NEW RELEASE

Book Title: SKIN and
BONES (London Love)

Author and Publisher: Sophia
Soames

Cover Artist: Christina
Stern

Release Date: January 31,
2024

Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance

Tropes: Hurt/Comfort, Grumpy/Sunshine

Themes: Eating disorder, domestic violence, hotel setting.

Heat Rating: 3
flames

Length: 92 000 words

It does not end on a
cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited

Universal
Link | Amazon
US | Amazon UK

Blurb

Hugo Burrows has life under control.

He’s got a decent job, a long-term relationship and
a flat in Canary Wharf.

It’s all under control. It’s just becoming a little
problematic trying to hold everything together. Keeping the bruises on his skin hidden away.
A smile plastered on his face. Controlling the calories he allows his body to consume. And
now his boss is on his back with too many questions, and the grumpy French head chef
keeps staring at him like he’s a freak or something.

Everything is under control. It has to
be.

Ben Desjardins may be the Head Chef at the Clouds
Hotel but he definitely hasn’t got anything under control. His relationship with his best
friend is crumbling and simply turning up for work seems to automatically cause never
ending chaotic disasters. Yet there is something about the new concierge that has crawled
straight under his prickly skin.

Ben doesn’t need more complications in his life.
The last thing he needs is to inconveniently, and reluctantly… fall in love.

SKIN AND BONES is best enjoyed if read after
TASTE.

Reader Advisory. This book
contains the following topics: Eating disorders, OCD, domestic violence and sexual assault.
Please look after yourself and take care if these topics could upset you.

Excerpt

So, the new concierge, his name was Hugo, and he was tall and
skinny—far too skinny if you asked me—with a head full of bouncy blonde curls, thick, dark
eyebrows over deep-set eyes, sharp cheekbones and plump, puffy lips. He seemed like a
nice bloke, stood up for himself. Finn moaned about him, saying something about the guy
being great at his job but an untidy bugger. The floor around his desk was always a disaster
zone of scrunched-up pieces of paper and torn-up leaflets. Finn wasn’t wrong. I could see
stuff on the floor from where I was, while Hugo gave directions to some guests, arms flailing,
his phone miraculously still pinched between his cheek and his shoulder. He smiled at
something. I smiled too. He had that kind of smile.

Dropping my cigarette on the ground, I squashed out the
embers with my shoe. So sue me. I was French. Had grown up there, then moved to England
with my mum in my teens and had to adapt to being Ben instead of Benjamin after my
arsehole dad kicked us out. I didn’t take shit from anyone.

It hadn’t been bad. Just…my life hadn’t become quite what I’d
expected.

I strode back through the lobby with confidence, smiling
politely at our maître d’hôtel, who pursed their lips at me. Yeah, I was a dick. I had tomato
juice down my front, and my apron was covered in cooking fat. I looked a state and shouldn’t
be anywhere near paying guests. I knew it. Mabel knew it. I actually liked them. A lot. Today,
our super-efficient restaurant leader rocked a shocking-pink dress and sky-high heels with a
face full of make-up. Some days, they presented as a stunning bloke, other days, like today,
they wouldn’t look out of place on the cover of a women’s fashion magazine, and they knew
it too.

“Looking good, Mabs.”

“Oh shut it, Ben.” They grinned and blushed while giving me a
full head-to-toe inspection. “You really need to go change, babes. Honestly, you’ll give Mark
a heart attack.”

“You mean I look that good?” I laughed, enjoying another of
Mabel’s many smirks.

“You look like shit, babes. How are you ever going to get laid
when you walk around looking like someone has dragged you face down through the walk-in
fridge?”

“Bah,” I huffed and left them to it. I washed my hands and
ripped off my apron, dropping it in the laundry chute and grabbing a fresh one from the
shelf before glancing over the line. All under control. Nobody panicking.

“Watch the liquid,” I commented to one of the trainees as they
flipped a tray of mushrooms into a serving dish and splattered juice all over the hot plate.
Yeah. Newbies. They had to learn, usually the hard way, and there wasn’t much I could do
other than show them how to do it the right way, remind them to watch the bloody timings,
let them make mistakes and hope they didn’t kill themselves in the process.

I looked down at my own battered hands. I had too many scars
to count. Cuts, burns. My hands had survived years of being battered on the rugby pitch,
which was nothing compared to getting fingers stuck in blenders and close encounters with
sharp knives.

I blamed my mum, getting me into cooking when my hand-eye
coordination had been blasted to hell. I had to concentrate, not be stressed, keep focused
for my mind to function the way it was supposed to, not that it ever did, and this was a
working kitchen. My entire shift was always one huge, stress-induced, disaster-prone
trial.

“You all right?” Mark appeared next to me in his immaculate
suit, his hair up in a tidy man-bun and eyebrows tightly knitted. Arms crossed, he surveyed
our little world. Him and me, we were brothers, partners in crime, a duo of idiots who
should have known better, but we worked well together, and there was nowhere else I
would rather work than here with him by my side.

“All good,” I said, mirroring his pose.

“The boys out there,” he said conspiratorially. “They’re placing
bets on who can get a hook-up with Hugo. There’s good money involved.”

“Hell.” I sighed, rolled my eyes harder than Mabel. “He gay
then?”

“I went over and asked him. He just laughed, so yeah. Between
you and me, he lives with his long-term boyfriend down in Canary Wharf, so I think all the
boys are barking up a dead tree, but I’m not going to tell them. Are you?”

“Nah.” I laughed. I wasn’t. As long as they did their job and
made my food look good, I wasn’t getting involved with anything. And anyway, this Hugo?
None of my business.

Rolling up my sleeves, I plonked my arse down by my little
office set-up and logged into the laptop. I had orders to sign off, menus to plan, things to do.
A life to live. Mark shook his head and disappeared back out to the restaurant.

This Hugo? God help him.

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.

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NEW RELEASE

Book Title: Relevant
Heart (Fearless Heart Series, Book Three)

Author and Publisher: Janice
Jarrell

Release Date: December 6,
2023

Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance

Tropes: Established Gay Relationship, Ireland, Gay Attorney, Gay
Psychologist

Length: 75 835 words/206
pages

Heat Rating: 4 flames

It is part of the Fearless Heart
Series but can be read as a standalone.

It does not end on a
cliffhanger. They get their HEA, of
course!

Goodreads

Buy Links – Available in Kindle
Unlimited

Amazon
US | Amazon UK

The best wish is knowing that there’s nothing left to wish
for.

Blurb

Colin is prosecuting his first murder case, and his ability to
remain emotionally detached is challenged as the circumstances surrounding the crime
awaken his deep inner fear of losing someone he loves, a fear nearly realized when – only
two short months ago – Joshua was kidnapped and violently assaulted.

While Colin and his team gather evidence, Joshua
endeavors to create a program that will establish a bridge between veterans suffering a
mental health crisis and local police. But the effort drains Joshua’s already fragile health to a
dangerous degree, leaving Colin frantic with worry and frustration.

Meanwhile, Nate has a play opening off-Broadway and
must live in New York City for six to eight weeks… alone. It is clear from the onset that the
director has the hots for Nate – or at least for his talent as a playwright – which has David
pacing the floor in anxiety. He is happy for Nate and proud of his husband but worried about
the director’s attention and unhappy about Nate’s long absence.

By the time Nate celebrates his opening night, all four
friends are exhausted both emotionally and physically and ready for the healing trip to
Ireland they’ve been planning for months.

Colin’s breathtaking ancestral home provides many magical
moments, but an unexpected and terrifying incident leaves them shaken and questioning
the faith in each other that has always been their foundation. Will these shattering
circumstances strengthen their bonds or break their hearts and tear their relationships
apart?

Excerpt

I feel like I’ve been a bit annoying lately.” He stared down at
the sheets and huffed out a noisy breath. “I feel like ever since you were abducted, I’ve been
an impossible son of a bitch to live with.”

“That’s not true either! What is wrong with you
today?”

Colin arched his eyebrows, his expression one of comic
confusion. “No one knows.”

“Please stop being so hard on yourself. You have
not
been an impossible son of a bitch to live with. Quite the contrary. I couldn’t have gotten
through this without you.”

Colin quirked his mouth and huffed out a sigh. “Well, if I
helped at all, I’m glad.”

“You chose me, remember?” Joshua said,
cupping Colin’s cheek.

“I did,” Colin whispered. “Smartest move I ever
made.”

“Well, I chose you too,” Joshua told him. “And I
knew—even when I left you and ran home to Glencoe—I knew I could never love anyone
else.”

Colin smiled and turned his head to press Joshua’s fingers
against his lips.

“It didn’t matter that you didn’t love me,” Joshua said, his
voice soft and dream-like. “It didn’t matter at all. I was bound to you, and I knew I always
would be.” He pressed his lips to Colin’s, his fingers tightening in Colin’s hair. “Didn’t matter
that you were mad at me,” Joshua continued. “I thought you never wanted to see me again,
and even that didn’t matter.” His dark eyes met Colin’s, and they were brimming with tears.
“I was yours. Even when you didn’t want me, I was yours. Even when I believed I was the
only one who loved… I loved you.”

Colin pulled Joshua tight against his body, rocking him in his
arms. “My darling boy, you weren’t the only one who loved! Every
minute we were apart was torment for me. I was just scared that if I let you love me, I’d
somehow hurt you. Or worse… lose you.”

“You can’t lose what’s already yours.” He stroked Colin’s
cheek. “When I fell in love with you, I gave you part of me that you couldn’t give back even if
you wanted to. A part of me that’ll always be yours. My vision of who you are as a man. My
faith in who you are as a person.” He shrugged, his thumb sliding along the rise of Colin’s
cheekbone. “All that will stay even if I don’t.”

Colin drew in a quick breath; his face contorted in pain.
“Don’t talk like that!”

“Relax,” Joshua murmured, nestling against Colin’s chest.
“To quote a famous Irishman, I’m not going anywhere!”

About the Author

My name is Janice Jarrell. I
am a retired grandmother who lives in Seattle, WA. I have two children and three
grandsons. I’ve been writing gay romance since I was twelve years old, only back then it
wasn’t called ‘gay romance’. In fact, it had no name at all. It was the fifty’s, and it was
worth your life to admit to being gay, let alone confess to being a girl who constantly
fantasized about relationships between gay men. Hell, I didn’t even know what a
homosexual was. I lived on a farm out in the sticks in a tiny Michigan village and I’d never, to my
knowledge, even heard the word. I just knew I loved the thought of boy-on-boy romance. I
just knew that there was something hot going on between Tom
Corbett and his Space Cadets and all those guys on ‘Combat’.

I wrote slash fanfiction for 30
years, writing over 337 stories, some as short as 100 words (a drabble), some as long as a
series which was over 119,012 words. I enjoy writing my stories. I enjoyed the feedback I
received from my readers. It was a creative release I’d been searching for my entire life and I
blessed the Internet for leading me to this artistic oasis for my spirit.

Love’s Magic was my very first
step into writing my own characters. I will always be grateful to the slash fanfiction
community for nurturing the budding author until she was ready to blossom into a fully
realized novelist. It’s been an amazing thing to watch the gay community’s growth over
these past twenty years. My own journey has echoed theirs in many ways, and I’m grateful
to all those gay activists who fought to give the gay community the rights and privileges they
always deserved. Love’s Trials, Love’s Glory, and Love’s Lawyer were the second and third,
and forth books in the series and all four books are available in audio format on
Audible.

I’m also grateful to the gay
romance community, readers, authors, publishers and promoters, who are making these, my
retirement years, the most creative ones of my life. When I’m not writing, I’m traveling,
walking, hiking, knitting, crocheting, and weaving.

I’m very excited about the
upcoming release of my fifth contemporary gay romance novel, Relevant Law. Those of you
who fell in love with Joshua and Colin in the four previous books in this series are in for a bit
of angst in this latest episode. A dark and sinister cloud hangs over the University of Virginia
after three students are abducted, raped and beaten. Colin works with both campus and city
police to catch the perpetrator, but his hard work and effort proves futile when Joshua turns
up missing!

Despite their struggles there
are still many passionate, loving moments and the friends they treasure will be there to help
them find their way.

Social Media Links

Audible Profile | YouTube

Blog/Website |
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Goodreads | Facebook Group | TikTok

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NEW RELEASE

Book Title: Lonely
Diner

Author: Dann
Hazel

Publisher: The Original
Press

Cover Artist: Josh Fippen;
Photograph by Cura Photography

Release Date: December 4,
2023

Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance

Tropes: Military Romance, Coming Out, Overcoming Adversity,
Second Chances

Themes: Dealing with Trauma, Gay in a New City, Forgiveness

Heat Rating: 4 flames

Length: 109 000
words

It is part of a series, but each
novel can be read as a standalone.

It does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Two conflicted military men. A longing for happiness. One
Lonely Diner, where people often search for a recipe for love. (The food is good there,
too.)

Blurb

Two conflicted military men. A longing for happiness. One Lonely Diner, where

people often search for a recipe for love. (The food is good there, too.)

One man plays it straight. Another grieves over a lost best friend with
benefits.

Everyone thought they were meant for each other. Lance, an Air Force
computer engineer, and Ryan, a former submariner in the Navy and now a military college
professor, are gay men blinded by the painful wounds of their past decisions. Both men are
ready for love. But because of their pasts, they’ve slammed the brakes on their desires.

Now thirty years old, a younger Ryan Ball decides he can be happy only by
conforming to social expectations. So what does he do? He decides he must have a wife and
kids. Though he acknowledges that he can never be straight, he is convinced that with effort,
determination, alcohol and erectile dysfunction meds, he can play the necessary roles.

Vikki, Ryan’s girlfriend in high school and now his wife, begs to differ.

At thirty-one, Lance Dingle falls for his best friend and roommate, Randy, a stunt
pilot who agrees to a friends-with-benefits arrangement. From Lance’s perspective, there’s a
spark in their arrangement that Randy denies. Then, tragedy strikes. Lance finds himself
alone and lonely, living with memories of Randy and an ever-expanding list of “what-might-
have-beens.” Finally forcing himself into the dating scene, Lance discovers that Mr. Right is
more elusive than he ever imagined.

Then, Callie Yenti, transwoman, drag performer extraordinaire and
entrepreneur, enters the picture. She owns the popular Lonely Diner and possesses an
uncanny insight into the workings of the heart.

Even the complicated hearts of her two hard-headed friends, Lance and
Ryan.

An HEA gay romance.

Trigger Warning: This novel includes scenes from a sexual assault
and a PTSD episode.

Excerpt

It was at this point—this question—that Ryan slammed
both hands flat against the table. He heard Diamond’s short scream and grimaced. He
lowered his voice. “Okay. Fine. The two of you want the truth? The whole truth? You’ll have
it, then.”

​He could imagine what Vikki would say. She would never
have advised handling his parents the way he intended now. ​

Ryan inhaled deeply. “For years now, I have denied a big
part of who I am. In my denial, I asked Vikki to make a sacrifice—a sacrifice of which she was
unaware for years—while I sorted my shit out. A fool’s way of avoiding the truth. It took a
stint in the Navy but finally, I did. I sorted everything out and realized I am gay. There. I said
it. And I said it without fear or shame.” ​

“Oh, dear God!” Mr. Ball’s voice boomed, echoing against
the walls of the dining room. “What kind of farce do you have in store for us next? That
you’ve fallen in love with a sailor, and with him, you intend to live happily ever after?” A
pause. Then: “Gay!” He spat out the word. “Another fad. Another trend. It’s not real. I’ve
known men who thought they were homosexuals, then after years of lying to themselves
passed, I discovered they were happily married with children.”

​“How many people have you told?” Mrs. Ball demanded.
“To what degree have you brought shame to this family?” And then, after a thought: “And
what about Vikki? Can you say with certainty that you’re really Diamond’s father? After all,
you’ve been at sea for months at a time.”

​“Wait just a minute!” Ryan’s voice exploded. “First, I must
say that your assertion is offensive—both to me and, I’m sure, to Vikki. Just because I’m gay
doesn’t mean I can’t perform sexually with a woman.” He turned to his father. “Which
probably is part of the reason why your gay acquaintances were able to pull the wool over
your eyes so successfully. Being gay is more than just sex, you know.”

​Mr. Ball glared at his son. “I am so fearful of what will
happen to this country when your generation takes the reins.”

​“Just—stop it! Just shut the fuck up! Both of you. I’m tired
of it. Tired of the bullshit.”

​The expression on both parents’ faces confirmed the fact
that their son had never spoken to them using this tone, these words. ​

Ryan lowered his voice to a subtle whisper. “What Vikki and
I are dealing with? Well, it’s our concern. No one else’s.”

​Then, a voice. Vikki’s voice. Coming from the doorway.
Diamond, still absorbed in her coloring activity in the family room.

​“Please understand. Both of you. I was able to handle your
son’s honesty. Was I deeply hurt when I discovered the truth? Yes. Of course. And I’m sure
you bear some hurt of your own. But you should not weaponize that hurt into anger against
your son. It’s important that you try to do what Ryan and I did. It took some effort, but it was
worth it. With open communication and a willingness to be accessible to one another, we
began to work things out. I know there are still challenges ahead of us, especially with our
little girl. That’s uncharted territory, to be sure. But Diamond is loved. By both of us. We will
still be a family, even when Ryan is in Florida and I’m here, in Virginia. We want both of you
to be a part of our family. But that’s not going to happen if the two of you can‘t see your way
forward to cultivate a little understanding.”

​To avoid escalating the situation even more, what Vikki and
Ryan did not say was that Mr. and Mrs. Ball would never see their grandchild again if they
could not surmount their anger, doubt and resentment.

About the Author

Dann Hazel has been writing
both fiction and nonfiction for more than twenty years.

Besides writing romance, he
has taught high school English and journalism, college psychology and human sexuality,
directed federal grants and worked as a therapist in a psychiatric hospital. His fiction genre
interests include thrillers, horror, literary and gay romance. He has published the Some Like
It Haute Gay Romance Series, including Room
for Dessert, My Own Private Biscuit and
Lonely Diner.

Nonfiction works include
Witness: Gay and Lesbian Clergy Report from
the Front and Moving On: The Gay Man’s Guide for Coping When a Relationship
Ends.

Dann’s personal interests
include reading and writing, cinema, jogging, Broadway, keeping abreast of current events
and travel.

Currently, Dann lives in
Central Florida with his husband, Josh, and their American Eskimo canine,
Flurry.

Social Media Links

Blog/Website | Facebook (Some Like It Haute) | Instagram

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