Cover Reveal | Frostbite

I have a cover!!! 🥳 It’s been a while since I did a cover reveal on this blog. It’s been a year since I released anything as Ofelia, so…  

But December is just around the corner, and with December comes JMS Books’ Advent Calendar. I’ve written a story for it. Frostbite is a short contemporary story about Noel and Bo, and I have to say that it’s one of my favourites this year. I had so much fun writing it!  

Since it’s part of the Advent Calendar, it won’t be available for preorder anywhere, so for now, all we can do is look at the cover! 

Frostbite

frostbite

Murder isn’t as much fun as it’s made out to be, neither is being rescued by a grouchy cop.  

All Noel Chance wanted to do was ask a woman a few questions about a kidnapping that took place thirty-seven years ago for his cold case podcast. He didn’t think someone would shoot her right in front of him.  

While hiding from the murderer by the dill pickle in the food cellar, he calls Bo, his brother’s best friend, who is a cop. Bo takes his sweet time to come to the rescue, and once he does, he’s surprised Noel was telling the truth.  

Bo then kidnaps him and takes him to his cabin in the woods while the police investigate the murder. Okay, maybe it isn’t kidnapping, and more a case of keeping him safe, but still. What is he to do with a hot but grumpy man in a cabin with only one bed?   

World Letter Writing Box Set

World Letter Writing Day

A heads-up! The World Letter Writing Box Set is now available in the shops! 🥳 It’s a collection of four gay romance novellas, all written to celebrate World Letter Writing Day. The stories were first published in 2023, but this is the first time you can grab them in a bundle. 

World Letter Writing Box Set

World Letter Writing DayCelebrate World Letter Writing Day with this box set! From a gentle small town missing letter mystery to lovers reconnecting after years apart, from a scientist and an architect falling in love long distance to a perilous undercover connection, these stories deliver a happy ending for everyone!

Contains the stories:

Dear John by Holly Day: Logan is working undercover on an island. Instead of getting close to the syndicate leader he’s investigating, he gets to know his boyfriend. Zion wants to be with Logan but has to get out of the relationship he’s in first, and he’s stuck on an island with no cellphone reception. Then Logan tells him the truth, and everything changes. How can Zion trust Logan when he’s been lying about who he is?

Love, Isidor by Nell Iris: My darling Henri. I still dream of you after all this time. One letter from his ex, Isidor, turns Henri’s world upside down. It’s been a decade since they couldn’t make their long-distance relationship work, and Henri still questions the decisions they made. Could they have fought harder for what they had? Is ten years apart too long, or will old feelings reignite when Henri and Isidor meet again?

Reading It Wrong by A.L. Lester: A date turned down. A stolen letter. A reminder that nerds don’t just play board-games. Reading it Wrong is a gentle MM romance set in the small-town world of Theatr Fach.

A Flowering of Ink by K.L. Noone: Burne loves his research. But months of island field work can get lonely until a fascinating letter arrives. Devon lives alone in a house he’s designed, full of roses and ocean views. When a misdirected birthday card turns up, he has to send it on and can’t resist adding a note. As Burne and Devon trade letters, they fall in love across ink and paper, but what might happen when they finally meet?

Buy Links:

Gay Romance: 86,131 words

JMS Books :: Amazon

Excerpt:

From Love, Isidor by Nell Iris

I don’t have thick, fancy stationery, so I grab a notebook, one of the envelopes I use for my business, and sit by my desk. I write his address on the envelope in block letters — my cursive is atrocious and unreadable — and without thinking it over more, I put pen to paper.

Isidor,
Meet me at our place. Saturday, 9 am. Breakfast is on me.
Henri.

I tear out the letter and stuff it into the envelope before I can change my mind.

It’s short and not very eloquent, but I get my point across, and he knows I’m a man of few words in my written conversations. And whatever I’m going to say to him — not that I know what I’m going to say — is going to be said while I’m looking at his face; I want to see his reaction in real life.

And if he doesn’t show? Then I’ll know.

But of course, he shows up.

* * * *

I arrive early at our place, Bread, which is a bakery-slash-café that makes the best breakfast sandwiches and pastries in a five-hundred-kilometer radius. Isidor brought me here for our real first date when we’d decided that we wanted to be more than just two people who fucked. We both loved the place and kept coming back — their coffee is excellent and their cinnamon rolls to die for — but since our relationship ended, I’ve only stopped by and bought takeout a few times. Enough to know the place looks unchanged and their pastries are as great as ever.

Our usual table is thankfully free when I arrive eighteen minutes before nine, and I buy a cup of coffee before I sit, but I can’t make myself drink it. My fingers tap-tap-tap on the table, my right knee is bouncing, and I can’t take my eyes off the door. It’s difficult for me to breathe, the coffee aroma sneaking its way up my nose turns my stomach, and I push away the cup.

What if he doesn’t come? What if he had a previous engagement, something he can’t break? What if the letter had been a drunken thing that he regretted the minute he’d sent it?

What if he does come?

Both options make me nauseous.

I tap my smartwatch. Eight forty-nine. I lay my hand on my knee to keep it still, but that makes my other leg start bouncing instead. My nerves are buzzing like an improperly grounded wire, and my circuits are close to overloading.

At eight-fifty-one, the bells hanging from the door announce his arrival. He’s early, as though he knew I needed to be put out of my misery, and oh my god, the sight of him stops every nervous tick I’ve displayed since I woke up at a quarter past four this morning.

His eyes find me immediately, and he freezes. I catch a quick glimpse of the hardness in his gaze before it melts away completely, replaced by softness and relief, as though he wasn’t sure I’d be here despite my invitation.

I stand, and that gets him moving. In a heartbeat, he’s right in front of me, so close I can reach out and touch him. But I don’t. Not yet. Even though my fingers are twitching.

“Henri.” His voice is deeper than I remember, and thick, as though he’s having a hard time keeping his emotions in check. The roll of his R as pronounced as ever.

“Hey.” I’m no better; raspy and throaty, barely unable to speak at all. My eyes burn worse than the time I chopped chili and got some in my eye. I have to blink and avert my gaze.

What to Read Wednesday | Series by Me

It’s been ages since I posted a What to Read Wednesday post, but I figured I’d do a self-centred one. I submitted a story to my publisher not too long ago, and they asked me to make a list of all my series because they were confused.   

It escalated and then all JMS Books authors had to make a list LOL. Anyway, there are a lot of series stories coming from Holly this last half of the year, so this list won’t be accurate for long, but today, this is what my list looks like.  

If you click on a cover, you’ll be taken to a page with a blurb, links, and an excerpt, so feel free to browse!   

Rockshade’s PID:

A group of paranormal cops solving crimes. We have shifters, magic users, and the occasional ghost. Best read in order.

souleater mindscrambler ghostdater

Up North Series:

Contemporary novellas, all standalone, but a few characters may show up in in stories other than their own. They all take place in a northern climate.

turning wood Crazy Joe when skies are gray bangerchallenge quinnyfocus 24dates kissesandcabins - small theegghunt petdelivery aidenandtristan onceinmay aroundseven the setup

The Halfhide Pack:

Short stories about one werewolf pack. Best read in order since the pack tends to grow a little with each book.

cuposugar thedrunkendog thecakeshop

The Ruby Tooth:

Paranormal novellas about what happens when you allow different species to go to the same nightclub. They can be read as standalone stories, it’s The Ruby Tooth, a night club, that connects them.

the ruby tooth thevessel

The Tattooed Corpse Series:

All standalone stories in different genres. What connects these stories is that the same corpse appears in all of them. It’s a collaboration with Amy Spector.

37704145 ItDoesn'tTranslateGif Cover Acronym

Dragon Row

Standalone stories taking place on the same street in the town Edge. The street is called Dragon Row, and it’s where the dragon shifters live.

The Book Dragon's Lair

No Socks Day

The Dragon's Prisoner

Hagwall

Stories about a group of shifters, vampires, and former blood slaves solving crimes together. NOT standalone.

A Vampire Chew Toy

Chocolate With a Bite

Vampire Lee

A Scurry of Squirrels

Squirrel shifters? Of course! These can be read as standalone stories but old characters may make an appearance.

Squirrel Circus

Squirrel Hunt

Norbridge

There is a new couple in every book, but you’d do best in reading them in order. We have shifters, vampires, and blood witches.

The Blood Witch

Vampire's Delight

House of Horrors

A group of psychics who have escaped an underground facility where their services were sold against their will. There is a new couple in every book, but they’re best read in order.

Rufus the Dead Kiss Your Mate Day

The Death God