highly recommended

Lost and Found by Gwenna Sebastian

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Lost and FoundLost and Found by Gwenna Sebastian

Blurb:
Sometimes even a hero needs someone to save him.

Mark Connor doesn’t feel like a hero even though he served two tours in Vietnam and survived a vicious ambush that took the lives of all but a handful of men. But he lost his best friend and lover, and now he refuses to be close to anyone. That makes his instant attraction to Josh a real problem.

Josh Myers hires on with Mark to help him with a remodeling job. A survivor himself of a Beirut bombing, he embraces life with open arms. But he can’t get his new flame to take an interest in love, in life, or in himself.

Alone in the northern Outer Banks in January, Mark clings desperately to his past, even as Josh offers him a future he doesn’t think he deserves.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

this is a new author? Impressive!

Spinning by Jaime Samms

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Spinning Spinning by Jaime Samms

Blurb:
Ken has fallen in love twice in his unnaturally long life. He’s spent the rest of it trying to forget what falling out of it feels like. Not even the end of civilization has distracted him from his own misery, and now, desperate and achingly lonely, he calls the one person who’s never hung up on him.

Mikko lost Ken once, letting life get in the way of love, and ever since the day Ken ran, he’s been trying to track him down. He’s honed his skills over the years, tracking Ken through the morass of men and ugly affairs, waiting for the chance to make things right.

Ken thinks his messy past is a secret from Mikko, and is too ashamed to admit any of it. Mikko has secrets of his own, things he’s discovered about their very nature he’s sure Ken’s not ready to hear. Back together, after years of cat and mouse, Ken has to learn to trust a man he knows isn’t telling him everything, and Mikko has to figure out how to fix something his own negligence might have destroyed beyond hope of repair.

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Review:

This is your one thing, Kenny. From now on, I’m in charge.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Lynn Lorenz

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Breakfast at Tiffany's Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Lynn Lorenz

Blurb:
Scott came to New Orleans the summer he fled the bigotry of a rural Louisiana town. Tony was born and raised in the City that Care Forgot and lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. Now, Scott lives in a homeless shelter and has a job at Tiffany’s Waffles ’n’ Wings, a 24-hour restaurant on the edge of the French Quarter, while Tony is squatting in an abandoned house.

When Tony, desperate for cash, decides to rob someone, along comes Scott. But in the dark alleyway, the younger man stirs something long dormant in Tony. He rescues Scott from being beaten by another thief, then grabs the money for himself and runs. Ashamed of his actions, however, Tony decides to return the money. He follows Scott to work, and the two fragile souls begin a tenuous relationship.

The men fill in what each is missing and what each desires in the other. Scott leaves the shelter to try living with Tony, finding a place to belong and someone who cares for him, and Tony, who has something to prove to himself, longs to be a better man for Scott.

Together, the two kindred spirits try to create a life together in a city on the edge of a comeback…

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very good despite the reused name

Administration series by Manna Francis

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Mind FuckMind Fuck by Manna Francis
Book one of The Administration by Manna Francis

Blurb:

The inspiration for the Administration series of stories is a maxim of Chris Boucher, script editor of Blakes 7—There are no bad guys. There are no good guys. There are only better guys, and worse guys.

One of the worse guys is Val Toreth. In a world where torture is a legitimate part of the investigative process, he works for the Investigation and Interrogation Division .

One of the better guys is Keir Warrick, a corporate director. His small corporation, SimTech, is developing a ‘sim’ system which places users in a fully-immersive virtual reality.

Their world is the dark future dystopia of New London, where Europe is controlled by a totalitarian bureaucracy, which shares political power with powerful corporations. The oppressive government uses torture, violence and the various Divisions of the feared Department of Internal Security to maintain power. The corporations fight amongst themselves, using lethal force under the euphemism of ‘corporate sabotage’, uniting only to resist attempts by the Administration to extend its control over them.

The series follows Warrick and Toreth, and their families, friends and enemies as they struggle to survive and hope to prosper.

Oh, yes—and there is sex, and violence, and other things that upset the people who rate films. You may want to know that:

* Most stories set in the Administration contain m/m or m/f sex scenes.
* Many stories in the Administration contain consensual BDSM of varying degrees of severity.
* Some stories contain non-consensual sex and/or violence.
* Some stories contain ‘issues of consent’, such as a superior exploiting a subordinate, or other cases where full consent is in doubt.
* Two stories contain references to child abuse.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Only halfway through the series but wow!

Lessons in Trust by Charlie Cochrane

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Lessons in Trust (Cambridge Fellows Mystery #7)Lessons in Trust by Charlie Cochrane

Blurb:
He thought he knew who he was. Now he’s a stranger to himself.

Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 7

When Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith witness the suspicious death of a young man at the White City exhibition in London, they’re keen to investigate—especially after the cause of death proves to be murder. But police Inspector Redknapp refuses to let them help, even after they stumble onto clues to the dead man’s identity.

Orlando’s own identity becomes the subject for speculation when, while mourning the death of his beloved grandmother, he learns that she kept secrets about her past. Desperate to discover the truth about his family, Orlando departs suddenly on a solo quest to track down his roots, leaving Jonty distraught.

While Jonty frantically tries to locate his lover, Orlando wonders if he’ll be able to find his real family before he goes mad. After uncovering more leads to the White City case, they must decide whether to risk further involvement. Because if either of them dares try to solve the murder, Inspector Redknapp could expose their illicit—and illegal—love affair.

Forgive him? If our paths cross again I’ll run him over in the Lagonda.