually. In the end a good read.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Breathless Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

three-half-stars

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What I Read Last Week

Posted June 25, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 1 Comment

Howdy !

Whatcha all up to? Anything fun?

My week was pretty normal – work, home, kids, hubby – you know…normal.

So what did I read this past week? 

First for the week was a book that I’ve had for more than a while and finally picked up called A Rural Affair by Catherine Alliott. The story was based on Poppy who’s husband dies in a freak accident and though it wasn’t a close marriage at all she’s still shocked to find out he’d been having an affair for the past 4 years. The story follows Poppy as she tries to go on with her life – bumbling along – and then shoves a romance at us in the last few pages. Not a great book imho but at times entertaining. 3 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Next up was Tangled by Emma Chase. I know a lot of people didn’t like this book because they thought the first person POV from the “hero” (I use the term loosely) sucked. I personally loved it. I didn’t love him but I thought he had a great sense of humor though he could be an ass at times. You can read my quickie review here on Goodreads. 4 out of 5 

Next was Temptation by Lee Brazil. The story is about Lake, a male model who has a bit of a hook-up with a guy named Solomon at a party. When Solomon doesn’t call, and they always call, Lake decides to seek him out at his office. He is introduced to Sol’s partner – in all things – and they end up having a threesome. Sol and Adonis want more but Lake has severe anxiety and insecurities about being a third wheel in an already established relationship. It was a good read though Lake got to be a bit annoying at times. 🙂 3.5 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

Next up was Awakening by Serena Grey. This was a very short story about an 18 year old girl who is basically swept off her feet by an older guy. They share a night together and then get married. There’s more to it than that but that was the gist. I’m curious to see what’s next because you could tell the guy wasn’t in love with Sophie by any means so why get married on the spur of the moment? The series is called A Dangerous Man so there’s definitely more. I have to say was saying WTF a couple of times during the story and was kind of stunned at the end when it was done. 2.5 out of 5 

Rift by Andrea Cremer is a prequel to the Nightshade series. The story takes place in the 1400’s but involves demons and wraiths and all the paranormal stuff. It was a good read but it had honestly been so long since I’d read the first two Nightshade books that I was kind of confused about the relationship. I have to go back and read those first two books again before I pick up the last in the trilogy. 3.75 out of 5 

Anybody But Him by Claire Baxter is about Nicola who house swaps with her sister and ends up back in her hometown to help take care of her aging and eccentric parents. She runs into Blair who she had a crush on in school but was also the bane of her existence. She wants nothing to do with him until she sees that they’ve both changed over the years. I really enjoyed this one. The humor took a little getting used to at first but the story was easy to read and quite enjoyable. 4 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

How to Marry a Highlander by Katharine Ashe doesn’t come out til the end of July but I sat down to read it early. This was a great novella. It has Teresa approaching a destitute Scottish Earl and asking him to marry her. She saw him a year and a half earlier and hadn’t stopped thinking of him. When her parents want her to marry a stick in the mud vicar she gets desperate. She makes a deal with the Earl even though he has no plans to marry her. The relationship grows and only happens within a months time but this was oh, so good. I really liked just about everything about it and definitely recommend it. 4.5 out of 5 

Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid is the story of Janie who finds out her boyfriend cheated on her and then goes to work and gets “downsized.” She then meets Quinn Sullivan who she kind of starts dating, but kind of not and he helps her get a job at his security company. The story is odd and humorous at the same time as it’s awkward and sometimes frustrating. I really enjoyed the writing though and definitely want to read more from this author. 4 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson is a steampunk fantasy novel that mixes the contemporary with the historical and I really, really liked this one. The story focuses on Casper who is trying to help a princess get back to her homeland after she’s abducted. The world they live in is wonderful and it was just really good. You can read my full review here at Book Binge. 4 out of 5 

Last for the week was Werecat: The Rearing by Andrew J. Peters. This is a short story about a guy meeting a man who he thinks might be “the one” and having it go all wrong when the guy transforms him into a werecat. I’ll post my review of this one later this week. 

My Book Binge reviews that posted since last Monday:
The Secret of Mia Danvers by Robyn DeHart
Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson 

Happy Reading!

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Guest Review: Keeping House by Lee Brazil

Posted June 11, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Tracy’s review of Keeping House by Lee Brazil

Donovan Holloway, advertising executive, newly made vice president of the company where he’s worked for twenty years, grew up in a free love hippie commune, taking care of the parents who should have been taking care of him. He’s worked hard to put himself through school and achieve the American dream. All he’s ever wanted was a normal family life—house in the suburbs, two cars, two kids, a shaggy dog. A family to come home to—to care for, and to care for him.

Mischa Blake is the green eyed, liberally-pierced, black-haired, Mohawk-wearing spoiled youngest son of a Hollywood producer and his actress wife. Mischa has made a terrible mistake. In a fit of childish pique, he’s accepted a dare from his older brothers. The dare? Live on his own, supporting himself completely for a year without accessing his trust fund. No problem. Except Mischa has never worked a day in his life, hasn’t finished college, and has absolutely no skills that he can bring to the table.

So when he sees Donovan’s ad for a housekeeper/gardener, he has nothing to lose by applying, because really…how hard can it be?

Mischa three brothers want Mischa to stop being a party animal, go to college and become what they consider an upstanding citizen. To the brothers that means working in the family production studio. But that’s not really Mischa’s thing and though he loves his brothers to pieces he hates that they constantly try to run his life. During their weekly Wednesday night poker game the brothers play a game of truth or dare with Mischa (which is completely planned by the brothers and Mischa is smart enough to catch on) and he takes the dare. The dare is that Mischa find a job and support himself for a whole year without touching his trust fund (other than the money he has now). If he fails to do this then the brothers get to make him take a job of their choosing, go to college, etc. While Mischa doesn’t think this will be too difficult it turns out it’s harder than he thinks.

Mischa eventually applies for a position to be a housekeeper/gardener to a busy executive and though the man at first doesn’t even want to give him a chance (Mischa has lots of piercings and a Mohawk) he soon sees that Mischa is up for the job. But Mischa finds, as does Donovan, that there’s more than the job to be interested in – namely each other.

First off let me talk about the brothers. I could tell from the minute they were introduced that they loved Mischa and wanted what was best for him but the way they went about it truly pissed me off. They couldn’t see that Mischa was his own person and kind of a free spirit and that he never wanted to be involved in the family business. On one hand the fact that they were trying to get Mischa to be responsible and find a job was a great idea. But on the other hand the way they went about it left me cold.

When Mischa started his housekeeping duties he cracked me up – he had his laptop and he used that sucker for every little thing. Just goes to show you that you can google about anything and get the job done. His first day on the job he was using a search engine to find out how to make a pot of coffee and eventually how to do laundry. lol So Mischa was smart and got his job done because he wasn’t afraid of hard work, but while doing this Donovan, his boss, was lusting after him and by the second day falling in love with him. Maybe I’m not a big believer in love at first sight because I didn’t believe this one at all. Donovan knew absolutely nothing about Mischa at all except for his looks and that he could do the job he was paid for yet he loved him? Too easy.

While I really liked Brazil’s writing style, the story left out huge aspects of the relationship that I felt would be important to know. Also the overall timeline would have been beneficial – how long had Mischa been looking for a job before he landed on Donovan’s doorstep? When I got to the epilogue there was a major announcement but I didn’t have any idea how long it had been from the love declarations/last chapter to that moment. Yes, this was a short novella but I think that just a few more pages would have benefitted the story a great deal.

Overall a good, sweet m/m story.

Rating: 3 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Breathless Press. You can buy it here e-format.

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What I Read Last Week

Posted June 6, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 13 Comments

Another Monday and here we are. Let’s all congratulate ourselves for making it through last week – shall we? Yep, I’m pretty glad I made it through. lol
In blogland – if you’re not following Kassa’s Fan Letter Blog Crawl you definitely should! Some awesome letters are being written to authors and you wouldn’t want to miss out. 🙂
Diet and Exercise – Only 1 time exercising this week but I think I did ok on my food. I was in a huge hurry this morning and forgot to weigh myself so no news on that front. It was a good week though.
My youngest went to her very first Taekwondo competition this past weekend. It was in Oceanside (about 2.5 hours away) and I was afraid that she would be out of it because we had to wake up so darned early to be there to register and she was really nervous. She did a great job and for her first competition though and got a SILVER MEDAL! Woohooo! Go baby! I was extremely proud of her to say the least. I have a few pictures and my hubby has a vid on his phone (my stupid camera died right before her part in the comp.) so I’ll have tod download those and post them later this week for you all.
So on to what I read last week:
I started with Lessons in Indiscretion by Karen Erickson. This was the story of a widow who is craving intimacy with a particular man. She wants him to become her lover for the rest of the Season. He up for the challenge but what happens when they become closer and the end of the Season rolls around? This was a short novella and a very good one. I’ll post my review next week.
Next up was Keeping House by Lee Brazil. This is the short novella story of a rich twenty year old who is pretty much a free spirit. Mischa’s brothers want him to work for their film production company and that’s just not his bag. The brother’s dare Mischa into finding a job and supporting himself for one year with no help from his trust fund. Mischa takes them on and ends up taking a job as a housekeeper to an advertising exec. He has no clue what he’s doing but he muddles through and does a great job – he also falls in love with his boss. This was cute but too short. I would have liked more time for the men to get to know each other as I’m just not a huge fan of insta-love. 3 out of 5
After that I read Hunter and the Hawk by Gale Stanley. This is the story of Lycans and Vampires who hate each other but they have a treaty that was made hundreds of years ago. Both genetic lines are dying out and one vampire, a doctor, is trying to see if the addition of lycan blood to the vampire blood makes a difference. The doctor, Abbie, sends her brother, Aidan, to talk to the Lycan alpha but he is intercepted by Hunter. Due to many circumstances Hunter decides to help the vamps without telling his alpha and Aidan and Hunter end up being mates who will die without the others blood. This was pretty good but it didn’t really have a conclusion. It’s a continuing story and I hope we get more info about Hunter and Aidan in future books – as well as info on the infertility issues. 3 out of 5 (novella)
Paradise Found by Hunter Raines was my next read. This was an m/m/m ménage story with some BDSM elements to it. It was good but I did find myself wanting more as I read. You can read my review here if you’d like. 3.75 out of 5 (novella)
I was doing the happy dance when I opened my mail and found Storm’s Heart by Thea Harrison in there from Holly. I, of course, dove right into it and it was great! This is Tiago and Niniane’s story (Niniane – formerly known as Tricks) and when there is an assassination attempt on Niniane’s life – because she’s going to be taking the Dark Fae throne as their queen – Tiago, who is an excellent tracker, heads to Chicago to find and protect her. The romance was great and while the suspense part wasn’t as good, as a whole, I really liked the book. (This one comes out August 2nd) 4.25 out of 5
My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was an anthology called Hot Summer Nights by Mary Wine, Karen Erickson, Elle Kennedy and Samantha Lucas. These four different stories told of men and women getting together in all different circumstances for all different reasons. For the most part I liked the stories and the characters. 3 out of 5 overall
Last up was The Rake by Suzanne Enoch (yes Lori, I finally started the Lessons in Love series!). Six years ago Lord Dare had accepted a wager to get a kiss from Georgianna Halley. Dare got that kiss and they both got a night of passion. But when Georgianna found out about the wager – as well as the other wager involving her stocking – Georgianna was pissed! She had thought that the night meant something to Dare but she was wrong. Now Georgianna and her friends have decided that there are some lessons they’d like to teach men and Georgianna wants to teach them to Dare. She has to make him fall in love with her so that she can break his heart when she breaks it off – making him realize how horrible it is and therefore making him a better husband when he marries. But what starts off as Georgianna teaching a lesson soon became Dare and Georgianna falling in love with each other. This was a really good story and I loved seeing this pair come together. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next in the trilogy. 4 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
*crickets chirping*
Happy Reading!!

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