Tag Archive | Medium Sexual Content

The Lonely Drop (Love’s Landscapes) by Vanessa North (5 Stars)

Jun7

A very touching story about two people who mistakenly walked away from each other when they were younger. Now they are trying to reconnect, but both are struggling to take the final step. Excellent writing and dialogue, along with two characters I really cared about, made this a very compelling story.

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Link to free download.

This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group’s “Love’s Landscapes” event at Goodreads. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.
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No Such Thing (No Such Thing #1) by A.M. Arthur (4.5 Stars)

Jun4

Sweet and sexy story about redemption and exploration.

Jamie was a sweet guy who lost his Mom to heart disease when he was young, and then had to go through his own heart replacement surgery.  He lives with his sister and is going to school to become a professor.  Due to his lengthy illness, he’s never even been on a date.

Alessandro moved away from his foster family to try to grow up and find himself. However, after his foster-father died unexpectedly, he returned home so that he could help out his foster mom with the two kids that she was still raising.  Although Alessandro has never been in a real relationship before, he’s had plenty of experience with other guys. He also got into quite a bit of trouble as a youth, but he’s moved past that point.

These two made such a cute couple.  Due to their younger age, Alessandro’s checkered past, and both of their lack of experience with relationships, their issues around getting together certainly made sense.  There’s also a bit of a mystery involved with some attacks on the deli and against Jamie. As Alessandro was trying to show Jamie around, they had fun at the bar, which then led to an evening of exhibitionism and fooling around with other people.

Unfortunately, the story ended without the relationship being fully defined.  Although it appears they are on their way to a happily ever after, it will probably take the next book to fully explore the remaining issues between these two.  I will definitely be looking forward to reading it!

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Originally reviewed for Swept Away By Romance. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
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Curious Sustenance by Charley Descoteaux (2 Stars)

May29

He lost weight and then lost his boyfriend. Fortunately, there was a better man around the corner.

Ross Jenson spent the last eight months successfully losing weight. Unfortunately, the day he reached his goal, his boyfriend wanted to celebrate with cake. His best friend and roommate, Janet, takes him to a sex club where he meets Miles Shigihara, an apparent expert in Shibari. The two of them begin a sweet romance while dealing with other life events.

The first half of the story focused on Ross and his relationship with his friend Janet. Ross was a nice guy, and he spent his days trying to bring trans-inclusive health plans to the workplace. Miles owned his own landscaping business creating Zen gardens. Once the two of them meet in the second half, the story focused a little bit more on the romance side and gave us both points of view. The Shibari scenes were very interesting.

Unfortunately, the story was very frustrating to read for the most part. There were too many times that a plot point was started and never finished or clarified. Miles is at risk of losing his house and business, but at first it isn’t clear why it’s happening, which made the entire scene confusing.

In addition to Janet, we also met Ross’ brother Rune. It appeared that Rune and Janet were having a relationship. However, at one point they were upset, but we weren’t told why or what happened. Janet and Rune disappeared after a bit of the story so we never found out the final outcome of that relationship. Leaving these as open items, along with several others, made me feel like I kept missing things which took me out of the story.

If you enjoy Shibari, there are some sexy scenes included in this story.

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Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb

Brainy and the Beast by J.M. Cartwright (5 Stars)

May16

He thought he lacked the IQ to keep the hot researcher, but it was his lack of relationship know-how that almost lost him the prize.

Nick Shelton is an auto mechanic who is taking care of his teenage nephew, Grant, and running his own business. After his sister dumped the poor child into Nick’s life and left, Nick had his Dad move in to help take care of Grant. Henry Travis is an extremely intelligent and kind, but very lonely, person who also loves old cars. They meet when Henry brings his car to Nick’s shop for some repairs. This leads to the start of an interesting and loving relationship, which although not very smooth, also wasn’t filled with too much angst.

The story is told from Nick’s POV and is focused on his relationship with Henry, Grant, and his Dad. The interactions between the characters were realistic. It was hard not to feel bad for Nick, since he is a bit clueless about how to raise his nephew. Fortunately, Nick has a heart of gold, and his Dad and Henry are both very helpful, leading to a much better uncle/nephew relationship as the story progressed.

Nick also struggles with being in a relationship and pretty much messes up on a regular basis. Henry doesn’t have a lot of experience either, but he does seem to be a bit more knowledgeable. Fortunately, the story takes place over a longer period of time, and the improvement in their behavior is believable. The sexual interplay between Nick and Henry was pleasantly surprising. Henry has a slightly dominant edge to him leading to a lot of very steamy scenes with some enjoyable dirty talk.

There was a subplot issue revolving around child and spouse abuse which happened off-page. There were also several open issues which could easily work into a second book, but closure wasn’t necessary for the final HEA to be believable. The addictive writing is what cinched this story as a 5-star read. I literally could not put this book down.

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Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb