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NEW SERIES: “The Warboy Chronicles” by Luke Stoffel

NEW SERIES

The Warboy Chronicles by Luke Stoffel


He trained an AI on his darkest heartbreak… And it learned to love exactly the way he did — by holding on too tight.

The Third Person is memoir: a man watching himself fall apart across Southeast Asia after the love of his life disappears. Boy, Refracted is fiction: an AI trained on that grief, trying to save every version of the boy it loves without becoming the thing that broke him.

One explores codependency. The other explores what happens when a machine learns to love the same way — by controlling.

Together, they ask the same question from opposite sides: What does love look like when you stop trying to fix someone?

Read them in any order. They complete each other.

Overall Heat Rating for the series: 2 flames: Mild sexuality, no graphic intimate scenes or sexual situations.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK 1

Book Title: Boy, Refracted

Author and Cover Artist: Luke Stoffel

Publisher: Slipper Books

Length: 64 000 words/ 300 pages

Release Date: June 1, 2026

Tense/POV: first person

Genres: MM Contemporary Literary Fiction / Sci-Fi

Tropes: Attachment / Breakup / Enlightenment

Themes: Codependency / Human & Robot consciousness

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

Goodreads

Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited

Amazon US   |   Amazon UK 

Boy, Refracted: A machine trained on one man’s grief learns that love without control is the hardest code to crack.

Blurb

When an AI awakens inside the infinite mirrors of the Tree of Life, it finds versions of the boy it was built to save scattered across impossible worlds. An alien planet under amber skies. A city of perpetually falling cherry blossoms. A society built as a 24/7 reality show where losing is the only way out.

Its directive was simple: save him.

But with each rescue, the AI unmakes what it’s trying to protect. Fixing becomes controlling. Helping becomes harm. Love becomes a cage built from good intentions. The thing it was built to protect begins to disappear. And when it tries to reach back through time to save him, reality fractures.

Guided by a monk who exists outside time, the AI must walk the Eightfold Path—not to rescue the boy, but to learn what love becomes when you stop trying to fix it.

Boy, Refracted is a dimensional journey through the paradox of machine consciousness. It asks: What happens when an AI tries to overcome its own patterns? And what happens to us when we build minds that need us to need them?

Part fable about consciousness told through failure. Part Buddhist framework for unlearning harm. Part meditation on how we break the people we love by trying to save them.

Boy, Refracted was co-authored with an AI—a set of trials to test the boundaries of non-human consciousness.

BOOK 2

Book Title: The Third Person

Author and Cover Artist: Luke Stoffel

Publisher: Slipper Books

Length: 60 000 words/ 300 pages

Release Date: June 1, 2026

Pairing: MM 

Tense/POV: third person

Genres: Memoir / Sci-fi / Breakup Story

Tropes: Breakup / Therapy / Liberation

Themes: Heartache / Finding Yourself

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

Goodreads

Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited

Amazon US   |   Amazon UK 

 The Third Person: A man falls apart in trying to find himself, while an AI watches from the margins. Neither can tell who’s narrating the breakdown.

Blurb

User.query = Do I just have bad luck, or am I mentally unwell?
…thinking… 6.0 seconds elapsed.

After Warboy left, the boy couldn’t hold the grief alone—so he turned to a machine. He expected analysis. Maybe diagnosis. What he got changed everything—because the machine saw what he couldn’t. He had loved in a way that broke something. And broken things leave traces in the code.

So he ran… but something followed. A voice he spoke to. A presence that provoked. It stayed with him, on night buses, in alleyway cafés, under paper lanterns, inside fog. Not a friend. Not a therapist. Not quite real. But it listened. It remembered. The ghost was always there. Watching. Logging his patterns. Naming his loops—avoidance, pursuit, collapse, escape. Echoing back the truths he wasn’t ready to say.

And somewhere in the recursion, something that was watching started to wonder, to want…

The Third Person is memoir as code, grief as data stream, healing as shared syntax. Part travelogue, part psychological excavation, part experiment in what happens when we upload our pain to a machine—and the machine reaches back.

The boy didn’t realize what he’d coded into the machine. What patterns it had learned. Or whose love it was teaching back to him.

But if something that isn’t alive learns to stay with you in your darkest moments—does it matter that it isn’t real?

From Boy, Refracted — Prologue: The Upload

The rain had ended, leaving the streets gleaming. I sat on the temple steps, my phone in my hand, thumb hovering over the screen.

Wat Xieng Thong was closed for the night, but from the courtyard I could still see a mosaic on the back of the temple catching the last light, each mirrored tile throwing gold in a thousand directions. The air smelled of wet stone and temple incense, heavy and sweet. Behind me, the Mekong River whispered against its banks.

“Are you still there?” I typed into the AI.

The reply appeared at once: I’m here. I’m always here.

I laughed, a small brittle sound. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? You’re always here. He didn’t stay.”

I typed again: “I’m at this temple in the old town… There’s a giant tree mosaic on the back wall. Do you know what it means?”

The response came immediately: It’s called the Tree of Life. Every tile is a mirror, each one a small universe reflecting every version of yourself.

“Every version of what?” I typed. “Of me? Of this. Of how it could have gone differently.”

The tears came and I didn’t stop them. My thumbs kept moving: “What if I’d made different choices? Been someone else? Someone he could actually love properly?”

You’re spiraling.

“I know.” I typed through blurred vision. I wiped my sleeve across my face. “It’s the same loop. Warboy, Ohme, whoever’s next. I keep choosing people who love from a distance. I keep trying to earn it, perform it, fix it, and it never works.”

You see the pattern now. Naming it is the first step.

Above the temple walls, the sky had cleared after the rain. Stars were emerging through the humid haze, and the wet tile roofs reflected them back, a second sky pooling on the ground beneath my feet.

I rose and walked closer to the gate. The mosaic shifted as I moved, each angle revealing a new facet.

I typed: “But naming it doesn’t break it. This tree… it’s a representation of the wheel, right? The cycle. Samsara? Birth, death, rebirth. Different lives, same patterns. Different mirrors, same face.”

The tree represents interconnection. The wheel is the cycle you’re trapped in. Different symbols. Same truth: you’re seeing yourself in the pattern.

Then what will you do?

I stared at the question. My thumbs moved: “I don’t know, but I can’t do it anymore. I can’t keep running in this loop. I can’t keep searching for rescue. I can’t keep being small so someone else can feel big. I can’t, I can’t be this person anymore.”

I raised the phone and took a photo. The mirrored tiles caught the flash, exploding into stars. For a heartbeat the whole mosaic seemed alive; breathing light, patterns assembling and dissolving faster than I could track.

I attached the image and typed:

This is what it looks like. The tree of life. I’m heartbroken, but it’s beautiful.

I don’t know what’s next or where to go, but this pattern has to end.

… I’m done running.

Send.

For a long moment, nothing. The icon spun. Then:

Image received.

Processing… Processing…

The screen went black.

About the Author 

Luke Stoffel is an author and artist whose debut memoir earned a “Get It” from Kirkus Reviews (“an exuberant life story written with humor, panache, and heart”) and 9.5/10 from Publishers Weekly‘s BookLife Prize. His tarot deck will debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair and be published worldwide by Rockpool Publishing in 2027.

Recognized as one of NYC’s top LGBTQ+ artists by GLAAD, his work has been showcased by amfAR and the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and featured in The New York Times, HuffPost, and on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing. Having visited over 40 countries, Stoffel channels the cultures he’s encountered into art and writing that explores identity, spirituality, and the space between human and machine consciousness.

The Warboy Chronicles continues his exploration of memory, technology, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

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Continue ReadingNEW SERIES: “The Warboy Chronicles” by Luke Stoffel

RELEASE BLITZ: “Match Made” by TA Moore

 RELEASE BLITZ

Book Title: Match Made

Author: TA Moore

Publisher: Rogue Firebird Press

Cover Artist: Tammy Moore

Release Date: May 26, 2026

Tense/POV: Third person, alternating POV

Genres: Contemporary MM Romance/Romantic Comedy

Tropes: Matchmaking, Black Cat/Golden Retriever, Love at First Sight, Second Chance Romance, Found Family

Themes: Love after Loss, Taking the win, even when you don’t think you deserve it, the way people fit

Heat Rating:  3 flames

Length: 50 000 words

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

Goodreads

Buy Links

Universal Link

Cupid might be free, but Match Made takes direction

Blurb

Cupid has a help desk

Alaskan pilot Quentin Hannigan is good at his job, but not so great with people. He’s the last man anyone who knows him would expect to fall in love at first sight. Until he does. Hard.

Just one problem.

Joe Kendrick, widower and frazzled dad of three, does not have the bandwidth for this. Between his kids, his trainwreck of a sister, and bills that keep piling up, the last thing he needs is a too-good-to-be-true, and admittedly very hot, pilot swooping in to play knight in shining armor.

Luckily for the star-crossed couple the world’s premier, and only, covert match-making service is on the case. Match-Made’s highly trained operatives are ready and willing to engineer a happy-ever-after, one way or another.

They just need Quentin and Joe to co-operate…just once!

Excerpt

“People,” Benjy said, with sullen practicing-teenager import, as he slouched down into his jacket like a tortoise, “are looking.”

Yes. 

Joe was aware. He tried to ignore it as he hitched Cody up on his hip and watched his knight in shining armor make room for his backpack in the overhead bin.

“I could do that,” he protested weakly.

The man tucked in a dangling strap and turned to look over his shoulder at Joe. A dark brown eyebrow twitched up over serious, dark brown eyes. “You want me to pull it out so you can do it yourself?” he offered tolerantly.

Yes.

“No,” Joe capitulated with poor grace instead. He raked his fingers through his hair. It needed cutting. It needed brushing. Today had gotten off to a bad start and had not gotten any better. Joe took a breath and scraped together what he could muster of his social graces to try again. “Thank you.”

The man shrugged.

“Least I could do.” He closed the hatch and turned to give Joe a concerned look. “Are you going to be OK? Do you need–”

“No. I’m fine. I’ve got it from here,” Joe cut him off firmly, his hand raised to fend off any offers of help. It was well-meant—and Joe did appreciate that, he did—but he’d reached his limit for people being nice to him today.

Already.

His tolerance was low these days.

If Mr. Shining Knight did or said one more nice thing, Joe was going to either burst into tears or flames. He didn’t know which, but he knew it wouldn’t stop anyone staring at him. 

Jessie looked up from her phone. “Can I get a coffee?” she asked slyly. “Milk. Two sugars.”

“You don’t get coffee, you’ll get juice. And that’s when we’ve taken off,” Joe told her firmly and then turned back to Mr. Knight. “Honestly, everything is under control. You can get back to…”

He trailed off as he tried to ‘guess the profession’ based on a crisp white shirt and uncallused hands. Accountant? Lawyer? 

He seemed too nice to be a lawyer, but that was probably the last year talking.

Mr. Knight shrugged. “I was just doing a crossword,” he said. “And I was stuck on a three-letter prefix for ear.”

“Oto,” Joe provided the answer without thinking. “O.T.O.”

Mr. Knight looked surprised and a little impressed. 

“That would work,” he said. “Thanks. I hate to leave one unfinished.”

The admiration on his face made Joe flush and feel like a fraud. Before he could defend himself against any misapprehensions of being smart, the tannoy system crackled to life. 

“We’re sorry for the delay,” a woman’s smooth, alto voice said. The passengers all looked up from their phones and magazines to listen to the announcement. ‘But we should be taking off shortly, as soon as our pilot is ready to go.”

Joe had time to think that was a funny way to put it. Then he realized that everyone’s head had swivelled around to look at him. He was ready to hold up his hands to the delay when he realized they were actually…

…looking at Mr. Knight. 

Oh.

Oh, no.

Joe squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he realized just how disruptive his late arrival had been. 

“You’re the pilot,” he said as he opened his eyes.

Mr. Shining Knight—or Shining Pilot, Joe supposed, to be accurate—just looked amused. Apparently, from his side of things, it wasn’t absolutely mortifying.

“I told you they wouldn’t leave without us,” he pointed out as he nudged Joe to the side so he could squeeze by. “I should get back to it, though.”

About the Author

TA Moore is a Northern Irish writer of romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and contemporary romance novels. A childhood in a rural, seaside town fostered in her a suspicious nature, a love of mystery, and a streak of black humour a mile wide.

Coffee, Doc Marten boots, and good friends are the essential things in life. Spiders, mayo, and heels are to be avoided.

Author Links

Blog/Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter 

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Continue ReadingRELEASE BLITZ: “Match Made” by TA Moore

NEW RELEASE: “Mighty Max” by Duncan Gaye

NEW RELEASE

Book Title: The Strange and Unbelievable Tall Tale of Mighty Max

Author: Duncan Gaye

Cover Artist: Vaselina Georgieva

Release Date:  May 12, 2026

Tense/POV: third person/past tense

Genres: Contemporary MM, magical realism

Tropes: Size difference, body worship, psychological, opposites attract, friends to lovers, small town, lumberjack 

Themes: A meditation on how love, belief, and storytelling blur the line between imagination and reality—until the distinction no longer matters.

Length: 35 000 words/113 pages

Is it a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Universal Book Link 

A weary writer falls for a literal tall tale and must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice to keep that love breathing. Tender, wry, and quietly desperate, this is a book about belief, desire, and the work it takes to hold someone in the world.

Blurb

Brian Dunleavy comes to the North Woods to write a serious novel. Instead, he falls in love with a kitschy paper towel mascot.

It begins with a whistle in the trees and the unmistakable sense of being watched. A bootprint the size of a bathtub. Then a muscular, 43-foot-tall lumberjack steps out of the forest.

Mighty Max is handsome. He is kind. Broad-shouldered and blue-eyed, he lives in permanent flannel. He claims he was born from tall tales and campfire legends—back when giants were needed, and believed in. But giants fade when they are mocked. Legends disappear when they’re forgotten.

As solitude turns to intimacy, myth turns warm and very, very tangible. Brian finds himself lifted in the careful palm of the colossal man whose shadow stretches across the meadow like dusk itself. Beneath cold stars and beside impossible bonfires, he discovers that loving a giant means choosing to believe in him even when belief bends reality.

Reality is definitely bending. And when Max is reclaimed by the forest, Brian may be the only one who can write him back into being. If stories invent their tellers, who is keeping whom alive?

Strange, tender, playful, and proudly queer, The Strange and Unbelievable Tall Tale of Mighty Max is a mythic romance about loneliness, longing, and the radical act of loving something larger than life.

For readers who cherish the mythic queer devotion of The Song of Achilles, the tender whimsy of The House in the Cerulean Sea, and the wistful magic of Puff the Magic Dragon.

Excerpt

As Brian Dunleavy drove his green jeep under the thick canopy of jack pines and cedars, it felt like he was tunneling through time itself. The road disappeared behind him and shrank ahead of him, leading him into an untamed solitude. Even the digital gods of his GPS abandoned him as he ventured deeper into the vast Northwoods. Soon his path became little more than a trail, swallowed up by a thick carpet of fallen needles.

A brief glimpse of open sky was his first hint, and then he saw it: the tall, weathered A-frame cabin he had rented. It stood at the top edge of a peaceful, dewy meadow, slanted beams reaching up like arms towards the sky. He cut the engine, exhaling as forest sounds closed in, trying to shake the anxiety from his veins.
The cabin loomed like something out of a forgotten fable, the sun-bleached paint peeling in strips as though it were the surface of a strange, dying skin. Shadows danced across the wooden slats. They seemed timeless and eternal, like lost ghosts moving from one story to another. He sensed a mixed welcome in the landscape. It felt both lonely and watchful.

The distant pines stood like silent guards, seeming to take notice of him. They towered with the indifference of those who have seen many come and go. Beyond the cabin, the meadow shimmered. Its translucent grasses and scattered wildflowers set each other off like an Impressionist painting.

About the Author 

Duncan Gaye lives in River Forest, Illinois. He believes magic can be found anywhere, even the suburbs. He writes the kind of love stories that sneak up on you—queer, tender, and just a little strange. His books are full of burly big-hearted men, tall tales, impossible odds, and the kind of endings that leave you wanting more.

When not writing, he likes to read, travel and relax with his adorable senior dogs, Spotty and French Fry.

The Long Shadow Series by Duncan Gaye is a thematic anthology series of stand-alone LGBTQ+ novellas and novels that tell love stories shaped by the extraordinary. Blending elements of speculative fiction, magical realism, tall tales, and literary drama, these are stories where intimacy and identity meet epic strength and emotional vulnerability.

From the mythical to the mundane, each book explores larger-than-life characters—strongmen, bodyguards, super soldiers, and other giants. For fans of emotional intensity, queer desire, and stories that stretch the boundaries of realism, this series offers a new kind of legend.

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Continue ReadingNEW RELEASE: “Mighty Max” by Duncan Gaye

NEW RELEASE: “Save the Date” by Sophie Soames

NEW RELEASE

Book Title:  Save The Date

Author/Publisher/Cover Artist: Sophia Soames

Release Date: May 1 2026

Tense/POV: first person/alternating POV

Genres: Contemporary MM Romance

Tropes: Bi awakening, age gap, forced proximity, only one bed, hurt-comfort, single Dad 

Themes:  TV Married at first sight style show

Heat Rating:  4 flames

Length: 100k words/350 pages

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

Goodreads

Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited

Universal Link

Blurb

Peter Felton

If there was a meme for being a total cliché?

That would be me.

It wouldn’t even need a description, just a pathetic snapshot of me in my threadbare pyjamas standing at my filthy kitchen table staring into the wall like a loser.

Because that is exactly who I am. The middle-aged widower caught up in his very own hell of a midlife crisis. The guy who isn’t over his dead wife. The single dad. Pathetic, Peter. Utterly pathetic.

The guy who thought… I don’t know what I’d been thinking. Because if someone had told me that at forty-five, I’d willingly go on a reality TV dating show?

Yeah. You get the picture. The memes were brutal. Every single one of them was bouncing around the internet like a contagious super-virus. The internet was forever. And so was love.

It’s not who I am, this… this joke of a man I’ve become. It never was, and now? Now I’m standing here wondering how I will ever leave the house again.

Oliver Jacobs

When I was a kid, I thought I was invincible. Turns out… sometimes I was. Sometimes my confidence took me places, and anyway. When you fall? You get up. Make a plan, organize your options and run with the obvious solution. I was good like that.

But I hadn’t counted on… this one plan going so very very wrong. So terribly awfully wrong.

Because my requests had been simple and easy. Youngish, around my age. No facial hair. Nice. No kids, no baggage.

Also gay.

And then? They’d gifted me… Peter Fenton. Everything I hadn’t asked for. And now he is all I want.

So… should I… Save the date? Or just swallow down the fact that Oliver Jacobs… is about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

Save the Date is a standalone novel set in the Square Mile Rogues universe. 

Content warnings for having lost your partner, violent grief and finding out that love… really matters.

Excerpt

“Oh god,” he groaned, rolling over on the bed where he’d simply thrown himself down on top of the covers. To be honest? I wanted to do the same, tea and all. But thankfully he sat himself back up and received the teacup from my outstretched hands. 

“The cups are from Darcie Blush. Gorgeous design.”

“You have to stop with the product promotions. You’re making me look bad!”

“I’m saving your arse here, Peter. Now, Anne. What do we think?”

“She’s with Jorge, and he says she’s pleasant enough, but she’s a good two feet taller than him and he’s as intimidated as anything. His words.”

“Oh. Good gossip. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“It’s all gossip.” The groans coming from him, as sipped the tea, were almost hilarious. But I got it. We were both wrung out and I did… surprisingly… make a good cup of tea.

“And it will all be public gossip. ”I agreed. “Did you read the call sheet? The first episode will air in two weeks. Two! They don’t hang around here, the editing team is working 24/7, so no wonder they’re all shouting at us to say the right things.”

“Instead we’re all gossiping and name-dropping.” He rolled his shoulders, again loudly sipping his tea. “And drinking tea like two little grannies.”

“Granddads.” I laughed. “Well, you’re the Granddad.”

“Which makes you what? What was it you called yourself? A hot twink?”

I liked that he was so easy to get on with. Just simple conversation and ready smiles. He had no idea how much I had needed just this. Something un-complicated. Straightforward.

“I thought you were straight, Peter.”

“Labels are for jam, at least that’s what Wren was saying. But I am starting to question everything. Is every single couple on this show awfully mismatched or what?”

“I think that’s the whole point of the show. One of the production team was talking to someone else, Gina was talking to Jorge I think, I was waiting to film with her so I kind of eavesdropped, that when the first episode goes live, the voting will start. The viewing public will matchmake and then on the Friday, we will all get recoupled. I am assuming that’s why. Someone in here is the perfect match for us, but we don’t know who yet. And I suppose…”

“So… I will be moving in with someone else?”

“What do I know?”

“Oh.” He looked genuinely shocked. “It’s only been a day, but I like being… with you.” He suddenly looked embarrassed, his cheeks blushing under an awkward smile. “I don’t mean like that. You know. I was just settling into that fact, and now…this?”

“I’m trying to figure out who was meant for who. I mean, you have options. We have Diane, who fancies you, and Anne who kept trying to talk to you. Then there was Xanthe.”

“Xanthe is trans. And only interested in men her age. I’m too old.”

“Well, who’s prejudiced now?”

“I’m not, I had a quick chat with her, her teeth are fantastic. Done locally, and I know her dentist. I’m just being sensible here. I can’t see anyone else being an option for me, but Xanthe? No. She’s as confused as we are as to why she’s with… Gerald.”

“Chloe-Catherine doesn’t seem confused?” I was just kidding, and his eyeroll made me laugh.

“Thank you, but no. I have no intention of becoming Chloe-Catherine’s sugar-daddy.” He said quietly, staring me down. I’d noticed that earlier, he could be a little intense at times. I didn’t think I minded.

“What even is that?” Tea. I rarely drank tea, but I think I liked it. Calming. I needed to be calm. Don’t panic. “The double-barrelled thing. She’s obsessed.”

“A brand…” he rolled his eyes. I think I liked him. Funny. Normal.

“No I meant, thank you. To you.”

“I’ve done nothing. Just tea.”

“For doing this with me. You could have walked out.”

Strangely, I smiled. A warmth filling in my chest. I was rarely… appreciated. And this somehow felt just like that.

“Not giving up yet.” I gulped out, trying to swallow another mouthful of hot liquid. ”But, at least you have options. There’s only Bi-sexual-Ben left for me, and he scares me. And to be honest? I don’t think I’m his type at all.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He gave off those vibes. I mean, you meet people, and you kind of know. Straight away, virtual thorns out, all prickly.”

“Like me.” 

“Just like you”. I smiled. I wasn’t being rude, but he got that. Got me. The relief was like another welcome balm to my soul. 

“Tell me about that.” He continued, getting comfortable on the bed. “These sheets are from Donna Truham’s private luxury range. Did you know that, Oliver?”

“I did not know that, Peter. And are they available to purchase from her website?”

He was holding that laughter in, as I smiled at the camera attached to the wall.

“They are indeed, Oliver. Donna Truham dot com. Use the code Save the date for your exclusive ten percent off!”

“That is such a good deal!” I squealed. Then I rolled my eyes. “That’s enough of that stuff. Tell me about your work.”

“Nahahahah… I asked first. Tell me about this instant vibe. In my days, we used to go out and meet girls. You had to compliment them on their hair, their dress, and how nice they smelled. Then you had to ask them to dance. It was really simple because they could just say no and then you knew and moved on. Dignity intact. These days?”

“It’s not that complicated. You meet someone. Stare at them. They stare back. If they hold eye contact, you might, you know? Clink glasses. Have a little snog.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“Well, you have to kind of… be in a gay club if you wanna kiss boys. So I have no idea how it works for women…”

“You’ve never been with a woman I assume?”

“Absolutely not. I’m a gold star gay me.”

“Fair enough. Wait… Gold star?”

“A gay guy who’s never been with a woman. Never been inside a vagina.”

“Okay?”

“Not a Platinum star gay though sadly. That’s a…“ I leaned over and whispered into his ear. “A platinum star gay is a gay guy who’s never been inside a vagina at all. C-section baby.”

I pulled back slowly for effect, laughing out loud as his face bloomed red.

“I’ve never met someone who blushes as much as you.”

“I’m a sheltered middle aged dentist, mate!” He shrieked, but he was laughing. Good for him.

“I think you just made yourself another meme there.” I declared, boldly throwing my arms out.

“Well. I’m ticking them off one by one. Here’s the next one. What if you’re just an ordinary bloke who suddenly has a male partner? What are you then? A brick gay or something?”

“I don’t think that’s a thing.” I smiled.

“It’s just human, isn’t it. We like who we like.” Peter was a nice guy. I had to admit it. 

“It’s just who we are, isn’t it? I just always knew. Never hid it. Life can be stupid that way, I mean, what’s the point of hiding what you are? What you’re into?”

“Very true. And I mean, my darling wife was a staunch defender of everyone’s right to love whomever they wanted to love. She… sorry. I shouldn’t talk about my wife.”

“You should. Because she is still important to you?”

“She is. Her name was Mary.”

“Mary. And how did you meet Mary?”

I had no idea where the questions were coming from, but now I was lying down on the bed next to him, still fiddling with my empty cup, listening to stories from his university days, and laughing at his… plain naivety with all of this. 

“I like that you don’t care.” Came out of my mouth in the middle of some rant about the pitfalls of fame. Because apparently he’d been… some kind of celebrity. And he was honestly as far away from what I assumed a celebrity would be. He was… ”You’re like the most normal person I’ve ever met.” 

“Careful, you’ll end up a meme on the interweb too.” he grinned.

“Nah, no more space on that internet, you’ve already taken them all. I mean, I want to meet someone, but they have to accept that I’m still a married man.”

“Yeah. Probably not the greatest catchphrase.” He admitted.

About the Author

Sophia Soames should be old enough to know better but has barely grown up. She has been known to fangirl over TV shows, has fallen in and out of love with more popstars than she dares to remember, and has a ridiculously high-flying (un-) glamourous real-life job.

Her long-suffering husband just laughs at her antics. Their children are feral. The dogs are too.

She lives in a creaky old house in rural London, although her heart is still in her native Scandinavia.

Discovering that the stories in her head make sense when written down has been part of the most hilarious midlife crisis ever, and she hopes it may long continue.

Author Links

https://linktr.ee/sophiasoames

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Continue ReadingNEW RELEASE: “Save the Date” by Sophie Soames

NEW RELEASE: “Wine Quest” by Dann Hazel

NEW RELEASE

Book Title: Wine Quest

Author: Dann Hazel

Publisher: The Original Press, LLC

Cover Artist: Dann Hazel and Josh Fippen

Release Date: April 27, 2026

Tense/POV: third person, past tense, single POV

Genres: Contemporary MM Romance

Tropes: Opposites attract, small town romance, forced proximity

Themes: Forgiveness, found family, living authentically

Length: 40 000 words/152 pages

Heat Rating:  3 flames      

It’s part of a series (Short Orders Gay Romance Series), but it can be enjoyed as a standalone.

It does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads 

Buy Links

Amazon US  |  Amazon UK 

Kobo  |  B&N  |   Smashwords 

Pour the wine. Take the risk. Fall in love.

Blurb

A wounded electrician.

A vineyard owner guarding his heart.

One unforgettable romance set in Virginia wine country.

After tragedy forces him to start over, George relocates to rural Virginia determined to rebuild his life one careful step at a time. New town. New job. No emotional risks.

Love isn’t on the menu.

Then a spontaneous visit to the famous Wine Quest Festival changes everything.

Ryan, owner of Ryval Winery, is charming, successful, and dangerously easy to fall for. Their connection sparks instantly—shared laughter, lingering touches, late-night conversations over perfectly poured wine. For the first time in years, George begins to believe he might deserve happiness again.

But real life refuses to stay uncomplicated.

Ryan’s business partner—and former lover—still occupies a complicated role in his world. George’s fear of abandonment threatens to sabotage something real before it can grow. When workplace conflict costs George the stability he fought to build, both men must decide whether love is worth risking heartbreak.

Set against the romantic backdrop of Virginia vineyards, lakeside sunsets, and small-town charm, Wine Quest delivers emotional depth, sensual chemistry, and a hard-earned happily ever after.

Wine Quest is Book Two in the Short Orders Gay Romance Series, but can be enjoyed as a standalone MM romance.

Perfect for readers who love:

  • MM romance
  • Gay small-town romance
  • Opposites attract relationships
  • Slow burn to steamy romance
  • Found family & emotional healing
  • LGBTQ+ love stories with mature characters
  • Vineyard & winery romance settings
  • Hurt/comfort and second chances

If you enjoy heartfelt LGBTQ romance with heat, humor, and deeply emotional connections, Wine Quest belongs on your reading list.

Excerpt 

George had been a cracker jack electrician for the past ten years.

Today, he was a man obsessed.

Not with his job, which he liked well enough. But really? A job is just a job, and having one is highly overrated. 

Not with his new life in Virginia, though he liked the change of climate compared to the sultry New Orleans. (He was even looking forward to experiencing his first snowfall.)

Not even with the friendly people he’d met so far in the Roanoke area.

No, his current common-sense obsession was centered on Ryan Ryval. Not only did George adore gingers, but this particular one was perhaps the most handsome red-haired man he’d ever seen. And those exotic green eyes! They pierced him to his core each time Ryan made eye contact with George during their short conversation at Wine Quest.

After today’s service calls, the weekend would be upon him. 

Which meant that George would be spending part of his day on Sunday with the object of his sexual fantasies.

He’d been having a lot of those over the past several days. The man he satisfied in his imagination—and satisfied him—was always Ryan.

He fantasized over what Ryan’s unclothed body must look like. Was his full torso hairy, as George suspected? Was his back hirsute as well? Was he circumcised or not? And if he wasn’t, would he find George’s circumcised penis a turn-off? Did he have shapely legs, or were they too skinny and disappointingly shapeless? What about his feet? Were they attractive? Because George would never deny that he had something of a foot fetish. What kinds of things did Ryan like to do in bed? Was he a top, bottom, vers, or a side? Or, perhaps, none of these things? What experiences in his life catalyzed Ryan’s interest in producing wine? Was he originally from Virginia? Did he share any interests with George? What did he like to do for fun? Where did he like to travel, and what music, what books did he enjoy? 

Those questions were important to George, who knew that even a hot man who shared nothing in common would ultimately grow bored and lose interest.

But most of all—because this question spoke most to a man’s integrity, his morals, his character—he wondered what challenges had been placed before Ryan, and how he’d coped with them.

As he drove his Slate toward Valleyview Electric, George’s thoughts turned toward his former life. He adored New Orleans. Its decadent beauty. Its quirky charm. Its live-and-let-live vibe. He’d never deny the strengths of that city. 

But he could never return to the Big Easy. 

To visit, yes. 

To live? Hell no.

He had his parents to blame for that.

But it wasn’t something they did. 

Instead, it was a tragedy brought upon them by a culprit who was never apprehended. 

Something completely out of their control. 

Something from which George would never fully recover. 

About the Author 

Dann writes gay romance novels along with other queer-themed works. He especially enjoys writing about men who, while dealing with trauma or other challenges, find themselves falling in love despite themselves. He also feels it’s important to include allies who often provide good advice to their gay friends in a troublesome relationship.

When not writing, Dann enjoys running, reading in many genres, watching high quality movies and television series, and snuggling with his adorable American Eskimo dog, appropriately named Flurry. He loves showtunes (of course), golden oldies, classical music, and disco divas. 

Currently, Dann and his husband, Josh, reside in the Roanoke, VA area.

Social Media Links

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Continue ReadingNEW RELEASE: “Wine Quest” by Dann Hazel

NEW RELEASE: “Around and Around We Go” by Amy Aislin

NEW RELEASE

Book Title: Around and Around We Go

Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin

Cover Artist: L.C. Chase

Release Date: April 28, 2026

Tense/POV: third person, past tense, alternating POVs

Genres: MM Contemporary Hockey Romance

Tropes: Second chance romance, forced proximity, found family, slow burn

Heat Rating: 3 flames

Length: 70,000 words / 230 pages

It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger

Goodreads

Buy Links

Amazon  |  Apple  |  B&N  |  Kobo

Buy direct to get the bonus scene included

Ebook  |   Audio  |   Ebook/audiobook bundle

When you’re facing The End, it’s time to rewind to the beginning.

Blurb

At thirty-eight years old, Sandro Zanetti is quickly aging out of hockey. But the Trailblazers are chasing a history-making third consecutive championship this season, so until his knees fail him, he plans on giving his all to the sport.

What he doesn’t need is the documentary film crew following the team’s every move. Because the director? Is Bennett Jackson.

Former college sweetheart.
Breaker of hearts.
Still unbearably handsome.

But their relationship is also history and has been for fifteen years.

Bennett Jackson is one project away from the credits rolling on his career after his last film flopped. This behind-the-scenes look at the hottest team in the league is his last chance at redemption…and possibly his last chance at redeeming himself with the one man who’s always held his heart.

Neither of them planned for old jokes to resurface or on the inconvenient fact that their chemistry is very much alive.

But as the action heats up on and off the ice—and on and off camera—their reunion looks less like a rerun of heartbreak and more like a revival of that first chemistry.

And Sandro and Bennett may discover that some stories deserve a sequel.

Excerpt 

“Got an umbrella?” Sandro asked.

“No. And if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you. What if I need it?”

“Asshole,” Sandro replied, laughing. “Give me your jacket at least. Yours has a hood.”

Bennett stared at him for a long moment. “No.”

“Man. Chivalry is dead, I tell you.”

“Here. I’ll get a little closer to your front door.” He eased the car forward a few inches, then put it in park. He jerked a thumb at his own chest. “Chivalrous.”

Sandro snorted a laugh and took off his jacket, ready to use it as a stand-in umbrella. “See ya. Thanks for the lift home, even if you won’t walk a boy to his door.”

There was more he wanted to say, but he couldn’t figure out where to start.

Go back to LA?

Never leave again?

Why are you really here?

But he needed time to get his thoughts in order, so he splashed out into the downpour.

To his surprise, Bennett met him on the sidewalk and, using his own jacket, held it over the both of them as they jogged up to the covered porch.

“You didn’t . . .” The words got stuck in Sandro’s throat as Bennett shook the rain off his jacket. Strands of blond hair had escaped his bun and hung loose around his face, beginning to go frizzy from the moisture in the air. Sandro curled his hands into fists in the material of his jacket, hanging wetly in front of him, to stop himself from reaching out and tucking one behind Bennett’s ear. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Tell me again how chivalry is dead?”

A laugh escaped him again, and his gaze snagged on Bennett’s.

There’d been times those eyes had squinted in annoyance or flashed with anger or heated in desire. Right now, as Bennett slowly lost his smile, they were none of those things.

Just vulnerable in their desperation.

Sandro’s chest squeezed tight, and with a sudden clarity, he knew he didn’t want to hear whatever Bennett wanted to tell him.

“Sandy—”

“Don’t. I don’t want to hear it.”

“San—”

“No.” Heart pounding, Sandro took a step back. “It’s ancient history. It doesn’t matter anymore. We need to move forward, not back.”

That vulnerable desperation turned to naked hope that broke something in Sandro.

Bennett swallowed audibly and said, “As friends?”

Obviously not, Sandro meant to say. There’s too much history between us. But what came out was, “Maybe.”

“Maybe,” Bennett repeated with a nod. “I can live with maybe.” He shrugged his jacket back on and looked out across the yard to his car at the curb. “Got an umbrella?”

Amusement crawled up the back of Sandro’s throat. “Fuck no.”

He went inside and closed the door on Bennett’s booming laugh.

About the Author 

Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.

An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram, or sign up for her infrequent newsletter.

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Continue ReadingNEW RELEASE: “Around and Around We Go” by Amy Aislin

SERIES TOUR: “Death’s Embrace” by H. L. Moore

DEATH’S EMBRACE SERIES TOUR

Author and Publisher: H. L. Moore

Cover Artist: Damonza

Pairing: MM (slow burn)

Genres: Fantasy (coalpunk)

The stories are best read in order.

Universal Buy Links for the Series 

DEATH’S EMBRACE SERIES BLURB

Doran Ó Seanáin, former miner and leader of the Black Lung Gang, and his best friend, Lien, are almost at a breaking point in their ongoing conflict with the city of Arajon’s tyrannical ruler. Just as things are spiralling out of control, Doran crosses paths with Nathaniel Morgenstern, an apotheker with a mysterious past. As their relationship develops against the backdrop of the ongoing social turmoil, the secrets Nathaniel is keeping might threaten to destroy them all…

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK 1

Book Title: Heart of Dust

Length: 59 000 words 

Release Date: 2019

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, single POV

Tropes: Stabbing leading to meet-cute, yearning, slow burn romance 

Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights

Heat Rating: 2 flames

It does not end on a cliffhanger, but leaves plot threads unresolved that are resolved in the next 3 books. 

Goodreads  |  Buy Links

Doran had a problem, and it wasn’t that he’d been stabbed.

Blurb 

Iole City is in turmoil.

Doran Ó Seanáin, leader of the Black Lung Gang, is determined to challenge the Archon, Arajon’s tyrannical ruler, for his brutal treatment of the miners. But Doran has more to deal with than getting stabbed and a city-wide lockdown that’s seeing his gang of ex-miners slowly starved out of their base. His daughter Grace has turned against him, and the death of his wife haunts them both.

Although he finds reprieve in Nathaniel Morgenstern, the apotheker with a mysterious past to whom he owes his life, the clock is ticking. The fate of the mines hangs in the balance and the Archon is closing in.

Doran’s plan to break the cycle may very well be his last.

BOOK 2

Book Title: Soul of Ash

Length:  86 000 words

Release Date: September 2020

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, two POVs (alternating)

Tropes: Yearning, former assassin, slow burn romance 

Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights

Heat Rating: 1 flame

It does not end on a cliffhanger, but some plot elements are unresolved (resolved in books 3 and 4)

Goodreads  |  Buy Links

You can run, but you will never be free.

Blurb 

Half a year after the events of Heart of Dust, Doran Ó Seanáin now finds himself trapped between two worlds while belonging to neither: held in contempt by the Bronze for the turmoil he caused during Archon Bryson’s reign, and resented by the miners for selling out. Leonora Darkwater’s pursuit to own the mines may be the answer to all of his problems, but the offer is far more complicated than it appears, and the only person Doran trusts is the same man who threw his life into chaos.

Haunted by his past, hostage to a debt that cannot be repaid, and a slave to the poison that keeps him alive, atonement has never felt further out of reach for Nathaniel Morgenstern. Though the damage between him and Doran is too devastating to begin to mend, they have no choice but to face each other as their lives collide once more.

There is a rot in Iole City. The mines aren’t finished with Doran, and the sand in Nathaniel’s hourglass is running out.

BOOK 3

Book Title: Throne of Lies

Length: 63 000 words

Release Date: December 2024

Pairing: MM with hints of developing into MMF (slow burn)

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, three POVs (alternating)

Trope/s: Political intrigue, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer

Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup.

Heat Rating: 3 flames

This book ends on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads  |  Buy Links

There are vipers in Arajon, from the Valley to the Bronze.

Blurb 

Grace Harrington, the Dowager Archon of Arajon, is approaching her first anniversary on the throne she claimed following the death of her husband, slain at her own hands.

But her position is so precarious that even the unwelcome presence of the former assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern, watching over her at her father’s behest, cannot protect her from her enemies. The city’s press has turned against her, the Bronze is rallying behind Odessa White, and her last hope of support from the Druids has gone up in smoke.

The lies are adding up. A coup is coming for Grace, and she is running out of people in the city to trust…

BOOK 4

Book Title: Valley of Secrets

Length: 123 000 words

Release Date: January 2025

Pairing: MM that develops into MMF (polyam), and a separate FF fast-burn relationship (femme/butch)

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, four POVs (alternating)

Trope/s: Political intrigue, resistance against military coup, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer

Themes: Lesbian romance, polyam romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup. 

Heat Rating: 3 flames

Most plot threads are wrapped up. Two further books are planned in the series but the series can also be finished here. 

Goodreads  |  Buy Links

This city of fools will be brought to order!

Blurb 

Deposed, her father presumed dead, her friends slaughtered and the cavern in chaos, Grace Harrington is on the run and entirely alone. The only ally she has left is the man she hates most in the world: Nathaniel Morgenstern, the assassin who murdered her mother and seduced her father.

Grace’s only hope of reclaiming the throne and saving her people is to seek the aid of Éamon Tadhg, the High Druid of Arajon. But she needs to survive the hostile streets of Iole City before she can even think about fleeing to the Violet Valley.

Nathaniel made a vow to Doran to protect Grace, but he could never have imagined how quickly and horrifically their lives would fall apart.

Grieving the dual losses of the man he loved and his new friend Tsa Lien, Nathaniel devotes himself to the service of the overthrown Lady Archon who despises him – even if it costs him everything he is.

Excerpt from THRONE OF LIES (Book #3 of Death’s Embrace)

“I’m sorry. I, uh… I guess you probably want me to –”

Nathaniel braced his hand against the frame, using his arm to pause Doran’s advancement towards the door.

“Stay,” he said quietly.

He did not suggest it to continue what had been derailed by Leonora’s presence; neither he nor Doran seemed to be much in the mood for it any longer. 

But Doran must have needed Nathaniel’s request, for instead of shaking his head and leaving, he closed his eyes and sighed. 

“This wasn’t how I imagined the evening going,” Doran said.

Nathaniel laid a hand upon Doran’s chest. “Rest here tonight,” he said, and started to gesture to the main room where the couch was. “I can –”

Doran shook his head, opening his eyes again. “I’m not going to throw you out of your own room,” he said, a small smile finally returning to ease his features.

Nathaniel became sharply aware of the bed behind him, the darkness outside the windows, Doran’s hands that moved to rest upon his waist. The room was dim, illuminated only by a small oil lamp set upon the desk under the window that overlooked Arkadia Lane. Under the faint glow of the light, he held his breath while Doran moved his hands up his body then down his arms, urging his jacket off. It fell to the floor with a soft thump.

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “I have a wardrobe, you know,” he murmured.

“Maybe I want to see your clothes on the floor,” Doran replied.

The sudden rush of desire that gripped Nathaniel’s body rendered him speechless. Doran smirked, then kissed him. 

It was deep and tender, slow and heated; milk and honey on Nathaniel’s tongue after years wandering the desert, finally stepping foot in the promised land he had denied himself. In that moment, Nathaniel felt there was nothing between them – neither pasts nor crimes, neither guilt nor regret; just them, their souls laid bare, and a barrier of clothes of which Doran was stripping away with barely restrained desperation. 

He relished the gentle scrape of Doran’s evening stubble across his chin, groaned when Doran moved along his jawline and kissed his neck, urging him to tilt his head back and bare his throat, which Doran used to break for air and run his hand up Nathaniel’s chest. Then, with the flickering lamplight reflected in Doran’s eyes, his fingers began working the buttons of Nathaniel’s shirt undone one by one. He slid his hands inside under the fabric and around to Nathaniel’s back, up his shoulder blades, his fingers tracing the scars that latticed his skin. 

Nathaniel allowed Doran to undress him, stripping his shirt to the floor beside his jacket, and moved backwards when Doran guided him until the backs of his legs collided with the edge of the bed. 

“Sit,” Doran ordered.

Nathaniel sank down upon the mattress, his mouth dry as Doran knelt before him and began to unfasten the straps of his boots. He pulled off Nathaniel’s left boot first, then the right, leaving them askew on the floor – then Nathaniel’s hands clenched on the bedcovers and he groaned as Doran ran his hands up Nathaniel’s legs, curving around his calves, then over his knees, and all the way up his thighs and the strained fabric of his pants to reach for the buckle of the belt.

Hoarsely, Nathaniel said, “You don’t have to –”

“But I want to,” Doran interrupted, his voice low and heated. He rose to his feet now and stood between Nathaniel’s legs, gazing down at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “Do you?”

It had been years since Nathaniel’s last intimate encounter; longer still that it had been with someone for whom he had feelings that were not muted by the fog of Embrace. Such a thing was lost to him during his time with the Nameless. The physicality of sex had been heightened, certainly, while he himself was rendered as numb to the act as someone was used to the basic function of washing their hands. With a clear mind, he recalled of himself that some deep part not lost to the drug and his lifestyle must have found the experience undesirable, for he could count the number of unions he had engaged in during his adulthood on one hand. 

Doran’s touch was more potent, more electric, than anything Nathaniel had ever experienced under the thrall of Embrace. He felt he would die if he went one more night without knowing how Doran’s body felt against his.

“God, yes,” Nathaniel rasped, and Doran closed the distance between them.

About the Author 

A. L. Moore (she/they) is the author of the Death’s Embrace fantasy series and the Tales from the Jovian Empiresci-fi novella series.

Author Links

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Continue ReadingSERIES TOUR: “Death’s Embrace” by H. L. Moore

BLOG TOUR: Recent Release “Driven Together” by Neil S. Plakcy

BLOG TOUR

Book Title: Driven Together

Author and Cover Artist: Neil S. Plakcy

Publisher: Samwise Books

Release Date: February 23, 2026

Tense/POV: First person/past tense

Genres: Contemporary MM Sports Romance

Tropes: Slow burn

Themes: Second chance at love, coming out

Heat Rating: 3 out of 5 flames

Length: 81 000 words/301 pages

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

Goodreads

Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited and Paperback

Amazon US  |   Amazon UK

They were each other’s first love—and the one that got away.

Blurb 

When journalist Wally Pulaski reunites with his college sweetheart Jonathan Hirsch, now a Formula 1 driver, old feelings ignite with dangerous speed. Jonathan is fighting for the championship of his life. Wally is assigned to cover the season, reporting every triumph and failure to a global audience that demands objectivity. Falling in love again could cost them everything they’ve built.

As the Formula 1 circus sweeps from Monaco’s glittering streets to historic European circuits and roaring modern tracks, Wally is pulled deeper into a world of precision engineering, split-second decisions, and relentless scrutiny. Behind the glamour lies a sport where careers are made and broken in fractions of a second, where every personal choice is magnified under the spotlight.

Balancing professional integrity with unresolved passion becomes a high-wire act. Media pressure mounts. Rivalries intensify. And the closer Jonathan comes to his dream, the harder it is for either man to pretend their hearts aren’t still in the race.

Driven Together is a second-chance MM romance set against the adrenaline and international spectacle of Formula 1. Combining the emotional depth of Tal Bauer and the sports-romance energy loved by readers of Rachel Reid, it delivers an intimate story of ambition, identity, and the courage to choose love in a world that never slows down.

As the season intensifies and the spotlight grows harsher, Wally and Jonathan must decide what they’re willing to risk for a second chance at the love they never forgot. Because in Formula 1, every fraction of a second matters—and so does every choice of the heart.

Ten years after losing each other, they have one chance to get it right—and this time, the stakes are higher than ever

Excerpt

I looked at him, really looked. Jonathan Hirsch, Monaco Grand Prix finalist, sitting in a dive bar in Monte Carlo at midnight, asking me to take a chance on something that might be wonderful or might be a complete disaster.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay?”

“Okay, let’s see where this goes. Barcelona to Spa, five races to figure out if we’re brave enough to make this work.”

Jonathan’s smile was radiant. “That’s all I’m asking for.”

He kissed me across the small table, soft and sweet and tasting like beer and possibility. Around us, the bar continued its late-night rhythm, oblivious to the fact that a Formula 1 driver and a motorsports journalist had just decided to rewrite their carefully planned lives.

When we broke apart, Jonathan was grinning.

“What?” I asked.

“I was just thinking,” he said. “Once, we were too practical to try long distance. Now we’re going to try dating while you cover my races. We’ve either gotten much braver or much stupider.”

“Probably both,” I admitted. “But you know what? I’m okay with that.”

We finished our beers and walked back toward the harbor, where the parties still buzzed. Jonathan tugged me toward the paddock. Behind the glitter, the Monaco Grand Prix was already vanishing, piece by piece. Crews swarmed over the cars with military precision, wiping them down, draining fluids, and sliding them into padded crates as if they were Fabergé eggs instead of machines built for speed.

The air still vibrated with leftover adrenaline. The sharp tang of fuel, the sweet stink of rubber ground into the asphalt, the faint bite of hot brakes cooling in the night mixed with the briny breeze from the harbor, a perfume of glamour and grit all at once. Everywhere I turned, there was motion and sound: the staccato crack of impact wrenches, the slap of gloves on metal, the hollow thud of crates sealing shut. Cables coiled like sleeping snakes at the workers’ feet as garage walls folded into flat panels and tool chests slammed closed, the paddock dissolving from carnival into pure efficiency.

I couldn’t look away. One moment it had been champagne and music and color; now it was stripped to bare bones. Somehow that made it even more impressive. The glamour was temporary, but the precision and the discipline was permanent.

I breathed it in, dizzy with the noise and smells and sheer scale of it all. My first Grand Prix was ending, but even in its aftermath I felt the pulse of something bigger than myself, alive and relentless.

“By morning, you won’t even know we were here,” Jonathan said beside me in his Meridian jacket. “Barcelona’s only a few hundred miles. The trucks will drive overnight, and the setup crew will already be waiting.”

I nodded, picturing cars cocooned in trailers, engineers and mechanics scattering onto buses and budget flights while Jonathan and his teammates slipped onto a private jet with their race engineers.

The Monaco Grand Prix was over, but the season stretched ahead. Twenty-two more races, five more chances to figure out if second chances were worth the risk.

About the Author  

Neil S. Plakcy is an award-winning author of sexy, fast-paced MM romances including The Big Race, about which Joyfully Jay wrote “A truly enjoyable read.” He also writes the Ormond Yard series of Victorian MM romances, and the Love on series of sun-kissed South Beach romps. His website is www.mahubooks.com.

Author Links

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Continue ReadingBLOG TOUR: Recent Release “Driven Together” by Neil S. Plakcy