Author: Kassa
Little Japan by Jaye Valentine and Reno MacLeod
Little Japan by Jaye Valentine and Reno MacLeod
Blurb:
Japan. Land of honor and beauty, crowded streets with neon signs, and exotic markets where ancient traditions still hold fast in modern-day society. As Japanese business people rush about their busy lives, there exists a place in Osaka, Japan where a modern take on the ancient tradition of the geisha thrives.
Kuri and Daichi work at Kingyo Club, a popular host club in the Dōtonbori district of Osaka. After sleeping their days away, the boys’ nights are owned by the host club lifestyle and anyone willing to pay the steep price for a few hours of hard drinking and flirtatious companionship. Kuri and Daichi are lovers and best friends, and along with their roommates Sora and Takumi, they look out for one another in an occupation fraught with both physical and emotional danger.
In addition to the endless bottles of fizzy champagne, expensive gifts, and confessions of false love courtesy of regular clients, every now and then comes a customer with even deeper pockets and much darker demands. Gabriel Hartley is one of these men. After a chance meeting, Gabriel targets the stunning Kuri to feed his obsession with seducing and dominating young Japanese men.
The relationship between Kuri and Gabriel dramatically changes when a traumatic event plunges them from the Land of the Rising Sun into the land of powerful sheikhs and servant boys in the dark underworld of exotic Dubai. As Kuri struggles with the heartache of having what’s most precious to him ripped away, he helps Gabriel learn important lessons about love, honor, and the power of self-forgiveness.
Spoils of War by Aleksandr Voinov and Raev Gray
Spoils of War by Aleksandr Voinov and Raev Gray
Blurb:
When Achilleus, the greatest warrior who ever lived, falls before Troy (or Ilion, as it was known), Ares, God of War, stands ready to take his spirit with him to his palace. There, Ares demands that Achilleus yield to him. But can the embrace of a god and the offer of immortality make Achilleus forget his one true love, Patroklos?
A to Z by Marie Sexton
A to Z by Marie Sexton
Blurb:
Zach Mitchell is stuck in a rut. His college boyfriend left him ten years ago, but Zach still lives in the same apartment, drives the same car, and feeds his ex-boyfriend’s ungrateful cat. His Denver business, A to Z Video Rental, is struggling. He has annoying customers, eccentric neighbors, and an unfulfilling romance with his landlord, Tom.
A combat boot-wearing punk with an attitude, Angelo Green was raised in foster homes and has been on his own since he was sixteen; he has never learned to trust or to love. He doesn’t do relationships, so when Angelo takes a job at A to Z Video, he decides Zach is strictly off-limits.
Despite their differences, Zach and Angelo quickly become friends, and when Zach’s break-up with Tom puts his business on the line, it’s Angelo who comes up with a solution. Together with Jared and Matt, their friends from Coda, Colorado, Zach and Angelo will find a way to save A to Z, but will they be able to save each other too?
Roundup
Hope everyone is having a great weekend. If you missed any of the reviews over on Three Dollar Bill, there are two from me. One is a beautiful, touching story about friendship and love. And one is a raunchy and delightful comic. They couldn’t be more different yet still great. There are a couple of lesbian titles also reviewed that got high marks.
XOXO Hayden by Chris Corkum
Nightlife by Dale Lazarov and Bastian Jonsson
There’s also a discussion on whether readers/authors like to have their reviews spread out like we’re doing (one a day) or just several at a time. All opinions welcome! With TDB so new, we get to make changes as situations come up. Right now we’re able to produce more than one review a day yet don’t want to overwhelm anyone. So all opinions and thoughts are very helpful.
Reviews all at once or spread out?
As always we’re looking for more reviews of any kind! Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, whatever letter of the alphabet soup you’re interested in reading and reviewing, we’re looking for you. If you’re interested please send an email to threedollarbillreviews@gmail.com
No Souvenirs by K. A. Mitchell
No Souvenirs by K. A. Mitchell
Blurb:
A vacation fling. No complications. No connections. And no regrets.
Trauma surgeon Jae Sun Kim has just lost the job he wanted more than anything else in his life. Looking for a way to hit the reset button, he takes a scuba vacation. He didn’t plan on seasickness, or a dive master who is sex-on-the-beach personified.
Shane McCormack’s tendency to drift away from complicated situations has landed him a job as a dive master in Belize, which isn’t as glamorous as it sounds. But with the big three-oh looming, asking his parents to bail him out again isn’t an option. The job isn’t without its perks, though, and as soon as he figures a way to keep that hot but arrogant ass of a doctor from tossing his cookies over the side of the boat, he plans to flirt the control freak out of his brittle shell.
The close quarters on the ship generate more heat than either expects, but a vacation fling is all that’s in the plans. An unexpected adventure leaves them changed in ways that make it impossible to go back to their old lives. The risks they’ll both have to take could leave them with nothing but more scars, or the best souvenir of all.
Special Delivery by Heidi Cullinan
Special Delivery by Heidi Cullinan
Blurb:
Sam Keller knows he’ll never find the excitement he craves in Middleton, Iowa—not while he’s busting his ass in nursing school and paying rent by slaving away in a pharmacy stockroom. But before his mother died, he promised her he’d grow up to be a good man, so he needs a stable career and a good husband, not a dead-end job and empty sex.
Then Sam meets Mitch Tedsoe, an independent trucker who makes a delivery to a shop across the alley. Innocent flirting quickly leads to an affair, and when Mitch offers to take Sam on a road trip west, Sam jumps at the chance for adventure with his fantasy man… but Mitch also comes with a past. A threesome with the other man in Mitch’s life would have been just another kinky ride, but somewhere between the Mississippi River and the Colorado Rockies, Sam falls in love.
But can a relationship born out of escape and indulgence become something that lasts? Will a fantasy man be willing to settle down into reality, or is the adventure and excitement Sam finds with Mitch just another stop on a delivery man’s journey? For better or for worse, eventually Sam is going to discover the answer, because no matter how far away he travels, eventually all roads lead home.
Your Face Tomorrow by John Stahle
Your Face Tomorrow by John Stahle
Blurb:
First collection of poems by John Stahle, whose work appears in the gay lit/art journal "Ganymede." Included are two short stories from which poems were distilled. Illustrated throughout by fine art photographs.
Falling by D.W. Marchwell
Falling by D.W. Marchwell
Blurb:
When Scott Alan gets a phone call that his brother was hurt on a logging job, he rushes to Brian’s side, only to find that his injuries are minor—but not before he meets Hank Ballam, an adrenaline-seeking logger who’s an outcast among his co-workers.
Hank is a study in contrast: he lives for the rush of climbing and cutting trees almost as much as he loves the peace he finds exploring the mountains he calls home. Scott’s attraction to Hank is immediate and mind-blowing, and it’s what Scott has always wanted: to know what it’s like to love someone he can’t live without.
Scott needs to know if Hank’s true feelings will be a roar of passion or simply a quiet friendship, one that doesn’t match Scott’s devotion. But it may be too late… Scott simply can’t help himself from falling hard for Hank.
three am 