Elisa - My reviews and Ramblings

As always, a cracking good mystery steeped in thick atmosphere. The writing is clean and spare, and the characters, warts and all, are very genuine and true to life. Another wonderful installment in this excellent series.

Boystown 8: The Lies That Bind by Marshall Thornton
Gay Mystery / Thriller
Series: Boystown Mysteries
Paperback: 274 pages
Publisher: Kenmore Books (February 21, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1523885106
ISBN-13: 978-1523885107
Amazon: Boystown 8: The Lies That Bind
Amazon Kindle: Boystown 8: The Lies That Bind

The eighth book of the best-selling Boystown Mysteries series begins with a phone call in the middle of the night. Private investigator Nick Nowak is pulled into the troubled world of freelance journalist, and all around pain-in-the-ass, Christian Baylor. When Christian can’t stop lying about the corpse in his bathroom things slip slowly out of control. Meanwhile, Nick’s relationship with former priest Joseph Biernecki takes an unexpected turn and the Federal case against Jimmy English proceeds toward trial.

Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2016.html

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With this being the 4th book in the series, and having not read the previous books, this one was a challenge.

Shifting Chaos (The Sleepless City #4) by Elizabeth Noble
Gay Paranormal Romance
Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (September 7, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1634763203
ISBN-13: 978-1634763202
Amazon: Shifting Chaos (The Sleepless City #4)
Amazon Kindle: Shifting Chaos (The Sleepless City #4)

Sequel to Family and Reflection

The Sleepless City: Book Four

Chaos reigns in The Sleepless City, and it’s really beginning to piss Detective Jonas Forge off. He’s got inner demons to battle and a life to build with his new soul mate, Blair Turner. Nothing is going right, and he already feels the universe is conspiring against him when a turn of events he never saw coming flips his world upside down.

Hallucinations grip the town and everyone in it, threatening to tear their precariously built family apart, and the only way forward is to bare all to each other. This means Declan and Blair need to learn to accept one another. Lucas Coate has to move forward without ties to his werewolf pack and live a monogamous life with Declan.

But while Forge and Declan confront horrors from their shared past, Simon learns a terrible truth about vampires―one he couldn’t have imagined in his worst nightmares.

Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2016.html

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A fine collection of erotica for large men and those who lust after them. Excellent writing throughout and a strong balance of stories, many very vivid and interesting. Well curated and edited.

The Biggest Lover: Big-Boned Men's Erotica for Chubs and Chasers by R. Jackson
Gay Anthology / Collection / Erotica
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Bear Bones Books (February 14, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590215451
ISBN-13: 978-1590215456
Amazon: The Biggest Lover: Big-Boned Men's Erotica for Chubs and Chasers
Amazon Kindle: The Biggest Lover: Big-Boned Men's Erotica for Chubs and Chasers

We have all heard the term Rubenesque as a compliment for plus-sized women. The baroque painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens was fond of painting women of the day that were curvaceous and full-figured. The men in his art were not. What is the comparable term for men? Because not every gay man is obsessed with twinks who list the number of visible rib bones on their Grindr profile. Or men who can remember the number of reps at the gym but not their phone number. Some of us appreciate buying in bulk and that includes looking for love. Or just plain sex. Thank goodness for Bear culture which embraces girth. During Bear Week in Provincetown the stores do not even bother to sell clothes smaller than an XL and a man's virility is often like the potency of moonshine: the more Xs on the jug the better, so XXXL is a chub in high demand.


It has taken too long for an erotica anthology to feature such men. It is our hope that readers who felt denied of attention and affection will read these stories and realize that love has no weight limit, no threshold, and neither should self-esteem.

Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2016.html

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There's a beautiful, heartbreaking, and realistic young love story here — buried under long info dumps lasting several chapters, the story being told and not shown, and the main characters being a bit too unlikeable: The rebellious anti-hero with his unpleasant, unsympathetic nature, and the hot foreign guy who's so kind and good he'd give teeth ache to the sugar plum fairy.

Fjord Blue by Nina Rossing
Gay Young Adult
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press (March 10, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1634763858
ISBN-13: 978-1634763851
Amazon: Fjord Blue
Amazon Kindle: Fjord Blue

After a year of partying, getting into fights, and finally crashing his father s vintage Bonneville in a car chase, seventeen-year-old Benjamin has pushed his parents to their limit. It s not like he can tell them why he s so angry at life, or that he ll do anything to distract himself from the lust he feels toward his best friend s sexy cousin, Dino. He can t even protest when he s sent away from Miami to spend the summer working on his grandparents farm in the desolate fjords of Western Norway.

The farm is isolated and old-fashioned, and so are Ben s religious grandparents. It s cold and wet, and Ben is miserable and restless. Relief comes in the form of Even, the eighteen-year-old blond Viking farmhand who offers Ben friendship and a new outlook on his situation. But Even is hiding issues of his own.

Ben s grandparents want him to inherit the farm, but the only thing keeping Ben there is his desire to know Even better. As the feelings between the two young men grow, things kept hidden are slowly revealed for good and ill and they must turn to unlikely places for encouragement."

Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2016.html

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A mix of fast and sweet pacing, a perfect balance of thriller and romance.

Whiskers of a Chance by Tempeste O’Riley
Gay Paranormal Romance
Paperback: 204 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (September 30, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1634765249
ISBN-13: 978-1634765244
Amazon: Whiskers of a Chance
Amazon Kindle: Whiskers of a Chance

Jason Grant runs his own IT business from home, owns his own home, and has the best friend he could imagine. What he doesn’t have, or believe he will ever have, is love. When Jason catches a glimpse of his new neighbor on moving day, his libido ignites and his fascination in piqued. He even manages to concoct an excuse to go over and meet the man who makes him hope and want for more than he has in years.

Keith Skyler is a shifter in a world where his kind is known only to a few, but they don’t often mix and they never mate. Keith has been hoping for a mate since before he can remember, but gay lynx don’t have true mates. As far as he knows, they don’t have mates at all. However, while moving his little family across Seattle―and away from their tribe―his reality tips and spins more than he thought possible.

When these two men meet over a dish of five-cheese broccoli-noodle casserole, sparks fly. Who knew a welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift could give both of them their chance at love?

Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2016.html

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