Review: Scars and Secrets by Avril Ashton

Scars and Secrets ( Loose Ends Book 1) by Avril Ashton
Amazon
Novel: 281pgs

5+ Pants Off

Blurb: After an undercover assignment that changed his life forever, FBI agent Donovan Cintron is barely hanging on to sanity. His new mission is to forget, by any means necessary, so he tries his hardest. Pills. Booze. The warm bodies that never quite measure up to what he’d had. What he’d lost. It’s almost a relief when he learns his identity might be compromised—except he’s not the only one exposed. So is the husband he hasn’t stopped needing all these years later. He’d been aching to die, but for Levi Nieto, Donovan will live. To protect. To regret. To remember.

The realization that everything he loved was a farce sent Levi Nieto spinning out of control, and running away from the memories. Now Donovan is back in his life, still fully entrenched in darkness. Their physical connection is one thing, but the truth of who they are to each other remains trapped among the anger, violence and lies suffocating them. Fixing what’s broken will take more than each man exposing his scars. Secrets—and blood—must be spilled.

Review

I am just…. 

Like where do I begin? This book was just a pure banger and I didn’t want it to end. I know I’m getting an angst ridden read when it comes to Avril, but this had me choking on my own spit and had my heart racing, I haven’t felt them feels since “Watch Break me Break You” left me ruined. Scars and Secrets is a thirst trap, and I am thirsty. My throat is mad raw!!

Donovan Cintron has got a job to do but that job didn’t entail falling in love and building a family. The thing with keeping secrets is that eventually they come to light and leave a mess of hurt behind. That’s what happened with Van, his secrets lost him his husband and family. With everything he does clothed in danger it’s finally coming back to bite him in the ass and his husband and son are put in danger. It’s time for the prodigal husband to make a return and save his marriage and in the process save his own life. 

Levi Nieto found love and lost it. Lies and betrayals has shaped his life for the last seven years and he never thought he would be able to move on from that. Now his life, his sons life is in danger once again and it’s all because of the man he married. Donovan came into his life to build him up only to knock him down. Now he’s face to face with the man that left him wrecked and bodied, how can they move past all this hurt. Ones thing for sure, their passion is blazing fire and it seems not even distance could dim the flames. 

First of all, first off all…this f*cking book left me in tatters. That’s not to say I didn’t have a few problems but the pros far outweigh the cons and I feel like I been ruined for any other books I read this year. It’s like Miss Ashton goes into brain and write the things that make me lose my pants. Levi & Van are walking, talking porn advertisement. I read sex scenes with a slight disinterest because I’ve been doing this so long, so it takes a lot to get my motor running. Their heat left me deceased and just shooketh to the core. I like them together, I love them together but I feel like I hardly know them apart. Their surrounding overshadowed their story and I wanted to know how they fell in love. 

“Want you to feel me” Levi’s mouth was at his ear, breath harsh, loud, broken. “In your fucking chest. When I come inside that ass, you better taste it on your tongue”.  

The plot is one crazy twist after another filled with favourite characters from the authors other works. My heart was just in a happy place seeing characters that I know and love in one place coming together with a common goal and shaking sh*t up. A lot of interesting shockers here filled with Avril’s signature dramatic flair and I was all in for it. I swear I am just so in love with the freaking book its essence is dunked into my bones. 

What I’m having a hard time with, is Vans addiction being glossed over and it was a full blown addiction. He had some demons and I feel they weren’t addressed properly. Man needs rehab, therapy, and a cleanse. Alas, I’m still all for this regardless of its faults I’m still utterly in love and ain’t nobody can tell me otherwise. I give kudos to Avril regardless of writing, high marks for diversity alone. Her stories ain’t filled with cookie cutter white boys all over the place, and all these bad boy types is my aesthetic. Hats off to my Jamaican rude boyz!! 

Overall, this has been a pleasure to read and experience and I might be ruined for the rest of the year. Scars and Secrets is unapologetically Avril Ashton and I am looking forward to reading the series. I have to take them in small doses because I’m trying to live. I am a lifetime fan of this author. Big ups Avril, keep writing the mans dem!!

SideNote- Take caution going into this series if you haven’t read the other series (Brooklyn Sinners and Run This Town). 

SideNote2- Walking around with a girl boner for the rest of the month.

Review: Ghost Wolf by Hurri Cosmo

Ghost Wolf by Hurri Cosmo
Painted Hearts Publishing 
Novel: 390pgs
 DNF

2 Pants Off (Based on what I read)

Blurb: Hi, my name is Trevor. I’m a wolf shifter.

I say that like I know what I’m talking about. I don’t. I was simply running off a ton of steam one day when I was around eleven and bam! Okay, not quite that easy or fast but it happened when I was young and stupid. I’m also gay. I say that like I know what I’m talking about with that too. I simply don’t. 

I’m grown up now and living in the big city which has me too busy to much care about either one of those things. I get out and run my wolf when I can, trying like hell to stay out of the local pack’s territories. Belonging to a “family” just sounds like too much work, and honestly I don’t have time for such things. Besides, I was told when I was young the color of my wolf was all wrong. Too silver...or something. Metallic. I kinda thought it looked cool in the full moon. “Pack Alpha would kill ya soon as look at ya.” My grandpa used to say. Course he wasn't my real grandpa. Just an old man who lived down the street, but he was a shifter too and I thought he knew it all. He probably knew diddly either, but a guy can’t be too careful. And romance? Way off the radar. 

Only now someone has started killing wolves. Started leaving broken bodies lined up in a nice little row next to the high school in my home town and it's got me to thinking. If a shifter is killed in his or her wolf state, do they stay that way? Were these dead wolves like me? The hell of it all is this: being a shifter isn't common knowledge. It bothers me enough that now I want to find out more. See if there's anything I can do. Kind of like a super hero. 

Oh yeah. Probably forgot to tell you this too. I can turn invisible. Yep, Ghost Wolf to the rescue.

Review

I don’t even know how to write an eloquent review for this. I mostly wanna spend my time tearing into it about all the thing that went wrong, but that’s mostly not my style. I did DNF this book around the 60%, I was mostly holding out for it to get better. For the writing to get better, for the characters to get better for the overall plot to get better but it never clicked for me. Everything felt contrived, juvenile and not well executed. It was a problematic formula with a problematic and immature MC. His voice from the very beginning ruined my enjoyment of the story. 

Trevor shifted into a wolf for the first time at eleven, which both surprised and terrified him. He knew he was something else but he had no one in his life to tell him what he was and why it’s happening. A chance encounter with another wolf proved that there were more like him but apart from the old man telling him crazy things he still had no clue about who he was. When his mentor dies and leaves him a ring- “one ring to rule them all”, I kid, wrong book. He leaves him a ring that makes him invisible with no actual instructions as to what it another ring is really for. 

So Trevor has got this power, is a wolf shifter, and proceeds to go into adulthood as complete idiot. I don’t know what was wrong with this kid, but everything he did and said irked me. He was so wishy washy with an amazing ability but fumbled about like a baby animal learning to walk. He meets Ryan (his fated mate) and everything just got worse. 

Thing I like: (the sounds of crickets in the night). I love the cover 🤷🏽‍♀️ I really do!

Things I didn’t like: Do I got enough page room for this? I didn’t like the story, I didn’t like the writing. I don’t think anything was executed well and it was taking too damn long to get to the point.

The book is too long for no reason and with nothing to carry it, it was hella boring. I wasn’t there for any of it. 

Overall, I am very disappointed. I wanted to give a new author a chance and I feel bad that it didn’t work for me. The idea behind it could have made a great story but it didn’t come together well. Ah, such is life you win some you lose some.  

SideNote- Every-time I looked up at the title on kindle it said GostWolf (like legit GostWolf) and not Ghost Wolf. I don’t even know…is it one word or two???

 

Review: Lost and Found by Lucy Lennox & Sloane Kennedy

Lost and Found by Lucy Lennox & Sloane Kennedy
Amazon
Novel: 330pgs

3.5 Pants Off

Blurb: He promised to never leave me. But when I needed him the most, that was exactly what he did…

From Bestselling Authors Sloane Kennedy & Lucy Lennox comes an exciting new series about how a twist of fate can change everything...

He promised to never leave me. But when I needed him the most, that was exactly what he did…
Wilderness guide Xander Reed has spent fifteen years trying to forget the night he turned to his best friend in his darkest hour, only to find the young man who’d sworn to always have his back was turning his on Xander instead. Two thousand miles and fifteen years of building a new life in the quiet backcountry of the Rocky Mountains should have been enough to put the memory of Bennett Crawford out of his mind forever, but old wounds run deep and when Bennett suddenly reappears in his life as part of a wilderness expedition Xander is guiding, the scars he thought long healed break wide open.


I’d only ever wanted to protect Xander from getting hurt again. I never considered the one he needed protection from was me…
Bennett Crawford was faced with an impossible choice the night his best friend needed him.

He chose wrong.

As the only son of one of the wealthiest families in New England, he should have had the world at his feet, but losing his best friend at the tender age of fourteen changed everything. And even though Bennett’s managed to hide behind a mask of contentment as he takes his place at his father’s side in the family business, inside he’s searching for the piece of himself that’s been missing ever since Xander Reed walked out of his life. Bennett’s only saving grace is his work with a group of inner city kids, and when he’s given the chance to show the troubled teens that there’s a bigger world out there waiting for them if they just have the courage to reach for it, he takes it.

But when he steps off that bus for what was supposed to be a week of fun and adventure, he’s instantly returned to the past when he discovers their expedition guide is none other than the boy he let go so long ago. Only, the soft-hearted, insecure little boy Bennett once knew is gone, and in his place is a brooding, bitter man who isn’t interested in second chances.


People leave. I know that now and nothing Bennett has to say to me will change anything…
All Bennett wants is another chance to show Xander that friendship was only the beginning. But when a stubborn Xander refuses to even hear him out, Bennett realizes he’s going to need to fight dirty.

Because now that he’s found Xander again, he’s not letting him go a second time…

Review

First time reading Lucy Lennox and Sloane Kennedy as a duo, but having read Sloane Kennedy before I can see where her/ writing style comes through. I admit I am intrigued by what else this duo has to offer and I am looking forward to diving into more of their work. 

First things first, the blurb once again does too good of a job with telling what the story is about. So I won’t spend too much time giving an overview of the story. Because it’s boy meets boy, boys become the very best of friends besides their social status, in the time of need when one boy needed the other most he was pushed away and left with a broken heart that remained with him into adulthood. 

Now as adults. Xander and Bennet haven’t seen each other in 15yrs and a chance meeting has them spending more than seven days in each other’s company. Old hurts rear its head and new feelings appear. Xander is faced with the challenge of facing Bennet as a man, its hard when he hurts like the little boy that was left behind.  

Things I liked: I liked the story itself, was very entertaining and I like the writing style. 

I’m such a fan of angst and pent up anger and this book offered it up in drones. Xander and Bennet are engaging as characters and really just want them to get their happy ending and move forward. You want them to have their friendship back. The setting of the story is also another win. I really wanted to get out there and hike and look at some beautiful bodies of water and get some fresh mountain air in my lungs.  

Things I didn’t like: The unnecessary conflict to carry the storyline. There is nothing I dislike more than conflict that feels very contrived. Like the only way feelings can move forward is with something awful happening (near death experience) to bring honesty and realizations out. I don’t know about you guys but that stuff irks me. It feels fake and dishonest. 

The terrible communication between the MCs -insert eye roll- it was annoying and frustrating. It happened way too often between these two grown ass men. 

The fact that all this love shit was going down while these adults were responsible for kids. There was just way too many moments that I hated and as parent myself wouldn’t leave my kids in these dudes care. Most of the time they were running around just thinking with their dicks. 

Overall, I liked reading this. Its no masterpiece but it’s a solid read with likeable characters and surprisingly a very strong message of family. I like this writing duo. I feel like Lucy Lennox balances Sloane’s way of doing the happy happy thing. I am very much looking forward to reading book 2.  

SideNote- The dog Bear in this book will capture your heart. He is the softest thing ever.

ARC Review: Once Upon A Wolf by Rhys Ford

Once Upon A Wolf (Wayward Wolves #1) by Rhys Ford
Dreamspinner Press
Novella: 96pgs

4 Pants Off

Blurb: Once Upon A Time, There Was A Wolf….

Gibson Keller’s days are fairly routine: wake up early, get some work done, drink lots of coffee, and take care of Ellis, his older brother stuck in wolf form after coming home from the war. It’s a simple life made up of long runs on two legs—or four—and quiet evenings…. Until Ellis chases a handsome man off a cliff and into the frozen waters beside their cabin, changing Gibson’s life forever.

For Zach Thomas, buying an old B&B is a new start. Leaving behind his city life, he longs to find peace and quiet, and hiking the trails behind his property seems safe enough—right up to the moment an enormous black wolf chases him into a lake, nearly drowning him. Discovering werewolves are real astounds him, but not as much as the man who rescues him from the icy water then walks into Zach’s heart as if he owns it.

Loving a werewolf—loving Gibson with all his secrets—has its challenges but Zach believes their love is worth fighting for, especially since his heart knows the big bad wolf is really a prince in disguise.

Review

Now wait a whole damn minute...  

Rhys Ford wrote this?  

That’s what you’re trying tell me…this short with it’s quiet intensity was written by the same author that gives me crazy per book. This sweet fairytale romance was written by Rhys (mind blown face). Like “Once Upon a Wolf” is an actual gay fairytale.

Zack is having a bad day when his leisure stroll lands him in the path of a gigantic bigger than any wolf he’s ever seen, his fear kicks in and he takes off running. Running might not have been such a good idea when he finds himself in freezing waters and losing consciousness fast. He comes to in the home of a beautiful stranger and maybe he’s hit his head too hard because he's sure he just saw a man turn into a wolf. 

Gibson’s no-good brother is just pure trouble wrapped in black fur. Having taking on the role of caretaker to his brother trapped in wolf form, having someone on their land isn’t a complication they need. So for the life of him he can’t understand why Ellis would chase the man down. Now they’ve got a half dead stranger in their home and he’s just discovered that they’re a little more than ordinary.

Can I just say I’m like head over heels in love with this story. There’s something very quiet about the storytelling. It’s almost too intimate, as if I’m looking in on something I was never meant to see. I love the pace, I love the writing, and I love the characters. It was just a wonderful light read, and it goes hand in hand with the cold ass weather and snow I’m surrounded by right now. This is a side of Rhys I’ve never read and I like it.

Overall, it’s a great little read. I don’t know how fans of Rhys will take it but I welcome it with open arms. I am so looking forward to the next book in the series. This was a great setup to a world with limitless options. This could be the start of something wonderful.

Review: Facing West by Lucy Lennox

Facing West (Forever Wilde #1) by Lucy Lennox
Amazon
Novel: 312pgs

4 Pants Off

Blurb: Nico: 
I left my family and tiny Texas hometown fifteen years ago to escape small-town gossips and to give my mom and sister the chance at a better life. But when a phone call from an attorney back home informs me that my sister passed away, leaving me custody of her newborn baby, I’m shocked out of the steady life I’ve built for myself running a tattoo shop in San Francisco.

The thing is: I don’t do babies. And I don’t do small towns. Or commitment. And I especially don’t do family. My plan is to go back to Hobie just long enough to sign adoption papers, giving my niece the kind of stable, loving family I could never provide.

But the moment I meet my niece in the arms of Weston Wilde, my sister’s best friend and the town’s handsome doctor, my plans begin to change. Because suddenly, I see a different future. One with the very thing I thought I never deserved: a family. If only I can convince West that I’m not the same good-for-nothing kid ready to bolt when things get tough. 

Weston: 

There’s one thing I know for sure about Nico Salerno: he was a good-for-nothing as a kid and judging by the purple-haired, tattoo’d punk who shows up at his sister’s funeral, he hasn’t changed. There’s no way I’m letting him take custody of my best friend’s baby. 

But the more time I spend around him, the more I realize that his rough exterior is just a shell and that beneath all the tattoos is a scared, insecure man searching for a place to belong. And pretty soon I know exactly where he belongs: in my bed and by my side. 

The problem is, he abandoned his family once before, how do I know that if we become a family he won’t do it again? 

Facing West is the first in the new Forever Wilde series about the huge Wilde family from Hobie, Texas, whose patriarchs aren’t above a little meddling if that’s what it takes to help their grandkids find true love. 

Review

Another unexpected surprise by a new to me author. I have read Lucy Lennox combined with Sloane Kennedy but this is my first time reading one of her own works and it was surprisingly good. Like colour me surprised, the lady can really carry a story. 

Nico left his backwoods small town to escape their narrow minds and also in hopes of providing a better life for his sister and mom. Who needs a queer screw up around messing up their lives. He left without ever looking back and never planned to return. When a tragedy pulls him back and hands him one hell of a responsibility  Nico knows he’s gotta handle shit fast because “home” has Weston Wilde, golden boy doctor with it seems a dislike for all things Nico. Life just got a hell of a lot complicated and Nico doesn’t do complicated. 

Weston can’t believe the no good tattooed boy is back in town. How can his best friend leave such a huge responsibility to a flake that is her brother. He had no qualms about leaving everything behind, and now he’s back with all his tats and multicoloured hair. If only his ass wasn’t so damn beautiful it would make hating him a lot easier. His mind is saying that Nico is no good, but if only his dick would listen. 

Things I liked: I really enjoyed the story and the overall plot. I was hooked man, the whole town of Hobie drew me in and didn’t let go. I love the whole “I hate you but let’s f*ck” story line. I’m also for the going back home and showing them where to suck it because I made it bitch.  

Weston and Nico together are sexy as hell, there was some spicy chilli scenes in here that just felt all kinds of right.

Things I disliked: Sometimes I disliked West, he said some things that contradicted his feelings. He’d point out that Nico wasn’t the type of guy you settle down with but type you mess around with and then leave. Not even a few pages later he’d get in his feelings and sprout about how to never judge a book by its cover (rolls eyes for his contradictory ass). For more than halfway through he saw Nico as an object and not an actual person. It irked me!! 

The towns people. There's nothing I hate more than hating ass small towns people.

I didn’t like what the author did with the baby there. The book solely revolves around said baby, but she came off as furniture. It was like “oh yeh the baby”. I don’t think that part of the story was executed quite well, baby Pippa felt like an accessory instead of a vital part of the story.

Overall, another great story with a great sense of family and two beautiful men coming together. I am really excited to dive on into the second book, and I just as excited to check out the rest of L.Ls solo work. Facing West is a great combination of dislike turning into love, with great family bonds, and hot man love. Its a formula that works. Give it a look see!!

SideNote- These long as hell blurbs man...