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Ben Brock

B. A. Brock has lived most of his life in the Pacific Northwest. He graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in 2007 at Portland State University--which he mostly uses to contemplate how we can achieve a civilization more closely aligned with Star Trek. When not writing, Brock spends his time reading/reviewing novels, training for marathons, and bemoaning the fact that the world has yet to make a decent gluten free donut.

“Good Bones” by Kim Fielding

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Genre: MM Paranormal Romance Length: Novel   Dylan Warner is an architect; fairly together, responsible, and usually not that reckless. However, one night he meets a guy, fools around, and then that guy turns into a wolf, bites him, and takes off. Next month—oops—Dylan’s a werewolf too. Shit. Dylan is also a responsible member of society, so instead of hanging around in the city of Portland and endangering tons of people, he moves off into the Oregon country so that he can’t hurt anyone when he goes beastie. He gets points for that. I appreciated the usual jokes about Portlanders: … Read more

“The Queen of Lies” by Michael J. Bode

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Genre: LGBTQ+ Epic Fantasy Length: Novel   The story in The Queen of Lies is incredibly complex and detailed, as an epic fantasy should be, and we have several wonderful point of views to explore. There’s Maddox, the arcane student who fucks up his exams and accidentally winds up immortal—at first no one is certain whether they should praise him or condemn him. There’s Jessa, heiress to the throne of a long line of storm-callers. Her mother is conniving and maniacal (I may be downplaying the crazy part). And there are Heath and Sword, who are essentially mercenaries; Heath is … Read more

“Song of Oestend” By Marie Sexton

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Genre: MM Fantasy Romance Length: Novel Song of Oestend takes place in an alternate reality and resembles the Old West, but with some odd technologies, ancient mysticism, and ghosts thrown in for fun. I would feel comfortable labeling it as steampunk, paranormal, or fantasy, but I labeled it as fantasy because both steampunk and paranormal fit into that genre. Aren Montrell is a social leper from the city, and to get away from it all, he travels to Oestend for a job as a bookkeeper. Of all the cities he could have chosen, I honestly have no idea why he … Read more

“Family of Lies: Sebastian” by Sam Argent

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Genre: MM Fantasy Romance Length: Novel Sebastian Orwell is the son of a washed-up wizard, but when he saves the crown prince, Turren, from an assassination attempt, he unravels a plot that will change everything. Turren isn’t the only one the assassins were after, and Sebastian has to defend the lives and secrets of his entire family, and fight to keep his own secrets safe from exposure. Plots, twisted in plots, twisted in plots. Needless to say, the plot of Family of Lies was fantastic. The entire Orwell family was loaded with secrets, and Argent leaked them out to us … Read more

“Reawakening” by Amy Rae Durreson

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Genre: MM Fantasy Romance Length: Novel   Reawakening is a story about a dragon, Tarn, who wakes up after hundreds of years of hibernation. He discovers that his hoard—family—have all moved on or are dead. Lonely, he leaves his mountain home in search of civilization, and finds himself in the desert, where he meets a rather feisty air spirit, Gard. He gets kicked out of the desert (because who wants a dragon hanging around?—lol) and he decides to try again with the air spirit in his human form. Only when Tarn arrives in the desert by caravan, he can’t find … Read more

“Bone Rider” by J. Fally

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Genre: MM Urban Science Fiction Length: Novel   WHEN THE main characters in a novel are a cowboy, a Russian, and an alien, you know it’s going to be awesome. McClane is a highly sophisticated piece of alien bionic technology, called “bone riders”, and is self aware. In order to save himself from what he feels will be his destruction, he crash lands his spaceship on Earth, and invades a truck driver’s body to stay safe. Riley Cooper is on the run from his mob boyfriend–ex boyfriend–and he really didn’t need another complication in his life. But McClane shows up … Read more

“Hell & High Water” by Charlie Cochet

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Genre: MM Urban Paranormal Romance Length: Novel   “Hell & High Water” by Charlie Cochet is about a law enforcement agent, Dex, who gets transferred to a specialized unit that deals with Human/Therian affairs, T.H.I.R.D.S. Therians are a subspecies of human that were created accidentally through a vaccine, and because of general prejudice, a task force was developed to ensure their rights. In the beginning of the novel, Dex’s boyfriend, who wasn’t good for him, broke up with him; and his boss, who didn’t really support him, forced him to leave his current job. Dex gets transferred on a team … Read more

“Ash and Echoes” by August Li

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Ash and Echoes is a Romantic Fantasy Epic. I don’t have the opportunity to read many of those, and I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like this work, but if I had to pick something similar, the closest I can think to compare it to is Deckard’s Baal’s Heart trilogy or The Devil’s Fire by Sara Bell. Baal’s Heart is probably the most similar since it was also a trilogy and menage. The power of three! Our main character, Yarroway L’Estrella, is a bit of an odd ball (my favorite). Not only is he a magic user–something I interpreted … Read more

“Mnevermind” Trilogy by Jordan Castillo Price

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Here’s my review of the first book in the trilogy: This is an urban science fiction story, about a man named Daniel, who works in a memory modification adventure agency, kind of like in Total Recall, but cooler—because Daniel’s gay. Yes, gayness makes everything cooler. The plot revolves around a glitch Daniel’s experiencing in one of his “love programs”—there are many hilarious moments concerning this plotline. I don’t get to read a lot of humorous MM, but JCP is a master of the dry wit. The story takes on an interesting dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream quality, reminding me of Inception. In some moments … Read more

“Greenwode” by J. Tullos Hennig

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To all you historical fantasy fans–check this out. The flavor of Greenwode hit me as a historical, but there’s a bit of magic, and it’s loosely based off of the legend of Robin Hood.  Loosely.  Otherwise, the language, the setting, and the voice was all very Old English.  Hennig did a lot of research, and has a section in the back of the book devoted to how much she did. I don’t read a lot of historicals, but I enjoyed this one.  The magic kept things interesting for me, and the language was not something I was used to, therefore … Read more