Category: My Stories

Up North | Pet Delivery

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

I’m behind on my character introductions! Right now, I feel like I’m behind on everything, but ah well…

In just a few days, Pet Delivery will be released. It was once called Once in the Underworld, but it made me think of criminals and possibly demons, and since it’s a contemporary story about a guy hidden away in Nortown until he gets to testify, I wanted to change it.

Gabriel was at the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed a murder. He’s been whisked away to Nortown since the police believe no one would come looking for him there.

Chris owns Nortown’s only grocery shop, and when he hears the police has stashed away someone in his grandmother’s old cabin, he worries. The cabin isn’t suitable to live in during the winter, so to make sure the poor person doesn’t freeze to death he goes up there to check on them.

Gabe is a gentle soul. He loves animals and the hardest thing about being in the witness protection program is that he had to leave his two cats. He can endure the cold cabin and the bearded guys in plaid shirts staring at him as if he’s an alien when he goes into town, but to never see Toffee and Caramel again, Gabe can’t accept that.

Chris is stuck. The years go by and he’s still working most days of the week in the grocery shop he took over from his mother, he’s still living in the same cramped flat, and he’s still talking to the same people, day out and day in. Meeting Gabriel brightens his boring life.

Blurb:

Chris Hart owns the only grocery shop in Nortown, but he isn’t exactly overrun by customers. Some days he wonders why he bothers to open the doors at all. Spending his days smiling at the few people trickling in and his nights alone in bed isn’t the most interesting life a man could lead. But when Chris suddenly gets the excitement he’s been craving, it may be more than he bargained for.

Gabriel Miller loves his life. He’s close to his sister, has a job he adores and is the proud owner of one and a half cats. But all of it is taken away when he witnesses a murder. To keep him safe, the police place him in Nortown, of all possible locations.

Chris can’t believe they’re letting someone live in his gran’s old cabin in the middle of the winter. It’s too cold. When the poor man shows up in his shop looking to buy clothes, Chris’s heart melts, despite the freezing temperature. Gabriel notices the way the shopkeeper looks at him, but it can’t be right. No one looks at a heavyset man with heat in their eyes. Do they?

JMS Books :: books2read.com/PetDelivery

Release Day | Dazzle Me

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Release-Day

It’s release day!!!

Dazzle Me was first released back in 2015. It all started with me reading an article about sparkling nether regions – it’s true. People who, after having been thoroughly waxed, decided to decorate their bits *blinks owlishly*

So naturally, the wheels began to spin.

Poor Tom has no desire of being silky smooth and hairless, but Santino, his boyfriend, had booked him a day at the spa. Tom expected a massage and maybe a pedicure or something, but that’s not what he’s getting.

I had a great time writing this one. The things we do for love, ey LOL

Excerpt:

I lay down on my back and gazed up at the tiny spotlights that were scattered over the ceiling like faraway stars. Mahdi was pottering about, I could hear him moving things, but I didn’t look. My limbs were heavy. I hoped he would do something soothing. I let my eyelids droop shut, and shivered even though it was warm in the room. My body became heavier by the second, and the soft music playing in the background made me think of sunlit beaches and palm trees. 

“Keep on relaxing like that, Mr. Williams.” Mahdi touched my shoulder right before putting something cold, and quite heavy, on my cheek. It felt like it was moving. It was moving! Another one was planted on my other cheek, and then one on my forehead. My breath quickened. Oh God, something is moving on my face…several somethings. I stared at the ceiling, I couldn’t remember opening my eyes, but they were definitely open now. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a tiny tentacle approaching. 

“Relax, Mr. Williams. The snails will cover your skin with their mucus, and you’ll feel ten years younger.” 

I gagged a little. Saliva was flooding my mouth, and I had to force myself not to scream. Snails were crawling on my face. The saliva continued to flood my mouth. I was going to be sick all over the spa table. I swallowed, and swallowed, and swallowed again. How the fuck could Santino do this to me? I would kill him! He knew I hated slimy animals. I squeezed my eyes shut, strained to hear the music over my heartbeats and thoughts. Slow even breaths. Goose pimples spread over my body. There are no trails of mucus from nasty animals on my skin. I could feel one getting close to my lower lip. Breathe. Breathe. Do not pay attention to the one slipping in its own mucus and sliding down your cheek. 

“Ugh.” I clamped my lips shut in case one of them wanted to crawl into my mouth. 

“Oh, I’ll get it.” Mahdi placed the one that’d been slithering down my cheek closer to my nose. “Just relax.” 

Relax? Was he out of his mind? Did Santino really think I needed this? Maybe I had been looking a bit haggard lately, but snails? Couldn’t he have told me that he wanted me to take better care of myself? I should’ve known. He was always gorgeous. Before we’d started dating, I’d had a toothbrush, toothpaste and my electric razor in my bathroom cabinet. Now it was filled with creams and stuff. I should’ve paid attention. Hadn’t he said, only the other week, that I needed to moisturise? 

One nasty creature crawled over my nose. Don’t think about it! Don’t think about it! I breathed through my mouth, not opening it more than I absolutely had to. My feet had a life of their own. I tried to relax and listen to the music, but I kept clenching my toes. 

“Keep on relaxing, Mr. Williams. Rab will be with us soon.” 

He said something more that I didn’t quite catch, and since I didn’t dare open my mouth to speak, I sort of grunted a reply. A few minutes later I heard a soft knock on the door and the two men whispering in Thai. I paid no attention to them. One snail was almost up in my hair, and I did not want it in my hair. Breathe, Tom. You can do this; you can do it for Santo. 

There was a soft touch by my right shoulder before Mahdi rearranged the snail on my forehead. “Keep on relaxing, just like that, Mr. Williams.” 

Keep on relaxing? He had no idea what he was talking about. This was so bloody— 

“Ouch! What the fuck are you doing?”  

Buy links:

Contemporary M/M Romance: 9,524 words

JMS Books :: Amazon :: books2read.com/DazzleMe

Blurb:

dazzlemeTom and Santino’s anniversary is coming up, and Tom has a plan. He’s going to show Santino how much he means to him. The night will be magical.

Tom’s plan did not include a trip to Thailand. He doesn’t do aeroplanes, doesn’t do tropical climate, and he doesn’t do spas. Yet he finds himself without a stitch of clothing on a spa table, with a man he’s never met before while Santino is away on a business meeting.

This was not how it was supposed to go. Tom will do his best to live through the day so they can celebrate their anniversary when they get back to the hotel, but If Santino wanted him smooth and sparkly, couldn’t he have told him instead of booking him an appointment?

Cover Reveal | Aiden and Tristan

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 1 Comment

Cover-Reveal

Are you ready to see another cover? There will be a few in the near future…more than a few. We have some intense publishing ahead LOL

Since I’ve decided to turn my old Nortown into Up North stories, I wanted them all to be able to be read as stand-alones. From the beginning that’s been my goal with the Up North books, so we’ve lumped all Aiden and Tristan stories together into one.

Aiden and Tristan includes:

Once in a Snowstorm
The Empty Egg
Happy Endings
Just Words

All in all, we end up with about 46k of Aiden and Tristan shenanigans. I always meant to write one more shorty where Tristan proposed to Aiden, but I’m not good at wedding stuff and now it’s gone so long since I wrote them, so I’m no longer in their heads if that makes sense.

Aiden and Tristan are more cliché than the other couples in the Up North stories. It’s babbly city guy vs grumpy lumberjack. There is size difference, age difference, sensible clothing vs designer clothes, and I included lines like ‘Oh, so responsive’ and other fine sentences you only find in a certain kind of stories LOL

I had so much fun writing these stories, and I know it sometimes sounds as if I’m putting them down, but Aiden and Tristan are characters who are very dear to me.

Are you ready to see the cover?!?

aidenandtristan

Blurb:

Daring a snowstorm might not be the smartest thing Aiden Evans has ever done, but he can’t stand being in his flat a moment longer. With only three days to Christmas, he doesn’t want to be alone. He wants a place to belong, wants people around him who won’t look down on him. He might not find that at his mother’s place, but it’s better than being alone in the city. If he can make it there, that is. 

Tristan Gardner is looking forward to a quiet night in front of the TV, but instead, he has to save an idiot in designer clothes from freezing to death in his forest. Tristan tries not to notice the man’s good looks, just like he has tried not to notice any man’s good looks for the last seven years. He knows where relationships go and is far better off living alone, with his dog, in his cabin. 

Aiden is driving Tristan mad with his bratty comments and irresponsible ways, and Aiden is going crazy from Tristan’s judgmental attitude. Luckily, in a few days, the weather will clear up, and the two men won’t have to be together any longer. But will a few steamy nights with the grumpy lumberjack change Aiden’s mind about wanting to leave? And will Tristan still want to go back to his peaceful, predictable life without fear of getting his heart broken? 

Note: This book contains Once in a Snowstorm, The Empty Egg, Happy Endings, and Just Words 

Release day: May 22