Cubs & Campfires (Sweet & Stocky, Book 1) – Dylan Drakes

Cosy, Sweet and Spicy Romance, Chonky Boys, and Love in the Wild!

Dylan Drakes is firmly up there on my list of favourite authors. This is his second novel and it is wildly different to his first. This one is the first in a series of Sweet & Stocky romances, featuring large, cuddly (and biteable) men who have the best bums and tums and they cannot get enough of each other.

I absolutely fell in love with these two characters. Big boys who love and appreciate themselves and each other. This is a story of love under the stars – a journey that neither character expected to find themselves on. It’s a celebration of the full-figured male in all his glory. Body positivity at its finest.

I loved the wilderness setting. I loved the character development. I loved the spicy scenes. I loved the unexpected connection these guys found themselves pulled into. I love that there is potential for us to meet these two again in a future story, even if only in passing.

I want more! Give me more! I’m looking forward to the next book.

Available from Amazon

Rookie Mistake (On the Board, Book 1) LA Witt & Anna Zabo

Very Spicy MM Romance. Loved it!

This book combined two loves of mine – Ice Hockey and LGBT romance. Be still my beating heart! 

There are very descriptive, off the chart spicy scenes of consensual sexual activity between two men. Very well written. I want more of this!

There’s a lot of hockey talk, so if ice hockey isn’t your thing, you’ll learn about it on the way through. Who knows, it might even inspire you to check it out. It does have a healthy following, even here in the UK.

I also really loved the introduction of BDSM themes in the book and how the main character learns about and explores this new aspect of his sexuality along with the reader. Beautifully done. Absolutely superb.

The characters are well written, have depth and show growth over the course of the book. I fell a little bit in love with both of these men.

Be warned though, towards the end of the book there is discussion of historical sexual abuse of a young man. It is essential to the story arc and is discussed rather than described in any great detail.

So… if very descriptive LGBT sex and a bit of sports talk is your thing, you will love this book.

There is a second book which I must buy immediately.

Available from Amazon

The Year I Left : Christine Brae

A beautifully written tale of bereavement and love, grief and joy, loss and self discovery

This is a beautifully written book about loss, grief, self discovery and love. It’s a standalone book which covers some difficult and adult topics and does it so well.

I was captivated by this story, which really takes you on a complex journey through the eyes of a woman whose sudden loss of her mother triggers a descent into clinical depression. We see the impact that her declining mental state and subsequent withdrawal has on her family and her work. How she finds forbidden love and despite her initial reservations, does something hugely out of character to try and find herself again.

The world building felt so real and was so vividly descriptive that I could almost see myself there. 

It was an incredibly emotional read. I felt her pain and her joy. I felt her loss and her love. The writing style really pulls you in and makes this a real and relatable story. The characters are complex and believable. It’s not often that I get so emotionally invested in fictional characters but I loved them all just a little bit and am sad now that I have finished the book and they are all still within its pages and no longer part of my own journey. 

I wholeheartedly recommend this book. This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author but it definitely won’t be the last.

Available from Amazon