Tag: Shane Allison

What I Read Last Week

Posted March 24, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 0 Comments

It was more or less a lazy week in Tracyland. We didn’t have any pressing matters to take care of so I got a lot of reading done during the week. Then the weekend came and my youngest had a promotion test where so totally rocked. 🙂 She was one of 2 that got the highest score. I’m very proud of her to say the least. I’m currently fighting with the app that joins all of the individual videos together to make one vid so when I win the fight and get it posted I’ll let you know. The rest of the weekend I hung with the kids, watched movies and just had fun. I think I read all of 70 pages the whole weekend. 🙂

I have two giveaways going right now. One ends today and the other on the 30th.

Giveaways:
1) A print copy of Marie Force’s All You Need is Love (open US residents only, sorry) – ends today at 11:59pm

2) A digital download (Kindle or Nook) of My Lady, My Lord by Katharine Ashe. Ends at 11”:59pm on 3/30/14.

Anyway, on to what I read…

I started off the week with the week with The Glaring by Andrew J. Peters. This is a short novella that is book 2 in his werecat series. The story continues to follow Jacks while he deals with being a werecat and finding out more about what that means to him. You can read my review here. 3.75 out of 5

Next up was the anthology Love Between Men edited by Shane Allison. A grouping of short stories that ran the gamut from I didn’t particularly care for them to I really liked them. You can read my review of the anthology here. 3.5 out of 5

Hope Ignites by Jaci Burton is book 2 in her Hope series and it was another good one. This one was Logan’s story and had him with an actress who was part of the crew that was filming on his land. He was positive he could stay away from her but she proved irresistible. I’ll post my review of this one tomorrow. 4 out of 5

Olivia’s Choice by Taylor Grace is a more or less contemporary fantasy if that makes sense. It takes place in current times but it’s about a race of people that don’t exist so that’s where the fantasy comes in. Olivia’s goes to Viddion a city for one of the races of Tree People called the annax where she was born to set up an exchange program. She’s been living as a human and wants nothing to do with anyone annex but she didn’t plan on falling in love. You can read my review here. 3.5 out of 5 

Last for the week was Wishing For a Highlander by Jessi Gage. This is a medieval time travel novel about Melanie who makes a wish on an artifact and next thing you know she’s in the 16th century. She winds up falling for the man who originally found her which is a good thing as they’re married right away. Of course then she’s accused of witchcraft so that makes things a bit sticky. The story was actually really good and I enjoyed almost every minute of it. 4 out of 5

 

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
So Right With You by Maggie Kaye
Disarm: The Complete Novel by June Gray

Happy Reading!

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Review: Love Between Men – anthology edited by Shane Allison

Posted March 20, 2014 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: Love Between Men – anthology edited by Shane AllisonReviewer: Tracy
Love Between MenPublisher: Cleis Press
Publication Date: March 18th 2014
Genres: M/M
Add It: Goodreads
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three-half-stars

Filled with romance, passion, and lust, Love Between Men offers irresistible erotic fun while celebrating the coming together of souls as well as bodies. Two traveling husbears meet a willing twink in Jeff Mann's "One Afternoon in the Bible Belt." A sneaky environmentalist gets sandwiched between hedonistic mountain men in Bob Vickery's "Loggers." Two partners share a leisurely Sunday morning with scintillating surprises in Hank Edward's "Breakfast in Bed." Rob Rosen's "Skyrockets in Flight" is particularly delicious, with naughty bits in every line. Perfect bedtime reading for gay couples, Love Between Men is an inspiring and enticing testament to same-sex love.

Love Between Men is an anthology of 17 stories of erotic get togethers either between strangers of men who have been in a relationship for years.

The overall tone of the stories was a happy one which was nice. I must say I didn’t enjoy quite as many in this anthology as I have in the past.

A few that I really enjoyed were:

Tokens by Pepper Espinoza – Jake and Ian met and got together. Ian, at first, limited himself from enjoying Jake’s company to just twice a month. Time in between meets gets shorter and shorter as they just can’t seem to stay away from each other. In this story it’s obvious that Jake wants more from Ian than just sex but Ian is being stubborn. We really know nothing about the characters except what we see in the hotel room but it worked. In the end there was the hope of something more and that made the story worth reading.

Tom’s Feet by Gregory L. Norris – This was an interesting story of a couple who have been together for 10 years and one of the men isn’t happy. The story doesn’t really go into depth about the instances that brought him to this unhappiness but he’s had a hard time making the move to leave because of various reasons. One of those is – you guessed it – Tom’s feet. A mild foot fetish this is not. The guy gets incredibly excited by stinky, smelly, sweaty feet. NOT my cuppa, let me tell you, but it worked for this story. I won’t give anything away but to say I was pleased with the ending.

Line of Sight by Nathan Burgoine was one of my favorites. Cam is a psychic and ends up saving Johnny from death. Johnny befriends Cam but as it’s all about Johnny he ends up wanting to use Cam to find out if there’s anything between his boyfriend Bill and Bill’s roommate, Tate. Cam meets the two men when Johnny invites him over for a bbq but that doesn’t end well. Johnny breaks with Bill but that leaves him open to giving Tate a wonderful birthday present – Cam. A very sweet story that was, like all the stories in the book, incredibly hot. I liked the psychic element in the story as it just added a little something extra.

In the end if you’re wanting some hot and sweaty man love on a pleasant afternoon this would be the book for you.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Shane Allison

three-half-stars

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What I Read Last Week

Posted September 17, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 3 Comments

Hey there everyone! How are you? Life here is…interesting. I won’t get into details but I’ll say there’s never a dull moment. lol

Giveaways:

I currently have a few giveaways going on the blog…
A digital copy of Protector by Joanne Wadsworth – book 1 in the Magio-Earth series. (YA)
A print copy of Steam Bath: Sweaty Gay Erotica – an anthology of m/m short stories edited by Shane Allison. (this giveaway is US Only)
**My 2013 5 Star Read Giveaway – a list of my 5 star reads (so far) and you can win 1 of them in digital fro the book seller of your choice. 
**And…I’ll have another one coming up this week so check back!

Also, the winner of Blue Hydrangeas by Marianne Sciucco was Crystal C-B – Congratulations! Crystal I’ve already passed your email address off to Marianne so you should get your book soon if you haven’t already.

On to what I read last week:

First up was a novella in Elder Races series by Thea Harrison called The Wicked. The story was about an Owl shifter who was working on security while a group of magical librarians got ancient tomes off of Carling Severin’s island. It was a really good novella. 4 out of 5

Next was Steam Bath: Sweaty Gay Erotic edited by Shane Allison. This was an anthology of short stories all centered around bath houses. Lots of sweat, and lots of sex. 🙂 You can read my review here. 3.75 out of 5

Rumors That Ruined a Lady by Marguerite Kaye was historical romance based around a woman, Caro, who is married and has left her husband. Her hubby then spread rumors about her that were NOT true. Her “friend” Sebastian helps her and saves her life and they end up falling in love. It was a much darker book than expected but really great. This one comes out next month and isn’t to be missed. 4 out of 5 (Is it just me or does the lady on the cover look like Annette Bening??)

My next read was one of the free reads that All Romance eBooks put out in their Fall in Love series giveaway called Tied and True by Marie Harte. The story is about a woman who hears her coworker spouting off that he has a “money shot” of her. She breaks into his house to get the pic but ends up tying him to the bed for most of the weekend to have her way with him. It was a decent short story – and it was free! lol 3 out of 5

The Volatile Amazon by Sandy James is book 4 in the Alliance of the Amazon series. This book follows Sarita the water amazon and her pretty much star crossed relationship with a highlander named Ian. It was a pretty great book and a great end to the series. I’ll post my review of this one next week. 4.25/4.5 out of 5

Edenbrooke (A Proper Romance) by Julianne Donaldson was a great little historical that follows Marianne Daventry as she heads off to Edenbrooke to visit with her sister who’s also visiting there. She meets Philip one of the sons of Edenbrooke but she has no idea that this is the man that her twin sister Cecily has her eye on. The romance is very sweet and I loved watching Philip and Marianne together. 4 out of 5 

(Never) Again by Theresa Paolo is a New Adult story about a girl who is in her first year of college when she meets up with her ex-boyfriend who broke her heart. The book is about her dealing with him, her current boyfriend, her virginity, her brother and others. It was a decent read but I did have some issues with Liz and her manic way of dealing with her life. 3 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Lycan’s Mate by Chandler Dee is a short story about a woman/alpha of her pack who is gearing up for the “chase” that will decide who her mate will be. The story is strange and short and kind of leaves you hanging. I was just feeling like it might be something I could get into and then it stopped. Odd, very odd. 1 out of 5

Last for the week was Runaway by Sandy James. This is book 2 in the Safe Havens series. The story is about heiress Cassie Shay who saves 2 men from death – death that her uncle ordered. Those two men, Ty Bishop and Jake Curtis then help Cassie escape from her family who wants her to marry a evil abusive man twice her age. Ty and Cassie fall in love on their way back to White Pines, Montana but the welcome they get in White Pines from Ty’s adopted family isn’t all hearts and butterflies when they find out that Cassie belongs to the Shay family.  I’ll post my review for this one this week.

 
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Fighting Fate by Linda Kage
Not Planning on You by Sydney Landon
The Untamed Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley

Happy Reading!

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Review: Steam Bath: Sweaty Gay Erotica edited by Shane Allison + a Giveaway!

Posted September 11, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 5 Comments

Steamy encounters in the bathhouse have been the stuff of erotic legend for centuries, just ask Spartacus! Shane Allison turns the stereotype on its ear in Steam Bath, a rollicking romp of pretty boys and dashing daddies doing it. From fresh faced twinks to silver foxes and beautiful bears, Shane delivers sensational stories where every man is naked ALL THE TIME! A towel-snapping good read, Steam Bath is filled with sizzling porn bodies, sexy boys next door, and tantalizing tricks that fully capture the erotic dynamic of between men. Rob Rosen turns up the heat once again in his new tale, “The Key.” A young detective sets out to investigate the disappearance of a young twink, but finds more than what he ever thought imaginable in Logan Zachary’s “Incubus Steam.” A tattooed bad boy gets taught a “hard” lesson in Eric Del Carlo’s “Steam Punk.” A mind is not the only thing that gets blown in Rafaelito V. Sy’s “Raf’s Journey.” Things get hot and heavy when a college professor and one of his horny students stumble upon a European steam bath in Jarrett Neal’s “The Chaperones.”

I have to admit that the thought of a bathhouse is certainly fascinating to me and frankly more than a bit titillating. The thought of the freedom that gay men find in these stories was enough to hook my interest and make me turn each page.

A couple that stood out to me were:

Incubus Steams by Logan Zachary – the story of a cop investigating missing men and finding himself thoroughly patted down instead. This had a very strange ending that I’m still kind of confused about but it’s definitely stuck in my head.

The Gay Dude by Gregory L. Norris was longer than the rest (except for one other) and was pretty funny, hot and sexy. This was about three friends not understanding one friend being gay and trying to figure out where the new boyfriend fit in in their band of musketeers. While a very cute story the overuse of the word “dude” just about did me in. :0)

The Real End of It by Shaun Levin was an interesting blend of sex and reality. A man who was madly in love with Martin in previous years but they parted ways. Now many years later they hook up again at a bathhouse but the man looks at Martin with different, changed, older eyes and frankly wonders why he was ever enamored and how he can now feel nothing for the man. The story was told in first person and I found it an interesting view.

The stories encompassed in Steam Bath are definitely filled with all ages, shapes and sizes of men. All of the stories were certainly fun, sexy and most assuredly sweaty. I really enjoyed some of the stories while others were a bit on the sex overload for my liking – which I should have expected in an erotic anthology but maybe I just needed to take a break. lol I liked them all but as in all anthologies I liked some more than others. If you’re looking for some sweaty gay erotica then this is definitely the book for you.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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