Tag: second edition

Categories
adult - 18+ New Adult

Recent Release: My Prince (2nd edition) by Anna Martin

Good Reads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48671727-my-prince

Blurb

After growing up in a rough part of Manchester, George Maguire found his way to Edinburgh and a career as a design engineer. He wasn’t that interested in finding a relationship—his habit of hot and steamy one-night-stands suited him just fine. Falling into a very expensive hotel room bed with Alex really was just another night.

Until George learns that the guy he’d slept with wasn’t just ‘Alex’—he’s Alexander van Amsberg, Prince of the Netherlands.

George puts the incident behind him until he runs into Alex again, and this time Alex makes sure to get George’s phone number. Despite all the reasons why their relationship shouldn’t work, something clicks, and Alex thinks that he might have finally found the right guy.

But Alex’s aristocratic ex stirs up trouble in the tabloid press, and suddenly George’s working class family is put under the spotlight. Alex has to admit that their relationship isn’t a fairy tale, and despite his royal title, he might have lost his chance for a happily ever after.

*This is a second edition, re-release of the October 2015 novel ‘My Prince’ by Anna Martin.

Review

(Original review)

George, a rugby player and sports equipment designer, meets a man out one night and they have a hot night at a hotel. George’s hook-up, Alex, is obviously “posh” so George figures he’ll never see him again. He’s shocked when he sees him on the TV and finds out he’s one of the princes of the Netherlands!

Alex is the fifth in line for the throne (read as never really in line). He’s an architecture student living in Scotland and has no plans to ever go home for any length of time. He has a hot time with George, but doubts to ever see him again. When they meet, months later at a charity event, he thinks it must be kismet. They exchange numbers and from there start a “thing” that becomes a relationship.

There stands a lot between them and happiness including George’s own place in the closet, Alex’s family and expectations, the press and George’s family of 7 siblings. But… after a lot of time and patience they manage to make their own fairy tale happy ending!

**

Anna Martin is an amazing writer! I have admired her work from the first book I read of hers, Tattoos & Teacups and really enjoyed her books Summer Son and Solitude.

This is not only my favorite of her books, but will go on my list as the best book I’ve read this year! I loved it!

George is so very real, but so is Alex. Their relationship is fraught with difficulty and impracticalities but they persevere and survive in a way that seems very authentic and plausible but yet terribly romantic and special.

I loved how open Alex was and how shy George was. I loved the way Alex brought Doug in to “educate” George and how well George responded to the prodding. The need for George to know more about gay history was thought provoking without being preachy.

The sex/chemistry between these guys was incendiary but what got to me the most was their emotional connection.

I was a bit daunted by the length of this book, especially when they hooked up fairly early on. I was anticipating loads of angst and separation or fighting to fill the pages, but what I got was a very organic telling of the blossoming and deepening of their relationship. I really felt that these guys had what it took to make things work by the end of the story because we’d seen their relationship grow.

Anna’s writing is lovely and smooth, her characters are really well developed and three-dimensional. I cannot gush enough about this story. It was really and truly a fairy-tale for modern times and it was wonderful, I can’t recommend it enough!

(All of this and more – with my re-reading I still loved this beyond measure! It was this book that really made me an Anna Martin fan and it’s only been recently that she wasn’t an auto buy for me. This is cute, sweet, sexy, thoughtful and really still quite appropriate even though it’s a few years old now. Highly recommended!)

6 of 5 stars


Copy Purchased for Review

Categories
adult - 18+

Recent Release: Surrender the Chase (Grizzly Rim #2) by Mia West

Good Reads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47169173-surrender-the-chase?from_search=true

Blurb

Coming Oct 7, 2019: Expanded Novel Edition!

For wolf shifter Dmitri Sernov, life bites.

His late-night hunts leave him winded, the twelfth rewrite of his novel is crap, and his last good lay was five drafts ago. He’s staring down forty with a creative well as empty as his bed.

The last thing he needs is a beautiful, intimidating, obnoxious pup bent on exposing Dmitri’s underbelly…

…and everything else that’s gone soft.

Thierry Marrou has burned every bridge from Montréal to Juneau.

Once a prospect for Canada’s Olympic hockey team, he’s just been kicked off a piddling local squad in Nowhere, Alaska.

But one whiff of the silver wolf on the opposing bench was enough to confirm that the dreams drawing Thierry across a continent have a very real source.

Now all he has to do is convince Dmitri Sernov to be his alpha. Très simple, non?

SURRENDER THE CHASE is the 2nd standalone novel in the GRIZZLY RIM m/m shifter series. Lace up for pheromone-charged hockey, dirty French lessons, a grumpy hero who thinks he’s past his prime, and a pushy young hothead determined to prove him wrong.

 

Originally published in 2015 & 2016 as novellas, the GRIZZLY RIM novel editions have been extensively revised and expanded for republication in 2019.

Review
(Previous novella)

In book one we met this amazing little town in Alaska where some unique shifters and a few humans live. Dmitri is a wolf shifter with a reputation as a slut, but conversely he’s a bit of a lone-wolf, too. He’s older, a bit gruff, and if you get to know him, a lot insecure.

Thierry is a flighty, flirty, fast-playing hockey player who finds himself “compelled” by dreams to find a man, Dmitri. He trusts his gut above all else and his gut tells him he needs to meet Dmitri, but it doesn’t tell him what to do next.
At first, beyond the initial attraction, there is doubt on both sides. Dmitri can’t trust that this beautiful, young, stranger has been having dreams about him. Thierry is also not sure what to make of these dreams and though he finds Dmitri fascinating and sexy he doesn’t know if he can make himself stay put when clearly Dmitri is a stay-put kind of guy.

**

Mia is an amazing author! I absolutely adore this series! I reviewed the first book, Launch the Hunt here: http://kimichanexperience.com/launch-the-hunt-grizzly-rim-1-by-mia-west/

I couldn’t wait for book two and it was worth the wait!

Mia’s writing is so fluid and effortless (though I’m sure she’d say it takes work, if Dmitri is any example!) that the reading of this story is so easy. I was expecting a story similar to book one and got none of that, but it was not a disappointment at all. Dmitri and Thierry have a very different story to tell. They still have that element of magic that connects them, but at their core they have this very human relationship story first.

Dmitri is getting older and doubting his attractiveness and purpose in the world. Thierry is still young, but also has questions about his purpose and future. I LOVED that both Dmitri and Thierry called Thierry’s mom for advice! So. Funny! Her little side story is interesting in it’s own right and I’m wondering/hoping she becomes a continual secondary character.

The use of French and Thierry’s adamant, “I’m not French I’m Quebecois!” was wonderful. So beautiful and touching then funny and heart-warming at the same time.

My heart absolutely ached for both of these guys and I’m always impressed with shifter stories who use the animal part as much as the human part to create their characters and their motivations. It was hysterical that Thierry’s mom asked him about his fur and skin and was he hunting enough! So cute!

The smexy times are very sensuous but also REAL feeling and authentic. Dmitri is older and nervous and that shows!

I can’t wait for book 3, I loved this as much as book 1 and can’t recommend it enough.

(re-read and 2nd edition)

I can see that there were some additional scenes – more hockey, more parental involvement- maybe some more romance building?

All in all I think both the longer story and the novella are good and I couldn’t really say I appreciated a lot of difference.

I still enjoyed these two characters a lot and I guess I felt a little bit more of their HEA with the novel than the novella.

Recommended!

(I liked the original cover better 🙂   )

4.5 stars


Copy Generously Provided for Honest Review

Categories
adult - 18+

Recent Release: Launch the Hunt (Grizzly Rim #1) Second edition- expanded by Mia West

Good Reads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47169140-launch-the-hunt?from_search=true

Blurb

Eagle shifter John Tillman can almost taste freedom.

He never expected to raise his kid sister. She’s worth the sacrifices he’s made—education, career, lovers—but the empty nest is calling his name.

To save her college fund, John’s taking every run his plane can handle and doing his best to keep his shifting under the radar.

Then his latest job walks into the bar with a strange gait and velvety Southern drawl.

Army veteran Logan Maddox has given a lot for freedom.

He’s no hero, just a guy trying to adapt to new parameters. If he isn’t fully living the gay identity he’s finally accepted…well, it’s not top priority.

After three tours, two new legs, and one long-overdue divorce, Logan has zeroed in on a single objective: a trip into Alaska’s back country, no distractions.

But fate has its own tactics, and the only pilot available to guide him looks like a recruitment ad for Alaska’s hottest unit.

LAUNCH THE HUNT is the 1st novel of GRIZZLY RIM, a steamy paranormal romance series featuring M/M heroes of all stripes:
1. LAUNCH THE HUNT
2. SURRENDER THE CHASE
3. EMBRACE THE BEAST

GRIZZLY RIM Series
The men of Grizzly Rim are a lot of things. Always human isn’t one of them.

These shifters landed in this remote Alaska village for different reasons, but the same thing keeps them there: a massive wilderness where they can soar, lope, paddle, and hide.

But no matter where you hole up, eventually your secrets will catch your scent.

Review

(From first edition)

Logan is a newly single guy, sharing custody of his son, bonding on a trip to Alaska. He’s also learning to use his prosthetics after being injured in the military.

John is raising his sister, on the final leg as it were, and thinking about the future. He ends up taking a job of playing tour guide to Logan and his son and knows that, at least in the near future, things are looking good.

**

This is a novella, so things move quickly. The attraction is there immediately and the men – not bar sluts, so they move with some trepidation – act swiftly but with temperance. I loved that they didn’t immediately have sex though they did become physical right away.

Mia West is a new author to me and I’m looking forward to more of this series! Her writing is smooth and flows well. Her world building is EXCELLENT and the characters are complex, including the secondary characters.

As with any good story, I wish it’d been longer, but I definitely feel we got a solid HEA and that our guys were in it for the long haul.

I highly recommend this new series!

**
Second edition –

Well, I still super loved this and really enjoyed re-reading it – but I can’t honestly tell where the “expanded” parts were.

It felt a bit longer – I guess – but there was no substantial change to the story.

I think a first time reader might find it a bit more satisfying, but as someone who’s read it already and re-read it a few times – I didn’t find anything in the “expanded” edition that made me real excited.

So, if you’ve read and enjoyed the series you might want to check this out for yourself, but if you can’t – I don’t think you’re missing anything to the actual story.

I still highly recommend this series and was glad to have re-read it!

-I gotta say that I liked the original cover better 🙂 

5 of 5 stars


Copy Generously Provided for Honest Review