Emotional scars

RELEASE BLITZ

Book Title: A Little More Hope (Hot Property, Book Two)

Author: Pauley J Ray

Publisher: NineStar Press

Cover Artist: Jaycee DeLorenzo

Release Date: July 18, 2023

Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance

Tropes: Bi awakening, Emotional scars

Themes: Overcoming adversity, loss, rejection

Heat Rating: 4 flames

Length: 87 900 words/525 pages

This is book two of a four-book series. Each book concentrates on a different main character from the four owners of a successful construction company. Successive books will include spoilers from the previous ones if the books are not read in order.

This story does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads – Book 1

Buy Links

NineStar Press | Amazon UK Author Page | Amazon US Author Page

Your heart must believe there is hope before you can believe there is love

Blurb

After a vicious assault leaves him a virtual recluse, businessman Mason Wilder escapes to his friend’s beach house in the small seaside town of Melrose Bay to heal and come to terms with the shadow of the man he has become.

When Ashton Michaels, wanderer, surfer, loner, unexpectedly inherits a rundown shack of a house, he must decide: keep running from his disastrous past relationships or return to the place he loves, finally put down some roots, and learn to live life with all its consequences.

After a chance encounter with his elusive next-door neighbor, Ash can see Mason is hurting and it releases his protective, caring side and he knows he’ll do anything he can to aid the handsome, broken man in such desperate need of help.

Mason initially resists the offer of help from Ash, but the guy is persistent and for reasons he can’t figure out, Mason feels drawn to him. When Ash decides to keep and renovate his new home, impulsively Mason joins him and in the process of rebuilding the house, Mason begins to rebuild his life and confront his fears.
He must also learn to come to terms with his unexpected attraction to a man for the first time in his life. Ash is a solid, comforting, and caring presence and offers Mason everything he’s been searching for since his brutal attack.

Ash is falling hard for the quiet and troubled man he’s spending all his time with but is worried the past will only repeat itself and Mason will leave him all alone like everyone else.

Can Mason finally put his demons to rest to move forward with his life and will Ash be able prevent his fear of being left behind from ruining his chance at love?

Excerpt

Mason

“It’s late. I should go, and you need to rest,” he stuttered, his eyes looking anywhere but at me.

I hastily stood, then gripped him around the upper arm. Not restrictive, but enough to keep him from moving. He stiffened but didn’t pull away. “Please don’t go.” I placed my other hand on the side of his neck. His eyelids fluttered briefly shut and a light tremor ran through his body under my palm.

“I’m sorry if I unsettled you. It’s just— I’ve— It’s—” I sighed, trying to explain. “I haven’t let anyone hold me since the attack. Not friends or family. I haven’t wanted to.” I waited until his eyes opened and stormy green focused on my own. “You’re the first I’ve allowed.”

He stared at me for the longest time before whispering, “Why?”

I thought about his question, trying to work the answer out in my head, why Ash’s touch and only his didn’t make my skin crawl. I’d attributed my repulsion to being touched to the associated feeling of terror when my assailants dragged me into the filthy dark alley. I knew the difference, obviously, but couldn’t get past the feeling whenever someone tried to put their hands on me.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure I understand why,” I admitted, “but your touch is different. It calms me, grounds me, makes everything okay, and I haven’t felt that way in a very long time.”

If ever.

I lowered my eyes at revealing that last piece of information, but I’d spoken the truth, nonetheless. “I don’t want you to stop.” I almost begged him, not wanting to relinquish this small piece of comfort I had in my life, the single ray of light in the never-ending darkness.

The shy grin crossing Ash’s face at my words lit me up inside like a beacon. Releasing himself from my hold, his hands moved to rest lightly on my waist as he stepped closer, making our bodies touch.

“This okay?” he asked, his voice gravelly.

Strong arms circled around my lower back to pull me closer, and a shudder shook my whole body as I reveled in the feel of him, of being in his embrace. My own arms mirrored his, sliding up and over his shoulder blades, his taut muscles rippling under my fingers.

“Yeah,” I managed, as he hugged me tighter, yet remaining careful of putting any pressure on my ribs.

He shifted slightly, and my crotch rubbed against his thigh, sending ripples of pleasure straight to my cock, now thickening rapidly in my shorts and shocking the hell out of me. I hadn’t been able to get hard once since the attack, and I was unprepared for the suddenness of getting an erection. Being so close to someone after all this time must be overloading my senses, as I couldn’t find any other explanation for what was happening to me.

Unable to stop, I pushed my hips against his leg, the pressure of his firm thigh on my hardening dick sending my pulse rocketing, bombarding me with sparks of desire.

About the Author

Pauley J Ray writes contemporary MM romantic fiction. His books contain sexy yet complicated and flawed characters searching for their own happily ever after.

When not writing, he can’t wait to get outdoors, and with his husband, go hiking, camping, and travel everywhere they can, as often as they can.

With his husband’s job taking them all over the world, he now gets to write all day, every day, and he’s never happier than when sat at his laptop creating new stories about gorgeous and sexy men.

Except when there’s coffee…ooh and chocolate…yes, he’s way happier when there’s coffee and chocolate!

Social Media Links

Blog/Website | Facebook

Twitter | Instagram

Giveaway

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BLOG TOUR

Book Title: A Case of Madness (Or the Curious Appearance of Holmes in the Nighttime)

Author: Yvonne Knop

Publisher: Improbable Press

Cover Artist: Ksenia Spizhevaya

Release Date: March 20, 2023

Genres: Adult Contemporary M/M Rom-Com

Tropes: Opposites attract, Emotional scars, Grumpy/sunshine

Themes: Coming out, friendship, mental illness, love

Heat Rating: 2 flames

Length: 82 000 words/272 pages

It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Publisher | Amazon US | Amazon UK

A world-weary Sherlock Holmes scholar loses his job and his sanity when the great detective materializes in his flat to help solve a mystery that involves a handsome male stranger. What ensues is a thrilling adventure in literature, London, and love.

Blurb

Andrew Thomas just got sacked. He’s permanently drunk. He’s got cancer. Is inescapably gay. Was hit by a bus. And he’s fallen in love with a stranger whose life he saved.

As a newly-unemployed Sherlock Holmes scholar, Andrew knows only Holmes can help him untangle the madness his life has become, but Holmes isn’t real. Except he absolutely appeared in Andrew’s house, told him he’s in love with a man he just met…and then in a fit of pique Andrew sent him away.

Sure Holmes is probably a hallucination or a specter or a ghost, but now Andrew desperately needs his help. So to find the answer to his case and the man of his dreams, Andrew takes to chasing a fictional character through London with his very own Watson.

Excerpt

While strolling amid the students and scholars rushing into the University of London, I ignored the urge to check my pocket watch.

If there was ever a day to dawdle, it was today. The first day of summer that actually felt like the season it claimed to be. And the day of my personal disaster.

It wasn’t a ‘this train will split at the next station and you just sat down with your meal deal’ disaster, but it was equally inconvenient. After decades of laboring in academia, I was about to become involuntarily unemployed. Apart from that – and this might be even more important – I was also going to die.

To delay the confrontation a bit longer, I looked for a shaded place to smoke and then took long, luxurious drags on my cigarette. A cough struggled to tear itself free from my chest, but I suppressed it. Not now. Focus.

Few people knew my name or my publications. But some such people existed – people who were as fascinated by a very specific man as I was, and who seemed to value my works more than I did. The man I wrote about lived in Baker Street, and he was partly to blame for my situation. Though I liked to think of myself as a charmingly anachronistic gentleman, I increasingly felt I was just a dafter in a fine suit who lurked around public buildings. Instead of engaging in modern life, I was immersed in the world of Sherlock Holmes and all things Victorian, with the natural effect of many acquaintances leaving or going extinct. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the company of others; it was that I struggled in the company of others. And they struggled in the company of me.

You see, the fact that I knew my dearest detective had appeared on-screen in over two hundred and twenty adaptations did not give me much hope I would find out what people did for fun. But what of fun? What about achievement? Holmes is the most filmed novel character of all time – among humans, at least; Dracula has been filmed even more often. This connection filled me with joy, and I believed it could be combined in a curious way. Dracula Holmes: he investigates at night because he’s not just a detective, no – he’s also a vampire. Greedy for blood and knowledge.

I finished my cigarette and stepped from the shadows only to immediately collide with a young man in the most colorful trainers I’d ever seen. In a split-second knockout victory, he fell to the ground covered in the flyers he had been holding in his hand just seconds before.

I bent down immediately to help him. “I’m so sorry,” I said, quickly picking up his flyers from the pavement. At least those which hadn’t fallen into the grey puddle right next to us.

“It’s okay,” he said, and he looked at me. His blue eyes seemed friendly though his gaze was intense.

I quickly looked down again. To my surprise, the flyers weren’t gig announcements or takeaway adverts. In fact, they were promoting something very dear to my heart. “I like theater,” I said, handing him back a few of the flyers. “I thought theater was dead for young people.”

He smiled. “Most young people get run over by perfect strangers.

That’s why so few make it to the stage. Anyway…I’m still alive.”

That he was. Alive, handsome, and holding a slim stack of remaining flyers. Slightly crumpled.

“I’m far from perfect,” I remarked, thinking of the trouble I had caused him.

About the Author

Yvonne is a bi and nonbinary writer who dedicates their free time to extending the secret Gay Agenda – in part through their debut novel A Case of Madness.

Although born and raised in the north of Germany, Yvonne’s passion for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who, their sassy humor, and aversion to talking on public transport made them suspiciously British from early on.

As a natural matter of cause and effect, Yvonne moved to London in 2014 and started to write (a novel for the drawer). No word was written until 2017 when the sudden question of ‘What if I could talk to Sherlock Holmes?’ came up to them.

Conducting PhD research in the world’s most extensive Sherlock Holmes collection, located in Minneapolis, USA, was a great help for answering that question. The result was not a PhD, but their debut novel A Case of Madness, originally written in German and in a bold move translated by the author themselves when nobody in Germany understood a word they were saying.