Sunday, October 22, 2023

S.E.X. Review~ Equinox by Scott & Easton

The tranquility of Prophet is shattered when a local trail rider is killed and whispers of wolf packs and murder spread like wildfire.

Three months after the murder of Mike Bressett, the sleepy town of Prophet faces another tragedy—the death of Billy Odette, a well-liked Makah man who ran trail rides for the tourists. When Billy is discovered to have been the victim of a vicious animal attack, dragged right off a popular trail, angry locals are quick to blame a wolf pack that’s recently moved into the area. But Sheriff Gabriel Thompson learns that the death isn’t as simple as it seems when decades-long animosities and secrets come to light.

A figure from Tiber Russo’s past cast a shadow over his blossoming friendship with Gabriel and dashed any hope for a meaningful relationship. However, as Tiber confronts the demon on his doorstep he turns to Gabriel for help, and all the reasons he has to stay apart become nothing at all.

While Tiber and a local wildlife painter fight to protect the wolves, Gabriel has to unravel a tangled web of deception, betrayal, and long-held grudges and as the mystery unfolds, he discovers Billy’s death is part of a larger plot that threatens his town and beyond, and when Tiber’s life is threatened, will Gabriel lose everything? 


Details

 
GLBTQ, MM, Trope: Romantic Suspense, murder, sheriff, animal whisperer, wolves in the wild, animal artist
Kindle Unlimited – 29 September
Series: Book 2 in The Lake Prophet Mysteries
Length: 71,000
Cover Design: Anna Tif Sikorska
All Buy Links can be found here – https://rjscott.co.uk/read-equinox

The Lake Prophet Mysteries

Romantic Suspense
  1. Solstice – https://rjscott.co.uk/read-solstice
  2. Equinox – https://rjscott.co.uk/read-equinox
  3. TBA, coming early 2024

RJ Scott

RJ Scott, author of M/M romance.Writing love stories with a happy ever after – cowboys, heroes, family, hockey, single dads, bodyguards
 
USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott has written over one hundred and fifty romance books. Emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, single dads, hockey players, millionaires, princes, bodyguards, Navy SEALs, soldiers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, cops, and the men who get mixed up in their lives, always with a happy ever after.
 
She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing.
 
The last time she had a week’s break from writing, she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a box of chocolates she couldn’t defeat.

RJ's Social Media Links in full

Eli Easton

Having been, at various times and under different names, a minister’s daughter, a computer programmer, a game designer, the author of paranormal mysteries, a fan fiction writer, and organic farmer, Eli has been a m/m romance author since 2013. She has published over 30 gay romances.

Eli has loved romance since her teens and she particular admires writers who can combine literary merit, genuine humor, melting hotness, and eye-dabbing sweetness into one story.


Eli's Social Media Links in full

  • Website – https://www.elieaston.com/
  • Newsletter – https://preview.mailerlite.com/sites/preview/843688
  • Email – jensenholmespa@gmail.com
  • BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/eli-easton?follow=true
  • Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7020231.Eli_Easton
  • Twitter – @EliEaston
  • Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/164054884188096

Excerpt 1

My cell phone rang. I took it out of my pocket and glanced at it, not intending to answer. But it was a 360 area code—someone local. I accepted the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, is this Tiber?”

“Yes.” I didn’t recognize the man’s voice. For a second, my brain hiccupped, and I thought it was my ex, Jeff. A chill of dread passed over me. Please God, no.

“It’s Sam, over at the riding stables.”

“Oh. Hey! Sam.” My relief was immediate but short-lived. It wasn’t Jeff, because I wasn’t asleep, and this wasn’t a nightmare. But why would Sam be calling me?

When I’d first moved to Prophet, I’d opened a customer account at the local trail rides stables up at the Thompson Cabins and I’d gone out a dozen times. It had been a big ticket item on the ‘pro’ list when I’d contemplated moving to Prophet, honestly. I’d gotten into horses on the rez in Arizona when I’d stayed with my Navajo grandma during the summers. It was one of the best things to do there, and popular with natives and tourists alike. The red rock landscape had that Old Western movie vibe and that was compounded on horseback. But since I’d taken in Duke, I hadn’t had the extra time or energy to go riding.

As for Sam, who owned the Thompson Cabins and the adjacent stables, I didn’t know him well. but I knew he was Gabriel’s brother. Gabriel—the hot sheriff of Prophet. The hot, gay sheriff, and a man I’d put firmly in the friend zone. The thought something had happened to him made my blood run cold. “Is Gabriel okay?”

“What? Oh. Yeah, Gabriel’s fine as far as I know. He’s over in Seattle for some law enforcement training today. I’m really sorry to bother you.” Sam sounded upset. “I just didn’t know who else to call who’s a strong rider. And Gabriel thinks the world of you.”

I looked across at the three crows. Two had jumped off the rock and were now pecking at the ground but one was still eyeing me. Thanks for the heads up.

“Sure. What do you need?”

“It’s Billy.” I heard Sam take a shaky breath. “He took River out this morning about eight a.m., and he hasn’t come back yet.”

I checked my watch. It was almost four. “That’s not good.”

“No. I’m getting really worried. I thought I’d better do something about it before it gets dark. It’d be good to have someone along, just in case. And with Gabriel away and the fact that Deputy Devin doesn’t ride, I didn’t know who else to ask. But if you’re busy, I totally—”

“No problem. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Sam gave me directions to the trailhead where he wanted to search. I gathered the troops and headed back up the game trail through the woods to my house. The dogs seemed to sense my mood had shifted, and that we were in a hurry. They came along quietly and without their usual reluctance to leave the lake.

I had time enough to worry as we hiked home. Billy Odette was the trail master for the Thompson stables. He was a Makah man in his forties—wiry, strong, and an excellent horseman. He’d grown up in nearby Neah Bay and knew the area well. There was no way he’d be out this long—for the horse’s sake, if not for his own.

I couldn’t help but flash back to the murder we’d had in Prophet just three months ago. Prophet, to all appearances, was a sleepy little town. It was historically an artist’s community. We were separated from the busy towns and cities around Puget Sound—including Seattle—by the Olympic Mountains, one of the densest, wildest, and wettest mountain ranges in the United States. On this side of them, in the open land between the mountains and the western seaboard, the population was sparse. As my mom put it, I’d moved to the ass-end of nowhere.

You’d think that would make Prophet a safe place to live. But lately, I’d begun to see the dark side of that isolation. People moved here who didn’t want to be found—me included. Maybe some of those people weren’t running from an abusive ex, or even themselves, but from the law. It drew people hoping to hide their sins in the deep, shadowed forests of the Olympics.

People who came here to escape the rules were especially angry when the local law tried to enforce them. As Mike Bressett had learned.

I prayed nothing like that had happened to Billy Odette.

Excerpt 2

Still, after all this time and despite my avoidance tactics, it was both good and bad to meet Hudson, ISB agent extraordinaire with perfectly styled blond hair, a body built by a god, and piercing blue eyes that stared right through me. He was the kind of guy I’d have hooked up with—before—all flirty and suggestive, temporary, a one-night stand. He was someone I might have had some easy no-strings fun with back before my life had changed.

Before the undercover case broke me and sent me running from LA.

Before Prophet.

Before Tiber.

I wish I was back home. I knew Tiber had called a halt to us, but we shared Duke, hiked as a pack—his words not mine—skimmed stones on Lake Prophet, then sat in silence as we watched the storm petrels wheeling in the leaden skies above the verdant rainforest.

Tiber and I had kissed exactly three times since he’d said we shouldn’t. The first was after we’d eaten a bucket of popcorn while watching animal documentaries at his home—my favorite place to be. He’d definitely leaned in first and kissed me before sitting back, flustered, and fussing around Patch as if the sleeping cat needed the attention. I’d loved the buttery kiss but had to leave soon after because otherwise I would have begged for more. The second had happened when I’d lost my cool as he laughed at something Duke had been doing. I’d wanted to kiss the smile, and lurched clumsily at him, only to mash our lips together in the most unsexy way ever, then step back because he was shocked.

After all, friends don’t kiss friends.

Right?

The third, last Sunday, happened outside my house when he came to drop off Duke. The rain was out of a romance novel, or a post-apocalyptic movie, so heavy it drenched us in seconds, but when he smiled his goodbye, his long hair plastered around his face, I’d gripped his yellow slicker, and we’d met in the middle.

A kiss for the ages, soft, then hard, wet from the rain, and so hot.

When we separated Tiber stared at me wide-eyed, touching his lips before he turned and left. I’d wanted to call after him, suggest maybe being friends wasn’t enough, and that I’d be good with more kisses. I’d said nothing, watching his tail lights vanishing into the rain, because he’d asked me to back off.

So that was what I’d done. My heart hurt that I could see him and not hold him, but that was something else to unpick in counseling.

“… Sheriff Thompson out of Prophet. Sheriff, do you perhaps have a few words to say on this?”

Fuck.



I am loving the Lake Prophet Mystery books by RJ Scott and Eli Easton. Equinox did not disappoint as the story of animal whisperer Tiber and sleepy town sheriff, Gabriel entered a new phase in relationship both personal and professional.

Gabe and Tiber make the town of Prophet and the story line most intriguing, with their quiet demeanor and fierce love.

Scott and Easton delivered a mystery book, with the slow burn of a budding romance, Equinox surpassed Solstice, of which I also enjoyed. The world the authors created in the fictional town of Prophet contained everything a small should have. Interesting characters, budding romance, a touch of history, and of course a growing mystery.

Equinox is a hurry and grab your copy book, and once you start you will not be able to put it down.

Definite S.E.X.

A five handcuff review


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2023 ©Evelise Archer All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. No portion of this work may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.

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