We’re nearing the end of the first month of the year, and I thought I’d do a post about what I’ve been reading. Not much. It seems I’m continuing my watching-series-on Netflix-with-hubby routine from last year.
It’s nice.
But what I have read is the following:
Human Omega: Discovered on the Slave Planet
Human Omega: Discovered on the Slave Planet (Pykh #1) by Eileen Glass – I was in the mood for some aliens LOL. Carter is an engineer who gets captured by aliens that look like giant insects. They’re not nice…at all.
He’s thrown into a cage together with two huge aliens of another species. Communication is a problem, but Pykh and Siel – the cage mates – do their best to include him in the work they have to do as well as in their love-making.
I’m not one to read a lot of menage stories, and a few pages in, I could guess where the story was going, but I enjoyed it. There are some really funny moments. And I do like an alien willing to kill someone to save them from a worse fate LOL.
books2read.com/HumanOmegaDiscoveredontheSlavePlanet
How does a bad day get worse, you ask? Well…
How about being squished between two huge, naked dudes with their meaty schlongs hanging out and everything?
It’s all a matter of opinion, but Carter’s day is going pretty badly. He’s an engineer captured by bug aliens, now depending on his large, muscled, naked cage mates for food and warmth. They seem sentient, so that’s good. But they’re also handsy. Which is… complicated.
The military isn’t looking for him. Slaves taken by the bug race never come back. Yet, Carter is very much alive, and if he wants to stay that way, he’ll need to trust Pykh and Siel, two affectionate aliens with claws, teeth, and size.
Rescuing The Princess
Rescuing The Princess by Pax Asteriae – This is really short, depending on where you draw your line for what’s flash fiction and what’s not, it’s either a flash or a short short story.
A knight is out to save a princess in a tower, and, yes, there’s an evil dragon guarding her.
When the knight gets there, he realises the princess isn’t a princess but a prince. And normally that make the knights go away, but this knight is determined to rescue the princess gone prince.
What’s a poor prince to do but call his dragon?
books2read.com/RescuingthePrincess
It has all the hallmarks of a great adventure:
A secluded tower in the woods, where rumour has it a beautiful princess lives, guarded by a dragon and pining daily for her freedom, her return to her parents, and the hand of the knight who rescues her…
Which knight would turn that down?
Assuming everything goes according to plan, that is — and how often does that happen?
The List
The List by Tanya Chris – this is cute. A short story about Blaine who always picks the wrong guys to go out with. Denny, his best friend and roommate, is always there to pick up the pieces after his failed relationships. He’s patient and wants what best for Blaine – he’s perfect. But Blaine is too blind to see it.
He makes a list of everything his partner should be and goes hunting! Poor Denny will just have to wait a bit longer for Blaine to see him.
I enjoyed this – quick and entertaining.
I can’t find any links to this, must’ve grabbed it in a giveaway or something, but here it is on Goodreads.
Blaine has lousy luck with men, which is why henceforth all prospects will be vetted against The List. He’s on a mission to find the man who meets every criteria on it, and his best friend and roommate, Denny, is there to cheer him on, to guide and protect him on his important journey.
But where is his true love? If only Blaine could see what’s right in front of his eyes.
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis by Pelaam – This story is part of the Legendary Loves Volum 1 anthology together with K.L. Noone’s The Pooka’s Share and my Pine Tree Mary, but I haven’t read it until now.
Ryker and his best friend Mitch is on holiday in Puerto Rico, but when they arrive at the resort, they’re warned not to go out after dark since there have been some strange animal attacks.
Ryker meets Alejandro who is working at the resort and is instantly drawn to him. They go on a hike together and the attraction grows. The more time Ry spends with Alejandro, the more he learns about the strange attacks and the monster lurking in the area. Soon he realises Alejandro isn’t who he thought he was.
Monster love? This is a fated mate, shapeshifter story, and I enjoyed it, but I would’ve wanted there to be a little less sex – yes, I’m boring that way LOL
books2read.com/MetamorphosisPelaam
When Ryker arrives in Puerto Rico with his friend Mitch, all he’s anticipating are a few days of luxurious accommodation and an exciting place to discover. The last thing he expects is to find he has an immediate attraction to one of the hotel staff, the handsome and flirtatious Alejandro, who appears to be equally interested in him.
After spending a day with Alejandro hiking a difficult trail, Ryker finds his attraction deepening, though he knows it can’t be more than a holiday romance between them.
And he can’t help but feel Alejandro is hiding something.
Despite being warned not to leave the complex after dark, he follows Alejandro one night and discovers a world he never imagined existed. And the attraction between them becomes something much deeper.
But that’s the least of his worries when it becomes apparent something dark and deadly is stalking him.
The Perfect Gift
The Perfect Gift by Harley Grace – It was the cover! This story was part of the Winter Wonderland Giveaway at the beginning of the month, and it caught my attention, so I grabbed it.
Levi is with his friends at a Colorado spa, and the friends leave him without clothes in the unforgiving snow as a joke. Luckily for Levi, Jackson, a rugged, lumberjack kind of man finds him before he freezes to death and brings him home.
It’s short and it leaves a few questions unanswered, but I read it, sitting on the sofa with a glass of red, so I’m not complaining LOL
I couldn’t find this anywhere either, so here is the Goodreads link.
When Levi lost his clothes, he finds a hot lumberjack to keep him warm.
When a practical joke leaves Levi dangling in the icy January wind at a Colorado spa, he’s in desperate need of a savior. Or a pair of pants. He finds both in a rugged mountain man who comes to light his fire.
Jackson, the town handyman, gets more than he bargained for when he drops a big load of wood off at the local spa. Levi’s there, buck naked and trembling, and Jackson has no choice to bring the hipster home before he freezes his balls off.
The trip was meant to be a present from his best friend, but in Jackson’s toasty bed, Levi finds the best present of all—the full attention of Colorado’s hottest lumberjack.
How to Catch a Bookworm
How to Catch a Bookworm (Chester Falls #0.5) by Ana Ashley – another shorty. It said bookworm in the title so what could possibly go wrong? I was laughing, not because it’s a particularly humorous read, but a little while ago I wrote about how I wrote Once in a Snowstorm ticking off tropes, well here we have a character named Tristan and one of the characters are ‘so responsive’ LOL.
There are no surprises in this one, but we have a bookstore owner and that’s always nice. It’s the first in a series full of How to Catch titles.
books2read.com/HowToCatchABookworm
Ben has two passions in life, books and Bookmarked, the bookstore he owns in the town of Chester Falls.
When he spots the guy across the bar, all broody, gorgeous and hard muscle, he can’t resist reaching out.
Tristan’s life could be worse, but moving into a new town and finding your boyfriend cheating on you with a random guy, all on the same day, is pretty up there on the scale of ‘how much worse can it get?’
Things start looking up the moment the sexy stranger with the nerdy glasses and deep brown eyes asks him the right question at the right time.
It was a one off.
It meant nothing.
Right?
When fate traps Ben and Tristan into a second meeting, will Ben finally listen to his best friend? And will Tristan put his past aside to catch his sexy bookworm?
Welcome to Chester Falls, where you can expect to meet sweet men, sexy situations, interfering friends and lots, lots of feels.
How To Catch A Bookwork is a 12k, MM romance short story set in the small town of Chester Falls.
Playing Chicken
Just a few days ago, A.L. Lester was here to talk about her new story Playing Chicken. Last weekend, I poured myself a cup of coffee and curled up with a blanket and read it.
It’s a cute, hurt-comfort, St Dwynwen’s Day story. Perfect for a Saturday afternoon!
Marc returns home from London to his isolated Welsh cottage for good, having found his ex boyfriend shagging someone else in their bed. Who’s the thin, freezing cold man with the bruised face he finds in his barn? Will the tenuous connection between them grow, or fade away?
A 9,000 word short story to mark the Welsh St Valentine’s Day, St Dwynwen’s Day, the 25th of January. With chickens.
Tommy’s Blind
And then I re-read Tommy’s Blind Date by Anne Brooke – I’ve written about it before here on the blog, but I enjoyed it this time too. I do love the opening scene when Tommy is on yet another terrible blind date.
It’s short, it’s fun, and while Jacob, Tommy’s best friend and date, isn’t my favourite character in the whole wide world, I like this one.
books2read.com/TommysBlindDate
Thirty-two year old Tommy Godolphin has been on a series of blind dates, as he doesn’t want to be single any more. However, none of them really hits the spot and the latest one has proved a complete, if amusing, disaster.
When he recounts what happened to his best friend, Jacob, he expects Jacob to laugh with him as usual, but this time he doesn’t. Instead, Jacob challenges Tommy to go out on a blind date with him, to see what, if anything, he might be doing wrong. If Tommy accepts, how will their friendship survive?
That’s it! Happy reding 🙂
Ofelia Grand 