Tag: MLR Press

Guest Review: Missing Daughter, Shattered Family by Liz Strange

Posted July 15, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

When a brutal homophobic attack ended David Lloyd’s career as a police officer, his life was changed forever. Five years later David is running his own private detective agency, where a missing person’s case comes to his attention. Digging into the circumstances of her disappearance forces David to realize he has not dealt with what happened to him, and that he can no loner deal with his long-time partner’s fear of being honest about their relationship.
Solving the case might not only bring peace to a shattered family, but could finally put David’s own demons to rest.
David Lloyd is hired by a mother looking for her 23 year old daughter. Since the girl isn’t a minor and she has a history of drug abuse the police aren’t taking the missing persons report too seriously. David starts looking in the obvious places for Stella – old haunts and old friends but what he finds really doesn’t add up in his head. He starts to unravel a story that is so horrible and crazy that he can’t even believe it. On top of this David is dealing with his long time boyfriend who has never come out of the closet as well as his memories of the brutal attack he survived but is still haunted by.
The story started off pretty slow for me. I wasn’t sure if I was really going to like the book but it was well written so I kept going despite my misgivings about whether the story would really work for me. I was definitely glad I continued as the story picked up and one thing after another started happening.
I loved the intricacy of the characters and though there were many people involved in the tangled web that David had to push through I never got lost as to what was happening or who was who. Strange did a great job of clearly keeping the book on track. David’s relationship with Jamie had me on pins and needles as they worked through their issues. I was so glad that it all worked out in the end with both of them happy with the decisions that were made.
The story at times is hard to read as when the title says shattered family they are SERIOUS. The family is messed up beyond belief and it hurt my heart to read everything that the mom and Stella had gone through throughout the years.
Overall I really liked the book and was happy with the outcome. If you start the story and feel it’s a bit slow, just keep going, it’s worth the read.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from MLR Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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Review: Happy Ending by LB Gregg

Posted May 1, 2009 by Tracy in Reviews | 7 Comments

He was everything I never, ever wanted. And I wanted him badly.

All Seth really wanted was a simple massage—was that too much to ask? When his usual therapist is replaced by a sexy young masseur, Seth finds himself obsessed with the unpredictable – and wholly inappropriate – David Cooke. Pushed to the breaking point by forces both mysterious and not so mysterious, Seth must lose his rigid control to find the happy ending both he and David deserve.

Seth has had a hard year. His sister got sick and he was her main caregiver. His boyfriend turned out to be a complete ass and took off when the going got tough and now he’s parent to his niece and he has no clue what to do with her. The thing that keeps him on an even keel is control. As long as he’s in control of the situation he can handle anything.

Into his live enters David Cooke. Seth isn’t quite sure what to make of David. He’s a massage therapist and a waiter? Does the guy have no ambition? Little does Seth know that there are hidden depths to David and those depths will change Seth’s life.

Seth is such a control freak and David is so the opposite. David is a go with the flow, experience life, relaxed man. Seth doesn’t want to be attracted to him but yet he finds that he just can’t help himself. The two characters play off each other so well I really understood where each of them were coming from.

The story is told from Seth’s pov and I thoroughly appreciated that fact. There were a few times where I was wishing that I could see into David’s head but for the most part was completely satisfied with Seth’s voice. And let me tell you – for a girl who isn’t a fan of 1st person pov that’s saying something! lol I loved Seth’s humor. That dry, sarcastic, fuck off if you don’t like it sense of humor. He also didn’t hesitate (ok, maybe once) to tell anyone what he thought of them or how he felt. He was an up front guy and I loved that about him. One of my favorite scenes in the book is at the beginning when he’s at a day spa waiting for his massage and he’s checking out the room. His description of the room itself -whether it was the paint, the music or the scent of the room had me laughing out loud (and of course the rest of that scene which is fabulous). I think I smiled through almost the whole book.

There were issues that Seth and David needed to deal with together but there was also Seth dealing with the death of his sister, his niece, his ex and his niece’s dad. Seth, being the controller he was handled things well, but we also got to see Seth;s growth and his realization that the way he’d done things in the past may not be the best way. It was another great part of the book.

Oh – and of course there was hot man-lovin. Hot man-lovin. Yep – iz good.

Needless to say I loved the book and highly recommend it to anyone who will listen to me.

Rating 5 out of 5

Happy Ending is book 2 in the Men of Smithfield series. You can get book 1, Gobsmacked, here in ebook format from Aspen Mountain Press or you can get your very own shiny print copy from here from MLR Press.


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