Happy Friday, everyone! This week, I'm reading to you from KC Burns new paranormal romance, West on Grainger! A bit of spooky in July :D I neglected to mention in the recording that this is the second book in the Sandy Bottom Bay series (the most haunted town in Florida), though you can read them on their own. Come have a listen!

West on Grainger
Sandy Bottom Bay #2
by KC Burn

Is Sandy Bottom Bay truly full of ghosts?
 
Wendell Weston is in a slump. Paranormal stories are his life. His income. His sole focus for as long as he can remember, not that he actually believes any of it is real. His obsession has complicated his love life, but for the most part, he hasn’t minded. But now his muse has gone quiet. In search of inspiration, he flies across the country to the purportedly haunted bed and breakfast, just before Haunt Fest. Soured on romance by the cynicism and superficiality of the Hollywood actors he works with, he’s not expecting a chance encounter with an attractive man to go anywhere.
 
But Kyle Grainger isn’t just a pretty face. He also hosts local ghost walks. The closest thing to an expert Wendell has encountered, and with any luck, Kyle will lead him to a spectral encounter. Before long, Wendell realizes he wants to follow Kyle anywhere, ghost or not. As a true skeptic, Wendell doesn’t believe he’ll see a ghost for real, but he’s going to have fun trying. Especially with Kyle. One of the many local legends will surely trigger his muse, but in the meantime, getting to know a sweet, mesmerizing man would make the trip worthwhile.
 
Wouldn’t it be amazing to encounter a ghost?
 
That’s what Kyle thinks every time he hosts another ghost walk in Sandy Bottom Bay. Not once in hundreds of tours has he seen one, but he remains hopeful. Kyle hasn’t had a lot of amazing in his life. After an injury in college, he had to pivot on his life’s dream. He’s content, more or less, professionally. His romantic dry spell, on the other hand, could turn the Everglades into the Sahara. Wendell is an unexpected pleasure, one Kyle hopes is more than a Haunt Fest hookup.
 
What if the ghost isn’t harmless?
 
After one of the other guests at the local bed and breakfast dies suddenly, Wendell and Kyle experience a number of odd occurrences that suggest Kyle might be more sensitive to spirits than either of them imagined. If Wendell can’t shake his skepticism about the paranormal, Kyle’s sanity and even his life could be the price they pay.
 
Warnings: self harm (appears off page), references to murder

About KC:

KC Burn is a Canadian transplanted to Florida who writes happy-ever-afters about men loving men, whether they’re psychics, space travelers, aliens, professors, construction workers, cops, amateur sleuths… you name it, she’ll probably write it. She’s got a pair of black cats, aka muses/nuisances, and a supportive, understanding hubby.
 
Author Website: https://kcburn.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/authorkcburn
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/kcburn
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorkcburn/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/kcburn
Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/kc-burn/
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/K.C.-Burn/author/B0051QXRCQ
​

Hi all! Happy Friday and time to read to you! This week, I'm reading a short story from Jeff Baker, "Billy Gonzalez and The Day of the Dead". Lighthearted horror? Absolutely! 

Originally published on: RoM/Mantic Reads

It's Friday and it's June! Happy Pride Month! This week, I have a new gay romance from M. W. Lee - Balancing the Weave. The tapestry of the universe is in danger in this one - come have a listen!

Balancing the Weave
by M.W. Lee

​Universal Buy Link

For Mark, Pride weekend in Yamasee County, South Carolina, means spending the day with friends, flirting with the out-of-town men, finding a romance, drinking too much, and enjoying all of Pride. However, the Fates have arrived to address a hole which appeared in the tapestry representing Mark, his past, and his present, which will direct him to the future.

Throughout the day, the Fates confront Mark with memories both pleasant and painful about his former lover Sammy. Parcae uses her goddess tools to manipulate Mark’s thoughts so he remembers fun dates, fights, issues which make him uncomfortable, and accusations of being needy. Was it Sammy’s neediness that caused Mark to end the relationship? Or was Mark the needy companion? When Sammy once said Mark ain’t needy, what did he mean?
 
Can the goddesses help Mark work through these memories so his self-evaluation can lead to better relationships in the future?
​

About M. W. :

M.W. Lee studied English at Limestone University in South Carolina, and DePaul University in Illinois. He has led many lives, as an adjunct professor, data entry clerk, ESA teacher in Saudi Arabia. Currently, he has a new day career as an HIV case manager with the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center. His personal essay, “The Sea and Debussy” appeared in the on-line journal The Scarlet Leaf Review in October 2021.
 
Lee works during the day and writes at night. “Balancing the Weave” is his first published
novella. He enjoys reading a wide range of fiction; however, space operas, dystopian, and post-apocalyptic fiction are his favorites. He is currently writing a crime novel.
 
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/groups/feed/
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088125436054
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/31467891.M_W_Lee
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Balancing-Weave-M-W-Lee-ebook/dp/B0BVHHCWBM/

Happy Friday, all! It's time for me to read to you! And what could be more appropriate for the first Friday in May than May Wedding, the brand new Regency romance novella from our friend, Ellie Thomas. This is #6 in the Twelve Letters series for those of you filling out your book dance card.

We're back with characters we know and love - the wedding of Percy's sister may have given Jo and Daniel ideas... Come have a listen:

May Wedding
Twelve Letters #6
by Ellie Thomas

JMS Books

Some of the gentlemen who meet weekly for supper at The Golden Lion in London’s St. James’ are preoccupied with the prospect of matrimony.

The Honourable Percy Havilland is at full organisational pelt for his sister’s triumphant society marriage, ably backed by his friends. His frequent stress-induced outbursts are endured by his ever-patient lover, Nathan.

Percy has mixed feelings about the upcoming nuptials, the sorrow at losing one of his precious sisters balanced by the opportunity of exhibiting his exquisite good taste to make this the wedding of the Season.

His friend Jo Everett reacts differently to the wedding, desiring an equivalent opportunity to mark his enduring love for Daniel Walters.

Will Percy manage to survive the wedding without falling out irreparably with Nathan? And might Jo and Daniel discover they have the support of their close circle to celebrate their own special day?

About Ellie:

Ellie Thomas lives by the sea. She comes from a teaching background and goes for long seaside walks where she daydreams about history. She is a voracious reader especially about anything historical. She mainly writes historical gay romance.

Ellie also writes historical erotic romance as L. E. Thomas.
 
Website: https://elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/
 
Facebook reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8308047409266947
 
Twitter: @e_thomas_author
 
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19835510.Ellie_Thomas
 
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ellie-thomas
 

Hello everyone and welcome to Reading Day! Today, I have an excerpt to read to you from Liz Faraim's brand new novel, Pinned. New novel, new series, thriller/suspense, butch lesbian character, trans character, motorcycles (I am here for all of this)! (There is a giveaway at the end of the post :D ) Come have a listen:

Pinned
A Randy Cox Novel
by Liz Faraim

“Rowdy” Randy Cox, a woman staring down the barrel of retirement, is a curmudgeonly blue-collar butch lesbian, who has been single for twenty years and is trying to date again.
 
At the end of a long, exhausting shift, Randy finds her supervisor, Bryant, pinned and near death at the warehouse where they work. Upon the news of his death, she battles to find a balance between the joys of an exciting new relationship and the struggles of processing her supervisor’s unexpected passing.
 
The manner of her supervisor’s death leaves Randy unsettled and suspicious as she gets sucked into both a criminal investigation led by the police and an administrative investigation conducted by her employer.
 
As Randy seeks the truth, trust erodes, key friendships are strengthened, and more loss awaits her.

About Liz:

Liz has a full plate between balancing a day job, parenting, writing, and finding some semblance of a social life. In past lives she has been a soldier, a bartender, a shoe salesperson, an assistant museum curator, and even a driving instructor. She focuses her writing on strong, queer, female leads who don’t back down.
 
Liz transplanted to California from New York over thirty years ago. She now lives in the East Bay Area of California and enjoys exploring nature with her wife and son.
 
Author Website: https://www.lizfaraim.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/liz.faraim.9/
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/FaraimLiz/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20769735.Liz_Faraim
Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/?s=faraim&search_type=authors
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Liz-Faraim/author/B092YXBXFV

It's Reading Time! :D This week, I get to read to you from J. Scott Coatsworth's brand new sci-fantasy novel,  The Dragon Eater! A thief, a guardsman, and a whole lot of trouble - come have a listen!

*A note from Scott: Order and Get the Prequel Free
I’m giving away the prequel, Tales From Tharassas, with all preorders – it contains The Last Run, The Emp Test, and a brand new short story the Fallen Angel. Just order the book and email me a proof of purchase at [email protected], and I’ll send you the prequel.

The Dragon Eater
Tharassas Cycle #1
by J. Scott Coatsworth

​Universal Buy Link

Raven's a thief who just swallowed a dragon. A small one, sure, but now his arms are growing scales, the local wildlife is acting up, and his snarky AI familiar is no help whatsoever.
 
Raven's best friend Aik is a guardsman carrying a torch for the thief. A pickpocket and a guard? Never going to happen. And Aik’s ex-fiancé Silya, an initiate priestess in the midst of a magical crisis, hates Raven with the heat of a thousand suns.
 
This unlikely team must work together to face strange beasts, alien artifacts, and a world-altering threat. If they don’t figure out what to do soon, it might just be the end of everything.
 
Things are about to get messy.
 
​

About Scott:

​Scott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.
 
He decided that if there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.
 
A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality, and is the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
 
Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworth/
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworthauthor
Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/jscoatsworth
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jscottcoatsworth/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8392709.J_Scott_Coatsworth
Author Mastodon: https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@jscottcoatsworth
Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/
Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/
Author Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/J.-Scott-Coatsworth/e/B011AFO4OQ
 

This week I'm very excited because I get to read to you from Toni Griffin's brand new novel, As Fire Rains Down! Eeeeee! Shifters, forest fires, a stranger in the woods...come have a listen! :D

As Fire Rains Down
by Toni Griffin

Kindle Unlimited

As fire rains down on the forest, Luke finds a hurt but powerful demigod in its wake— the kind of shifter that should only exist in legend.

Forest fires around California have got everyone working overtime. Between Luke's volunteer rescue efforts as the fires rage and his keeping up with regular police duties in his sleepy hometown of Half Moon Bay, he's barely had time to eat, let alone catch some shut-eye. It doesn't help that some out-of-towners have been pressing locals to sell up because they want to turn the little oasis into a hopping tourist destination.

Half Moon Bay is a place of sanctuary for shifters like Luke, with most of the town being descended from one kind or another. It's an open secret among the locals. One they're willing to fight to protect.

But the newest flames cutting a path toward town rage hotter and fiercer than normal forest fires. Something isn't right. Finding an overpowered elk shifter in the forest as it burns down around him causes Luke even more confusion—everyone knows those kinds of shifters exist only in legend. The questions raised keep jumping the firebreaks, especially when a dark presence falls on the town and homes start burning.

This book contains shapeshifters of all kinds, a prophecy nobody wanted, discussions about mental health issues, rude gods with no patience left, and a mate with a history of running from relationships but ultimately learns he's worth loving.

About Toni:

Toni Griffin lives in Darwin, the smallest of Australia's capital cities. Born and raised in the state she's a Territorian through and through. Growing up Toni hated english with a passion (as her editors can probably attest to) and found her strength lies with numbers.

Now, though, she loves escaping to the worlds she creates and hopes to continue to do so for many years to come. She's a single mother of one and works full time. When she's not writing you can just about guarantee that she will be reading one of the many MM authors she loves.

http://www.tonigriffin.net/
​

Hello and Happy Friday! This week, I get to read to you from the lovely Nicole Dennis' latest fantasy - McShayne's Elf! Magic, danger, adventure - come have a listen! :)

McShayne's Elf
McShayne's Bloodlines 3
by Nicole Dennis

Amazon

A Realm falls to the darkness.
 
An outcast because of his mixed heritage, Braedyn of the Dark, Captain of the Royal Shields and protector of the Prince of the Southern Woodland Realm, maintains his position through sheer grit and skill. Connected to a hawk familiar, Cerin, his magic is a mixture of Arcane and wielding. At the High King’s orders, he remains by his Prince’s side through a treacherous journey through the Lands to discover answers and a new home.  
 
Losing his Realm, his parents, and his position in one-night, High Prince Conchobar Ó Díomasaigh is completely out of his familiarity. Running for his life, relying only on his protector and Captain, he digs deep to survive their trials, the growing darkness, and go wherever they must to save their Realm. At the same time, he sees his Captain in a different light and the deepening connection between them.
 
Strange adventures. New allies. Growing connections. Can they survive this wild journey to save the elves, the Realm, and their lives?

Happy Friday, everyone! Our friend and colleague from Queer SciFi joins us this week with an e-zine fantasy story! Dragons in the mall? :o

All The Pleasures Prove
by Jeff Baker

RoM/Mantic Reads

A magical short story (in more ways than one!) involving love, spells, and dragons. This is part of Jeff’s Food Garden Court series – don’t forget to check out his website for more.
As Jeff himself says, “The Food Garden Court and its denizens were created for a flash fiction picture prompt site (“Friday Flash Fics”) with the picture being a garden-area food court. I’d worked in one so a magical mall in a magical world seemed like a fun idea. I’ve written three earlier stories and the idea of Skid and T’amec being more than friends just popped into the most recent story, despite hints in the other two. It was fun exploring their relationship as well as the usual mall strangeness.

It's Friday! We're back! Ellie's back! More Regency goodness! We're back with the young men of the Twelve Letters series in Gentlemen's Agreement, and I ramble on about marriages of the period :D

Gentlemen's Agreement
(sequel to Coming of Age)
by Ellie Thomas

Amazon
Books2Read
JMS Publishing

The group of Regency men who meet each Thursday at The Golden Lion in London’s St James’ find their lives become increasingly intertwined during the early autumn of 1815. Now the long wars with France are finally over, Jo Everett and Captain Ben Harding are heavily involved with their charity to assist injured ex-servicemen, as well as encountering personal complications. 
​
Ben’s romantic interest Edward Stephens remains a hundred miles away in Wiltshire, and although Jo and his true love Daniel Walters are in the same city, they are no closer to fulfilling their dream of sharing a home. Reformed brat Percy Havilland has a deluge of relatives and increasingly convoluted family problems to deal with in his new Chelsea abode, distracting him from his older partner Nathan Brooks. 

As the gentlemen juggle their feelings and duties, Ben’s former commanding officer involves them in capturing a spy ring that has inveigled the most exclusive ranks of high society. Their remit is to help foil Napoleon's restoration as Emperor of France before he reaches the remote island of St. Helena and permanent exile.

Can this motley group of Regency men attain their happy ever after with their chosen partners? And as the nefarious treachery plays out in the select ballrooms of Mayfair, might Percy save the day by flirting for England?

About Ellie:

Ellie Thomas lives by the sea. She comes from a teaching background and goes for long seaside walks where she daydreams about history. She is a voracious reader especially about anything historical. She mainly writes historical gay romance.

Ellie also writes historical erotic romance as L. E. Thomas.
 
Website: https://elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elliethomasauthor/
Twitter: @e_thomas_author
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19835510.Ellie_Thomas