Alexios' Fate by Kayla Jameth

Quick Rating: C

Purchase: Amazon

Blurb: Mature King Lykos has a sexy confidence that turns Alexios' head. Seduced by Lykos, Prince Alexios discovers a world of men he's never known before.

Meanwhile his slave Galen has gotten tired of waiting in the wings. He sets out to woo Alexios and win his heart.

Even Apollo can't leave Alexios alone. The young prince finds himself pursued by a god and in danger of a perilous love.

How will Alexios follow his heart when he unwittingly wins the favor of a god? Can Alexios escape the fate of Apollo's past lovers and have the man he wants?

Review: Do yourself a favor and read the Greek Lexicon of myths and characters at the end of the book before beginning Alexios' Fate.

The majority of the story is told through narrative. Told and told and told, so there is very little dialogue (and at that, contemporary dialogue in a historical novel-yikes!). The narrative is off-puttingly dense and gives an air of rigid constraint. I did manage to persevere in reading and found I enjoyed the book's plot and characters. It seems the author would do well if only she could loosen up her prose and pay more attention to pacing... the last third of the book is when the main conflict unfolds and resolves. Quickly.

Perhaps Alexios' finishes too easily as many layers of plot are left unresolved. I would love to read a follow up.

Disclaimer: none

Shock & Awe by Abigail Roux

Quick Rating: B

Purchase: Amazon

Blurb: After barely surviving a shootout in New Orleans, Sidewinder medic Kelly Abbott has to suffer through a month of recovery before he can return home to Colorado. He’s not surprised when fellow Sidewinder Nick O’Flaherty stays with him in New Orleans. Nor is he surprised when Nick travels home with him to help him get back on his feet—after all, years on the same Marine Force Recon team bonded the men in ways that only bleeding for a brother can. He’s very surprised, though, when Nick humors his moment of curiosity and kisses him.

Nick knows all of Kelly’s quirks and caprices, so the kiss was a low-risk move on his part . . . or so he thought. But what should’ve been a simple moment unleashes a flood of confusing emotions and urges that neither man is prepared to address.

Now, Kelly and Nick must figure out what they mean to each other—friends and brothers in arms, or something even deeper?—before the past can come back to ruin their tenuous future.

Review: This little Sidewinder story. There's plenty 'will they, won't they' tension following an incendiary first kiss between Kelly and Nick. But things go downhill swiftly. There's a lot of implied background we readers aren't privy to, and without that context to understand their actions, motivations, reactions, I found myself disengaged. It was sorely lacking in the um, for lack of better description, sparkly shit that makes the Cut & Run series so great to me. Without that connection- understanding, passion, what have you- it read cheesy. Like a bow chika wow wow porno.

Disclaimer: none

Ball & Chain by Abigail Roux

Quick Rating: A

Purchase: Amazon

Blurb: Home from their unexpected deployment, the former members of Marine Force Recon team Sidewinder rejoin their loved ones and try to pick up the pieces of the lives they were forced to leave behind. Ty Grady comes home to Zane Garrett, only to find that everything around him has changed—even the men he went to war with. He barely has time to adjust before his brother, Deuce, asks Ty to be his best man. But that isn’t all Deuce asks Ty to do, and Ty must call for backup to deal with the business issues of Deuce’s future father-in-law.

Nick O’Flaherty and Kelly Abbott join Ty and Zane at the wedding on an island in Scotland, thinking they’re there to assuage Deuce’s paranoia. But when bodies start dropping and boats start sinking, the four men get more involved with the festivities than they’d ever planned to.

With the clock ticking and the killer just as stuck on the isolated island as they are, Ty and Zane must navigate a veritable minefield of family, friends, and foes to stop the whole island from being destroyed.

Review: Another C&R installment has come and gone. I didn't pay attention to the hype so much this time around on the author's social media sites, and the book was better for it.

There was a huge cast of characters in this book, stuck on an island in Scotland for Deuce's wedding. Spoiler: Did anyone notice that they didn't even get married on the flipping island? GEEZ. 

Zane and Ty's relationship remained solid this time around. Spoiler: Despite the fact that Zane repeatedly said no to Ty's marriage proposals. I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to see Ty get shot down so many times, it almost made up for that shit show in New Orleans. Almost.

Kelly and Nick revealed their relationship, which served a small comedic purpose as Ty struggled to accept the news. Funnily enough, Zane spotted Kelly and Nick's new intimacy first. Spoiler: Nick is struggling with a tremor he developed at some point after his initial discharge from the military, and after the most recent military stint knows he can no longer continue as a police officer either. As if handling that disillusionment isn't enough, his abusive alcoholic father appears and asks Nick for part of his liver. Nick struggles through most of the book between whether he will grant his father's request or not. 

As wedding guests and island staff alike drop dead, and Sidewinder struggles to find the killer, Nick and Ty's foundation of friendship crumbles. That was a majorly satisfying arc to the story, if I'm honest. For the first half of the C&R series we saw Ty portrayed as this wonderful dude who could do anything, was perceived to be honorable, and never wrong. But the compromises and lies by omission he made during his military and black-ops career have truly caught up with him. If you thought this arc was laid to rest in New Orleans, you are mistaken. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It'd be interesting if there were even more repercussions of his past actions, as the series draws to its close. Spoiler: Nick and Ty do fine solid ground once again, but it's clear that Ty has a lot to make up for.

Big shocking spoilers: Drum roll please... Richard Burns is murdered! The reemergence of De la Vega and Liam Bell portend some serious shit in the next C&R book, for sure. In fact, I'm surprised that Zane didn't get all emo at the revelation that Vega was still going after him, and try to disappear at the end of the book. Zane finally accepts Ty's proposal, and it's such a nice tie in to previous books. I cannot wait to see them get hitched!

So far as Kelly and Nick taking over the C&R franchise through spin-off, I cannot wait. It's clear they have great stories to share. Ball & Chain was a great mix of Ty and Zane, Ty and Nick, and Kelly and Nick. There's a good balance of those relationships and there was never a point in the book where I thought Kelly and Nick had overrun the story. The changing dynamics between all of the relationships are great character and plot arcs.

Ty and Zane had satisfying interactions in this book. Zane has made some big changes while Ty's been gone and he wants to make sure Ty notices them. As always, they are incredibly romantic and that, along with their passion, are big reasons why you should be reading this book.

My negatives mainly have to do with spoilers, so I think I will carry those over into a review of the next volume when it comes out. Well done!

Disclaimer: none

3 by Jacob Z. Flores

Quick Rating: C

Purchase: Amazon

Blurb: Justin Jimenez has loved his partner, Spencer Harrison, for ten years. He'll do anything for him-including bury his feelings for a man he met while he and Spencer were separated last year. Justin never planned to fall in love, and he certainly never planned to tell Spencer about it-but when a phone call wakes them in the middle of the night to inform Justin that his former lover, Dutch Keller, has been in an accident, he doesn't have a choice.

Justin's revelation shatters the fragile relationship he and Spencer were trying to rebuild. The weight of his guilt-both for hurting Spencer and for leaving a heartbroken Dutch to find solace in a bottle-crushes him. But what Justin doesn't know is that Spencer and Dutch guard an explosive secret of their own. All three men are tangled in a communal web of lies, and unless they find the events in their lives that ultimately led them to friendship, passion, and betrayal, they won't see the love at the heart of the pain.

Review: I was officially suckered by the cover art and Kindle sample. 

3 destroys three separate relationships and patches the boys back together as a trio. There's adultery, steaming piles of angst, two car accidents, risky sex, manipulation, etc. Check your drama llama 'cause this book has got it all, and it's a hell of a long ride (320+ pages) to the HFN ending. [Spoiler: The trio is finally together in the last chapter, an epilogue of sorts, but there's NO SEX. Total cop-out.]

Sex is hot but infrequent, and typically between couples. There are two 3P scenes, but none feature the relevant trio. Warning for rimming, unprotected sex, and HIV+ character. Intimate scenes read more like gay erotica than m/m romance (a plus in my book). There was even a bathhouse scene! 

There's a mystical element in 3 that detracted from my enjoyment of the book. Distracting, just like the book's structure: multiple flashbacks hamper the momentum of the real-time story. I did not engage with the writing style. Purple preachy prose. Slow going.

Disclaimer: none