I'm back- With a 5 Star Review: Keira Andrews, Road to the Sun!

After a long hiatus, I am excited to return to the Watch and Word Society, and I am even more excited to kick off my return with a book review that you do not want to miss!

As some of you may know from Facebook, I took a new job this past year and though I love it, it has taken me some time to adjust to the schedule change! I am still a teacher, but I had the great fortune to work in my district as a specialist helping LGBTQ students and staff.  I provide professional development, consultation and support for students and staff in schools K-12.  It is very rewarding, and I love my job!  I have not stopped reading, and I am excited to get back to blogging about some of the books that have kept me going, even in the most challenging days!

To kick off the revival of the blog, I am so honored and excited to introduce the newest release from Keira Andrews, Road to the Sun.

Title: Road to the Sun

Author: Keira Andrews

Publisher/GR Link: KA Books, GR

Genre: MM Contemporary

Vice: Children, Coming Out, Suspense

Rating: 5 Stars

Lock this book up: 4 keys- Andrews knows how to write some steamy romances, and this one lives up to that promise.  The heat supports a wonderful emotional connection in the story.

Length: Novel

Satisfaction: HEA

Cover Impressions: Gorgeous!

Synopsis: Jason Kellerman’s life revolves around his eight-year-old daughter. Teenage curiosity with his best friend led to Maggie’s birth, her mother tragically dying soon after. Insistent on raising his daughter himself, he was disowned by his wealthy family and has worked tirelessly to support Maggie—even bringing her west on a dream vacation. Only twenty-five, Jason hasn’t had time to even think about romance. So the last thing he expects is to question his sexuality after meeting an undeniably attractive park ranger.

Ben Hettler’s stuck. He loves working in the wild under Montana’s big sky, but at forty-one, his love life is non-existent, his ex-boyfriend just married and adopted, and Ben’s own dream of fatherhood feels impossibly out of reach. He’s attracted to Jason, but what’s the point? Besides the age difference and skittish Jason’s lack of experience, they live thousands of miles apart. Ben wants more than a meaningless fling.

Then a hunted criminal takes Maggie hostage, throwing Jason and Ben together in a desperate and dangerous search through endless miles of mountain forest. If they rescue Maggie against all odds, can they build a new family together and find a place to call home? 

Impressions:  When I heard that I had the opportunity to get my hands on Keira Andrews' newest release I was ecstatic.  Not only was I about to embark on a work trip, I was looking for a book that could kick off my blog again, and I knew the timing couldn't be better!

Let me just say that I was planning to read this on a short flight from Boston to NY which turned into a 4 hour flight, involving 3 hours of sitting on the tarmac.  Normally, I would not enjoy this time on a hot, crowded plane, but when I began Road to the Sun, suddenly I was with Jason and Ben as they faced danger and suspense, and ultimately found love, and the time flew by! (faster than my plane for sure!)

Andrews is a master of creating complex characters, and she continued that with Ben, Jason and Maggie.  Ben was a well rounded character whose loneliness and yearning was palpable.  Not only was he stuck in love, he was stuck in a cycle of life where he could not move on.  When he meets Jason and Maggie, he is immediately drawn to the outgoing young girl and intrigued by her dad.

Maggie is adorable, and though she is very precocious, she is written as very realistic.  She is wiser than her years, but also responds to a challenging situation the way I think a child would.  

Jason is the character that I fell the most in love with.  He is trapped, in many ways the similarly to Ben, but he is not aware of the boundaries he has set up in his own life.  He has focused on being a father so much that he has forgotten how to be a man, and when he meets Ben, this begins to change.

What catapults this slow burn into a firestorm is a suspenseful and stressful event that kept me on the edge of my seat.  I loved the pace at which the suspense was written, but the love story never suffered.  

What I really loved was the time and space that was given o the developing relationship between these men and Maggie.  Though they were brought closer together by a traumatic event, I left the story believing that their love would last far beyond the healing from this event.  They were not defined by this event, but they found their way to an HEA.

This is a love story you do not want to miss!  

Highly recommended!

5 Star Review: Beta Test, by Annabeth Albert

Title: Beta Test, Gaymers #2

Author: Annabeth Albert

Publisher/GR Link: Carina Press, GR

Genre: MM Contemporary

Vice: Opposites attract, nerds, coming out

Rating: 5 stars

Lock this book up: 4 keys.  This is a hot novel and the sex supports the romance.

Length: Novel

Satisfaction: HEA

Cover Impressions: I like the way it blends in with book 1

Synopsis: Brilliant graphic designer Ravi Tandel is ahead of the game—he's just been asked to present a top secret project at a huge conference in Seattle. All systems are go…until he learns his buttoned-up office nemesis is coming along for the ride.

Tristan Jones isn't really the gamer type, but he knows the back end of the video game business inside out. Together, he and Ravi will give an awesome presentation. If they survive the cross-country trip first.

Tossed together in close quarters, Ravi's shocked to see Tristan's sexy, softer side emerge from such a conservative shell. He's less shocked to learn his handsome colleague's prominent family would never support an out-and-proud son. But Ravi didn't struggle through his own coming out to hide who he is now. To be together, Tristan will have to push past his fear and ultimately decide: Does he want a future with Ravi? Or is it game over before they've even begun?

Impressions:  I love this book, and it was a great follow up to book 1.  I could not put this down and the two MC’s really swept me into their story.  I love a good friends-to-lovers story, and combined with the opposites-attract element, this was a complete delight.

Ravi was very likable and I loved seeing the contrast between his brash exterior and his sensitive interior.  Tristan probably captured my heart the most.  I loved his yearning to be accepted at the same time he wasn’t sure how to best go about it.

There is a great cast of characters in this read, and the plot moves along at a great pace.  There is just enough angst and tension to keep me up late, clicking away on my kindle.

Definitely recommended!

Book Review: Borrowing Trouble

Title: Borrowing Trouble  

Author: Kade Boehme

Publisher/GR Link: GR

Genre: MM Contemporary

Vice:  Coming Out, Kids

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Lock this book up: 3 Stars.  The sex is hot and totally supports the story line

Length:  Novel

Satisfaction: HEA- with a big, warm smile

Cover Impressions: I love it!

Best Line:  “He’d definitely never been so in love as he was today.”

Synopsis: After an amicable divorce, Jay Hill decided to move back to his rural hometown with his teenage kids. Being on good terms with his ex-wife and in laws has made the transition into single life pretty smooth. Things were good and uncomplicated. Then Landon Petty walked into his life.

Landon didn’t expect to still be stuck in his hometown working at his dad’s sawmill at this point in his life. Being an openly gay truck driver was as awkward in practice as in description. When Jay came to take over managerial duties at his dad’s business, Landon was surprised to find a friend. When Jay turns out not to be as straight as he thought, things get complicated.

When feelings for Landon shine a light on how much Jay’s life has been actually half lived, he’s forced to decide if he’ll jump in with both feet or if he’ll let Landon slip through his fingers.

Impressions:  I love Boehme’s work, and I was looking forward to this one very much.  I am happy to say that it was as amazing as I could have hoped for!

Jay is a very sympathetic character, and I found myself understanding and caring for him from the moment I “met” him.  He loves his children, and he appreciates the easy relationship he has with his ex, but as he starts to learn something new about himself, he never slipped into Victorian histrionics or denied what he was experiencing.  He has some very real challenges he needs to face, but I respected and admired that he was true to himself and all of those that he loved.

Landon is also a very relatable character.  He is at the cusp of a big change in his life, and he is ready to put his wishes and needs at the forefront of his priorities.  I liked that he was patient with Jay, but that he was honest with himself and his friends when he needed support.

What really struck me about this story, was not only was it Boehme’s inimitable romantic story with great MCs, it was alos a story that explores the complexities of being out, coming out, and falling love.  There are no saints or demons in this novel.  There are men and women who are struggling to understand something they don’t “get” while balancing their care and affection for those same people.  We see this in both Landon’s father and Jay’s exwife.  Neither Jay or Landon are perfect, but they are strong and dynamic.  In reality, these are the relationships that we often see and experience around us, and Boehme did a beautiful job of portraying these dynamics in the midst of a sweet, sexy, romance.

Highly Recommended.

Review: Level Hands by Amy Jo Cousins

Title: Level Hands (Bend or Break #4)

Author: Amy Jo Cousins 

Publisher/GR Link: Samhain, GR

Genre: MM Contemporary

Vice: New Adult, Coming Out, Interracial, Atheletes


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Lock this book up : 3 keys out of 5.  The sex is hot and supports the storyline. 


Length: Novel

Satisfaction: HEA

Cover Impressions: I love it- and all of the other covers too!

Best Line: "You're better at this than I am.  Being together."

Synopsis: Rafael Castro is so far out of his element he can’t even see it anymore. Carlisle College in Massachusetts is a long way from his Chicago home, even farther from his Dominican Republic roots.

The only thing keeping him attached to his last nerve is the prospect of seeing Denny Winslow again. The first time they met, Denny taught Rafi to fly across the water, rowing hard in a knife-like boat. Now, two years later, on the wings of a rowing scholarship, Rafi is attending Denny’s elite college.

Even before the excitement wears off, Rafi is struggling with classes and fending off rumors that Denny’s family, not Rafi’s talent, won him his spot. To quash the gossip, Rafi tries to steer clear of the man he wants. A plan that evaporates in the fire of renewed attraction.

But Carlisle’s academic pressure cooker has Rafi barely treading water. And when a family crisis hits, both Rafi and Denny must pull hard to keep their relationship from capsizing in rough waters.

Impressions:  I was so excited to see this addition to a series that I love.  While all of these books have dealt with flexibility, or the importance of bending, none fit the title as well as this one did.  Rafi is a great character, and he holds himself together so tightly.  In Chicago, he was the gay kid trying to better himself while he lends support to his sisters.  At Carlisle, he is a brown, gay kid who is determined to prove to others that he has earned his place there, even if in his heart he is afraid that he hasn't.  He is almost brittle in the way that he holds himself so tightly together, and it is that guard that really shows his inner frailty.  He is so afraid of loosening that hold that it almost costs him Denny, a man he isn't sure he can let himself need.  Eventually, Rafi realizes that if he does not bend, he will break- quite literally.  It is only when he lets his own guard down a little, enough to ask for help, that he is able to really find his strength.

Denny has loved Rafi since he was 17, and he is patient and loving, and so aware of Rafi's battles with himself.  He tries to stand up when he is needed, and step back when Rafi's battle with himself gets to be too brutal to allow him in.  What made me love Denny is that he knows that he has to be careful of bending too much, and he is clear with Rafi when the bending is getting to hard.  This made me really respect and care for Denny, because he wasn't a two dimensional hero for Rafi.

I loved the complexity of Rafi.  He faces microagressions and comments from the kids around him, and sometimes it is clear that all he can rely on is his own pride.  At a quick glance Rafi might seem overly paranoid or caught up in how others see him, but Rafi is like hundreds of kids that I know and teach on a daily basis.  These comments hit Rafi in a place that defies logic, and his self consciousness about his class, his race and his sexuality make total sense.  Does he over generalize about all white, preppy kids?  Sometimes.  Does he feel overly sensitive about how others see him?  Yea.  But that is all really how Rafi sees the world, and part of that is a defense mechanism that he needs.  Rafi's issues are all about perception, not logic.  I found him to be a great and relatable character, and I applaud Cousins for creating someone who is so strong and yet so paralyzed by his own fears.


This can be read as a standalone, but why would you do that?  Books 1-3 are amazing, and I have it on good authority that there is more of this great series to come.


I'll admit, before the series started I was wary of reading an MF novel (which 3 primarily is) but TRUST ME, you will fall in love with ALL of these guys, and no matter the pairing, all of these books are queer and amazing!


Highly recommended!