Pants Off Reviews: Amelia Gormley

Showing posts with label Amelia Gormley. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Spotlight Tour & Giveaway: To the Very Last Inch by Heidi Belleau and Amelia C. Gormley

Hi! We’re Heidi Belleau and Amelia C. Gormley, and we’re here to let you know that our kinky series The Professor’s Rule is coming to an end. The last two novelettes--Every Inch of the Way and To the Very Last Inch--are out now from Riptide Publishing, and to celebrate, we’re touring the web with a contest and a free bonus short. You’ll have to follow the whole tour to read the short in its entirety, but since every comment you make along the tour gets you an entry in our contest, there’s plenty of reasons to tag along.
If you haven’t yet heard of The Professor’s Rule, here’s a quick crash course (see what we did there?)

School is back in session.

When undergrad student James Sheridan set out to seduce his way into a better grade, he had no idea what he was signing on for. Professor Evander Carson wasn’t about to trade a good grade for sexual favors, but he was definitely willing to tutor his wayward pupil in far more than history.

By the end of their tumultuous relationship, James not only excelled academically, his sexual horizons had expanded to include pleasures—and agonies—the likes of which he’d never dreamed. But enough was more than enough, and James fled from his Professor, unsure of where his limits lay or if he had the wherewithal to set boundaries.

Two years later, a chance misdial puts James back in contact with his former instructor and brings all his old cravings back in force, leaving him yearning to kneel once again at his Professor’s feet. But James has a new life now, with new sexual and romantic prospects—most notably the charming menswear salesman Satish Malhotra. Still, the pull to return to Professor Carson is a powerful thing. Can James give in to it without giving up his newfound confidence and budding romance?

The complete collection is on sale now for 40% off, and if you’d like to try before you buy, Giving an Inch (The Professor’s Rule #1) is free wherever ebooks are sold!

About Every Inch of the Way and To the Very Last Inch

In Every Inch of the Way, Satish Malhotra is in over his head. What appeared to be the hookup of his dreams turned out to be another man’s kinky sex game, and thus ended his relationship with sweet, submissive James Sheridan before it’d hardly begun.

Or so he thought. Being used in someone else’s domination/submission play should have been a deal breaker, yet James—bruises, boyfriend, and all—is too compelling to let walk away. But James has needs Satish isn’t sure he can fulfill, and it seems his mysterious Professor isn’t willing to share.

Can Satish keep James happy in bed and in life, or will James be forced to choose between his dominant and his burgeoning vanilla romance with Satish?

In To the Very Last Inch . . . Just days after their scorching reunion, Professor Evander Carson has kicked his one-time pupil James Sheridan to the curb—and tried to sabotage James’s new relationship with Satish Malhotra. Something isn’t right here, but James isn’t sure he should bother trying to figure out what. Carson isn’t good for him and will never change. He needs to accept that and move on.

Satish knows something is up, too, but he thinks the relationship between Carson and James is worth saving. To do the right thing, Satish will have to make James and Carson confront the secrets they’ve hidden for years and help them to overcome the pain and mistrust they’ve caused.

But if Satish succeeds, where will that leave him and his intensifying romance with James? Will the three of them be able to find the right balance, or will James be forced to choose between the pain and submission he craves with Carson, and the sweet, vanilla stability he’s found with Satish?

About the Authors

Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot m/m erotic romance while her son is at school. When she’s not writing in her Pacific Northwest home, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband, her son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else. Her self-published novel-in-three-parts, Impulse (Inertia, Book One; Acceleration, Book Two; and Velocity, Book Three) can be found at most major online book retailers, and be sure to check Riptide for her latest releases, including her Highland historical, The Laird’s Forbidden Lover, the The Professor’s Rule series of erotic novelettes (co-written with Heidi Belleau), and Strain. Stay tuned for her upcoming Riptide releases, which include the final two books in The Professor’s Rule (coming the first week of March) and Saugatuck Summer, coming in May.

You can contact Amelia on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, BookLikes, Tumblr, or contact her by email using the form on the About page at http://ameliacgormley.com/

Heidi Belleau was born and raised in small town New Brunswick, Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of Northern BC with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades leave her plenty of quiet time to write.

She has a degree in history from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish studies; much of her work centred on popular culture, oral folklore, and sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with unironic papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her about Highlanders!) Her writing reflects everything she loves: diverse casts of characters, a sense of history and place, equal parts witty and filthy dialogue, the occasional mythological twist, and most of all, love—in all its weird and wonderful forms. She also writes queer-flavoured M/F as Heloise Belleau.
Chat with her on twitter using the handle Twitter: @HeidiBelleau
Browse her website at HeidiBelleau.com or HeloiseBelleau.com.
Check out her books on Goodreads
Follow her Facebook and Tumblr accounts.
Or contact her using good ole-fashioned email: heidi.heloise.belleau @ gmail.com

Contest

Win an ebook copy of An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2) in your choice of formats! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with a way for us to contact you (email address--posted in comment field, twitter handle, goodreads or facebook account), and you’ll be entered to win! Every comment counts for another entry, so be sure to follow the whole tour

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Spotlight Tour & Giveaway: Every Inch of the Way by Heidi Belleau and Amelia C. Gormley

School is back in session.

Contest

Win an ebook copy of An Inch at a Time (The Professor’s Rule #2) in your choice of formats! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with a way for us to contact you (email address--posted in comment field, twitter handle, goodreads or facebook account), and you’ll be entered to win! Every comment counts for another entry, so be sure to follow the whole tour

Monday, February 24, 2014

Review: Strain by Amelia C. Gormley

Reviewed by Whuppsy
Strain by Amelia C. Gormley
Riptide Publishing
Novel: 375pgs
5 Pants Off

Blurb:
Rhys Cooper is a dead man. Cut off from the world since childhood, he’s finally exposed to the lethal virus that wiped out most of the human race. Now his only hope for survival is infection by another strain that might confer immunity. But it’s sexually transmitted, and the degradation he feels at submitting to the entire squad of soldiers that rescued him eclipses any potential for pleasure—except with Darius, the squadron’s respected, capable leader.

Sergeant Darius Murrell has seen too much death and too little humanity. He’s spent a decade putting plague victims out of their misery and escorting survivors to a safe haven he can never enjoy. He’d rather help Rhys live than put him down, so when Rhys can’t reconcile himself to doing what’s necessary to survive, Darius is forced to save Rhys in spite of himself.

But with each passing day, it looks less and less likely that Rhys can be saved. Which means that soon Darius might have to put a bullet in the head of the one person in years who reminds him of what it means to be human.

Review
I will tell you that I read the blurb on the Riptide Website and I requested this book because it sounded so unlike anything that I’d read before. I’ve not read a bunch of Post-Apocalyptic books before and I wanted to stretch my brain a bit and see if I could be carried away. I WAS!!! Barely stopped to sleep, I had to finish this book!!!

This was not an easy story. This was such a harsh world that Rhys and the others lived in. The story wasn’t one of things/the world getting better, however, it was about survival. This is a complex story regarding just what you will do to survive and what you need to survive.

Let’s begin with what happened to the world, hmm? So there was this man-made virus that was to be used in viral warfare, the virus worked-ish. There was the main virus Alpha that was created for the Juggernauts. These were soldiers who were first infected and used as guinea pigs to see how the virus worked. They now protect survivors from the Zombie like creatures called Revs. Revs were people who got a certain mutated strain of the virus and it didn’t kill them, however, what it did was change them until there wasn’t a shred of humanity left. The other mutated strain of the virus become Rot which is just basically saying that you’re going to die. No ands, ifs or buts about it. Nothing can stop it.

Rhys is a 19 year old young man who has lived the past 7 years in hiding from the Revs and Rot. He has been emotionally and physically abused almost from the moment he and his family arrived. He was made to feel that his being gay was against God and the Church. The religious zealot that ran the monastery and his son, were Rhys’ chief tormentors. We don’t get to see it first hand, but due to what Rhys says and his feelings and the memories that we are privy too, you get a clear vision of what his life was like.

Rhys actions throughout most of this book were so very complex and yet so very simple. He was fighting about 7 years worth of abuse in regards to what he wanted and what he craved, both sexually and emotionally. The want/the cravings that Rhys has were so mired in the harsh, religious household from which he’d been living in.

Darius was a different sort of Alpha Man for me I loved that he took on the responsibility to help Rhys out. But I also loved just the way he led his team. The strength of character and strength of mind that he showed throughout the book also drew me to him. I liked that even when he finally really owned up to wanting Rhys and the possessive feelings that he’d been having for awhile, that he still wanted to make sure that make sure that it was something that Rhys wanted. That he didn’t just gloss over them and take what he wanted, just made me fall a bit for him.

Now, I will say that this book was a really dark read. There is lots of sex in here. That must be known from the get go. You also should know that a lot of what happens is dubious consent. Rhys has to have sex with multiple men in the hopes that he will get cured from an infection that he received in the very beginning of the book. If you don’t like sex with multiple partners and what is considered dubious consent, this might not be the book for you.

I liked the secondary characters in this book. Each of them was different in temperament and yet they were all such skilled warriors. Xolani was my FAVORITE Character in this story. She was a wonderfully strong female character. She was tough and decisive. She is a strong second in command for Darius. Where he needs to see not only the obvious, but to see what needs to be done. She is AMAZING!! I love how she says some very insightful things that really makes you pause and think about the meaning of her words. The other guys/gals that make up the Jugs are pretty cool as well. No one that survived has had an easy life and yet, through it all, they retain this wonderful sense of humanity.

Overall, this book was so very well done. The story actually flowed so smoothly that I couldn’t believe that it was over. Amelia had me from the very first page until the very end. I liked that it was more a HFN, we don’t know how it truly ends. Just that this part is over. I liked that both Rhys and Darius had some issues to work on that eventually they had to learn to speak to each other and actually say what they wanted and how they felt. It was such a dark, complex story with wonderful world-building.

You. Will. Not. Be. Disappointed. By. Reading. This. Book.

5 Pants Off

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Guest Post & Giveaways: Part Two: The Juggernaut Batallion by Amelia C. Gormley

Do you like DVD extras? Yeah? So do I. In fact, it’s entirely possible I’ve watched the appendices on the Lord of the Rings extended editions more times than I have the movies themselves.

So for the Strain blog tour, I’m going to try to make my posts a bit like the “behind-the-scenes/making-of” documentaries you might find on a good DVD. A lot of things the world-building and events that Strain depends on happen long before the events of the book itself, and while an in-depth recap of them during the course of Strain got in the way of the flow of the story, I find some of the back-story fascinating and hope you will as well.

Be sure to check the blog tour page at Riptide to see when each of these posts is scheduled.

Commenters at each stop along the way will be entered into a drawing for the chance to win one of three eBook copies of Impulse: The Complete Trilogy, the all-in-one edition of my novel-in-three parts. Please include your contact information, either email, Twitter, or Facebook. The Contest will be open until February 28th, with the winner being announced March 1—just in time for the release of Every Inch of the Way/To the Very Last Inch (The Professor’s Rule #4 and #5), the final two installments of my series with Heidi Belleau. So stay tuned for that as well!

*****
The World, History, and People of Strain, Part Two: The Juggernaut Battalion

When the surviving troops of Project Juggernaut were exiled from the Colorado Springs Clean Zone, they split up by company and divided the continental United States into sectors. Each company would canvas a specific sector, hunting for revenants and quarantining uninfected civilians for escort back to the Clean Zone. It was a project which would take years, but only once all the Gamma-infected revenants were eliminated and the uninfected population accounted for could they be confident that the plague would be over.

Of the companies who remained in the western part of the continent, Charlie Company was sent to clear the lower plains states and down into Texas, with the goal of eventually moving into Mexico. Bravo Company cleared through the Pacific Southwest, and Delta Company was charged with working their way through the Rocky Mountain states to the Pacific Northwest.

What few fuel cells were unclaimed by the civilians rebuilding in Colorado Springs were set aside for two purposes: one, to power infrared scanners which would help locate pockets of revenants and survivors, and two, to power a radio network the companies used to keep in contact and report on their progress.

It was Sierra Company—assigned to clear the upper plains states and into the Midwest toward Chicago—who first noticed something wrong with Charlie Company’s operations. One of the Sierra Company detachments sent to escort recovered civilians to Colorado Springs twice a year encountered a detachment on a similar mission from Charlie Company. The Jugs of Charlie Company were unaccountably stand-offish, though, in light of the fact that such chance meetings were generally times for celebration and becoming reacquainted with their comrades. But what truly troubled the squadron from Sierra Company was the state of the civilians the squadron from Charlie Company was escorting. It became apparent that they were neglected and regarded the troops of Charlie Company as jailors, rather than rescuers. When discretely questioned, however, the civilians recovered by Charlie Company were reluctant—one might even say terrified—to speak about their experiences.

Until one angry woman stormed forward and began yelling defiantly about the enforced labor the civilians had been subjected to during their time with Charlie Company, and the abduction of her teenaged daughter and son out of the quarantine. They were taken into Charlie Company’s encampment and never returned, even when the rest of the civilians were sent on to Colorado Springs.

No sooner had the woman finished sharing her tale, than a bullet through the back of the head silenced her for good. A surprise attack by the Charlie Company squadron against the Sierra Company troops followed. When it was over, all but two of the Sierra Company detachment—including the civilians they had been escorting—had survived. Those two managed to evade capture by the Charlie Company troops and rejoined their company to report what they had learned.

Though the power to their radio network was nearing depletion, Sierra informed the rest of companies of the 1st Juggernaut Battalion. The others were too far east, and so it was decided that Sierra would join with Bravo and Delta Companies to march against Charlie Company’s encampment where they were entrenched along the Rio Grande. There was no way to prevent Charlie Company overhearing the radio traffic and learning of their intentions, so while the other companies converged, Charlie Company had time to establish their defenses. Though Sierra, Delta and Bravo had numbers on their side, it would be a bloody battle with casualties the Jugs could scarcely afford.

Charlie Company might have won, if not for one decisive factor—the civilians they had pressed into service as harem slaves. Among these were Bailey and Brenda Morris, the son and daughter of the brave woman who had been killed reporting the truth to the Sierra Company detachment. By happenstance, they had come to realize that they possessed strength, reflexes and stamina equal to those of the Jugs—they had, in fact, become Jugs. No one understood how, but since none of the field or domestic slaves had acquired similar abilities, it was later deduced that they must have contracted the Alpha strain by means of sexual transmission. The harem slaves had guarded this secret closely for months as they listened to their captors plan Charlie Company’s defenses against the coming attack from their erstwhile comrades. And while Charlie Company was engaged in combat, their slaves attacked from behind, providing the distraction Bravo, Delta, and Sierra companies needed to break Charlie’s defenses and triumph.

The commanding officers of Bravo, Delta and Sierra quickly established a tribunal and held trials for the remaining members of Charlie Company. Though not all of Charlie Company had taken slaves, they had nonetheless permitted, abetted, and fought alongside the ones who had.

Not a single member of Charlie Company—even those who claimed to disapprove of what the others had done—had tried to stop or turned against her own brethren. The tribunal debated the matter bitterly, but in the end decided that no one with a Jug’s abilities who lacked the conscience to speak up or stop such an atrocity could be permitted to exist freely, and both the perpetrators and the collaborators were sentenced to die.

Those sentences were commuted for a handful of Charlie’s men and women, thanks to the slaves. They reported that some of those members of Charlie Company who had remained neutral had worked behind the scenes to aid the slaves and see that they were treated well when they could. Those men and women were divided among Bravo, Delta, and Sierra Companies, where they would replenish their numbers after the losses sustained in the battle, and where they could also be monitored closely for any possible future threats.

The harem slaves who had contracted the Alpha strain could never join the rest of the civilian population in Colorado Springs; they were now Jugs and would remain so. Most stayed in Texas to establish a new Charlie Company, with training and assistance by volunteers from the other Jugs. Brenda Morris was one of those who stayed behind, and eventually became Charlie Company’s CO. Her brother Bailey chose to go with Delta Company and became one of them. The uninfected domestic and field slaves were given the choice between escort to Colorado Springs or becoming voluntarily infected with the Alpha strain to help bolster the Jugs numbers after their losses. Most of those who chose to become Jugs went with Bravo Company, which had taken the heaviest casualties, and thus Bravo Company became the first company of Jugs to recruit from the civilian population.

The necessary steps involved in “recruiting” caused considerable consternation among the remaining companies of Jugs, but the last of the fuel cells powering the Jugs’ radio network were drained before a universal policy regarding recruitment could be implemented. As a result, each company was left to its own devices, and each was keenly aware that if another company went bad the way Charlie Company had, there would be no way to coordinate a response to stop them. The companies now exist and function entirely independently of one another, unaware of each other’s activities except when they meet while delivering civilians to the clean zone twice a year.

*****

The Strain Blog Tour:
Part One: Project Juggernaut
Part Two: The Juggernaut Battalion
Part Three: Does a Sex Scene Have to be Sexy?
Part Four: The Women of Delta Company
Part Five: Bonus Deleted BDSM Scene
Part Six: Giving Life (Fluid Exchange as a Theme in Strain)
Part Seven: A Sneak Peek at Bane, the prequel to Strain.

In a world with little hope and no rules, the only thing they have to lose is themselves.

Rhys Cooper is a dead man. Cut off from the world since childhood, he’s finally exposed to the lethal virus that wiped out most of the human race. Now his only hope for survival is infection by another strain that might provide immunity. But it’s sexually transmitted, and the degradation he feels at submitting to the entire squad of soldiers that rescued him eclipses any potential for pleasure—except with Darius, the squadron’s respected, capable leader.

Sergeant Darius Murrell has seen too much death and too little humanity. He’s spent a decade putting plague victims out of their misery and escorting survivors to a safe haven he can never enjoy. He’d rather help Rhys live than put him down, so when Rhys can’t reconcile himself to doing what’s necessary to survive, Darius is forced to save Rhys in spite of himself.

But with each passing day, it looks less and less likely that Rhys can be saved. And that means that Darius might soon have to put a bullet in the head of the one person in years who reminds him of what it means to be human.

Available in eBook and paperback at Riptide and other retailers.

About Amelia:
Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot m/m erotic romance while her son is at school. When she’s not writing in her Pacific Northwest home, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband, her son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else

Her self-published novel-in-three-parts, Impulse (Inertia, Book One; Acceleration, Book Two; and Velocity, Book Three) can be found at most major online book retailers, and be sure to check Riptide for her latest releases, including her Highland historical, The Laird’s Forbidden Lover, the The Professor’s Rule series of erotic novelettes (co-written with Heidi Belleau), and Strain. Stay tuned for her upcoming Riptide releases, which include the final two books in The Professor’s Rule (coming the first week of March) and Saugatuck Summer, coming in May.

You can contact Amelia on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, BookLikes, Tumblr, or contact her by email using the form on the About page at http://ameliacgormley.com/

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Guest Post & Giveaway: Inch by Inch by Heidi Belleau & Amelia Gormely

~Howdy folks! I have two of my fave ladies on the blog today and they brought an awesome giveaway be sure to comment to win.~

3 FACTS ABOUT SATISH MALHOTRA

Hi, and welcome to the Inch by Inch blog tour! Inch by Inch is the third in Riptide’s BDSM erotica series The Professor’s Rule, written by Heidi Belleau and Amelia C. Gormley. Today, Darien has asked us to share a little trivia about Satish, our down-to-earth menswear salesman from The Professor's Rule. All week we’ll be touring the web giving you a behind-the-scenes look at The Professor’s Rule, including new character profiles and some very steamy excerpts. We’re also giving away not one but TWO ebooks, so stay tuned!

Thanks so much to our host, Darien, and to you readers, of course, for coming along!

During the planning stages, Satish was originally supposed to be a one-off character who appeared in James and Carson’s relationship and then disappeared again just as quickly . . . but we (and James!) ended up liking him so much that he stuck around!

Satish’s name was originally Akanksha, which according to baby name websites means “dream” or “wish”. But Heidi, rightfully worried about the accuracy of baby name websites, decided to check with fellow author Suleikha Snyder (of Indian origin herself). . . who informed her, yeah, that was a girl’s name. And so, after a lengthy Twitter conversation on Indian naming conventions, he became Satish! (Which sounds so much better, don’t you think?)

Although working as a salesman is “just a job” for Satish, he’s genuinely interested in fashion. He attributes his care for his personal appearance to the fact that with six siblings, he was denied grooming time in the bathroom growing up, and now he’s making up for that fact.

Contest Info:

If you haven’t fallen in lust with the Professor, yet, now’s your chance! We’ve got two ebooks to give away to two lucky commenters: one copy of Giving an Inch, and one of An Inch at a Time. That’s two chances to win! Let us know your thoughts and questions about Satish! Be sure to include your contact info (email, Twitter, or Facebook!) on this or any of the other of the posts on this tour for a chance to win. More comments=more entries, so to increase your odds of winning, be sure to follow the entire tour! We’ll pick a winner New Year’s Eve, so you can start 2014 right!

Inch by Inch (The Professor's Rule #3)

After two long, kink-free years apart, James Sheridan has reunited with his Professor: the sexy, dominant Evander Carson. But this time, things will be different. James is older, more sure of himself, and confident that he can draw the line between Carson’s demands and his own principles.

One of those lines is gorgeous menswear salesman Satish Malhotra. After their steamy dressing room encounter, James feels an unexpected connection to Satish, and he wants to explore it further. But Carson’s involvement—in James’s life, and in James and Satish’s budding relationship—complicates things.

Carson’s penchant for using other men in their sex games has always troubled James, and he’s adamant that Satish not be just another notch in their whipping post. But when Satish learns what prompted James to pursue him in the first place, will James’s new ability to draw the line even matter?

Click here to read an excerpt or purchase Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3.)

About Amelia: Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot m/m erotic romance while her son is at school. When she’s not writing in her Pacific Northwest home, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband, her son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else

Her self-published novel-in-three-parts, Impulse (Inertia, Book One; Acceleration, Book Two; and Velocity, Book Three) can be found at most major online book retailers, and be sure to check Riptide for her latest releases, including her Highland historical, The Laird’s Forbidden Lover, the The Professor’s Rule series of erotic novelettes (co-written with Heidi Belleau), and her upcoming post-apocalyptic romance, Strain

You can contact Amelia on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, BookLikes, Tumblr, or contact her by email using the form at http://ameliacgormley.com/

About Heidi: Heidi Belleau was born and raised in small town New Brunswick, Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of Northern BC with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades leave her plenty of quiet time to write. She has a degree in history from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish studies; much of her work centered on popular culture, oral folklore, and sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her about Highlanders!) Her writing reflects everything she loves: diverse casts of characters, a sense of history and place, equal parts witty and filthy dialogue, the occasional mythological twist, and most of all, love—in all its weird and wonderful forms. She also writes queer-flavoured M/F as Heloise Belleau.

Chat with her on twitter using the handle @HeidiBelleau. Browse her website at HeidiBelleau.com or HeloiseBelleau.com. Check out her books on Goodreads. Follow her Facebook and Tumblr accounts. Or contact her using good ole-fashioned email: heidi.heloise.belleau @ gmail.com

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