Alexander AKA Alex & Lincoln meet when Alex follows a friend to Lincoln's club.  He is shocked and turned on at what he sees there.  When he gets to meet the owner, his life changes.

Lincoln has waited to have a relationship like this.  Can he count on feelings to be real?  They keep treating it as just a fling.  Feelings are there and are fanning the flames.

Surprised this story had so much emotion to it, I found myself riveted to these pages.  Both men were really not looking to connect at all, but in each other they found so much more.  Sweet and sexy, this story makes you want more.  I give this book a 3/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This ARC copy was given by Netgalley and its publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Dark Hollows Press (www.darkhollowspress.com) is currently accepting submissions for its St. Patrick’s Day anthology

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Stories should be between 3k and 10k words and be of a paranormal slant. Specifically, the story should contain some element of Irish or Celtic folklore.  All stories should be of a romantic nature - that is contain a love story with a happily ever after or happy for now ending.

Heat levels may vary from spicy to overtly explicit and may involve pairings and/or multiple partners of any gender and preference as long as all participants are of legal age and consenting.

All submissions must be edited for grammar, spelling, and punctuation and should be double-spaced in a standard 12-point font. A one-page synopsis should be submitted along with the full manuscript as an attachment in RTF.

Emails may be sent to darkhollowspress@gmail.com, Attn: St Patrick’s Day. Deadline for submissions is 10 February 2014.

Gosh, this could have been so good.

Alas, it suffered from plot line overload, tried to do too much within the number of pages and needed a serious editor/proofreader to fix the numerous issues I had with this novella.

First off, the POV switches - that didn't work for me. I found it difficult to follow the mindset of Michael's first person POV to Blake's third person POV. An omniscient narrator would have been better for this to give this book a bit more coherency. 

Secondly, the characterizations for both Michael and Blake were uneven and choppy, with some whiplash-inducing changes that didn't always make sense. And while the abuse and PTSD from his childhood would account for Blake's personality switches, there's nothing in Michael's past, other than his heartbreak, that would explain why he is trying to dominate Blake and force him into submission. Hence the dub-con tag on this - I couldn't help but feel that Michael was in a position of power over Blake from the start and that any intimacy that happened between them wasn't fully consensual, especially not in the beginning. 

Boy, I had issues with this book, especially with Aidan, as you can tell from my status updates.

There's also some editing that should have been done better. Names were messed up, spelling, punctuation, etc (I've got them highlighted, so I'll be posting examples).

Lucas is a bar tender, together with his friend Ben, who is in a D/s relationship with his Dom William, a local club owner. Lucas is not into the scene, as he repeatedly says to Ben, to William and to Aidan, another Dom. 

Aidan is the one who caused me to rage a few times while reading this book. 

We initially meet Lucas at William's house, helping Ben get ready for a party. Lucas ends up tending bar for the night, and is drawn into a poker game in which he loses a bet with Aidan, and then ends up going home with him. 

Aidan has a reputation for never getting into a relationship with a sub, and only doing one scene per sub, ever. He promises Lucas a night he'll never forget and certainly delivers on that part - the first scene is very hawt (*fans self*). 

Then Aidan does a stupid, cruel thing. He does this because he panics, and because he's scared.