Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Lord of a Thousand Steps by Tara Lain


To architecture student Ian Carney, family means everything. Taken in by his brother, Jim, when his father threw him out at eighteen for being gay, Ian yearns to create his own family with his boyfriend, Rico. But Rico’s in Mexico caring for a sick father, Ian hasn’t had sex in a month and a half, and his gorgeous boss, Braden Lord, CEO of the architectural firm Ian interns for, is looking better and better.

Braden’s life is chaos. Just out of the closet and going through an ugly divorce from his wife of fifteen years who’s trying to take custody of his two children, he desperately resolves not to succumb to a completely inappropriate attraction to Ian—even though his kids adore both the man and his crazy cat.

When Rico proves to be a snake in the grass and Ian exercises his powers of seduction, what starts as a “friends with benefits” fling turns into real life real fast. Can Ian give up his romantic dreams for an “old guy” who didn’t come out until he carried a mountain of baggage? It’ll only take a thousand steps.

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Book 4
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Dreamspinner Press



Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica☆☆☆☆
4 Angsty Stars.

A lonely college student/intern meets a lonely boss, mixed with a renegade/absentee boyfriend, a brother getting married, a greedy ex-wife-to-be, a precocious 5-year-old girl, an angsty teenage boy, and a big cat who likes to go to the beach. That's Lord of a Thousand Steps in a nutshell.

Ian is truly the Lord of a Thousand Steps, even if Braden Lord lives overlooking the Thousand Steps beach. Lonely, feeling ashamed and guilty for living off his brother and soon-to-be brother-in-law, Ian works hard at college and his architectural internship, dreaming of the day he and Rico make a home of their own – a family of their own. But for now, it's just Ian and Anderson Cooper.

Braden Lord is suffering through a painful divorce. After hiding in the closet until his mid-to-late-thirties, he's ready to live his own life, because he believes that would be best for the happiness of his own children. If Dad was happy, his kids would be happy. But his wife is money-hungry as a way to soothe her own bent pride after learning she was Braden's beard for over fifteen years. (Aside from her bad behavior through the book. C'mon, ladies! Look at your husbands/boyfriends. THAT HAS GOT TO STING! aka, be earth-shattering)

Why do I bring that up? I'd love to read a story where the wife is NOT the villainess. I get that we have to make the MC our hero, so he can do no wrong. But the guys are always using the women as a beard, blaming the women for their being miserable, then taking their children away after a lengthy custody battle to satisfy the need for a nuclear family for our new gay couple. (speaking of MANY books) Just once, I'd like to see the woman's emotions brought up, and how this behavior on the MAN's part is horrible to the woman.

It's all how it's written, right? The guy doesn't want to admit he's gay, so he uses a woman to hide. Then when he's comfortable to come out of the closet (be it months with her, or two decades), he destroys the woman he used. In context, it's gross, and I don't blame these women for going off the rails. That has got to change them on an emotional and mental level.

Anyway back to my review.

So that's the setup. The book is angsty, with both men pulling away from each other at one point or another, multiple times, for multiple reasons. There's miscommunication. There are outside forces pounding down on the couple. But the majority of the book is Ian and Braden getting in their own way.

I enjoyed Lord of a Thousand Steps, getting emotional a few times. Overall, I've enjoyed the series as a whole. Some books work for me, and others kind of work for me, but that's individual to my reading style (taste). Personally, I felt the story's pacing to be on the slow side, drawing to a crawl at some points, with too many pages to support so few storyline threads.

Heartwarming, funny, sweet, and a bit heartbreaking, a sign of a good book is when I want the next immediately. One with a slight pacing problem is when I want the next book while still reading the current storyline. Or that could mean I want Lain's words anyway I can get them, and I have a problem with instant gratification and patience.

I want Rico's story – something tells me that's a little bit dark.

Highly recommended to fans of Tara Lain, the Love in Laguna series, and MM Romance, especially those who enjoy a warm, character-building storyline without a ton of shock-value or bells and whistles.


Angie☆☆☆☆
This book starts with Ian’s boyfriend, Rico, leaving for Mexico to help his sick dad. Happens all the time right? With technology these days we can call, text, email, etc., when we need to get ahold of people. Why the hell Ian didn’t CALL Rico to see what the hell was going on right away is beyond me. That was my biggest hang up about this book, Ian kept trying to text and wouldn’t call and when he did call Rico was a jerk. Braden, I fell in love with instantly and felt so bad for all the crap he was going through with his soon to be ex. The kids were a great addition to the story and of course so was the cat, Anderson Cooper. This book was full of emotions and some steamy sex. Another good addition to the series.

Characters: Well written and easy to relate to
Sex: Yes
Religious: No
Would I recommend to others: Yes
More than one book in the series: Yes
Genre: M/M Romance
Would I read more by this author: Yes


Also Available in the Love in Laguna Series

Book 3
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
Dreamspinner Press

For reviews & more info, check out our Prince of the Playhouse post.



Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in LGBT erotic romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel was published in January of 2011. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, Best Erotic Romance, and Tara has been named Best Writer of the Year in the LRC Awards. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. She often does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. She lives with her soul-mate husband and her soul-mate dog in Laguna Beach, California, a pretty seaside town where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!

Connect with Tara

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http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/


Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Lord of a Thousand Steps (Love in Laguna #4) by Tara Lain to read and review.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for reading Lord of a Thousand Steps! Erica, i must agree. I felt badly about making Braden's wife the villain. I almost always try to show the good in all the women i write, even the one's who are hard to love at first like Billy's mom. This was the exception. She just refused to be anything but nasty. I promise to go back to more dimensional women in the future!! Thank you both again. : )

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