LGBT Romance

I Buried a Witch is the second book in the Bedknobs and Brooksticks trilogy, a romantic gay mystery series by Josh Lanyon. This book is the sequel to “Mainly by Moonlight,” in which Cosmo Saville, a bloodline witch, marries police detective John Galbraith, but there’s one catch: John doesn’t know his new husband is a witch.

That all changes in this book, however, once Cosmo begins investigating the murders of several Wiccans he believes to be related. He inadvertently comes out of the “broom closet” to John, and his news is not well-received. Feeling tricked and deceived, John leaves Cosmo and refuses to take his calls or see him.

But when Cosmo’s investigation puts him directly in the crosshairs of the murderer, John must decide whether he can put his feelings aside and come to the aid of his husband.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I did the first one. We got to delve a little deeper into the personalities of John and Cosmo, helping us to understand their motivations in the story (though I still think John is a controlling jerk).

Cosmo’s character has really grown on me in this story. He bumbling, a bit ditzy but sweet and lovable as well. But what renders him a truly admirable character is that he’s willing to risk his own life to help save others and to find justice for the innocent victims who were murdered. I also enjoyed Cosmo’s bubbly personality, and he ended up being quite the endearing character for me.

Lanyon really ratchets up the tension in this book, and I found myself deeply engrossed in the story, especially after a couple of failed assassination attempts on poor Cosmo and the murder of several young Wiccan women. There’s also the imminent war brewing between Craft and SPMMR, a mysterious and possibly nefarious organization that we don’t know all that much about yet.

Several secrets and betrayals do come to the forefront in this story, which immersed me even more in the world that the author has created here. I loved how the tone shifts from light to dark, snarky to serious, and back again.

My only niggle is the amount of French that the author used in the book. Now I happen to speak French, so I was able to understand it, no problem. But for someone unfamiliar with the language, I’d imagine that certain passages would be frustrating for them.

But all in all, I enjoyed I Buried a Witch. Though witches are a continuing theme in this trilogy, the story is, at its core, about relationships: family, friends, and lovers; connecting and sometimes not; and the secrets and deception that often interfere with our closest relationships.

Of course, there are some interesting questions that still need to be answered. Why is John invulnerable to magic? Who tried to murder Cosmo? What tragic event happened in John’s past in Somalia that he refuses to talk about? I’m hoping these and other questions will be answered in the third and final book in the series, which I do plan on reading when it comes out in March of 2020.

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Love on the Hudson follows David Webster, who has just returned home to take care of his father, who has just suffered from a stroke. While at home, David does his best to avoid his former childhood friend, Nick Patras.

David had been in love with Nick since they were children, and at the end of their high school year, they began messing around — first a lot of kissing and eventually, sex. But immediately after the last time they have sex together, Nick rejects David, telling David that he isn’t “like him” and they can’t be together ever again, which destroys their friendship. David moves away, earns a degree, and obtains a job he loves. Nick stays in town and determined to overcome this gay desires, marries a woman.

So ten years pass without them seeing each other, and now David is back. Once Nick hears about David’s return, he immediately seeks him and attempts to repair their relationship. Nick, who has finally admitted to himself that he’s gay and is trying to come to terms with his sexual orientation, divorced his wife and now runs an organic farm with two partners.

It’s worth mentioning that Nick is still deep in the closet because of his rabidly homophobic family. Now that David has returned, however, winning him back is on the top of Nick’s list. But it isn’t going to be easy given that Nick deeply hurt David and David now wants nothing to do with him. And there’s Nick’s bigoted family to contend with.

Given that this is a M/M romance, we can pretty much figure out that our two guys are going to get together at some point, and I enjoyed journeying along with them as they overcame the barriers that prevented them from being together. We then delve deeply into each character’s heart-wrenching backstory, which wasn’t always easy to read, especially in regards to Nick’s viciously homophobic family and David’s heartbreak at Nick’s rejection of him.

It’s important to note that for Nick, family is extremely important to him, and this is the main thing that’s kept him so deeply in the closet. But he eventually decides that if he’s to move forward with David and with his life, he’ll need to come out to his family — so he does, which is quite a powerful and intense scene.

I liked how the story is told in dual POVs, which really worked well here. Getting both their perspectives made the story a lot more relatable for me and helped me to understand where both these characters were coming from. It helped that each character’s voice was distinctive, and I was always aware of whose head I was inside of.

I always love second chance/redemption stories involving reconnecting with one’s high school crush or childhood best friend and felt that Fisher did an excellent job with love on the Hudson. She expertly handles some pretty heavy themes such as coming out, homophobia, heartbreak, trust, and the importance of family. It was also a joy to see how Nick evolved from being under his family’s heavy thumb. Additionally, I appreciated the added message here, of how families we create can be just as strong — or even stronger — than families created by blood.

I thought that both characters were well-fleshed out and relatable, and enjoyed getting to know them through the pages of this story. I appreciated the fact they were both relatively rational and level-headed fellows which helped to add that extra bit of “realness” to them. They are flawed and genuine, with each undergoing quite an emotional journey through the pages of this novel.

All in all, this was a sweet, heartfelt, and endearing (and sometimes steamy!) story about two men finding their way back to each other, so in this way, it was also emotive and restorative and quickly wormed its way into my heart. Half love story and half identity quest, Love on the Hudson is a sexy, compassionate story about the power of love, and I’m so glad that this book came to my attention. This isn’t the first book I’ve read by this author, and it certainly won’t be the last.

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Counter Culture is a sweet, heart-warming holiday LGBT romance featuring our two main characters, Robin Christopher and Archie Levine.

Robin works in retail at a story called Willoughby’s, and in an effort to copy the American craziness of Black Friday, Robin’s boss is planning a massive celebration and store sale and wants Robin to play an integral part in it.

One night while walking home from work, he stumbles across Archie Levine, a young man dressed in Victorian Style clothing and whom we learn later on is a Steampunk (not a “Steampunker” as was stressed in the book). We also learn that Archie lives with and looks after his mum, tries to remain on good terms with his ex and be a good father to his little boy. With all that he has on his plate, he has no intention of getting into a romantic relationship with anyone any time soon, but yet, he finds Robin intriguing.

So at their first haphazard meeting, the two men only speak a couple of words to each other and go on their way, though they both think about each other quite a bit in the days to come. But as fate would have it, they bump into each other several times over the few days and eventually end up spending time together.

Then Archie’s mum is infuriated by a local department store who appears to disregard the plight of the homeless and plans a protest at the store. Archie, who once was homeless himself, shares in her fury. It doesn’t help that both Archie and his mum hate this particular store with a passion.

As it turns out, the store in mention is Willoughby’s, the same store where Robin works. When Robin discovers that Archie’s mom is planning a protest, he panics, and lies about his place of employment, first to her and then to Archie.

So the question is: how long can Robin hide his place of employment from Archie and his mother? As we can guess, Robin’s lies are eventually found out, and things end up getting pretty messy once they do, especially given that this new budding relationship is fraught with misunderstandings and lack of communication.

So I thought that the meet-cute courtesy of an old refrigerator was adorable. I appreciated that the author didn’t serve up the same old, cookie-cutter characters, and cookie-cutter struggles. Archie and Robin were superlative together; their connection shone right from their first meeting. There was also plenty of sass, snark, and humor to keep the story light and fun.

Though the premise of the storyline was vaguely familiar, it was also completely unique. I really loved how the author weaved in elements of Steampunk into the story and enjoyed learning more about the Steampunk culture.

I also enjoyed the many messages of this book, one of which is how we should not judge people based on our preconceived notions of them and that things are not always as they seem. Additionally, the story respectfully tackles topics such as homelessness, wealth inequality, mental illness, respect, and social class and in so doing, gives the reader plenty to think about.

I loved how the author concentrates on building up the characters in the story. The relationship really develops between the two protagonists, and it’s not done in a hurried manner. The overall steam is low (there is one quite explicit sex scene), but ask me if I minded? NO!

The sexual tension was delicious in its delayed gratification, and often, I find too many sex scenes in a book destroy the romance between the two characters. Here, we’re on this journey of self-discovery with Archie and Robin…and neither of them takes the relationship lightly. We were a good portion through the book before the characters kissed for the first time, and I personally enjoyed the slow burn.

All in all, I thought Counter Culture was a delightful, feel-good Christmas romantic comedy with sweet & charming characters and plenty of humor. I enjoyed the plot-line and the many interweaving threads throughout. The author’s witty and sophisticated writing style and storytelling really worked for me. I thought the plotting was exceptional, and I found myself completely engrossed in the book in no time at all. Counter Culture is a lighthearted romantic romp that warmed my heart and brought a smile to my face at the end.

Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

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This is a sweet Christmas gay romance story that follows our two main characters, Matt and Mikah. Matt is a small town farmer who has no time for love, especially after having had his heart recently broken.  Mikah is a school teacher from New York who is in town visiting his family for the holidays. When Mikah walks onto Matt’s farm to purchase a Christmas tree, sparks fly between the two men. Though both of them have been hurt in the past, they take a chance and begin a romance.

What was fun about this story was how night-and-day different our two protagonists are, with Matt being a big, bulky outdoorsy farmer and Mikah being a slender and somewhat timid city boy.

But as the story progresses, they discover that they have a lot more in common than they’d initially thought, and they ended up being so sweet together.

What I really liked about this story is that they did not jump into bed right away. Their relationship was quite a slow burn, and they took the time to get to know each other and each other’s families before making the big final step.  It was so much fun watching their feelings for each other evolve, moving from guarded apprehension to love. Their relationship flowed with warmth, playfulness, and passion, and the guys were perfect for each other.

So once they took the huge step of sleeping together, they then spend the rest of the holiday in Matt’s cozy cabin nestled away in the Idaho woods.

But alas, soon the Christmas season winds down, and Mikah has to return to New York to take on a new teaching job. As both of them face the inevitable end of their holiday romance, they realize that the feelings they have for each other have grown to the point of love.

So now the question is: what are they going to do about it?

This is a charming, heart-warming story and a perfect cozy holiday read. I loved the author’s writing style, and because of it, the story reeled me right in.  In fact, I read this book in one sitting because I had a difficult time letting go of these delightful and charming characters. The secondary characters were equally charming, as we got to know Matt’s devoted brother and sister-in-law, and Mikah large, boisterous Italian family.

I know that I’m reading a good romance when I tear up, which happened to me a few times throughout this enchanting and heartfelt story. The author has created something truly extraordinary here — a magical Christmas romance about love in its purest form.

It’s a story that’s not only engaging but endearing and emotive, and it certainly warmed my heart while reading it. And the ending is perfect — The way this story comes to a close is just the cherry on top of this wonderful book.

So if you ‘re looking for a sweet and light Christmastime romance, you may wish to give The Christmas Cabin for Two a whirl.

A huge thank you to A Novel Take PR for providing an Advance Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Happy for You is the third book in the author’s “Love and Family” series, all of which can be read as standalone.

This story follows Mort who, for reasons unknown, left town a year ago with no explanation to his de facto family, the Rochesters. He simply left town without a word — though we do find out pretty early on in the novel his reason for leaving.

So now he’s back, and he’s attempting to repair his relationship with each of the family members and win them back, especially Felix, to whom Mort is very much attracted. There’s also the issue of Felix’s brother Roch who was Mort’s best friend and whose relationship with Mort is now especially rocky.

To complicate matters, Felix has been in love with Mort for years, and Mort has been in love with Roch but now has feelings for Felix. So that being said, Happy for You is a “falling in love with best friend’s little brother” trope which is a trope I especially enjoy, and the author executed it to perfection here.

I felt this was a bit different than a lot of the author’s other books. In this story, rather than feelings slowly developing between the characters, the romantic feelings were already there, so there wasn’t that super slow build-up that we see in her other novels. There was the issue, however, of Felix allowing himself to trust his heart to Mort, which took some time (and care, on Mort’s part). Regardless, I still enjoyed the deep connection between the two characters and rooted for them to get together. I thought they had terrific chemistry together. Both of them knew what they wanted — it just took some time for them to get there.

What I loved about this story, is that it wasn’t merely a “boy likes boy” romance but rather, Happy for You is quite a complex story with a myriad of themes such as acceptance, family, friendship, redemption, betrayal, trust, depression, and forgiveness. I love how the author peeled back the layers of the story bit by bit as the puzzle pieces from the past slowly came to fit together.

My only niggle with the book was Felix’s mom. she played an essential part in the plot of the story, yet I felt that her character was underdeveloped. I wanted to know a lot more about her and her depression, her surgery, and her relationship with those around her.

But all in all, it was a pleasure reading this novel, and I was so hooked that I read the entire thing in one go. Happy for You is such a sweet story, and the book hit all me in all the right places. I enjoyed the slow burn romance and loved the dorky, funny, and quirky characters, all of whom had an enormous heart.

I thought this was a solid book and feel that this tender story is an exquisite addition to the author’s Love and Family series. This is a lovely story with plenty of heart, humor, family, and chemistry that leaves you feeling happy for all of the characters and with a warm and fuzzy case of the ‘feels’ at the end.

There’s a reason that Anyta Sunday is an auto-buy author for me and I already look forward to her next book.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and to Anyta Sunday for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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