Guest Post | A Place in the World by Ellie Thomas

October 5, 2025October 3, 2025 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 2 Comments

The lovely Ellie Thomas is back on the blog! Today, she’s gonna tell us about her latest release, A Place in the World.

Thank you so much, Ofelia, for having me back on the blog again! I’m Ellie, I write Historical MM Romance and today, I’m here to chat about my new release, A Place in the World.

This under-5k-word story is Book 8.5 in my Twelve Letters series, which seems slightly out of sync since Books 9 and 10, A United Front and A Period of Adjustment have already been released during the spring and summer respectively! However, A Place in the World was originally published in January as my contribution to the Love is All charity anthology from JMS Books, so it follows on neatly from Book 8, The Way Home.

The Way Home followed my established couple, Luc and Harry, to Essex to spend Christmas with Luc’s parents, hinting at the beginning of a rapprochement with Harry’s estranged parents in nearby Kent.

A Place in the World follows on from the events in the Way Home, with Luc and Harry now back in London and busy with their working lives as a musician and actor respectively.

This story is from Luc’s point of view as he ponders over his place in society and specifically the tight-knit and generally accepting theatre world to which he and Harry belong.

He casts his eye over the crowd in the tavern where he has arranged to meet Harry, acknowledging the variety of relationships and gender identities that are accepted amongst the theatre crowd but might be frowned on by wider society.

The heart of the story is about Luc and Harry’s relationship at a time where gay men could be persecuted, and how their relationship is accepted by the raffish theatre crowd. Although Luc and Harry aren’t interacting for most of the story, they are aware acutely of each other, showing the balance of opposites attract.

Harry holds court at the centre of a group of his fellow actors while Luc is content to remain on the fringes. Both men accept the differences in their personalities which confirms the strength of their love, whether they are in a crowd or at home alone together.

Blurb:

In the early spring of 1818, violinist Luc Gerrard completes a performance in a London concert hall and rushes away to meet his actor lover Harry Kent in a Covent Garden tavern.

Surrounded by members of the theatrical community, Luc ponders over a sense of belonging, something that eluded him growing up in rural Essex as the son of French émigrés, and having to hide his attraction to men.

Sitting in the tavern, surrounded by unconventional theatricals, Luc feels at ease with his current companions, and considers the close circle of men who have befriended him and his lover. Has Luc truly found contentment? And can he trust in the special affinity he feels for Harry?

Excerpt:

“What can I get you?” the harried barman asked without looking at Luc.

“A glass each of port and gin.”

A familiar voice called over Luc’s shoulder, “Make that two gins.”

Luc turned to face Harry, who grinned at him.

“If you’re buying, that is, Frenchie.”

He’s looking particularly handsome tonight, Luc thought. Harry’s fair skin was flushed with animation, a pleasing contrast to the deep smoky blue of his coat that brought out the copper tints in his fair hair and made his eyes seem more blue than green or grey.

“New coat?” Luc asked. “From Percy?”

“Daniel, this time,” Harry said, referring to their friend who managed a tailor’s establishment on Tottenham Court Road, rather than their aristocratic companion whose extensive wardrobe rivalled the shop’s stock. “A customer ordered the coat, paid for it and never collected it, despite several reminders. I can never believe the number of posh coves with more money than brains. Not that I’m complaining, since I benefit.”

So do I, Luc thought admiringly.

“It suits you,” he said. In the crowded pub, filled with friends, he could have quietly voiced his thoughts. You look so desirable. You take my breath away.

But Luc never found it easy to spontaneously utter his feelings, so he occupied himself with counting out coins to place on the bar.

Nevertheless, Harry must have caught something in his expression.

“You know how much I like you in concert black,” Harry muttered in his ear. “Severe and untouchable.” Harry was standing so close that Luc could feel the heat emanating from his body. “And I like you even better out of it.”

Luc blushed, his hand stilled on the counter.

Five years together, off and on, and he still has that effect on me.

Before they admitted their love for each other nearly two years ago, Luc had his fair share of passing dalliances, but found attraction to be short-lived. The desire he felt for Harry remained a steady flame rather than a brief candle.

Harry stepped back and said in a normal voice, “How did it go tonight? The concert, I mean.”

“Very well, I think. Will seemed pleased and the audience seemed to enjoy it.”

“Got to please the crowd, Frenchie.”

They smiled at each other in understanding of the basic rule of theatrical success.

“Harry!” A plaintive female voice called from across the tavern. “I’m dying of thirst here.”

“Can you make that another gin?” Harry asked the barman. Luc fumbled in his pockets for the extra coins.

“Thanks, Luc. I’ll get the next round. If I returned empty-handed, Clara would kill me. And that would ruin Shakespeare’s double death scene.”

“And the rest of the play,” Luc said drily.

“Come and join us,” Harry said, his head cocked in invitation. “Once you’ve paid your dues to Mr. Entwhistle.”

Book Links:

JMS Books :: Amazon :: UBL :: Add to Goodreads :: Add to Bookbub

Bio:

Ellie Thomas lives by the sea. She comes from a teaching background and goes for long seaside walks where she daydreams about history. She is a voracious reader especially about anything historical. She mainly writes historical gay romance.

Ellie also writes historical erotic romance as L. E. Thomas.

Website: https://elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/

Facebook reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8308047409266947

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elliethomas.bsky.social

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19835510.Ellie_Thomas

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ellie-thomas

Guest Post | Squirrel Found by Holly Day

September 8, 2025September 7, 2025 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

A few days ago, Squirrel Found, the fifth and last story in the A Scurry of Squirrels series, was released.

Like the previous stories in this series, it’s a fated mates, interspecies couple kind of story, where one of the MCs is a squirrel shifter. Unlike the previous stories, the love interest isn’t a wolf but a vampire.

I figured we can’t leave Doson behind without giving Nicodemus a happily ever after, so that’s what we’re doing. Our grumpy vampire in an immaculate suit deserves happiness too, does he not??

Of course he does!

Below you can read the first chapter! And like the others, you can read it as a standalone story, but it works better in the context of the previous ones.

Squirrel Found

Squirrels should never travel alone.

Three months ago, Deneb Hartman lost his cousin. They were in a clearing, in their squirrel forms, when wolves attacked them. His cousin never made it back, and Deneb’s world shattered. He never did well on his own, and he’s been traveling aimlessly ever since.

Nicodemus Zervas owns a thrift shop in Doson. He’s a vampire surrounded by humans unaware of the supernatural world, and it’s lonely. For a year, he had a squirrel shifter working for him, but now he’s moved on and left Nicodemus behind. But then one day, there is a naked man jumping out of his recycling dumpster. When Nicodemus runs after him, all he can find is a squirrel.

Deneb found a nice little forest behind a thrift store to hang out in. Had he known people stayed in the building overnight, he wouldn’t have shifted where he could be seen. Nicodemus is almost sure the naked man and the squirrel are the same, but how to get him to show himself to Nicodemus? Bribe him with macadamia nuts?

Buy links:

Paranormal Gay Romance: 37,468 words

JMS Books :: Amazon

Chapter 1

Nicodemus Zervas loosened his tie and let his shoulders drop. It had been a long fucking day, a long fucking week, and it was only Tuesday. How was it possible?

Last Friday, Raaz had worked his last day at Get It or Get Out, and Nicodemus should be glad.

He was.

He wanted Raaz to find his place in the world.

The problem was he’d believed he had. Most people left when they no longer needed his help, but Raaz had stayed. He’d moved out but kept working at Get It or Get Out. He came into work every day, and he’d helped Nicodemus keep an eye on things. They worked well together.

Nicodemus didn’t mind the wolves.

For so long, he’d been the only supernatural in his life. He knew of the other supernaturals in town, of course. Had spoken to Konrad, the wolf leader, several times, and he’d been known to visit The Howling Moon once a year or so when he’d hung around humans for so long that he wasn’t sure he remembered what being a vampire entailed.

It had all changed when Raaz came to him. Raaz was a squirrel shifter who, when he arrived, had been running from a pack of wolves.

It hadn’t taken long before the wolves had come sniffing around, and at first, he hadn’t been pleased, but… He’d been part of something. They might not see him as a pack member, but they’d trusted him to look after Raaz while he was here. When there was trouble, they not only let him know what was going on, but they also asked for his help.

As pathetic as it was, Nicodemus liked it when he could be useful. He liked helping people despite not liking people. He didn’t want anything in return. He wasn’t one of those people who helped others to later lord it over them. No, he simply enjoyed knowing he’d made a difference. If the person he’d helped never spared him a second thought, that was okay. He did it for himself. To know he’d done something good.

He sighed and threw the tie on the bed.

Get It or Get out was a thrift store, one he’d built from the ground up, and he was proud of it. Not of the thrift store per se, but of the work he did there. The second floor of the building held eight small rooms. The doors were evenly spaced in a narrow corridor, and at both ends of it there were two bathrooms with showers. Around the corner of the corridor was a laundry room with one washing machine, one dryer, and a few clotheslines. There was also a small square room where he’d put a couch and a TV, and a small kitchen.

It wasn’t much, no luxury resort, but it beat sleeping outside. He didn’t invite strangers to stay—or he did, but he picked them. He didn’t run a charity organization, didn’t have the place listed as anything other than as a thrift shop, didn’t try to save the world. He only tried to help the ones he wanted to help. Women who’d been crushed by society, by their spouses, or by their families. Women someone should’ve looked out for and failed.

Raaz had been an exception. He wasn’t the first shifter he’d helped, but he was the first man he’d allowed to stay on the second floor. He wanted the women he took in to feel safe, and letting a man in wasn’t the way to do it, but Raaz was a squirrel. He couldn’t tell the women, since humans didn’t know of the supernatural world, but if he could have, they’d have known they had nothing to fear.

Squirrels were hunted. They might have the same strength as a human man when in their human form, but they were squirrels. Tiny, distracted, fluffy things, and it hadn’t taken more than a day or two before the women had let their guards down around him.

For a short time everything had been great, but now Raaz had moved on. He’d taken a job at Mildred’s, the local coffee shop. He’d work there with Myka, who was a human woman mated to one of the wolves.

It was good. He was glad for Raaz. He’d be safe there, not as safe as at Get It or Get Out, since Nicodemus would die before he allowed anyone to touch one of his people, but the wolves would be able to keep an eye on him in town.

It was great.

It was… good.

Maybe Raaz would think back on his time with Nicodemus at some point in his life and feel… gratitude.

He undid the top button of his shirt and was fiddling with the second when his phone rang. Frowning, he grabbed it. Nicole’s name showed on the screen, and he took a deep breath before answering. “Yes.”

“Nicodemus?” She was whisper-yelling and all his senses came to attention.

“What’s going on?” He was moving toward the door before the last word was out of his mouth.

“There’s a naked man.”

“What?” He hadn’t meant to snarl, but he did what he could to keep the women safe. He didn’t invite them to stay in his building only to have a flasher pestering them.

“He jumped into the Dumpster. I was in the laundry room, folding some clothes. When I carried them back to my room, I saw him through the window. He climbed up on it and jumped inside. It’s pretty full. They’re coming to get it in two days, so I don’t think he hurt himself jumping into it, but…”

They had a Dumpster where they tossed all the clothes and fabric they got but deemed unfit to sell. It was picked up and replaced once a month.

“I don’t care if he hurt himself.”

“He’s naked, Nicodemus. Maybe he’s… Dumpster diving in hopes of finding something to wear.”

Nicodemus grabbed his keys off the small table in his hallway and stepped outside. “Is he still inside?”

“Yeah. Maybe he’s trapped.”

Nicodemus grunted. It would serve the fucker right. “Stay inside. I’m on my way.”

“I’ll keep watching.”

Nicodemus gave a short nod, then he hung up.

* * * *

Deneb Hartman tore open one of the plastic bags in the Dumpster. The first item he touched was a hot pink cotton top with Barbie written across the front in glitter. It looked perfectly fine apart from the seam at the arm having come partly undone, and a thread was hanging loose. It didn’t matter. He slung it over his shoulder and kept digging.

He needed pants. When his fingers brushed over a pair of dark teal lounge pants with a wide waistband, he deemed it good enough. He didn’t have the energy to care what he wore. He hadn’t worn anything in almost three months.

Not since Shun was eaten by wolves.

Shun was his cousin—squirrel cousin. He wasn’t sure how far apart they were in the family tree, but it didn’t matter. Shun had been his only safety in this cruel world. Naively, he’d believed they’d make it. Had believed they’d find a place where they could settle down and live happily ever after. Where they’d gather nuts for the winter and not worry about a thing.

Shun was smarter. He’d known things wouldn’t turn out great for them, had told Deneb over and over again, but he hadn’t listened. Instead, he’d dreamed. So stupid.

He tried to swallow around the lump forming in his throat. He’d waited for Shun to come back to the clearing where they’d been separated for as long as he’d dared to. Had left him a note and had lingered in the area for several weeks, but no word, and no Shun.

What was the point of continuing on his own?

He added the pants to the pile on his shoulder and climbed out of the Dumpster, no longer in the mood to get dressed. He had no money, so what had he been thinking? There was no use in going into town. He didn’t know where he was, having traveled aimlessly for months after he gave up on Shun coming back.

In a fit of insanity, he’d figured he could find clothes and rejoin civilization. He hadn’t spoken to anyone in ages. But for what reason? Shun wouldn’t be there. All it would accomplish was him getting eaten. Shun had often told him his need to talk to people would get them killed one day.

Deneb didn’t think the wolves who found them in the clearing had been his fault. They’d been in shifted form, so it wasn’t him talking that had given them away. But maybe it was his fault anyway.

He jumped off the Dumpster, only wincing a little as his bare feet touched the ground. There were a few trees behind the building. He’d spent the day there, had watched cars coming and going, and then, when it’d quieted and all cars had left the parking lot, he’d had the idea of trying to see if he could get some clothes. He’d seen a red-haired woman throw a thick winter jacket into the Dumpster.

Pointless.

Walking between the trees, he picked the tallest one, threw the clothes over a branch in case he changed his mind later, and shifted into squirrel. He climbed to a fork in the tree and burrowed down. A sigh wrapped around him.

He needed to find a hollow to spend the night in. Sitting here was too exposed, should there be an owl or something else nasty, but for now he didn’t want to move. Maybe waiting for an owl was the best he could do.

Guest Post | An Unlikely Alliance Box Set by Ellie Thomas

August 17, 2025August 13, 2025 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 2 Comments

The lovely Ellie Thomas is back on the blog! She’s here to talk about An Unlikely Alliance, the box set, so keep on reading!

Thank you so much, Ofelia, for having me back on the blog again! I’m Ellie, and I write Historical MM Romance. I’m delighted to announce that the box set for my Regency London-set An Unlikely Alliance MMM trilogy is now on release!

This box set consists of An Unlikely Alliance, An Increasing Entanglement and An Uncommon Alignment, where Clem, Abe and Humphrey, three very different men in terms of character and status find mutual attraction and forge a lasting relationship to reach their HEA.

When we first meet Abe Pengelly in An Unlikely Alliance, we see him through the eyes of his occasional lover Clem. Tough-guy Abe holds court at the Old Red Lion Inn that straddles the Fleet Ditch with a long history of criminal confederacy.

Bur despite his swashbuckling appearance, complete with a red velvet coat harking back to the glory days of the tavern, Abe is already planning to transform himself into a respectable businessman.

Abe might have grown up on the streets as a brawler and semi-criminal, but his devotion to his mother, Lucy, means that he has no desire to be transported or to face the gallows. By his mid-twenties, Abe has moved away from fencing stolen goods to trading in information, which is how he meets Clem. Abe is not only attracted to Clem but over time, he’s developed an affection for him. However, his growing feelings for Clem don’t seem to further their relationship.

That changes when Humphrey enters the equation and the three men embark on a relationship. Abe finally feels he’s ready to settle down, to his mother’s delight. In An Increasing Entanglement, Abe’s plans to gradually ease into respectability are fast forwarded when Travers, a contact at the military headquarters of Horse Guards, offers him a job. Similarly, his personal life is upended by Clem’s abduction by his enemy and former employer Richard Farquarson. Since he confronted Farquarson on Clem’s behalf in the first story, Abe feels culpable for this development.

Apart from his mother, Abe is accustomed to being a lone wolf, and by the third story, An Uncommon Alignment, we watch him struggle with his change of circumstances. Instead of the freedom of the Old Red Lion, he is now an office worker with colleagues and has to tolerate their petty bullying due to a difference in social class.

He’s also no longer a single man. Abe is capable of deep-rooted loyalty but he’s used to keeping his own counsel and carefully guarding secrets. Abe has to learn not to make unilateral decisions where Clem and Humphrey’s happiness is concerned, and to function as part of a team, both professionally and personally. By the end of the third novella, Abe is no longer living life on the edge but has eased into a happy domestic life and a burgeoning career, with the support of the men he loves.

Blurb:

All three novellas in the MMM Regency An Unlikely Alliance trilogy by Ellie Thomas are compiled for this box set.

In these stories, bratty private secretary Clem, semi-criminal hard man Abe, and shy gentleman Humphrey discover that mutual passion leads to romance and even lasting love when they band together to defeat a mutual enemy.

Contains the stories:

An Unlikely Alliance: In Regency London, private secretary Clem encounters shy gentleman Humphrey with satisfying results. From then on, it seems natural to include Abe, Clem’s regular lover, in their frolics. Apart from willing bedfellows, Clem is used to being alone and unsupported. But will the alliance between the three men prove more substantial than mere passing pleasure?

An Increasing Entanglement: Clem, Abe and Humphrey are struggling to maintain their romantic connection in the hustle and bustle of Regency London. When one of their trio is threatened, will the others dash to his rescue? And might this be the making of their romance?

An Uncommon Alignment: In Regency London, Clem, Abe and Humphrey are spending the summer together, in the hope of consolidating their romance. But amongst the demands of everyday life, an old enemy reappears to threaten their harmony. Can the trio defeat Richard Farquarson for once and all? And might they find a way to remain together forever?

Excerpt:

Excerpt from An Unlikely Alliance:

Humphrey had tried and failed to forget the episode in the coffee house the week before. It wasn’t as though he had the excuse of no other distractions. He barely had a free minute given the number of house guests arriving for the start of the Season. There seemed to be a constant round of relatives expecting him to conduct them in the social round.

At Drury Lane Theatre, Humphrey was entirely distracted during a performance of Hamlet, simply because one of the supporting actors bore a faint resemblance to the man from the coffee house. Only then did he admit he was a lost cause. In conversation with his cousins afterwards, he tried to hide that he couldn’t remember a single scene from the play, even though he’d studied it at school.

So after dinner one evening, when he wasn’t required for an hour or two, he audaciously decided to beard his seducer in his den, or rather the Fleet Street tavern he frequented.

Humphrey was so flustered by his uncharacteristic decisiveness that he changed his waistcoat three times. Although the blond had seemed more interested in what lay beneath Humphrey’s clothing.

He eyed his modest supply of coats with trepidation. Is the green too sober, the blue too frivolous and the buff-coloured one too plain?

In the end, he solved the problem by closing his eyes and picking a garment at random. He didn’t dare glance at the mirror in case that prompted more equivocation.

When downstairs, Humphrey hesitated by the drawing room door, lured by comfortable congeniality versus the pursuit of illicit pleasure. One minute he was about to enter the room and in the next, he was haring out of the front door and down the steps to the street.

He calmed his pace when he reached Holborn, slowed by a steady trickle of early evening foot traffic that thickened as he made his way towards Fleet Street.

I’m just going for a quiet drink, he thought. He might not even be there.

Humphrey halted at the entrance to the tavern, his resolve failing him. His vacillation was overcome by pure coincidence. A group of men required access and their impetus carried him over the threshold. Humphrey removed his crown beaver hat and looked around the unevenly shaped room.

With a combination of disappointment and relief, he concluded that his quarry wasn’t present. Then he spotted him in a corner nook. A second glance proved that he was not alone.

Humphrey shifted from foot to foot. In any given social situation he was a reliable sort of fellow, or so Aunt Cece reassured him. But etiquette couldn’t guide him in this particular situation.

It didn’t help that the man seated beside his acquaintance was equally attractive; well-built and with deep olive toned skin. He made a pleasing contrast to the other’s fair slenderness. His massive build reminded Humphrey enticingly of a bare knuckle boxer in an exhibition bout at the Lyceum.

Humphrey was dawdling indecisively when the blond looked up. Humphrey was neatly hooked by that sultry grey gaze. The man nudged his friend. He whispered a few words in his ear, from which hung a gold hoop. The other man grinned and looked Humphrey up and down in a far too knowledgeable way.

Oh good heavens, has he told him? Humphrey felt hot and cold and flustered all at once. He didn’t know whether to be flattered, alarmed, or horrified. He stood stock still, to the annoyance of another patron, halted in the course of reaching the bar.

“Scuse me, squire.”

“Beg your pardon,” Humphrey said immediately. Unfortunately, his reflex response brought him in front of the table occupied by his coffee house companion.

“Care to join us?” The dark aspected man asked.

The invitation seemed to be loaded with meaning.