A Rose is a Rose

Today it’s National Red Rose Day, and I ended up reading  A Rose is a Rose by Jet Mykles – I didn’t mean to re-read it, I didn’t. But I listed it in a post not long ago and I was scrolling through my books and saw it there. The cover is hard to miss.

In many early cultures, red roses were used as decoration in wedding ceremonies and as time went by the red rose has become a symbol of love and romance. I wouldn’t call my husband a romantic, not by any means, but I do get roses quite often.

But, since I now re-read A Rose is a Rose, and since it’s the National Red Rose Day, I might as well talk a little about it.

Carson plays a part in a  burlesque show, but when he ends it with his sugar dad, he realises just how hard it is to pay the bills with what he makes. Eddie,  his landlord, comforts Carson when he finds him crying in the garden, but Eddie isn’t rich, so it doesn’t really matter that he is everything Carson wants. He has expensive tastes so he needs someone who can provide for him.

Eddie is growing roses in the garden, and he cuts them when they’re just right and gives them to Carson. It starts with one rose but pretty soon Carson needs to get more vases. But roses, as beautiful as they are, won’t pay for the things Carson needs.

I would like to hate Carson, I really do, but it isn’t his fault his mother raised him to believe he’s nothing but a high-class whore who has to have a sugar daddy to be able to survive.

This is an opposite attracts story – Eddie is calm and solid, Carson is not, and it’s Jet Mykles, so it’s GFY too of course LOL

Many of Jet Mykles’s books were published through Loose id, and sadly they’re no longer around so some of her books are currently without a home and without a place where they can be bought, A Rose is a Rose is one of those books.

It isn’t very often you find a main character who is a burlesque artist, it reminded me a little of Nicole Forcine’s This Little Whatever, where the main character is a male belly dancer. Perhaps that should be my next re-read…

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet


A Rose is a RoseWhen his latest sugar daddy drops him like yesterday’s news, Carson’s got more than a bruised ego to deal with. He’s broke! No designer clothes, no baubles, and while he loves his job with the burlesque show he needs to pay the bills.

Should be no problem. Carson’s young and pretty, so it should be no trouble finding someone new to pick up his tab.

Instead, he finds Eddie. The superintendent of Carson’s apartment building, Eddie couldn’t be further from Carson’s usual type, financially or physically, but his gift of a single red rose touches Carson’s heart.

For the first time, Carson doesn’t want to be just a kept man.

To live the life he always thought he wanted, he needs to find a new sugar daddy. But how can he part with the support of someone who seems to really love him?

Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Male/male sexual practices.

The Lumberjack and the Omega

Yeah so… LOL.

The thing is, I feel like I should know a little about M/M lumberjack stories since I’ve written a few. It’s not often I see them around, though, so when I was scrolling through Amazon and spotted The Lumberjack and the Omega by Canis Blackfang I stopped.

My expectations weren’t very high. It says it’s an M-preg story and while I think everyone has the right to read whatever pleases them M-preg is one thing I just don’t do – sorry. But there was the lumberjack part and I do love a good alpha/omega story, so I gave it a go.

Lex has left his pack and home behind him. He’s tired of having to do all the things expected of an omega and seeks a job up in the mountains. After an encounter with a burly man on the bus who tries to intimidate Lex, he decides to pose as an alpha in the lumberjack camp.

He soon realises it might not have been the best idea he’s ever had, and when he’s paired up with an alpha who kicks his mating instincts into high gear, yelling timber isn’t what’s on his mind.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and while there isn’t much of a story, we have an alpha and an omega sating their urges among the fallen trees and no one got pregnant while it lasted so I’m good LOL.

books2read.com/TheLumberjackAndTheOmega *


The Lumberjack and the OmegaAlpha or omega, you gotta be tough to earn a day’s wage as a lumberjack in the mountains of Chokecherry. Lex is a new omega recruit who wants to prove that he can handle an alpha’s share of work. Deep in the forest and partnered up with a hulking and handsome alpha named Caine, this young omega is about to discover just why virile alpha woodsmen and fertile omegas shouldn’t be left alone in the wilderness together!

This smoldering hot gay shifter paranormal romance story will satisfy all your wild werewolf cravings! 18+ ONLY!


* 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.

 

Jaeger’s Lost and Found – A Soaked Vampire Kind of Story

*drum roll*

Thunder and rain at Jaeger's Lost & FoundToday’s the day when Archibald Jaeger and Gael Murray step out into the rain and leave the old book shop behind to face the world. It’s not an ordinary world they’re facing, no it’s a world where it never stops raining, a world where humans and non-humans are living in different districts.

Archie is a finder, though a rather crappy one. His best friend Edie is part nagi and therefore shunned by the non-human world. Together, Archie and Edie run Jaeger’s Lost and Found, and their latest client is a vampire doomed to die within a few days since he’s lost his connections.

I had a plan for 2019, and Jaeger’s Lost and Found wasn’t part of that plan, but I was browsing JMS Books‘ website and saw a call for stories about lost connections. It was a month left till the deadline and I figured I wouldn’t make it, but this idea of a man meant to find things popped up in my mind.

I talked it over with my writing pals, Al and Amy, saying I probably wouldn’t make, and it was no use in trying, and the idea probably wasn’t any good anyway.

I went to bed, and the next day I started writing. The minimum word limit was 12k so that was my goal – three weeks later my supposed 12k story had turned into a 28k story.

Writing this story was so much fun!

Archie stared; he didn’t care if Gael could see the shock on his face. No one wanted to get to know him. He ran a hand over his chest, nervously making sure his suit vest hadn’t creased.

“So fucking proper,” Gael growled, and it sent a tingle skidding over Archie’s skin. Inappropriate, he reminded himself. No tingles around clients, it was not how he operated.

“Oh no, do I have to stop?”

“What?”

“You have this look…is it a thing we have to get?” Gael slowed down, looking around.

Archie rubbed his chest again. “No, it’s fine, you can keep going.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth there was a tug inside of him, more than a tug, it insisted. “Sorry, yes, I think we have to turn.”

“What?” Gael pushed some hair from his face. “Turn? Where?”

“Erm…” Archie breathed through another pull. “Next exit to the right.”

Gael grinned. “We would have anyway.”

“We’re already in Aspal?” That went faster and wasn’t nearly as excruciating as Archie had imagined.

“No.” Gael flashed fangs much like Edie used to, but he only had a single set. When Edie did it was playful, to him at least, though he had no doubt others found it terrifying. Gael on the other hand… Archie tingled again.

“I need a snack.”

“Charming.”

“Oh, I can be Mr. Jaeger, I can be.”

Archie swallowed but shook off Gael’s words. “It’s a vampire thing, right?”

For a second surprise flickered in Gael’s eyes before he turned back to look at the mostly deserted road. Archie squinted past the rain and the windshield wipers to a sign indicating an exit.

“Ah, yeah, we can give people mental nudges, but most often we don’t need to, though. Most species instinctively want to please us.”

Archie forced himself not to show any emotion. Instinctively want to please—that wasn’t fair. Vampires already had many advantages compared to most species—they were fast, strong, and immortal. They could die, so not indestructible, but unless someone chopped their head off or cut off their mental connections, they’d live forever.

Gael turned off the freeway and toward what almost looked like a ghost town. Stratholm wasn’t a fancy district by any means, but Archie wouldn’t voluntarily go here. It was where the ghost hand wanted him to go, though.

“You don’t feel it?”

Archie blinked a couple of times, his eyes gritty from lack of sleep and his heart thundering at the thought of leaving the car. “Feel what?”

Gael frowned. “A pull, a desire to please me?”

Archie looked at him, his flawless skin, beautiful lips, and the dark eyes. He wouldn’t have minded seeing him panting and sweaty, eyes shining with lust—irrational thinking. Archie never got into bed with strangers, and few stayed long enough to get to know him.

JMS is having a 20% discount on Jaeger’s Lost and Found for its first week, so head on over there, or if you prefer to shop elsewhere you’ll find where it’s available here:

books2read.com/Jaegerslostandfound 


Jaeger's Lost & FoundJaeger’s Lost and Found is the only finder shop to be had on the whole of the west coast. The problem is, Archibald Jaeger, the last of the Jaeger line, seems to be defective. A result of too many generations of crossbreeding with humans. But Jaegers are finders, and there’s nothing to be done about it.

Gael Murray has lost his connections. A vampire can’t survive without the energy exchange he has with the members of his coven through mental links. And, as of this morning, they’ve all vanished. Gael will die if he doesn’t reinstate his connections through a blood exchange. And his only hope to find the other members of his coven is to hire a finder.

Even a terrible finder is better than none at all.

Together Gael and Archie set out to save Gael’s life, but what was an already difficult task becomes nearly insurmountable. And Archie, who can never find what he’s looking for, finds himself falling in love with a man he’ll be hard pressed to save.