2014 Rainbow Awards Submission: Trusting Thomas

Gay Erotic Romance
Trusting Thomas (Collars & Cuffs) by K.C. Wells
Series: Collars & Cuffs
Paperback: 282 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (October 7, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1627983287
ISBN-13: 978-1627983280
Amazon: Trusting Thomas (Collars & Cuffs)
Amazon Kindle: Trusting Thomas (Collars & Cuffs)

Collars and Cuffs: Book Two

Christmas is a time for goodwill to all, but Collars and Cuffs co-owner Thomas Williams receives an unexpected gift that chills him to the bone. A Dom from another Manchester club asks Thomas for his help rescuing an abused submissive, Peter Nicholson. Thomas takes in the young man as a favor to a friend, offering space and time to heal, but he makes it clear he's never had a sub and doesn't want one.

Peter finds Thomas's home calm and peaceful, but his past has left him unwilling to trust another Dom. When Thomas doesn't behave as Peter expects, Peter's nightmares begin to fade, and he decides he'd like to learn more about D/s life. A well-known trainer of submissives, Thomas begins to teach Peter, but as the new submissive opens up to him, Thomas finds he cares more for Peter than he should. Just as he decides it's time to find a permanent Dom for Peter, they discover Peter's tormentor is still very much a threat. With their lives in danger, Thomas can't deny his feelings for Peter any longer. The question now becomes, can Peter make it out of the lions' den alive, so that Thomas can tell his boy that he loves him?

Charities Donation program progress:
25$ PFLAG: community.pflag.org/
25$ YouthCare: www.youthcare.org/
25$ No Kid Hungry: www.nokidhungry.org/
25$ Unicef: www.unicef.org/
25$ The Trevor Project: www.thetrevorproject.org/
25$ Odyssey Youth Center: www.odysseyyouth.org/
25$ Inland Northwest LGBT Center: www.thelgbtcenter.org/
30$ Covenant: www.covenanthouseno.org/
50$ Lambert House: www.lamberthouse.org/
50$ Wes for Youth: wesforyouth.privacemail.com/
75$ Point Foundation: www.pointfoundation.org/
75$ CARE: careprogram.org/
107$ Lost-n-Found Youth: www.lost-n-found.org/
110$ Lambda Legal: www.lambdalegal.org/
132$ Galop: www.galop.org.uk/
160$ UCAN: www.ucanchicago.org/
175$ Cancer Research Institute: www.cancerresearch.org/
233$ COLORS: www.colorsyouth.org/
255$ SAGE: giveto.sageusa.org/
360$ Other Funds
455$ Ali Forney Center: www.aliforneycenter.org/
TOTAL: 2442$*

* more than 150$ is a direct donation from a supporter of the Rainbow Awards who isn't submitting; while some authors were more than generous, arriving to donate 5 times the suggested amount, being the submission fee a non mandatory and voluntary direct donation, we were struggling to raise the same amount as last year and there is who decided to cover part of it. I thank you for all you are doing, and if you wish to donate to the above links, please drop me a note with your donation and I will update the total.

2014 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4162490.html

GayRomLit Retreat: Kate McMurray

Starting from March up until September I will feature authors attending the GayRomLit Retreat in Chicago (October 16-19, 2014: http://gayromlit.com/grl-authors).

Today author is Kate McMurray: Kate McMurray has been writing stories since she could hold a pen. She picked up her first romance novel when she was thirteen and has loved the genre ever since. She started writing gay romance after reading a book and thinking there should be more love stories with gay characters. Her first published novel, In Hot Pursuit, came out in February 2010, and she’s been writing feverishly ever since. She likes stories that are brainy, funny, and of course sexy, with regular guy characters and urban sensibilities. When she’s not writing, Kate works a nonfiction editor. She also reads a lot, plays the violin, knits and crochets, and drools over expensive handbags. She’s maybe a tiny bit obsessed with baseball. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with a pesky cat. Kate is currently the president of Rainbow Romance Writers, the LGBT special-interest chapter of Romance Writers of America.
Website: http://www.katemcmurray.com

Kate McMurray is offering a copy of The Stars that Tremble to one commenter on this blog. You can comment on LJ or DW if you have an account (I will send a PM to the winner), if you don't have an account, please leave a comment on DW with a contact email.

The Stars that Tremble by Kate McMurray
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (September 30, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1627981357
ISBN-13: 978-1627981354
Amazon: The Stars that Tremble
Amazon Kindle: The Stars that Tremble

Giovanni Boca was destined to go down in history as an opera legend until a vocal chord injury abruptly ended his career. Now he teaches voice lessons at a prestigious New York City music school. During auditions for his summer opera workshop, he finds his protégé in fourteen-year-old Emma McPhee. Just as intriguing to Gio is Emma's father Mike, a blue-collar guy who runs a business renovating the kitchens and bathrooms of New York's elite to finance his daughter's dream.

Mike’s partner was killed when Emma was a toddler, and Gio mourns the beautiful voice he will never have again, so coping with loss is something they have in common. Their initial physical attraction quickly grows to something more as each hopes to fill the gap that loss and grief has left in his life. Although Mike wonders if he can truly fit into Gio's upperclass world, their bond grows stronger. Then, trouble strikes from outside when the machinations of an unscrupulous stage mother threaten to tear Gio and Mike apart—and ruin Emma's bright future.

Best Gay Fantasy: The Horns and Halos Collection

The first (Toni Griffin - Archie's Accidental Kidnapping) and the second story (Angel Martinez - Hell For The Company), while different in setting, had similarities in the mood and the theme: Toni Griffin imagines shapeshifter hounds from Hell on the hunt for half-Angels going wild; during one of these quests, Adze finds his mate, not it's only a question of convincing the cute boy he isn't as bad as he looks. Archie may be only a human, but he is clever and funny, and with a wicked streak that well fit with Adze. Angel Martinez chooses a sci-fi setting, imagining a far away future in the aftermath of a war between Angels and Demons. Shax is a demon, but he is not evil, as Ness will discover: a lost Angels, Ness will be nurtured back to health by Shax, and for that Ness will be forever grateful, but that is not the reason why he falls for Shax, Shax is the life and the love Ness has always desired. In both stories there is the connections with Demons and Angels, but other than that, there is also the approach to Demons, considering them more like overgrown kids who like to play more than make war. Funny and light, both stories were right to have you smile.

Totally different mood for Freddy Mackay - Internment, a bittersweet tale about love lost, found, lost and found again; Tadashi is a kitsune, a Japanese demon with the gift to change into a fox. The gift is also a burden, when Tadashi, still grieving the loss of his lover, will search his vengeance. Berg is the local vet, used to visit the shrine of Tadashi's family on the mountain when he was a kid; he had also a crush on Tadashi at the time, but as a little kid he didn't understand his feelings, and when he meets Tadashi again as an adult, he is married and with a child coming soon. Theirs seems to be a doomed love. Being this a romance, there will be a uplifting ending, but not without the two men deeply suffering for it.

Internment stood aside from the other two stories both for the length than the mood. But in any case, longer or shorter, all three stories are good, and I enjoyed this anthology quite a lot.

Series: Mischief Corner Anthologies
Paperback: 290 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; First edition (August 29, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1495282376
ISBN-13: 978-1495282379
Amazon: The Horns & Halos Collection (Mischief Corner Anthologies) (Volume 2)
Amazon Kindle: The Horns & Halos Collection (Mischief Corner Anthologies) (Volume 2)



More Reviews by Author at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Reviews