Title: Conflict: Contact (Conflict #1)
Author: Jack Greene
Publisher: Phaze
Length: 13,650 words
Genre: m/m Sci Fi Erotica Romance
Heat: 4 – Spicy & Smutty
Sex Frequency: 3 – Average Sex to Story
Keywords/Tags: Short Story, Series, Space Travel/Opera, Military, May/December, Cheating (it’s no biggie, more info in review), Married, Affair with the Boss, Genetic Modification, Other Worlds, Artificial Worlds, Battle/War, Alliances, Stranded
Rating: So So
**Some Spoilers! Sorry 😦
BLURB
Conflict is a serial in three parts: In the not-so-distant future, the people of the Earth are repressed by the iron rule of the Emperor. The Space Colonies have resisted, and as a result are at war with the Emperor.
In Conflict: Contact, Lieutenant Colton Santarelli and the Colony Special Forces undertake a desperate mission to keep the Emperor from building the ultimate weapon, an army of supersoldiers. But amidst the terror of war, Colton is secretly in love with his dashing–and married–commanding officer Colonel Vance Hohler.
REVIEW
The first of a three part serialized novella called Conflict, Contact sets up this science fiction and space exploration erotic story about a colony Lieutenant named Colton who is in lust and moving toward love with his Colonel. Before setting out on a dangerous mission to overpower the Earth Emperor’s forces, Colton shares a mind-blowing moment with Vance, his Colonel, on the balcony during the party to celebrate their new venture. The problem is that no matter how much Vance shows interest in him as well, the fact remains that Vance is married.
Colton leaves with mixed feelings of lust, guilt and a little bit of love only to find that the Colonist’s offensive is in serious trouble. Before long, Colton finds himself all alone in a battle where most of his men have died and his ship is alone fighting the Emperor’s forces. In a bid to recover possible success in their mission, Colton heads to land and infiltrate the enemy base. What he finds there both horrifies him and confirms that the Emperor has been up to what they expected.
Shizu is a genetically modified human that was abducted as a child and has been through a horrible hell of testing and modification along with several others. Now, he thinks he’s the only one left, at least in this base and the sight of a man who takes him out of the base and tries to get him to freedom bonds them together. But Shizu still harbors feelings for the man who was with him, who tried to escape with him before they were caught and separated forever. Hiding in a cave with Colton while they await rescue with a downed ship, the two get to know one another and forge a friendship of mutual respect and goals that might just be a bridge between the Colony forces and Earth’s grassroots rebellion that could help them overthrow the planet’s tyrannical rule.
I’m always excited to get a new Jack Greene story for review, but lately his work has been turning from more erotica to romance. He still writes highly erotic stories, such as this, but there’s definitely more plot to work with and to keep me interested and I like the fusion of styles and his growth as an author. It certainly makes me look forward to the next two stories in this “serialized” story. As the first of such a series, a large part of this story serves to set up the world. We’re presented with a world split into three factions: Earth, where a tyrant has united the world under one rule; the colonies, artificial worlds in space that use artificial gravity and other futuristic technological advances to create a sort of mirror earth in a controlled atmosphere; and lastly, the grassroots resistance on Earth, living hardscrabble lives with little food or supplies and actively defying the Empire while remaining under the radar. Conflict gives us the initial outlook in this conflict while paving the way for the next couple of stories through the connection made between Colton, Shizu and Shizu’s lover.
The relationship between Colton and his Colonel, Vance, is a different matter. Vance appears quickly in the beginning and then later in the story, but is largely removed (so far) from the actual conflict. His motivations seemed hazy to me for much of the story before he seemed to do an about face and admit deep feelings of love for Colton, despite his marriage, which he claims is unhappy and more of convenience. There’s one brief bout of cheating in the beginning of the novel, but it seems that there won’t be anymore, going by what we learn later in the story. So if you find cheating a huge turnoff, you might be initially disappointed in the story. Otherwise, I found their interactions together to be really steamy and satisfying on an erotic level, but at the end of the story I remained unconvinced in any true feelings between them. Perhaps, hopefully, that will change in the next two stories. I’d rather have an all or nothing approach, all romance and development of those feelings, or pure erotica. But a mishmash of the two where I’m not shown any of that progression cheapens the story a bit for me.
I’m definitely excited to see what’s in store for these characters. Of course, even though I had problems with some of the story, for the most part I’m pretty forgiving (always, of course, lol), but especially because this is the first story in a three part arc and there’s room for the characters to grow into the feelings presented here.
Be sure to comment below to win a copy of the story!
GIVEAWAY RULES
Please leave a comment below to win an ebook copy of Conflict: Contact. The giveaway will last until Midnight CDT on Friday, August 2. I will choose the winner using Random.org and email the winner who will then have 48 hours from the time of the drawing to reply to my email. I will then forward the winner’s information to the author so the winner can receive their book.
Please enter the email you’d wish me to contact you at in the comment form, or if you prefer, leave it in the message.
Thank you and good luck!
GIVEAWAY CLOSED
Title: Indiscretion
Author: Jack Greene
Publisher: Phaze
Length: 51,800 words
Genre: m/m Contemporary Romance
Heat: 5 – Off the Charts!
Sex Frequency: 4 – Very Often
Keywords/Tags: Bisexual, Questioning, Cheating, First Times (with a man), Divorce, Public Sex, Physical Abuse, Stalkers
Rating: Loved It!!
BLURB
Going through the motions in a loveless marriage, Chris is unaware of how much he is missing–until he meets Leif.
The gorgeous, tempestuous man turns Chris’s life upside down in every way.
Can Chris save himself from this dangerous affair, or will his life forever be changed by love?
REVIEW
It’s time for another Jack Greene review and giveaway! Jack is so wonderful because whenever he sends me a book to review he always offers a giveaway. And was I ever excited to read and review this book. For the past few stories that Jack has published, I’ve known that a full novel, his first, was in the works. I was interested to see what kind of story Jack would write for his first novel and how it would pan out. I’ve been a fan of his stories for a few years now, but he has a definite style — short and heavy on sex.
I was really pretty blown away by what I saw. I say I’ve been a fan for a while now, but I’ve never given Jack the top rating; I’ve never loved one of his books, though I’ve liked many of them quite a bit. Still, I warn you that this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. While I loved it, I know many won’t. A fundamental part of the story is cheating, no if ands or buts about it and that will bother many. But, it doesn’t usually bother me, and I could see that there were steps taken to lessen the impact, like having Chris’ wife be rather standoffish. Chris even wonders if she’s having an affair too, and there are some details that lead you to believe that might be the case. There aren’t any wallowing in hurt feelings. Still, those sensitive to cheating in all forms will definitely want to steer clear.
I think what I loved the most about this book is that Jack did exactly what I always wanted. In reading his short stories, they usually ended before we really got into the characters and their problems, neuroses, etc. We just didn’t get to know them as well as we could have and most of the emphasis in those stories was based on the sex. I usually categorize them as erotica. That’s great, I love erotica as well as romance. And I hope that he isn’t upset when I admit how surprised I was to find this novel so different than those stories. Not only do we get deep into the characters, but the emphasis here is definitely on romance, no matter how gritty and raunchy their sex gets. (and it’s goooood…)
The basis of the story is a classic “Gay for You” story. Chris has always been straight, and he’s generally an honorable man. He’s never cheated on his wife and he does love her. But they’ve grown apart after six years of marriage, settling into a sibling-like friendship and living like barely speaking roommates. So when he meets a man who shows him some attention on a business trip, he runs with it, surprising himself by his attraction. With little angst about what that attraction means, Chris dives headfirst into his illicit relationship. In fact, he has a bigger issue in trying to earn Leif’s trust and get to know the surly and complicated man than in investigating his own feelings. He only knows that he’s falling head first for someone he never thought he would, while at the same time trying to lesson the hurt he’s causing to his wife.
I liked quite a bit about this book. I liked that we get to see the relationship past the “marriage” phase and into the two building a life together. I like that Chris straddles the line of his own honor but still remained likable to me. And mostly, I liked the character Jack created in Leif, who remains an enigma right up until the very last page, where I finally felt like I understood him. The delivery of information about Leif is subtle and given to us in small bits, so that we get to know Leif like Chris does.
I can only surmise that all those short stories Jack wrote simply gave him lots of writing practice for his first novel, because I was really blown away by how much I enjoyed it. I’ll be thinking of this couple for a while and I would love for Jack to continue writing novels. Of course, I don’t want him to stop writing those super sexy shorts either 😉
GIVEAWAY RULES
Please leave a comment below to win an ebook copy of Indiscretion. The giveaway will last until Midnight CDT on March 29th. I will choose the winner using Random.org and email the winner who will then have 48 hours from the time of the drawing to reply to my email. I will then forward the winner’s information to the author so the winner can receive their book.
Please enter the email you’d wish me to contact you at in the comment form, or if you prefer, leave it in the message.
Thank you and good luck!
Title: Change of Heart
Author: May Ridge
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Length: 6,800 words
Genre: m/m Contemporary Romance
Heat: 3 – Sexy & Mild
Sex Frequency: 3 – Average Sex to Story
Keywords/Tags: Short Story, Kiss Me at Midnight collection, New Years, Bi Curious, Cheating, Unrequited Love, Second Chances, HFN
Rating: Pretty Good
Reviewed by Sadonna
BLURB
Adam has been in love with Tommy for more than half his life-but Tommy is utterly straight and is just not interested. Adam drifts along in life with flings after one night stands; safe in the knowledge that no one night stand could ever compare to the hold that Tommy has on him. That is, until he meets Ben. Ben is funny, hot, and direct; moreover, he seems to know exactly what he wants: Adam.
REVIEW
Adam has a one night stand with a guy – Ben he tells him is his name AGAIN — after Adam yells out “Tommy” at the peak moment. Adam confesses to Ben that Tommy is his straight friend he’s been in unrequited love with for years. But Ben is funny and cute and they have a great time together.
Six months later Adam and his friend Chase are out and they run into Ben who happens to work at the store where they are shopping. It’s also Adam’s birthday and Chase invites Ben to the birthday party that evening. Ben accepts. Just as Ben and Adam are having a good time at the party, Chase interrupts and Tommy arrives with his girlfriend. Adam feels blindsided and Ben takes him outside for a breath of fresh air. Adam confesses that he can’t believe Tommy even showed up because two weeks earlier, Tommy had been crying on Adam’s shoulder after a breakup with his girlfriend and then kissed him. Ben shares his straight boy crush story. They return to the party and there is a bit of a confrontation that leads Adam to face his true feelings.
I actually enjoyed this short story mostly because I really liked Ben. I was lukewarm on Adam, but I cut him some slack because he was in a rut and just needed help breaking out of it. By the end I liked him a lot better. I really really disliked Tommy and he was definitely not a good guy! I did, however, like the writer’s style and hope to read more of her work.
Title: Hairy Harry’s Car Seat
Author: Sue Brown
Publisher: Self Published
Length: 32,000 words
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Heat: 2 – Romantic & Tame
Sex Frequency: 2 – Few and Far Between
Keywords/Tags: GFY/OFY, Animals, Kids, Divorce, Cheating, HEA
Rating: Really Like It
Reviewed by Sadonna
BLURB
Peter Mitchell walked away with from his marriage with two things: a suitcase and Hairy Harry, the family pet.
When Harry becomes ill, Peter is faced with one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make… saying goodbye to his best friend.
Evan Wells is the locum vet who attends to Harry and Peter is surprised at how quickly they become friends. Peter finds himself looking forward to Ethan’s phone calls and the meals they share together. He knows Evan is gay but it doesn’t bother him until Evan confesses his attraction to him. Peter has to admit to himself that he’s not as adverse to the possibility as he thought he would be, and that does bother him.
REVIEW
Warning! The story starts off with a very sad episode and any pet owner will most likely need a box of tissues handy.
I saw the blurb for this one and knew I wanted to read it right away. I got it pretty close to release day, but alas the annoying job got in the way of reading it. When I finally was able to sit down and read, I flew through this book in one sitting.
When Peter has to take his dog in to the vet’s office after he has not eaten for a week, he is met with a surprise in a temporary vet – the cousin of his regular vet. Evan Wells is gentle but honest with Peter about Harry’s condition and prognosis. Peter wants his kids to be able to say goodbye, so he takes Harry home and calls his ex-wife to please bring the kids round to see Harry before he’s gone. While his ex and the kids are there, Evan drops round to check on Harry since he hadn’t gotten a call from Peter about how Harry was doing. After the kids leave, Peter shares his dinner with Evan and ultimately, Evan takes care of Harry. Peter of course is devastated and Evan comforts him.
Evan and Peter begin a tenuous friendship. Evan has outed himself to Peter confessing that he though Peter was gay too. Peter finds that odd, but they have fun together – cooking and such and both are very lonely. Evan is in a pretty unhappy relationship with a guy he never sees that he uprooted his entire life for. Jimmy works all the time and Evan has no friends or family in the area other than his cousin and hasn’t found a permanent position. Peter lost most of his friends in the divorce and that makes the absence of Harry all the more poignant. They continue spending more time together.
There are some bumps in the road for these two to be sure. Peter realizes that he definitely has the most fun with Evan that he’s had with anyone in years. Evan is handsome and smart – and involved with someone else. After having been cheated on in his marriage – an affair that is still ongoing – he has no interest in doing to anyone else what has been done to him. Evan really likes Peter and is very attracted to him, but he’s concerned that Peter will never be free to really be with him and out since this is all new to him. Peter is also having trouble at work with a seriously annoying boss so he’s feeling pressure from all sides.
Things come to a head when Evan is hurt and he comes to Peter’s afterwards. Peter realizes that he has true feelings for Evan, but he wants to take things one step at a time. Both men have to compromise a bit and they agree to move forward at an acceptable pace – which kind of goes out the window when they are finally together.
I really liked the pacing and flow of this story. Peter and Evan are believable characters and their relationship develops over time from friendship and companionship to romantic feelings. Peter has a few “oh shit” moments that we would expect from somebody who was realizing for the first time that he is attracted to someone of his own gender. I really liked that the author included those “real” moments and comments from him. Evan is a bit sensitive as we would expect someone in his position to be given the uprooting of his life for something that didn’t really exist. I really liked that the ex-wife in this one is a real character, not some screaming shrew. Peter’s kids are also really well written.
Sue Brown won me over with The Night Porter and I continue to enjoy her work. She is really able to tell a complete story in this shorter format and I look forward to reading more of her stories.
Title: Saving Skylar Hand
Author: George Seaton
Publisher: MLR
Length: 42,000 words
Genre: m/m Contemporary Western Romance
Heat: 3 – Sexy & Mild
Sex Frequency: 2 – Few and Far Between
Keywords/Tags: Christmas, Friends to Lovers, Closeted, Coming of Age, Cowboys, Cheating, Abuse/Neglect, HEA
Rating: Really Like It
BLURB
Lifelong love of two boys growing up on the west-central Texas scrub, their lives entangled by the dynamic of families so starkly different.
Skylar Hand and Cody Pinnt share their lives upon the west-central Texas scrub. Both born to a cattle rancher’s life, their view of the world and their place in it, takes one down a path toward heady dreams of a future away from the land. The other sees worth only in trudging his days, as his daddy has, upon the land; his dreams confined to what he has known his entire life. Their love is sorely tested by the choices they make.
Good thing it’s the season for miracles.
REVIEW
First, I should confess that I am a fan of this author which is I why I told Cole I wanted to review this story. His short stories have really moved me and I just really like the way he tells stories so I was interested in reading this longer work. Then I read a couple of fairly depressing and difficult books where the MCs suffered quite a bit before they got to anything even close to a HFN. I started reading this book and I was very worried about the direction it was headed so I took a break to gear myself up for what I feared would be something just awful. Happily I can say that I should not have been worried and that the author takes care of his characters without resorting to outlandish and improbable “coincidences” or tricks to torture them or to resolve their issues. Thank you George!
This story takes place over a number of years in the life of Skylar Hand and Cody Pinnt. Each chapter covers of an important event/milestone in the lives of the characters of this book – from the main characters Skylar and Cody, their parents, Pete Semple (the hired hand at the Iron Hand ranch) and even Zane Black, Cody’s college roommate. While the timeline is not linear, each chapter is vital to our understanding of the lives and character of each player in this novel and provides background and context to the lives of Cody and Skylar.
Skylar and Cody have been friends since they were small children. Cody’s family is fairly well off and his parents love each other and him and only want what’s best for him. Skylar is not so lucky. His parents are not well-suited and “had to get married” because Skylar was on the way. His father is a lazy drunken mess and Pete Semple, the partially disabled retired bull rider and hired hand is most likely the only reason they haven’t already lost the Iron Hand ranch. Cody is the one bright spot in Sklyar’s world along with his dog. Surprisingly, his mother does not resent him even though she has been thoroughly disillusioned by her husband and her marriage.
As Skylar and Cody grown up, their relationship because more than just friendship. Cody knows that he is gay, but Skylar cannot admit this to himself. His life at the ranch continues to deteriorate and he is most unhappy after Cody leaves for college. Luckily for Skylar, Pete Semple and his mother want to save him from what they know will be an unhappy life. They surprised the heck out of me. When Cody and Skylar reunited, they have some work to do on their communication but they are honest with each other and themselves.
I really liked this story very much. Skylar and Cody are characters that change realistically over the course of the novel but never lose sight of the most important thing – their relationship. They truly start as the best of friends and while there are difficulties to overcome in the change to sexual and romantic feelings, they are able to persevere. The strong secondary characters, particularly Pete and Skylar’s mother add a lot to the story as well. The voices in this story felt very authentic and believable. I am now an even bigger fan of this author. Highly recommended.
Title: Science Friction
Author: Kyell Gold
Illustrator: Cirrus
Publisher: 24 Carat Words (Ebook Version), FurPlanet
Length: approx. 32,500 words
Genre: m/m Contemporary Romance
Heat: 4 – Spicy & Smutty
Sex Frequency: 4 – Very Often
Keywords/Tags: Anthropomorphic, Love Triangle, College, May/December, Friends to Lovers, Fuck Buddies, Multiple Partners, Cheating
Rating: Pretty Good
**Note: The format I read, the ebook version, is available through Kindle. The Title Link takes you to FurPlanet, where you can buy the paperback version.
BLURB
Meet Vaxy the pine marten. He’s a graduate student at sunny Hoffridge U., where he helps Dr. Forrest with teaching, lab work, and getting his pants off whenever things are slow. Meet Mike the rabbit. He’s Vaxy’s roommate and not-boyfriend, and he certainly wouldn’t have any reason to be jealous of Vaxy sleeping with someone else. If he found out. Meet Grace the fennec. He’s a student, a friend of Vaxy and Mike who holds the firm belief that sex is just sex and shouldn’t be mistaken for a relationship. Yes, it’s just another semester at “Hot Fudge U.,” where the sex is as hot and easy as a day at the beach. Vaxy and his friends have most of another year to go before they have to worry about that “real world” thing they’ve heard about. Now meet Mrs. Forrest. She’s Dr. Forrest’s wife.
REVIEW
I’m mostly familiar with Kyell Gold’s work from his series, Out of Position, and reading a few shorter works of his this week as nice, mostly for the small commitment in time and getting to read a wider variety of his work. Because I don’t really read anthropomorphic fiction outside of Kyell Gold’s work (who introduced me to it), reading about even a few characters different than Lee and Dev and different from the contemporary football plot of that series was nice, and gave me a wider scope of what Kyell Gold can do.
This is definitely the sexiest of his work that I’ve read. The story centers on a group of friends at Hoffridge U. and their lives. At the center of that group and this story is Vaxy, a pine marten, and his sexual (mis)adventures — namely the love triangle that forms between the sexy professor he works for in the lab (and their daily appointments in the closet between lab work) and the casual sex relationship with his roommate and friend Mike.
The trouble starts when Vaxy is interrupted by a knock on the lab door as he’s sitting in Dr. Forrest’s lap. He’s actually surprised when it turns out to be Mrs. Forrest. It isn’t as if Vaxy has loose morals or anything like that, he just likes to have a good time. And he is rather tight-lipped about secrets, others and his own. His surprise that Dr. Forrest was cheating with him makes him question their relationship, even though it was just all in good fun. The wife, however, is like a dog with a bone. She won’t let the possibility of finding the person who her husband is cheating with, and somehow, Vaxy finds himself playing the wife off the husband and the husband off the wife, in a deep quagmire of kept secrets.
So why does it bother him if he’s not the only one getting down with the sexy doctor? And why is Mike constantly getting upset lately about his “extracurricular activities”. They don’t have a relationship and Mike has never made him think that he wanted more. Add in the extra complications of one-off with their mutual friend Grace, and Vaxy finds that he’s dug himself deeper into a mess that only just now realized was a problem in the first place.
Science Friction, isn’t the sort of story you might expect from the title, but a more literal description of the business Vaxy the science student gets down to around the college. The issues dealt with could be heavy, but are written in a humorous light as Vaxy digs himself deeper into the mess. He’s only really concerned with having fun and keeping things light, only to realize that it isn’t the same for everyone else and he needs to evaluate his life and his real feelings. The love triangle isn’t used to maximum effect. The focus of the story is really the misadventures of Vaxy. We get to know Dr. Forrest pretty well, but Mike much less so. This was a bit of an imbalance for me as a reader, though in retrospect works for the the story and was obviously done for a reason. And because the story is so short (at around 30k words), there really isn’t time for the story to create a world around them, but focuses on paring down the story to the main plotline without a lot of interference from the outside world or extra scenes.
The story is capped off by a short story called “Armadillo Peccadillo”, about Grace and his roommate Wally (briefly in the main story). I enjoyed this little extra so much! It really made me want more of the group of friends and their adventures, especially with Wally, Grace and Mike, who we got to know much less well than Vaxy.
This definitely isn’t my favorite of Kyell Gold’s stories, but it really couldn’t be compared on the same level as the deeply involved stories such as Out of Position and it’s sequels. It was, however, a whole lot of fun to read and very satisfactory indeed.
The Armchair Reader 
