Shiny Things – A Thanksgiving Read

November 24, 2016February 12, 2019 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays I watch in movies and think ‘well, that looks nice’ and then I move on with my life without sparing it much more thought.

This year, I thought I’d read a story for Thanksgiving – we do it for Halloween and Christmas so why not Thanksgiving? Well, maybe because people are too busy eating turkey or for the fact that Thanksgiving stories are pretty hard to come by. I spent quite some time looking for a Thanksgiving book I wanted to read and I’m sad to say nothing really caught my interest, but then I remembered Shiny Things by Amy Spector.

If you think Amy Spector is all horror and blood and gore you’re wrong. Shiny Things is a gentle new adult romance. I loved it when I read it in 2014. Back then I didn’t know Amy and everything with writing was new and shiny and rather scary.

This story made me cry then and I thought maybe it wouldn’t now, but I got quite emotional while reading it this morning.

Shiny Things is about Nathaniel who’s father kicked him out when he found out he was gay and Vincent, the boy who got him kicked out. It’s Thanksgiving ten years later and these boys, now young men, meet again. Vincent is the owner of a gallery and Nathaniel is there to renovate said gallery.

There is one scene when Nathaniel is watching the paintings in the gallery and sits down to talk to the artist that had me sobbing – both in 2014 and now – it’s just a few lines but it’s enough.

If you haven’t read it, you should! Shiny Things is part of the Boughs of Evergreen anthology and the proceed from that anthology goes to the Trevor Project.

books2read.com/ShinyThings *

A story from Boughs of Evergreen: A Holiday Anthology

At sixteen, Nathaniel Avery was shipped off to live with an aunt in hopes of quelling a budding relationship between him and another boy. Ten years later, a frantic call from his younger brother and his father’s failing health, brings him back home.

Just weeks before Thanksgiving and the most important day in Vincent Cooke’s career, he nearly collides with the grown version of the boy he never really forgot.

Will a gallery renovation, the holiday season and the art of a mad genius help them to rebuild a friendship and rekindle a romance?

* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Release Day | The Maddest of Men

November 22, 2016February 12, 2019 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

I’m trying something new today. Back in the spring, I wrote this little story about a man with an angelic face and beautiful red corkscrew curls who tortures people for a living. He is the right-hand man to a drug lord in the futuristic city Carona and everything is going well for their organisation until Creed, a government employed retrieving agent, shows up. This is the story of The Maddest of Men, and the new thing is that it is in Kindle Unlimited.

I don’t have any books in KU prior to this one but I thought it time to broaden my horizons and see what it’s like there on the other side of the fence. If I’ll be staying or not we’ll see in the future, but for now, it’s only available on Amazon.

Read a short excerpt here.

books2read.com/TheMaddestofMen *

To prove his loyalty to Cham, Grayham is willing to do anything, and he does. He helps Cham run his empire by finding out the truth by any possible means. It’s not as hard as it may seem, all he has to do is ask the right questions, and his internal polygraph will tell him if someone is lying or not. And when they lie—well he deals with that too. Life as an executioner can get quite lonely, not that Grayham plans on doing anything about it. It would kill him to have to off a lover.

Creed is a retrieving agent on a mission. He is to infiltrate one of Carona’s drug organisations to get to the inquisitor. Rumour states the man with the fiery red curls has supernatural powers; it also says anyone coming close to him disappears. Creed has no idea how he’s going to make it out alive or why his supervisor sent him in without backup. But, when an opening to work as a waiter at one of the drug lord’s parties presents itself Creed sets to work.

In a world where people compensate for the years of bombings and starvation with clinic bought physical perfection a man with crooked teeth and mismatching eyes stands out. Grayham notices the waiter watching him straight away. If he’s there to harm Cham, he’ll deal with it. Creed knows he must get his hands on the inquisitor so when he is invited to the man’s flat he agrees to come even though he knows it might be the last thing he’ll ever do.

Note: This story contains graphic violence, on page death of secondary character, and sex acts between male adults.

* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Friday Reads | Mate Wanted for Christmas

November 18, 2016February 12, 2019 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

It’s time to start the holiday reads, is it not? I think it is, half of November has gone and before we now it Santa is stuck in the chimney. My first holiday read of the year is Mate Wanted for Christmas by Angelique Voisen. I saw someone list free M/M Christmas stories somewhere and this was one of them. Since I was in the mood for a paranormal read I snuggled up in bed and started reading.

Mate Wanted for Christmas is a short cute story about second chances and about moving on. Pat is a bear shifter with an aversion to alarm clocks. He lost his mate in a car crash ten years ago and every year he’s putting out an ad looking for a date with someone acting as his husband. No one ever responds until, all of a sudden, someone does. Former soldier Jacob has no job and nowhere to go so why not go on a date with a crazy bear shifter?

This is a story you read in one go. It’s written in present tense which threw me a little in the beginning but I got used to it. I wouldn’t have minded seeing a little more of Pat’s shifter side, though.

books2read.com/MateWanted *

For the last decade, bear shifter Pat Singer posted a specific want ad in the December newspaper. Each year, Pat gets the same response—zero. Except this year’s different. Finally, someone agrees to role-play Pat’s dead mate.

Spending Christmas Eve with a rich psycho shifter might seem unreasonable to some. To survive the harsh winter, former soldier Jacob Reynolds has no choice but to turn to desperate measures…except Pat Singer isn’t the crazy bastard Jacob imagines him to be.

The sexy, but reluctant werebear pushes all of Jacob’s right buttons, and if Jacob doesn’t guard his heart, he might end up getting burned.

* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.