New Release & Review – Cutting Out by Meredith Shayne

October 16, 2014sydneygen 1 Comment

Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance. Adult Fiction.

A twenty-year veteran of the shearing shed, Aussie Shane Cooper loves his job, and the home he’s made for himself in New Zealand. If he’s a little lonely, he’s got good mates to keep his spirits up. When a hot, cocky young shearer named Lachlan Moore catches his eye at a competition, he’s content to look but not touch, knowing the young man is out of his league.

Lachie wouldn’t mind a piece of Shane, but the gorgeous gun shearer from Australia is soon forgotten when the Christchurch earthquake hits, and tragedy strikes Lachie’s family. Lachie deals with it the best he can, cutting himself off from all he knows. A year later and he’s back in the shearing shed, out of practice and lacking confidence. That Shane’s there to watch him flounder doesn’t help his nerves.

As Lachlan struggles to re-acclimatise, Shane can’t resist giving him a hand to get back on his feet. As they move from friends to something more, Shane finds himself wanting to know everything he can about Lachie. But Lachie’s got secrets he desperately wants to keep, and when things come to a head, those secrets might just mean the end of them before they’ve truly begun.

This novel, about sheep shearers in picturesque New Zealand, was an entertaining read. The author used a wonderful voice to portray both main characters, and the emotion came through on the pages. The story line weaves in the world of shearing in a way that makes you feel like you can smell, and hear the hustle and bustle of the shearing shed. I really enjoyed the camaraderie around the gangs that work together, and the portrayal of bonds formed in the roughest of conditions. The integration of slang was enjoyable, and make me chuckle a few times. The main characters, Shane and Lachie were wonderfully written, and the author did a really great job of making me feel every emotion available. At times I had to take a moment to relish the fact that I was frowning, or smiling, or having my heart crushed at the devastation that the Christchurch earthquakes had on families. In my humble opinion, when an author can make a reader feel that, they really have a gift. Read this book if you’re after a love story between characters that push and pull, and create a slow burn. Cutting Out is a wonderfully portrayed romance novel, with blokes and beer, instead of wine and flowers.

BUYING LINKS:

Smashwords Apple iBooks – Coming Soon

About the Author: A scientist in a past life, these days Meredith Shayne mainly uses her scientific training to poke holes in television pseudoscience. Originally from Australia, she moved to New Zealand to start a new life a few years ago and hasn’t regretted it for one minute, even if she frequently wishes that the New Zealand weather was a little better; if she’s forced, she’ll admit that the refreshing lack of animals that can kill you in New Zealand makes up for a little rain. Meredith travels a lot, so much so that she has developed a shameful love of airplane food and knows her passport number by heart. When she is at home, she enjoys baking, horrible music from the 1980s, reality television, and gloating any time Australia thrashes the living daylights out of New Zealand on the sporting field. Find Meredith at her website: http://www.meredithshayne.com : Twitter : Goodreads : Booklikes *I received this book as an ARC from the publisher. All reviews expressed are solely mine.

Review – A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

September 27, 2014sydneygen Leave a comment

Genre: Young Adult. Contemporary Romance.

Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out.

But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at the local Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship.

I was browsing the shelves of the local shops because I had an urge to have paper in my hands. You know what I mean, right? Reading e-books are great, but sometimes you just neeeed that book to feel in your hands, flip the pages, carry around. I picked up this one, because the cover was cute.

Cute. This book is cute! Adorable, quirky, fun! The story is told in different viewpoints, and it reminds of the movies that show everyone’s story from different points of view, think Love Actually, Valentines Day. I found the switching of viewpoints really refreshing, and the story never faltered for it. From the bus driver, to the barista, to close friends. Not actually hearing from the main couple, Lea and Gabe, kept me intrigued. We didn’t ever actually know what they were thinking, except for their dialogue with their friends…or a squirrel! My favourite view point had to be the squirrel.. he was so darn cute! Acorns! I think that the way Lea and Gabe dance around each other could be annoying, but the author has provided us with a unique way of playing it out that has you cheering them on, and hoping the next persons view would have them getting together. It was fun to read in the young adult genre, again. This book definitely proves that you don’t need to be a teen to read these types of book.

Read this if you’re after a fun, quick, sweet, cute read.

Sandy Hall Tumblr : Swoon Reads : Twitter : GoodReads

Buying Links:

*Check your local bookseller for paperback

Kindle Kobo

New Release & Review – Mythica by L.J. LaBarthe

September 25, 2014sydneygen 2 Comments

Genre: M/M Contemporary Paranormal Romance. Adult Fiction.

Caiden Jones is part-selkie and lives an idyllic life by the sea in South Australia. He’s had his fair share of disappointments, like being kept out of the Navy due to his mythica status, but overall he’s got a pretty good life. Until he’s in the wrong place at the right time.

Cai steps in to subdue an out-of-control minotaur and in the process suffers a serious injury to his ribs. As Cai struggles to breathe, a gorgeous suit-clad sy’lph with mesmerising blue eyes races to his rescue. When it’s learned that the minotaur was poisoned, the sy’lph, Gray, makes it his personal mission to keep Cai and his family safe.

Cai has always harboured some resentment towards the sy’lph because of their easy acceptance into the community, so the attraction he feels for Gray takes him by surprise. But how can they find out what this might mean when the lives of Cai and his family are endangered by someone closer than they realise?

I love stepping out of my comfort zone when it comes to books (well, okay, except for horror! I still can’t!!!). This book definitely was an interesting mix of things in a book. When I think of paranormal, my mind automatically goes to vampires and angels, but this is a new one. I’d go with a bit of Sci-fi in this, as well.

I enjoyed reading about mythical creatures, and although I wasn’t sure what a selkie was, a quick Google had me at a treasure trove of pics and information! (Our main character is half-seal, for those playing at home!) Who knew there was an amazing world of mythical creatures to discover!!?!!

The timeline in the book isn’t very long, and there are a lot of times that I wanted more interaction between the two main characters, but I think the author did a great job. The chemistry between Caiden and Gray was cute. I kept on thinking of Gray, a sy’lph, as the silver surfer from Fantastic Four! The author gives us descriptive tastes, smells, and scenery, which added in with the Aussie-isms thrown back and forth between ‘mates’, gives the reader a sense of down to earth Australia.

The drama of injuries, poisonings, kidnappings, and terrorist vigilante groups was quite reminiscent of today’s society, and I had to keep reminding myself that it was a paranormal world, not one we live in. It was fun to read an Aussie book, with the writing of an Aussie ‘voice’.

Congratulations to the author on her novel release. I look forward to checking out more of her work.

BUYING LINKS:

Bottom Drawer Publications

Paperback – Amazon
Kindle- Amazon
Kobo
All Romance
Bookstrand
Smashwords
Barnes & Noble – e-book and paperback
Apple ibooks

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

L.J. LaBarthe is a French-Australian woman, who was born during the Witching Hour, just after midnight. From this auspicious beginning, she went on to write a prize-winning short story about Humpty Dumpty wearing an Aussie hat complete with corks dangling from it when she was six years old. From there, she wrote for her high school yearbook, her university newspaper, and, from her early teens to her twenties, produced a fanzine about the local punk rock music scene. She loves music of all kinds and was once a classical pianist; she loves languages and speaks French and English and a teeny-tiny smattering of Mandarin Chinese, which she hopes to relearn properly very soon. She enjoys TV, film, travel, cooking, eating out, abandoned places, urbex, history, and researching.
L.J. loves to read complicated plots and hopes to do complex plot lines justice in her own writing. She writes paranormal, historical, urban fantasy, and contemporary Australian stories, usually m/m romance and featuring m/m erotica.

Facebook : Twitter : Blog : Website : GoodReads

*I received this book as an ARC from the publisher. All reviews expressed are solely mine.

Review – Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

September 19, 2014sydneygen 1 Comment

Genre: Romance. Adult Fiction. Chick Lit. Drama. Angst. Contemporary Romance.

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.

I’m going to keep this simple. There aren’t many books that ‘stay with you’..some tend to stick around for a bit, and then you tend to forget details in them, but just remember that you liked it, loved it, or can’t quite remember it. This book..

This was my immediate review on finishing the book:

*gulp* *Snotsob* wow…

It’s taken a long time for a book to evoke emotions in me, but this one did it. Read it in a day. I did find it a bit tricky to start with, it’s English, the writing is a bit off flow, but once I got the hang of the flow of style writing it was all good. I could not stop. I was so invested in these characters. The relationship they develop is so off kilter, that you’re not expecting what comes around the corner, next. All I can say is…..

Read it. Think. Remember. Life is wonderful.

This book is being turned into a movie, and I can’t wait!! Here is a pic of the two main characters – just in case you’re a visual person!!

JoJo Moyes Website

Review – Always by Amanda Weaver

September 19, 2014sydneygen Leave a comment

Genre: Adult Romance. Contemporary Romance. New Adult. Angst.

From the moment they meet, their connection is perfect in every way but one.

It’s New Year’s Eve, 2007, and Justine James is fronting her dead-end band for a less-than-adoring crowd. But there’s one person there who sees what she could be—one person who changes everything for her.

Dillon Pierce clawed his way up from the LA streets with no one to count on but his best friend, Ash. Their years of struggle finally pay off when their band, Outlaw Rovers, gets signed and their single takes off. With Ash as the magnetic lead singer and Dillon as the band’s musical soul, they’re destined for greatness, provided Dillon can keep Ash from self-destructing first.

Dillon might not be fronting Outlaw Rovers, but he’s always been the only one Justine sees. She’s followed his career from afar and when he shows up at her crummy New Year’s Eve gig, nothing will stop her from meeting him. They forge an intense connection, rapidly moving from friends to musical soul mates. Justine wants much more, but she’s not willing to climb over groupies and industry bottom-feeders to make it happen. Dillon becomes a fixture in her life, but she has to figure out how to keep him out of her heart.

Outlaw Rovers begins to implode as Justine’s star is on the rise. The years that follow bring equal parts fame and ruin. For Justine, a new love supplants her old heartbreak, and Dillon has to reboot his life after losing nearly everything that matters. Despite the odds, Dillon and Justine remain devoted friends and musical collaborators. After all the missed chances, wrong turns and painful detours, can they finally find the happiness together that seemed destined from the start?

I wasn’t sure I was going to love this book. I was after a bit of a rock-star read, as I’ve been on them lately, and I was told this had a bit angst in it. I didn’t have to worry, in the end it worked out this one was going to prove to surpass my expectations, and rocket onto my favourites list. Not your typical groupie meets rock-star, they fall in love, can’t deal with being a rockstar….nope, not this one. This is a great read of two people who meet by chance, and form a connection of friendship and mutual interest. The connection and unresolved attraction stays, all the way until the end. I love the way the musical connections are portrayed between Justine and Dillon. The drama, and the progression of the story, as the heroine carves her own path in the music world, all the while, watching the drama of a band and a guy she’s idolised fall apart, makes this a book you’ll want to finish reading in one sitting.

Read this if you’re after a bit of drama, maybe a few tissues, but an all over excellent book about rock stars, and dreams of climbing to the top.

Click to go to Amanda Weaver’s Website for more information on her books and where to buy.

Review – Decker’s Wood by Kirsty Dallas

September 18, 2014sydneygen Leave a comment

Genre: Contemporary Romance. New Adult. Adult Fiction. Humour.

Decker Steele had it made…Penthouse apartment, VIP parties, girls on tap. You see, Decker Steele is the Pornography Associations award winning, money making machine. But what does a self-confessed, pussy pounding warrior do when his prized package begins to fail? Freak the ‘F’ out, that’s what!
Andi Jennings is the socially inept, geeky and awkward cousin of Decker’s best friend. Only she’s not so geeky and awkward anymore. Now she’s a smokin’ hot country bumpkin, with a smokey voice made for phone sex, and a pair of hot as hell cowboy boots. Everyone adores her, my porn star buddies, my mom and dad, my ‘equipment’.
So, the prized package isn’t so failing anymore, the catch is, it will only perform for Andi…My friend WITHOUT benefits.
What will the prince of porn do? The girl or the career?
He has one month to figure it all out.

This was a recommendation on Twitter when I asked for books to read! I love asking, because the randomness of replies always gives me variety!

Saying cute when referring to a book about a porn star actually has me laughing out loud, or at least a bit of a chuckle. Once I got rolling into the story line, probably two chapters, this was a fast, fun read. I liked that the main characters had a background from growing up, which makes it easier to adapt to them becoming involved in any way *IF in fact they do. My favourite part was when Decker nicknames Andi, “Country”, and it sticks. With her cowgirl boots, and her cute dresses, I can definitely see her as a character. Also, who wouldn’t want to own a cute book shop/coffee shop in SOHO, NY! *points to self – this girl would!!*

Read this if you’re after a funny supporting cast of characters, and a story without major angst.

Kirsty Dallas Website

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