Review : His Someone Special by Sammi Cee & Brittany Cournoyer

His Someone Special is boss / employee and Daddy / boy romance novel about a down and out boy named Davis and the bar owner who hires him, Sarge. Davis is a shy, little virgin who has to stare down a dragon in his cave when he walks into the bar, Full Throttle, looking for a job. He hasn't been able to find one in a while and even eating ramen he is in danger of losing his dangerous apartment so Davis is desperate enough to go to a biker bar for a job at a dishwasher.

Big, bad, and bearded Sarge takes one look at the scared man and immediately feels the urge to take care of him. He thinks it's unlikely that Davis will work out, but seeing the need in the man's eyes, he hires him anyway. Even though it has been several years since he had a boy of his own, Davis is hard to resist and soon Daddy Sarge is having to come clean about his feelings.

His Someone Special is pretty good. It is fairly predictable as it is a standard fare employee / employer romance, but it is a well-done version of the trope. It has less Daddy / boy element than normal, which I personally feel sad about, but it would likely appeal to readers who aren't as fond of a heavy touch on that trope.

Davis is super sweet and shy, though he comes out of his shell fairly quickly and his constant glances at Sarge for reassurance are definitely cute. Sarge tries to be the big and bad bar owner, but his marshmallow center definitely shines through, which is the best sort of gruff, older man character. They both have back stories, but they are fairly thin. Sarge is older and has an ex-boy who left him when he got busy and now is afraid to try again. Davis' mother was ill, then died, and his uncle was in an accident and had to move to a care center, leaving the Davis on his own.

The book really shines with the background characters. Davis was once friends with another boy who told him about Daddies and told Davis that he was boy and should look for a Daddy. Russell is so complete of a character that I wonder if he and his Daddy, Brian, have their own book. Then there is another waiter, Billy, who is a bit of a good-natured brat who looks out for Davis and sounds like he has more backstory than Davis. Sarge's best friend, Lawson, hangs out at the bar a lot. He seems lonely, and I wonder if there might be a future story between him and Billy. Add in a bouncer named Bull, a bartender named Rex, a cook named Ralph, and numerous bikers named things like:
Hunt, Trash, Diesel, and Sledge, and there is quite the cast.

I very much wonder if this will be the first book in a series set in the bar as there is definitely a lot of potential for it. Lawson and Billy, Bull finding a playmate, Hunt maybe getting together with Sledge? This is not listed as being a series yet though.

The setting is a fairly good one too. The bar is a LGBTA-friendly biker bar. It is a bit of a dive, but a friendly one that tends to have plenty of customers of all sorts. Run by a grumpy Daddy and looked over by a big bouncer, there are only a few skirmishes and those are put down quickly. The rest of the town isn't as well described. We know there is a free bus that runs through it and it has a couple of crappy apartment buildings, one very bad with the cops coming out often. And we also know that the bar is walking distance from the apartment building, but that's about all we know. It seems big enough that no one automatically expects to know each other and it supports a fairly busy niche bar, so we can assume it's a decent size town.

Like many Daddy / boy stories, His Someone Special is pretty fast-paced once the two get together. Sarge and Davis have their first date, then Davis is moving in and losing his virginity. It bothered me a bit that at no time did Sarge take the time to reassure Davis that no matter what happened between the two Davis would still have a job and a place to live. Davis never stops to think this could be a problem anyway, but then again he pretty much just leaps in and within days is on his way to becoming a kept boy. But making someone dependent on you should always be done with care and sometimes a Daddy has to say things that are understood and stick to a slower pace no matter what everyone wants.

The pacing up until the two get together is good, but after it feels fairly rushed and the plot takes a backseat to sex scenes. Most non-bedroom scenes after that have a just tacked on feel and seem added just for filler between sex and playing with their dynamic. It doesn't go very heavy into Daddy / boy play. There is no age play, just a slightly Dominant Daddy who makes sure his boy is staying safe and happy. Some slight spanking, but Davis isn't a brat, he's a good boy.

The sex scenes are pretty good if you read stories for them. Davis is definitely not hesitant for a virgin, but Sarge takes care of him. There is a hot scene between the two with Davis getting all hot and bothered over Sarge's beard, so pogonophiles will enjoy that. I don't even like beards and found myself reassessing my opinion of them.

So, if you like your MCs to be intimidating bearded bikers who fall for shy boys, and you like an age difference combined with a hint of Ds, you may want to check out His Someone Special. It's a good, solid story that might have a few flaws, but we all do.

Review: Succumbing to His Fear by River Mitchell

Succumbing to His Fear by River Mitchell

Succumbing to His Fear by River Mitchell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some people may not like insta-love or gay-for-you, but I think they're cute, and we're reading romance novels, not reality, so I'm fine with things that stretch my beliefs a little like HEAs.

Add some humor and mystery / suspense to that sucker and it makes for a super fun read.

Succumbing to His Fear is the first book in the Living Art series.

Alfie hasn't seen his father since him and his mother split up when he was 5. One day he's contacted and told that his father and new wife are dead, so Alfie has been appointed guardians to their two kids - Griffin, 7 and Lily, 3. Yikes!

A young guy prone to panic attacks, Alfie is a little freaked out about the situation. He also has some anger issues with the man who abandoned him and then got a new family. Now Alfie has to move to America and take custody or the kids will go into foster care. He knows he can't do anything else though, the kids need someone and apparently that's him.

So, Alfie and his crazy / wonderful mother and stepfather take off for America and jump through hoops until finally after months he gets custody of the kids that he falls in love with at first sight.

On Alfie's first day on his own with the kids he is feeling a bit overwhelmed, then very overwhelmed when Griffin bumps into the hugest guys on the planet. The big, angry looking guys.(One of whom is named Fear!)

Fear is like a mile tall and built like a brick shithouse, and he makes Alfie feel funny. Scared, yes, but also a little like butterflies in the tummy. As a straight guy, Alfie is a bit thrown off by this but he's semi-pressured into having lunch with the group of guys and he has a pretty good time for awhile even if he can't help but keep looking at the big guy the entire time. The big guy that doesn't take his eyes off of him. Sparks fly from the beginning.

After a bit of panic Alfie realizes he's attracted to Fear and because he was raised in a sex-positive family he has less trouble coming to terms with finding out his soul mate is male than those people who are taught you are only straight or only gay. Apparently Alfie is not so straight and narrow, maybe he's a Kinsey Scale 1. Cue the cutest couple on the planet.

Everything is going great until Fear's mother is murdered and suddenly there's trouble for the new couple.

I really liked this book. Tatted big guys who are teddy bears at heart is my greatest weakness, and adding a smart-mouthed boyfriend and his equally snarky mummy, makes for a good giggle.

All of the characters, even the supporting ones are pretty awesome and well-thought out. The story flows extremely well, fast-paced, but it fits. We don't have to page over a bunch of junk to get to the actual story, the story doesn't really stop for filler crap like a lot of books.

After the last book series I read, it was a relief to see almost no misspelled words or writing errors. Damn, it felt good. Especially in this day and age when nearly every book has a multitude of errors. And the writer is dyslexic, which means they worked their bottom off and probably had their friends do the same so they could share this awesome book with us. It's so cool when someone doesn't let their disability stop them and produces something better than most without the disability.

I'm really a fan of this book and the sequels.