New Release: His Highland Wolf, by Kailin Morgan

There's two things I'm a complete book whore over: wolves and men in kilts. 

His Highland Wolf looks like it's pulling out all of the punches on that score. This novella comes from a Scottish lass, Ms. Kailin Morgan, who knows her Scottish history and tradition. And for a sneak look under the kilt-filled cover, there's a blurb and extract below.
 
There's also a chance to win a free copy over at Forbidden Fiction, where an interview is taking place with Ms. Morgan: Kailin Morgan Interview. Just leave a comment over there to be in with a chance of winning.

 Title: His Highland Wolf
Author: Kailin Morgan
Length: Novella
Genre: M/M Supernatural, Romance,  Historical, Paranormal.
Buy link: His Highland Wolf 
                 Amazon.com: His Highland Wolf 
Author link: Kailin Morgan
Blurb:

Euan, second son of an outcast Highland chieftain, was poaching deer rather than face starvation when a pack of werewolves hunted him down. After pledging his fealty to the pack, Euan discovered his new family was in danger from the political forces aligned against them. While trying to protect the pack, Euan caught a runaway, Tristan, who had escaped him once before. Tristan is carrying a secret that could save or damn them all, but he is also going to change Euan’s life in less expected ways.

 Extract:

Euan remained steady as the man awoke. The man’s body went instantly still as he registered the press of steel against the tender skin of his throat. His eyes jerked open and Euan watched his gaze find him, knowing that all his captive would see was the broad sweep of Euan’s shoulders against the soft glow of the dawn sky. Euan stifled a smile as he watched the other man try to raise his hands as much as he could even as he was trapped beneath the tree and Euan’s blade.
      Euan backed up slowly, allowing his captive to slide his body from under the tree. Euan kept the sharp steel blade pressed against the stranger’s throat, dissuading him from any thoughts of escape. He blinked as the man slipped his legs out, and couldn't stop his gaze from running down the long, lean muscles shown off by the breeches that clung lovingly to his shape. Euan realised, that once they were standing, the man would be taller than he was.
      The young man kept moving slowly across the ground, shifting around as well as sideways. It was what Euan expected him to do, moving so that the growing brightness was no longer at Euan’s back. Euan let the point of his knife bite deeper, on the very edge of drawing blood and his prisoner shuffled back, his spine colliding with the fallen trunk. His breath huffed out then stopped altogether when he finally met Euan’s cool stare.
      The sudden burst of scents from the other man made Euan want to sneeze and he fought the urge to rub at his nose. The bright spike of shock overrode the bitter smell of fear which had flooded out first, followed by a confusion of pheromones. Emotions swept across the man's face, his almond shaped eyes widening in awareness, before dropping closed as something else flickered, too swiftly for Euan to identify it. Then a soft flush coloured the young man’s cheeks, the overriding feeling becoming that of anger.
      Something niggled at the back of Euan's mind, his wolf growling for attention. He could see the other man staring in confusion as Euan turned away from him, his head tilting to one side, listening to something only he could hear.
      “Quick, on yer feet. Now!” The press of steel backed up Euan's urgent whisper and the young man struggled upright, Euan stepping back slightly to allow him to move.
      “Move. In front, quick as ye can. Dinnae think of running though; if I don't catch ye, the soldiers coming down the road surely will.”
      Euan watched as hazel eyes flickered back towards the road, then the taller man’s eyes widened in surprise as he finally picked up the faintest sounds of marching feet, the jingle of harness.
      “May I take my belongings?” he waved a hand at the bag he had been using as a pillow, the leather soft and worn with age.
      “Aye, leave no trace. Now, walk.” The point of Euan's dagger jabbed into his captive’s back and he moved forward, back into the trees, as indicated.

Review: Deliver Us by Lynn Kelling

Title: Deliver Us

Author: Lynn Kelling

Rating 5 scorchers

Genre: BDSM, Gay, Erotic Romance.

(Discliamer: I wrote this review before Ms Kelling and I had spoken and agreed to our merged-world projects.)

Okay, where to start without resulting to my initial response, which would probably get a few raised brows from anyone reading this (spoiler: there were a few swear words, a lot of shifting to adjust the heat under my collar, and a lot “phew, they’re doing what?”).

 

Hands up, I have to admit, Deliver Us touched on a few taboos. Ones that I’d not come across before. That’s a strange place to start a review, with a list of likes and unknowns, but it becomes important  when you put it in context with characters, plot, and pace.

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The two leads in this, Darrek and Gabe, especially because of their histories, they needed an explosive sexual creativity when they were together, that ability to just let go and experience, as life in general had forced them to close down in their own ways. They needed that extreme level of intensity to allow each other the ability to trust when it then came to going beyond the physical.  

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Darrek is your sensitive straight, who having being left by his ex lover is given a number to a BDSM club. Fully expecting to explore a female D/s relationship, something he has nibbled at in the past, complications over the forms he signs puts Derek under the experienced hands of Gabe, a male Dom with just the right touch to throw Darrek’s world into a heated rush of sensation overload, submission, and the even more dangerous possibility of being Gabe’s lover.

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As Dom and sub, Gabe and Darrek seem the most unlikeliest pair to meet, let alone become lovers. We have Darrek, the lonely lovable giant who stumbles away from a shattered relationship into the BDSM scene and a gay love life in general. There’s a will and determinism to try everything, to find his body’s limits and test whether he can push through them, all underwritten by his growing feelings for Gabe that seem to give him the drive for pushing his mind and body.

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Then there’s Gabe.  His troubled history has taken him into the role of a Dom, one who only ever touches, never allows to touch, and who also comes with one hell of a protective group of Doms who get just as aggressive with anyone threatening to touch Gabe (a protectiveness that I loved seeing play out).

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It seems a relationship that’s doomed to fail, either through Darrek’s and Gabe’s destructive histories, the intensity of a D/s relationship, or the protectiveness of friends. It’s certainly one relationship I was skeptical to in the beginning, the whole straight to gay/vanilla to SUB seeming a wide gap to fill.

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Yet  it’s that understanding you reach with both parties, how you can see Gabe seeming to find a certain level of  security in knowing Darrek stumbled into the gay BDSM scene, that there’s an innocence to how Darrek breaks down the barrier to Gabe that Gabe forced around himself a teen. You come to see that Darrek wouldn’t have had the same reaction with any other Dom, and that Gabe would have just gone through the motions given any other sub. It had to be Gade; it had to be Darrek for this to work.

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But, on a level of kink beyond the taboo, I loved this relationship from a language pov too. It was intriguing to see Gabe and Darrek live the D/s lifestyle, but have a narrative prose that showed equal dynamics. Equal weight is given to Darrek and Gabe in and outside of a scene, so both work together, neither really claiming linguistic dominance, and it’s that subtlety that helped cement their relationship, for me anyway.

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And a lot of that is why it has taken me so long to read this novel. There were so many things going at so many levels, I had to back away, force myself to pull out at certain points for fear of sensory overload.  Not a bad thing at all. In fact, I had to go buy a hard copy for my… collection.

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This one is a definitely a keeper and one I’ll be reading again