All posts by Tenise W

Celebrating Pride Month with Cassandra Feathers tone #wotr25 #attendingauthor #pridespotlight

Happy Pride Month everyone!  Twinsie Tenise here. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to answer the questions for our pride month celebration. I had fun coming up with this years set of questions.  We will be celebrating all month with author spotlights  as well as my reviews for  some of the LGBTQIA  books I’ve read this year.  Check back daily to see what’s going  on and add to your TBR piles. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little about all of these wonderful authors and their work.

 

🏳‍🌈 Tell us your name and a little bit about yourself?
Cassandra Featherstone I’ve been writing most of my life, but I started publishing after Covid permanently closed my department at my indie bookstore. Since then, I’ve released over thirty romance novels, novellas, audio books, and translations that all feature LGBTIQIA+ characters in the main characters.
🏳‍🌈 What is the title of your most recent release?
Right now? Quiet Burn (February), but that will change by June.
🏳‍🌈 Is there a book or a movie that has helped you have a better understanding of a current or past event in LGBTQ history?
Honestly, lived experience has been my best teacher. I do recommend Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (YA), The Fifth Season (SFF), and The Stonewall Reader (NF).
🏳‍🌈 If you could have dinner with a famous person from the LGBTQ community, past or present, who would that be and why?
Oh, man. Freddie freaking Mercury. No question. Being musical and a lover of cats, plus an unapologetically out gay who was taken by the tragedy AIDS at that time makes his perspective on now versus then completely fascinating. Plus, I think he’d a rockin’ good time.
🏳‍🌈 I can hear the complaints now. If you think 1 person is unfair please use this space for additional dinner guests and why you chose them?
I am a whychoose author, so if I’m allowed, I’d also love Oscar Wilde, Josephine Baker, Jonathon Larson, Rachel Carson, and David Bowie.
🏳‍🌈 Do you have a favorite review(s) of one of your books left by a reader? Care to share the title of the book, the review, and why this one stood out to you.
So I honestly don’t, but it’s because I avoid reviews for the most part now. However, I did have a reader come up to me at convention in 2024 and spend a long time telling me how the representation (PTSD, anxiety) in my FMC in Veiled Flame made her feel so seen and understood that she had to come meet me. Literally, I think we both cried.
🏳‍🌈 What are your social links?

What are your purchase links?
You can also find me on Amazon: https://amazon.com/author/cassandrafeatherstone or at my website www.Cassandrafeatherstone.com

 

 

 

 

#Review #MMRomance #Standalone #audiobook Learning to Feel by: N.R. Walker Narrated by: Nick J Russo

Resigned to living a sexless, loveless life, Doctor Nathan Tierney knows something is missing. In a rash decision, he leaves his life-consuming job at Mass General Hospital, Boston, to be the small-town doctor in Belfast, Maine. With the job comes a house, and with the house comes a handyman-painter.

Trent Jamieson, a nomadic artist, and his dog Bentley, are offered free accommodation for the few weeks he fixes up the hospital-owned house. Nathan is transfixed by this free-spirited, undeniably gorgeous man.

Confused but amazed to feel any kind of attraction – much less to a man – Nathan convinces himself to put aside any preconceived ideas, and allows himself to just feel. As their attraction for each other grows, one man learns to live, the other learns to love. But just who is teaching who?

Second Edition. First Edition released in 2012. No additional content has been added.

 

Amazon

Goodreads

N.R. Walker is an Australian author who loves her genre of LGBTQIA+ romance. First published in 2012, she now has over 70 books, many which are also audiobooks, and numerous translations done in nine different languages.

She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it but wouldn’t have it any other way.

~

N.R. Walker was voted 2019 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards All-Time Favorite Author

and 2020 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards Hall of Fame

Read more on nrwalker dot net

 

Nathan is ready for a change. He takes a position at a hospital a few hours from home. The job comes with a house. And the house comes with a sexy painter with an adorable dog. They will be leaving as soon as the painting is done.

Before moving Nathans dad said- “take happiness wherever you find it. Don’t deny yourself anything.” I remember thinking what a sweet thing for a dad to say. Nathan hit the jackpot as far as families are concerned. And obviously his family knew things about him that maybe Nathan himlself hadn’t figured out yet.

Trent is an artist. He paints magnificent abstract art on canvas but unfortunately he’s also painting walls because that is what is paying the bills right now. Hes a loner with obvious secrets. It took me a while to work out what was going on with him. Once the layers of that onion were peeled back, the mystery that was Trent started to make a bit more sense.

Sometimes I feel theres more unnecessary angst and drama where 2 men are invoved. If they would just TALK to one another maybe it could have saved some heartache. Mainly MY heartache. At one point I was freaking sobbing. My dog got up and looked at me trying to decide what was wrong with me. Oh nothing much pup, just dealing with some fictional trauma right now, mind your own business!

If I had to describe the book in one word, it would be beautiful. The story was beautiful. The men were beautiful and weren’t afraid to tell each other just that.
The art and story behind it. Beautiful. The acceptance. Beautiful. Nathan’s journey to discovering himself. Absolutely freaking beautiful. And the narrator, Nick J Russo, did a beautiful job with Trents southern accent.

Celebrating Pride Month with CJ Baty #wotr25 #attendingauthor #pridespotlight

Happy Pride Month everyone!  Twinsie Tenise here. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to answer the questions for our pride month celebration. I had fun coming up with this years set of questions.  We will be celebrating all month with author spotlights  as well as my reviews for  some of the LGBTQIA  books I’ve read this year.  Check back daily to see what’s going  on and add to your TBR piles. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little about all of these wonderful authors and their work.

🏳‍🌈 Tell us your name and a little bit about yourself?
C.J. Baty here, and I’ve been writing gay romance stories since 2014. I’m a mountain girl. Most of my stories take place in the Southern States where there are lots of trees. I was writing on FanFiction several years before I first published. This September, my husband and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary! At the moment, we are sharing our home with my son, daughter and her boyfriend, 4 cats and a very spoiled dog named Chip. I love reading and writing about strong male characters who worked through their issues to find a happily ever after. During these turbulent times, I stand with love, no matter the color, orientation, or beliefs.
🏳‍🌈 What is the title of your most recent release?
Death Train is a Pinkerton Man Story and was released last year. More adventures for Stiles and Michael will be coming later this year. And a new contemporary romance as well.
🏳‍🌈 Is there a book or a movie that has helped you have a better understanding of a current or past event in LGBTQ history?
I can’t say a specific book or movie has helped. But I have made a few friends through my writings that have really helped me understand things from their side. One particular author I know, and a photographer have helped me understand the LBGQT+ community much better. The fears and concerns of the present situation in our country are very real. I wish I could do more.
🏳‍🌈 If you could have dinner with a famous person from the LGBTQ community, past or present, who would that be and why?
Oh, my goodness what a question! I have no idea how to reply to that. There are so many who have done so much and given so much, even their very lives. I’m sorry I just don’t have an answer for this one.
🏳‍🌈 I can hear the complaints now. If you think 1 person is unfair please use this space for additional dinner guests and why you chose them?
I am Facebook friends with several male and female in the spectrum. Some have had a good life and have a settled husband or wife; and others who have had horrible experiences from childhood into adulthood. (I won’t name names because they are friends.) I’d love to have them all at my dinner table and hug each one of them just to let them know that I care about their experiences good or bad. And there’s more of us who do care, than they know.
🏳‍🌈 Do you have a favorite review(s) of one of your books left by a reader? Care to share the title of the book, the review, and why this one stood out to you.
I have no idea who this review came from and the fact that it covered several of the Pinkerton Man books in one review was astonishing to me, but here goes. “I thought it would behoove me to engage readers for a moment to let you know that this is an astonishingly terrific adventure-love story with three brilliantly detailed MC’s: Stiles Long, the Pinkerton Man; Lizzie Ferguson, his best friend but not lover; and Michael O’Leary, who lurked around in Book 1 and came into his own in the next one as the linchpin for all that follows between the three of them. I cannot give this series anything less than across-the-board five stars for milieu (early 1900s), character development, plot line and incredibly steamy love scenes. I cannot wait for the fifth, but meanwhile, grab the first four and wallow in astonishment at how good this series is.” It still gives me chills!
🏳‍🌈 What are your social links?

https://books2read.com/links/ubl/create/

 

#review #mmromance #gayforyou –The Heirs Disgrace (Doormen of the Upper East Side #1) by: August Jones

Drew Riley: Night Doorman of The Eastmoor on Park

I’m stuck in an uptown lobby while my dreams of making it as a model in New York hang by a single thread. Meanwhile, Olivier Arnaud lives his best life as a useless socialite, flaunting his wealth, his looks, and his privilege. His gaze taunts, and his nightly, condescending smirks burrow deep beneath my skin where I simmer with bitterness and hate.

The day he asks me to deliver his mail directly to his 12th floor penthouse, he makes it personal, and the thread snaps—violently. With my hand around his neck, I feel alive for the first time in months. Though my frustration may have found the outlet it craves, my body’s response causes everything I thought I knew about myself to shift.

Faced with vastly different but equally uncertain futures, our baser needs align, turning our increasingly heated encounters into a reckoning—both sexual and shockingly emotional. I know I have to stop. The last thing I can afford to lose in this heartless town is one more piece of myself to a man who already has everything.

 

Amazon

Goodreads

August Jones (She/They) is an author of erotica and a voracious reader of smut. She resides in Texas with her family, pets, and books. However, she reads mostly on her phone because she’s cheap, it has a built in backlight, and it’s almost always in her hand.

If you ever discover her real name, don’t tell her, just read the books she’s published (you’ll like them) and thank her later with a rating or review. Mwah!

Feel free to reach out to her on Instagram or check out her website https://augustjonesbooks.com where you’ll find a link to subscribe to her newsletter and get a sneak peak at any upcoming releases or free shorts.

 

Drew is the door man at the high end apartment building that Olivier lives in.
The two men aren’t exactly kind to one another. Drew tolerates the spoiled brat to keep his job. All of the tension building between the pair come to a head one night when lines are blurred and they may have taken things a bit too far.

Neither man is gay so what does taking things too far this time mean? Both men are stubborn and in their heads. This concerned me because I was essentially waiting for the other shoe to drop. As I read this book I had a sense of foreboding. Even though they took forever to figure their stuff out and stressed me out a whole lot, it was all worth it in the end. I loved these 2 and all of their friends made it even better.

 

Celebrating Pride Month with J. Lawson #wotr25 #attendingauthor #authorspotlight

Happy Pride Month everyone!  Twinsie Tenise here. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to answer the questions for our pride month celebration. I had fun coming up with this years set of questions.  We will be celebrating all month with author spotlights  as well as my reviews for  some of the LGBTQIA  books I’ve read this year.  Check back daily to see what’s going  on and add to your TBR piles. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little about all of these wonderful authors and their work.

🏳‍🌈 Tell us your name and a little bit about yourself?
Jackie Lawson (pen name – J Lawson). I’m a graduate of Western Illinois University with a Master’s Degree in English Literature. I live with my husband, son, and my mother who recently moved into our home. Between us, we have three dogs; Bailey, Ember, and Bella. Most days I am either reading, writing, or doing bookish crafts. I enjoy pretty much all genres and have several comfort books and series that I read or listen to repeatedly.
🏳‍🌈 What is the title of your most recent release?
Peculiar Lessons: Semester Two is my most recent and I have a new stand-alone fiction collection of short stories slated to arrive this year!
🏳‍🌈 Is there a book or a movie that has helped you have a better understanding of a current or past event in LGBTQ history?
Anything by E. Lynn Harris is worth a read and incredibly eye-opening.
🏳‍🌈 If you could have dinner with a famous person from the LGBTQ community, past or present, who would that be and why?
Harvey Milk has a fascinating story, but so much of it was written after his assassination. I’d love to sit down with him and get the whole story from his own perspective.
🏳‍🌈 I can hear the complaints now. If you think 1 person is unfair please use this space for additional dinner guests and why you chose them?
There are so many I’d love to meet just to hear their stories, but I’m good with having to just pick the one. Given free rein, the list would be endless (albeit, quite the dinner party!)
🏳‍🌈 Do you have a favorite review(s) of one of your books left by a reader? Care to share the title of the book, the review, and why this one stood out to you?
Peculiar Lessons: Semester Two. Review: “Peculiar Lessons is so well written and refreshingly original. You’re taken on unforgettable adventures with the main characters and every moment of their journey is immersive and emotionally gripping. The plot is thought-provoking and each “lesson” carries real weight. I absolutely devoured this book in a single day. If you love character-driven stories with a hint of the strange and magical, this is an absolute must read! This book is a rare gem and I’ll be recommending it to everyone I know!” This review stood out to me because they acknowledged all the things I hope come through in my writing – originality, relatability, accessibility, and captivating.
🏳‍🌈 What are your social links?
Website: www.authorjlawson.com Facebook: AuthorJ.Lawson Instagram: @authorjlawson
🏳‍🌈 What are your purchase links?
Books are all able to be purchased through my website or on Amazon

 

#MMRomance #HolidayNovella #Audiobook -Dearest Malachai Keogh by: N.R. Walker Narrated by: Glen Lloyd

Julian Pollard never believed in love at first sight. That was until he met Malachi Keogh. Well, maybe it wasn’t love at first sight, but it sure was something.

Julian had forgotten how to live, how to be happy, and Malachi changed all that. Now together for four years, Julian wants to give Malachi a Christmas he’ll never forget.

The only problem is, Christmas at a mail distribution centre is the busiest time of the year. It just might take the whole team to make it happen.

Dearest Malachi Keogh is a 13,000-word short story.

 

 

Amazon

Goodreads

N.R. Walker is an Australian author who loves her genre of LGBTQIA+ romance. First published in 2012, she now has over 70 books, many which are also audiobooks, and numerous translations done in nine different languages.

She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it but wouldn’t have it any other way.

~

N.R. Walker was voted 2019 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards All-Time Favorite Author

and 2020 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards Hall of Fame

Read more on nrwalker dot net

 

Julian is super romantic and I just love his love for Malachi. There is nothing he won’t do to keep his man happy.  This was such a cute follow-up  Christmas novella to book 1.  And of course, thank you Glen for narrating this book. I’m running out of new material by both him and N.R. Walker. Good thing all of their past works are wonderful and I can read/listen  to them all over and over again.

Celebrating Pride Month with Kate Hawthorne #wotr25 #attendingauthor #pridespotlight

Happy Pride Month everyone!  Twinsie Tenise here. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to answer the questions for our pride month celebration. I had fun coming up with this years set of questions.  We will be celebrating all month with author spotlights  as well as my reviews for  some of the LGBTQIA  books I’ve read this year.  Check back daily to see what’s going  on and add to your TBR piles. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little about all of these wonderful authors and their work.

🏳‍🌈 Tell us your name and a little bit about yourself?
My name is Kate Hawthorne and I’m your favorite authors favorite author. I write angsty and kinky queer romance. I was born and raised in San Diego and I lived in Los Angeles for thirteen years before relocating to Louisville, KY five years ago. I’m an avid reader and prolific writer, and I’ve been publishing for over seven years.
🏳‍🌈 What is the title of your most recent release?
The Hitman’s Prince (6/6/25)
🏳‍🌈 Is there a book or a movie that has helped you have a better understanding of a current or past event in LGBTQ history?
When Fellow Travelers came out I watched the series and read the book and found them both to be extremely poignant versions of the same story about being queer during McCarthyism. As we enter another period in our government where left-leaning and queer people are being actively persecuted by our government, it was a stark reminder of the parallels between then and now that still exist. The book went into such greater detail of the politics and relationships with secondary characters, focused not just on the love story from the show, but the fight to survive without compromising yourself to do so.
🏳‍🌈 If you could have dinner with a famous person from the LGBTQ community, past or present, who would that be and why?
I mean, who wouldn’t want to meet Martha P. Johnson?? Stonewall was the catalyst for a massive human rights movement that has spanned decades, and while I doubt that she knew she’d become famous for her role in that, but the history is still there and I would love to hear her story in her own words.
🏳‍🌈 Do you have a favorite review(s) of one of your books left by a reader? Care to share the title of the book, the review, and why this one stood out to you.
As a rule, I try to not read reviews (because reviews are meant for readers not for me), but I’ve had multiple trans and non-binary readers reach out privately after reading Worth the Chance, so those are the ones that always mean the most. Verity is one of my favorite characters and I’m grateful that their story has resonated with so many people.

🏳‍🌈 What are your purchase links?

 

#MMRomance #Workplaceromance #Audiobook –Dearest Milton James by: N.R. Walker Narrated by: Glen Lloyd

Malachi Keogh finds himself in a job he neither wanted nor asked for when his father, boss of Sydney’s postal service, sends him to the end of the business line, aka The Dead Letter Office. Malachi expects tedious and boring but instead discovers a warehouse with a quirky bunch of misfit co-workers, including a stoic and nerdy boss, Julian Pollard.

Malachi’s intrigued by Julian at first, and he soon learns there’s more to the man than his boring clothes of beige, tan, and brown; a far cry from Malachi’s hot pink, lilac, and electric blue. Where Julian is calm and ordered, Malachi is chaos personified, but despite their outward differences, there’s an immediate chemistry between them that sends Malachi’s head—and heart—into a spin.

To keep his father happy, Malachi needs to keep this job. He also needs to solve the mystery of the pile of old letters that sits in Julian’s office and maybe get to the bottom of what makes Julian tick. Like everything that goes through the mail centre, only time will tell if Malachi has found his intended destination or if he’ll find himself returned to sender.

Amazon

Goodreads

N.R. Walker is an Australian author who loves her genre of LGBTQIA+ romance. First published in 2012, she now has over 70 books, many which are also audiobooks, and numerous translations done in nine different languages.

She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it but wouldn’t have it any other way.

~

N.R. Walker was voted 2019 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards All-Time Favorite Author

and 2020 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards Hall of Fame

Read more on nrwalker dot net

 

Malachi has messed up, again. As a result, he is being made to do “grunt work” with the postal service by his father, the postmaster general.
Malachi knows before walking into the building for the first time that under NO circumstances will he be returning here tomorrow.
Well that was until he meets his coworkers. An assorted array of characters from all walks of life who quickly work their way into his life. Some, well One, a whole lot more than the others. And well, that complicates things.
This book was absolutely beautiful. The last 2 chapters had me bawling. And as always, if you can, listen to the audio for the full experience. Glens voice is just narration perfection in my opinion.

Celebrating Pride Month with Joel Shoemaker #wotr25 #attendingauthor #pridespotlight

Happy Pride Month everyone!  Twinsie Tenise here. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to answer the questions for our pride month celebration. I had fun coming up with this years set of questions.  We will be celebrating all month with author spotlights  as well as my reviews for  some of the LGBTQIA  books I’ve read this year.  Check back daily to see what’s going  on and add to your TBR piles. I hope you enjoy getting to know a little about all of these wonderful authors and their work.

🏳‍🌈 Tell us your name and a little bit about yourself?
My name is Joel Shoemaker. My fourth book is a collection of cocktail-themed short stories and recipes called COCKTAILS & CONCATENATIONS. It joins my tooth-themed short story collection called TEETH & CRUMPETS: A FLORILEGIUM. I also have written one of the only works of fiction for teens & tweens to celebrate and affirm both faith and sexuality, called “bacon grief” and my picture book follows a gender nonconforming child to church, called SILAS ON SUNDAYS. In 2026 the follow-up, SILAS ON STAGE will publish from Wildling Press.
🏳‍🌈 What is the title of your most recent release?
Cocktails & Concatenations
🏳‍🌈 Is there a book or a movie that has helped you have a better understanding of a current or past event in LGBTQ history?
Fun question! I grew up in the 80s but I didn’t know people that actually died from AIDS, thankfully. I was just a kid. So I would say learning about that decade and even into the 90s from books and movies still shocks and saddens me. Likewise, the recent series FELLOW TRAVELERS seems to provide some detail on the Lavender Scare, I think is what it was called?
🏳‍🌈If you could have dinner with a famous person from the LGBTQ community, past or present, who would that be and why?
James Baldwin, probably. Or Harvey Milk. Or RuPaul! This is a hard choice. I will invite them all over for dinner. What a party it would be!
🏳‍🌈I can hear the complaints now. If you think 1 person is unfair please use this space for additional dinner guests and why you chose them.
Ha! See above. Hilarious.
🏳‍🌈 Do you have a favorite review(s) of one of your books left by a reader? Care to share the title of the book, the review, and why this one stood out to you.
This review, one of the very first for “bacon grief” from a teen reader still makes me so happy: “I don’t usually write reviews but for this book, I felt compelled to do so. This is by no means a linguistic masterpiece and the nontraditional format took some getting used to, but as a whole, the elements of the book came together to better tell the story. Having grown up in a conservative Catholic household and as a member of the LGBT+ community, the themes of this book hit really close to home. I’ve been struggling with my beliefs and identity again recently, and this book, given to me at a school meet and greet I almost didn’t attend, seems very much like a sign from God that I’ll be okay. Thank you, Joel Shoemaker, for that small comfort.”
🏳‍🌈 What are your purchase links?

 

#Review #MMRomance#Audiobook –Benji (The Wilde Street Boys #1) by: N.R. Walker Narrated by: Glen Lloyd

Nolan O’Brien is a public prosecutor, and if he ever sees the name Bruno Barbieri again, it will be too soon. After a long week preparing for the trial of the decade, it takes no convincing to hit the men’s club for a few drinks.
Except the club wasn’t the only thing he hit that night.

Benji Smith works on Wylde Street as a rent boy. When he’s chased by two men, he runs into the path of a moving car. With a no-cops, no-hospital policy and needing to escape the men following him, he agrees to go back to the driver’s place.

The last thing Nolan expects is to offer Benji a place to stay, to recuperate, and to lie low. And the last thing Benji expects is to be attracted to the man who saved him.
But their worlds are about to collide in a way neither of them was prepared for, and both men need to decide what’s at stake, what they’re prepared to lose, and what they’ll fight for.

 

Amazon

Goodreads

Mine for now…

Hearts are going to get involved. You cannot be with someone 24/7 for an entire week with all of the sexual tension and not give into your urges. But what’s even more difficult is not letting feelings get involved once you succumb to the urges.

Benji is keeping secrets.
Nolan is catching feelings.
This arrangement is only for a week.

Ohhh boy! This book was started and finished in one sitting. I loved everything about it.  Glen is my  favorite audiobook narrator. I never tire of hearing his voice. I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

 

N.R. Walker is an Australian author who loves her genre of LGBTQIA+ romance. First published in 2012, she now has over 70 books, many which are also audiobooks, and numerous translations done in nine different languages.

She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it but wouldn’t have it any other way.

~

N.R. Walker was voted 2019 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards All-Time Favorite Author

and 2020 Goodreads M/M Romance Members’ Choice Awards Hall of Fame

Read more on nrwalker dot net