Gabriel by RK Staunton

Gabriel Ingram is running from his past. It’s common knowledge at the college where he teaches that he’s a former CIA technical analyst, but no one knows the things he really did—or about the rage and bloodlust that are his constant companions. He’s holding on to his normal life with both hands, but he knows someday he’ll lose his grip.

Lucas Craig is a social worker studying to become a family therapist. For reasons Lucas can’t understand, the normally reclusive Professor Ingram takes an interest in him, and Lucas secretly hopes their friendship might become more.

Then Eric, Lucas’s roommate, disappears. Lucas is frantic. The police are no help. With nowhere else to turn, Lucas begs Gabriel for his expertise.

What starts as a simple errand to help a friend becomes a journey into a violent world of gangs and human trafficking—one that will bring Gabriel face-to-face with the forces intent on stealing his soul. But Lucas might be the one who can save him—if Gabriel can get them out alive.

Book 5
Buy Links

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

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆
M/M Romance
Triggers: Sex trafficking

This is the first book that I've read in this series.

This book was somewhat strange for me. It seemed pieced together. The two main characters started out with small meet ups, which I found very sweet. Gabriel was drawn to Lucas, but he didn't really know why.

Lucas is a hardworking, somewhat scattered student and social worker. He's trying very hard to better the world. He finds Gabriel irresistible, but Gabriel's reputation is of a somewhat hard ass professor.

The two main characters, I didn't think, had very much chemistry. I was more interested in Moose, Gabriel's friend. Also, the teenager that Lucas was working with was just left behind. There could have been more follow-up.

Finally, the actual mystery in this story was well developed, but it just lacked cohesiveness.

RK STAUNTON rebelled against having a Christmas birthday in favor of making an unexpected debut in early fall instead, and she’s been doing the unexpected ever since. This tendency has resulted in many adventures, including a ten-year stint as a guide in that strange urban jungle called middle school. While entertaining, that expedition ultimately proved too harrowing. After finally making her escape, she turned to a quieter life masquerading as a crazy cat lady living in a small town in the southeastern US.

RK has lived with a menagerie of characters inside her head for as long as she can remember. In a desperate bid to preserve her sanity, she has begun to transcribe the tales they tell her. This endeavor has proven to be fun, occasionally profitable, and cheaper than therapy. It has also fueled raging addictions to caffeine and chocolate on top of her lifelong addiction to books, but everyone is entitled to a vice or three, right?

On the rare occasions when the characters release RK from her duties as scribe, she enjoys chasing dragonflies and volunteering with orphan care charities. RK considers the Internet her second home. She can often be hanging out there at one of her many favorite haunts.

Connect with RK

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Gabriel (Order of the Black Knights #5) by RK Staunton to read and review.

Vespar by Thianna Durston

Special-ops-turned-professional-killer Vespar McKauley is hired to take out Marcolm Rogers, son of his employer’s worst enemy. But Marc isn’t like any hit he’s ever done. He’s just twenty-one, he goes to a private university studying English Lit, and for fun, he plays computer games with his friends. No drugs, no partying, no crime. The day Vespar bumps into Marc and looks into his azure eyes, the world drops out from under him.

With his father in the Chicago crime syndicate, Marc and his mom have stayed out of the limelight, hiding from those who might harm them. He figures he’s safe at a small liberal arts university, all the way across the country. But midway through his senior year, he feels eyes on him and the shadows encroaching. Just as he’s about to run, he meets Vespar and experiences an instant attraction. When Vespar tells him he’s in danger and offers to protect him, Marc wants to believe him. But he’s been hunted before, and this time he isn’t sure he’ll get away. Especially when he finds out he is Vespar’s target.

Book 3
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

Sarah – ☆☆☆
This is classic cheesy romance. The old-soul/ancient curse concept gives this story the feel of a paranormal romance even though both characters are actually young humans. The hitman falling for his mark is a familiar trope but Vespar’s curse gives it an original twist.

Marcolm is a college kid who also happens to be on the run from his mobster family. Vespar is given the contract on his life.

We learn a great deal about Marcolm, but he didn’t ever feel completely real to me. He sounds too old to be a college kid and he feels too clueless for someone who has spent his life on the run. We learn very little about Vespar in his current life and he remains a vague Alpha male throughout the story. He does have lots of pretty muscles and cool skills. In the film version, he’d be played by a monosyllabic Arnold or a confused looking Jean-Claude Van Damme.

This is a m/m romance but it doesn’t always read like a relationship between two men. Marcolm is very much a young innocent in distress and Vespar is the conflicted Alpha male who comes to his rescue. I prefer more balanced couples in my romance and to me, this relationship felt very dated as the characters adhered to slightly offensive traditional gender roles.

Some of the sex scenes in this story are completely cringeworthy. Earnest confessions, adorable pet names, and a graphic step-by-step guide to gay sex just didn’t work for me. These two didn’t feel like men and they didn’t sound like a college kid and a hit man. There were a few moments of banter – their arguments over fast food felt somewhat realistic but there were too many breathy sighs and angst filled musings for me.

I enjoyed the adventure and suspense elements of this story but I struggled with the characters and the romance. The concept for the series still interests me and I’m curious to see where this series goes next.

THIANNA DURSTON is a writer by day and supernova by night. Or at least that’s what the faeries tell her. And who is she to deny those pesky *cough* lovely little creatures?

She lives in the Pacific Northwest, though her heart belongs elsewhere. In the meantime, until she can return to the place she calls home, she happily lives in a city that still thinks it’s a small town. Thankfully, it has given her muse lots of amusing places to start a story.

Connect with Thianna

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Google+  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Vespar (Order of the Black Knights #3) by Thianna Durston to read and review.