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MUSIC MONDAY: NO SZNS by Jean Dawson & SZA
Pick a song that you really like and share it on Monday.
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RELEASE TOUR: The Moon Over the Oak by C.J. Ravenna (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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COVER REVEAL: Knox by Laura John
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COVER REVEAL: Wrapped in Red by Sundae Leighton
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RELEASE TOUR: Secrets We Fight by Kimberly Knight & Rachel Lyn Adams
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COVER REVEAL: Dead Serious Case #4 Professor Prometheus Plume By Vawn Cassidy (Giveaway)
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RELEASE TOUR: Let It Breathe by Kristian Parker (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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BOOK BLAST: The Road to Montepulciano by Garrick Jones (Excerpt)
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MANGA: Yamikin Shinshi no Kiken na Akuheki
Yamikin Shinshi no Kiken na Akuheki – Satou Hachiko
“Damn, you’re a whiny pup, aren’t you…? I haven’t cum yet.”
June, the number one rentboy at his brothel, is requested by a client and goes to the hotel as usual. There, he meets a sexy yet suspicious man named Onda. Onda introduces himself as a “money lender”– a loan shark – and suddenly he pressures June to repay the debt his ex-boyfriend left behind!? And after all that, he asks June, “Now, then… Why don’t you comfort me for a little bit?” June is made to suck his hot, erect cock, and then he’s fucked hard and deep…!!
Rent boy romance is a hard sell to me because I like my couples exclusive, unless the story specifically set out to be poly. I read this because I was curious if this is a romance I would buy.
Dangerous Vices of a Gentleman Loan Shark reminded me a lot like Okane ga Nai, but with better drawn characters and better proportioned size difference between the MCs. Also, the uke has more spine than the weepy MC of Okane ga Nai.
Rent boy June, a.k.a. Junya Kiryu, was forced to do dirty jobs for yakuza-looking-but-not-actual-yakuza loan shark Onda, after learning his ex forged his signature as the co-signer for a huge loan. Onda wasn’t above using Junya for pleasure while the younger man continue gathering intel about his clients.
Seeing that Junya has more practical skills than just using his body, Onda hired him for a month to do whatever tasks he needed done. They promptly got into the routine of sex plus work plus sex plus feels. Until one day, Junya was abducted.
This is super steamy, but with a solid plot and a passably developed romance. Onda’s and Junya’s personalities were typical of their character’s kind. Cool, cocky asshole in Onda the seme while boyish, passionate and blushy in Junya the uke, but neither were particularly memorable.
The execution lacked intensity in delivering the external and internal conflicts, the romantic feelings, the sense of danger, and the stakes. Overall, okay but forgettable, which is sad because I had high expectations. You could read it for the smut, though.
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REVIEW: Confetti Hearts by Lily Morton
Confetti Hitched: Confetti Hearts – Lily Morton
Joe Bagshaw doesn’t believe in love or marriage anymore, which is rather a hindrance for a wedding planner.
His own marriage was a whirlwind affair that ended before the ink could dry on the wedding certificate. Nevertheless, even with his divorce pending, he’s getting by. Or at least he was until he finds himself snowed in at a remote Scottish hotel with the wedding party from hell, a terrible ABBA tribute band, and his soon-to-be ex-husband.
Lachlan has missed Joe from the second his husband walked away. He wants Joe back and is prepared to do anything to get him. Being snowed in together seems to offer the chance Lachlan needs, but does he have what it takes to get Joe to trust in love and their marriage again?
From bestselling author Lily Morton, comes a romantic comedy about love, matrimony, and the best of second chances.
This is the first book in the Confetti Hitched series.
One of my favorite tropes is the second-chance romance between estranged husbands. There’s not a lot of that around, so when Confetti Hearts was released, I was ecstatic!
Confetti Hearts is the opener of Confetti Hitched, a wedding planning company. Joe Bagshaw is one of its top wedding planners, spectacularly adept at putting out fires and averting impending bridal disasters. His biggest secret is that he and his husband, forensic accountant Lachlan Moore, is about to be divorced a few months after a whirlwind romance and a Vegas wedding. Not something someone in the business of making happy ever afters want known.
The story is told mostly in Joe’s POV, with a couple chapters in Lachlan’s. Right from the get go, Joe had my sympathies. Our boy was thoroughly swept off his feet. He threw himself wholeheartedly into the relationship and only pulled back when he felt he was being shut out by Lachlan. The other shoe dropped when he discovered Lachlan and his PA kissing.
For second chances for estranged husbands to work, I need both parties to be worth rooting for. Sadly, Lachlan didn’t do it for me. His character lacked depth. Sure, he was making all these grand gestures and saying romantic things, but I didn’t feel any genuine spark between him and Joe.
Add to that him being describe as capable of charming everyone, including Joe’s anti-social cat, but being a twat to Joe in private, I don’t know, but the word sociopath came to mind. And if it was by design that his character had his wall up in the first parts, I’m still left unconvinced in the latter parts despite him supposedly a changed man and making all these grandiose vows.
Another issue I had with their relationship and the story, as a whole, is that Joe was such a doormat. The “power dynamics” was heavily skewed in Lachlan’s favor. And it irritates me how Joe and the story were oh so quick to absolve Lachlan of any wrongdoings, despite not redeeming himself satisfactorily. He needs to grovel more, damn it!
I think the book could benefit from more of Lachlan’s POV. Having his perspective could also give his character dimension. The main conflict here is miscommunication, one of my least favorites. Knowing Lachlan’s side sooner might make him more sympathetic. And I think the plot and Lachlan’s secret scheme to get Joe back could work better with this, rather than keep things in the dark until the end.
I also wasn’t a fan of the dialogues. Snark is the author’s signature, but here, I feel the characters talk for the sake of being snarky. I didn’t find any of their lines particularly funny. This was the same issue with another book by the author, which I couldn’t finish due to the dialogues.
Confetti Hearts wasn’t quite what I expected. I was prepared to squee but, instead, ended up wanting to yeet the damn book out the window. Our boy Joe was the only reason I kept going, plus I really like the book model as him on the cover. Joe deserves better!
Rating:
2 Stars – it’s a struggle to finish the damn bookSoundtrack: Confetti
Artist: Grand Lotus
Album: The Vibrant Migrant
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CONFETTI HEARTS: Kindle | Audiobook
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