LGBT Romance

Mr. Frosty Pants follows Casey who, when he left for college four years ago, ghosted his best friend, Joel. Casey had just come out to his parents which didn’t go all that well, and he decided not to go through the same thing with Joel. It’s also worth mentioning that he was and still is very much in love with Joel and didn’t want to risk Joel finding that out.

Now as for Joel, he’s curmudgeonly, ill-tempered and unapproachable, so much so that his employee at the hardware store that Joel owns has nicknamed him “Mr. Frosty Pants.” Joel initially comes across as a wholly unlikable character. But given that the story is told from alternating POVs, we learn the reason for Joel’s standoffishness: he’s been severely hurt in the past by his despicable and abusive father, leading to an overall feeling of unworthiness on his part as he struggles merely to survive day by day.

We also learn that he’s also not quite as straight as Casey believes and that he’s also been in love with and pining for Casey for years.

Still, when Casey shows up at Joel’s store with the intention of renewing their friendship, Joel wants nothing to do with him gives him more than a frosty reception. He certainly has no intention of telling Casey about how he feels about him and does his best to drive the man off. Joel thinks that Casey has no place in his life now, especially given that they come from two different classes; Casey from new money and Joel struggling to afford his next meal (Casey’s snobbish parents also do not approve of Joel and their son’s friendship with him). Joel believes that it would be easier on his heart if he kept Casey at a distance.

But Casey is not so easily rebuffed, especially once he learns from a mutual friend that Joel may have romantic feelings for him as well.

What follows is a sweet, slow-burn romance with two very complicated characters as Casey is determined to win Joel’s trust whereas Joel is determined to keep the gate protecting his heart firmly closed. Add to that class differences, homophobic parents and elitism, we quickly see that it’s not going to be an easy road for our main characters. Though this is a holiday romance, it’s not a typical one in that we see a little more angst in this story than one usually sees in Christmas romances but the overall result is worth it, and we end up with an intense, hard-hitting tale with plenty of heart.

I typically enjoy the friends to lovers trope and this novel was no exception. I loved seeing the relationship slowly bloom between Casey and Joel as barriers are torn down and trust earned. It’s a lovely story about opening one’s heart and taking a chance on love. There are several tropes in this book that work together wonderfully: childhood friends-to-lovers, second chances, ex-best friends, unrequited love, lovers reunited and rich boy vs. poor boy all of which, combined with the atmosphere of Christmas, add to the richness and depth of this tale.

Mr. Frosty Pants ended up being a story of redemption, acceptance and second changes that was heartbreaking in places and joyful in others. It’s not a fluffy or cheesy story but rather a hopeful, deep and fulfilling one about two characters discovering themselves. Their relationship felt authentic to me and their character traits believable and realistic, which wasn’t surprising given how complicated and multi-faceted each of them was. The intimate scenes are also tastefully done and in perfect proportion to the rest of the story.

All in all, a beautiful, heartfelt M/M Christmas story. Recommended!

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This is at the fourth book in the Signs of Love series by Anyta Sunday. I actually started with book two in this series, Scorpio hates Virgo and I loved it so much a went out and got the rest of my series. I’m really a fan of this author and have now read several books by her. She writes gay romance book and many people refer to her as the “Queen of Slow Burn” because she specializes in the slow burn romance. I think that’s why I enjoy her books so much because I love this trope. She also does the enemies to lover trope in some of her novels which I also really enjoy.

So onto Pisces Hooks Taurus. The story follows Zane, a Kiwi who has a month left on his Visa before he’s shipped back from the US to New Zealand. But he wants to stay in the US more than anything especially because he wants to stay close to his brother and his brother’s wife who is also his best friend and the two of them have just become parents. So Zane has a plan: he will find the perfect girl of his dreams on one of his dating apps, fall in love, marry her and get to stay in the states. That’s the plan, anyway. Oh, and all this is to take place within 30 days.

But first off, he needs to find another place to stay and asks a friend of his brother’s wife, a professor named Beckett, if he can crash with him temporarily. So what follows is a delightful slow burn romance between the two of them. But it’s not an easy road. Zane is clueless that his so-called “Bromance” with Beckett may be something more profound and we learn that Beckett is still broken-hearted and deeply scarred from a past relationship and is determined not to get his heart broken again.

I really loved both of their characters. Zane, our Pisces is young, naïve, romantic, and somewhat of a dreamer, so in this way, he comes across as quite innocent. He is also charming and super-sweet. Beckett, our Taurus, is mature, more serious, intellectual and studious though somewhat insecure and mistrusting of others following that horrible breakup.

So it was a delight watching the slow-burn between the two of them as Beckett would continuously erect borders with our clueless Zane unknowingly tearing them down. What I liked is the balance in the story. We have two very different personalities; a totally innocent and naïve character and one who’s jaded and mistrusting. As the tension builds, we see our bull lowering his guard and our fish growing in maturity and wisdom. I also loved how much both of these characters grew by the end of the story.

All in all, I felt that this slow-burn romance was realistic and heartfelt. It was a story full of banter, humor, affection, the building of tension as these two men realized their attraction to the other, and the blossoming of love, without too much angst.

I found it interesting that though Zane was initially searching for the perfect woman, his falling in love with Zane didn’t strike me as a gay-for-you trope, one that I typically don’t like. Rather, it felt like Zane’s bisexuality naturally unfolded as true affection developed between him and Beckett. Actually, I got the impression that Zane didn’t really experience sexual attraction to someone unless he has a strong emotional connection with them. So in this way, he struck me as possibly being more demisexual rather than bisexual.

Pisces Hooks Taurus was another lovely and sweet story by Anyta Sunday that made me a little misty-eyed at the end (as do most of her books). It’s the kind of story that makes you laugh and cry, and really ends up tugging at your heartstrings. Excellent plot, with lovable characters, endearing meddling family and neighbors, plenty of humor and snark and a sweet romance with a couple of steamy scenes thrown in at the end. It’s a story in which both of our characters knew what they wanted — it just took them some time to get there.

I’m loving this series and can’t wait to read the next book.

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Anyta Sunday is one of those authors that I get all gushy over. In fact, in the M/M genre, she’s an insta-buy author for me.

Liam Davis and The Raven is a New Adult M/M Romance that follows Liam Davis, a serious student journalist writing a political column for the campus magazine called The Scribe. His goal is to eventually to gain apprenticeship at his father’s firm, so his life is almost totally focused on his career in journalism. Much to his horror, the editor of The Scribe forces him to relinquish his politics page and reassigns him to The Party Page. Now, this is problematic because not only does it jeopardize his chance of getting into his father’s prestigious newspaper company, but being an extremely serious non-nonsense and no drama type of guy with no friends to speak of, he basically has no idea how to party much less write about it.

But one night when leaving the party, a person dressed as Freddy Krueger comes stalking out of the shadows and attacks him. Luckily the Raven, who is the campus vigilante comes to save the day. Now what’s interesting, is that this vigilante has been getting hate mail sent to Scribe’s opinions page and now Liam takes it upon himself to find out who the Raven is so that he can warn him of the potential danger.

Along the way, due to his Raven research and his new party-going agenda, he ends up making some friends – and someone who may turn into much more than a mere friend. So in this way, this book is a sexual self-discovery tale in which Liam begins to question his own sexuality though he hasn’t given it too much thought.

What I find interesting about Liam, is that he is blunt, honest to a fault, insensitive, standoffish, a tad detached and clinical even – with absolutely no social skills whatsoever but with a keen, critical eye for observation. Though it took me a bit to warm up to Liam — and I really did — he ended up being quite an endearing characters, and I loved his deadpan humor. It was also lovely to watch his sexual awakening as he began to have deep feelings for a someone — in this case a boy — for the first time ever. The entire book is told from Liam’s POV which made the story all the more fun.

Along the way, he amasses several delightful and lovable characters as friends: there’s the dreamy Quinn who takes Liam under his wing and even agrees to become his roommate, the sexy and hysterically funny Hunter who is disabled and in a wheelchair following a brutal gay bashing though that certainly doesn’t stop him from actively pursuing his latest crush, and then there’s Shannon, Hunter’s overprotective sister.

So in this book, Liam not only discovers love for the first time but also true friendship and devotion within friendship.

True to Ms. Sunday’s form, there is a romance in this story, but of course, it is an extremely slow burn one, my favorite trope, to be truthful. I loved watching Liam’s evolution from a clinical social misfit to a passionate lover though he before declaring that he was gay felt that he needed to “gather data before drawing a conclusion.”.

But the romance isn’t the only theme to the story: there is a mystery to be solved. Who is the Raven and why is someone out to get him? And who is the hideous being behind all of the recent attacks on campus?

All in all, I loved this humorous, uplifting and entertaining book with its quirky, adorable characters and a compelling plot. And the romance was super-sweet. So in my opinion, Anyta Sunday hit another home run for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can purchase/check out Liam Davis and the Raven HERE

Spokes follows Christopher Nye, a part-time writer for Cyclo World who works in a bike shop and in his spare time loves to ride his bike throughout the hills of Colorado with his best friend, Stu.

His pro cycling idol is Luca Biondi who has, along with his team, recently started training in Colorado. Meeting briefly at the bike shop and later riding out on the road, Luca and Chris form a friendship that quickly grows into a relationship but one that must be kept secret.  Luca can’t afford for anyone either on his team or in the cycling world to know he is gay, mainly due to concerns about negative reactions from the cycling world as well as his sponsors.  He is also still in the closet from his parents. I liked the fact that Christopher knew all of this going into the relationship and never made demands. I also found it interested how Christopher’s writing became one of the major plot points throughout the novel.

This was quite an emotionally hard-hitting book as, given that cycling is a dangerous sport, there are a couple of tragedies in the story that wrench at your heart.

I was definitely on the edge of my seat during several scenes, especially when watching the two of them navigate some challenging and intense events without being able to be emotionally open with each other in public.

Now given that this is a gay romance book, there was this aspect to it as well, which I felt was really well done. Luca and Chris were sweet together, and the romance between them developed at a nice pace and in an entirely plausible way. And though there were a couple of rather steamy scenes, they did not overpower the plot or distract from the story.

There are a lot of biking details throughout the book that I appreciated as I used to be quite an avid cyclist in my younger days and used to follow the Tour de France quite closely.

Now, this wasn’t a story about two fellows who happened to be cyclists; rather, they both lived and breathed cycling, and the story was as much about cycling as it was about the love life of these two individuals.

I swear every scene in the book had something to do with cycling. That being said, I found the well-researched depth of details in regards to the cycling world details refreshing and people who aren’t familiar with the sport will no doubt learn quite a bit from this story.

All in all, a compelling story from the world of professional cycling with compelling, complicated characters, vivid scenes of Colorado and Italy all peppered with a super sweet romance. It was quite a journey that Chris and Luca took, and I’m glad I went on it with them. I give this book 4 stars.

Click here to check out Spokes at Amazon.