Friday, February 3, 2017

Volley Balls by Tara Lain


A double dose of alpha male might be better than one.

Despite just getting out of an abusive relationship with an asshole alpha, David Underwood’s wandering glance lands on two hot members of the Australian volleyball team on Laguna Beach and gets him harassed again. Still, when the delicious Gareth Marshall proves his interest by coming out to his team, David succumbs to his attraction. But Gareth’s volleyball partner, Edge, who’s equally hot, makes the lovers’ lives miserable.

For Gareth, a lifetime of hiding his orientation—and his attraction—from his best friend, Edge, as well as everyone else around him, adds up to hurt and frustration. David’s the first man to ever compete with Edge for Gareth’s passion. But Edge has secrets of his own, and David’s ex-lover will never be happy without David under his fist. With everything stacked against him, can a gay Laguna man find happiness with an alpha male–or two?

A "pumped up" version of the Volley Balls story, twice as long as the original.
2nd Edition
First Edition published by Etopia Press, 2011.

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Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo
Dreamspinner Press



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Angie☆☆☆☆
I liked this story, but at times it seemed a little over the top. Don’t get me wrong, I am a sucker for instant love, but some of the events in the book just seemed a little farfetched, but I tried to go with the flow. David and Gareth were so sweet together, then you add in Edge and you have something totally different. I liked how fast paced the book was, it did hold my interest, I just thought some things were a little out there in the realm of things. I do hope to hear more in future books on this trio, and I would love to see JJ get his own book too.

Characters: Likeable characters
Sex: Yes
Religious: No
Would I recommend to others: Yes
More than one book in the series: Yes
Genre: M/M/M Romance
Would I read more by this author: Yes


Sarah☆☆☆
This is a fun ménage full of very pretty men in a wonderful California setting. Gallery owner David is a fabulous character and I loved the muscular volleyball players.

This story has been edited and added to for re-release with Dreamspinner Press in 2017. Even with the re-edit, this is a simpler story with simpler characters than I’ve come to expect from Tara Lain’s more recent books. At its best, this is playful and sexy – I loved David painted and displayed as Michelangelo’s David. At other times, I found it difficult to believe in the homophobic BFF and the evil ex-boyfriend.

I liked the connection between Gareth and David, but it lacked some of the magic of the connections between the men in the Laguna and Long Pass books. Edge was a little bewildering for me. I struggled to appreciate the relationship between him and Gareth, and his innocent child/man thing didn’t work for me.

There are some sexy scenes, some sweet scenes, and some fun scenes in this story. I’ve enjoyed later books in this series more than I enjoyed this first one, but it is fun to go back to the beginning and see where some favourite characters were first introduced. This is worth reading as the start to a great series, but I’m not sure it stands on its own terribly well.



TARA LAIN writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in LGBT romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Erotic Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, and Best Gay Characters, and Tara has been named Best Writer of the Year in the LRC Awards. Readers often call her books “sweet,” even with all that hawt sex, because Tara believes in love and her books deliver on happily-ever-after. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. Her love of creating book titles comes from years of manifesting ad headlines for everything from analytical instruments to semiconductors. She does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. She lives with her soulmate husband and her soulmate dog (who’s a little jealous of all those cat pictures Tara posts on FB) in Laguna Niguel, California, near the seaside towns where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says that on her tombstone, it will say “Yes!”

Connect with Tara

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https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Volley Balls (Balls to the Wall #1) by Tara Lain to read and review.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you both for revisiting Volley Balls! More Balls to come. : )

    ReplyDelete

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