Beauty Touched The Beast by Skye Warren

Beauty Touched the Beast (Beauty, #1)
Grade-B+
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level- No Kink
Series- Beauty #1
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
30 pages

This review will be very short because the story was very short.

Blake Morris is a scarred former soldier both inside and out. He has Erin, a college student who cleans his house to help pay for college. He is super attracted to her but knows he’s a trainwreck mentally and physically. He has desired her from afar for a while now. But when Erin lets herself into the house to return a book to him she walks in to a self-pleasuring scene straight out of her own fantasies. To say the situation was awkward is an understatement.

This was a pleasant surprise for me and I loved it. I can’t wait to read the next installment of this series that I’m pretty sure I’m hooked on.

Reburn by Anne Marsh

Reburn (The Hotshots, #1)
Grade-D
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-The Hotshots #1
Genre-Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Reviewed by Kay
87 pages

Sam Clayton is a former military man who now works as a park ranger. He is currently helping fight a wildfire in his park. He is sent in to find any civilians trapped in the park and finds his first true love.

Olivia Albert is an FBI agent tracking a homeland terrorist. Her chase leads her into Sequoia Park and a raging wildfire. Olivia knows this park well because she and her first love tracked their way through the park in their teen years. When she thinks she sees her terrorist running from her she becomes trapped by the fire.

This story should’ve been great and it really wasn’t. I couldn’t connect with the main characters at all. Even with hot love scenes, they still didn’t have any chemistry. This was a total miss for me.

M/M Monday – Sweet Young Thang by Anne Tenino

Sweet Young Thang (Theta Alpha Gamma, #3)

Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m, college age
Series: Theta Alpha Gamma #3
Reviewed by Anne
414 pages on my ereader; Goodreads says 329 pages
 
This book was funny and sweet and I didn’t want to put it down!

Collin is one of the leaders of his frat, which recently publicly announced their acceptance of gay/bi brothers.  Collin is also in the closet, for the most part.  He doesn’t seem worried about his frat brothers’ acceptance, but he knows his Uncle Monty, the father figure in his life, will not be accepting of him if he came out.

Eric is a firefighter paramedic.  He responds to an explosion and fire at the frat house and is attracted to Collin, who keeps his cool under pressure.  When he sees Collin again, he flirts with him and Collin flirts back.  It’s not long before the two of them hook up.  (And that’s one very hot night!) Both of them are interested in more, but step carefully, not sure if the other would want anything to do with them.

While the fire and an attempted bombing at the frat house drive the storyline, we get to watch Eric and Collin fall for each other and work through issues that come up.  And it’s all so very sweet and hot and good!

It surprises me that I am ok with things in the m/m genre that I know would bother me if the book was m/f.  But it just doesn’t.  In this case it’s Collin’s age (21).  Fifteen years (36/21) is a really big age difference between Collin and Eric.  It’s almost icky.  By the end of the book I really didn’t have a problem with it.  Collin was really mature and handling a lot in his life, so he seemed older than 21, especially compared to some of his frat brothers.

Oh, and let’s talk about the frat brothers.  I loved them!  They provided a great comedic backdrop that kept the story from getting too heavy or emo.  The good hearted but clumsy attempts of the straight brothers to support their gay brothers was hilarious and sweet.  They came across as pretty dumb at times, but I was willing to accept that.  I’m not sure how realistic it is, but I’ll suspend disbelief in favor of the humor in this case.

This was the 3rd book in this series, but it stood alone very well. I hadn’t read the first two and had no problems keeping up.

I’m adding Anne Tenino to my list of m/m authors I love! I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes m/m, but especially those who liked College Boys by Daisy Harris.

 
One final thought.  I really disliked this cover.  Then I read the book and it fits the story, which makes me hate it less, because those purple underwear and taking pictures feature in the story, but still not my favorite cover.