We’re touring April release, Brake Me by Athena & Marluxia Bliss. Guaranteed to rev engines and curl toes!
Brake Me
Release Date: April 24, 2026
Genre: Very Spicy MM Paranormal Romance
Possessive Love Interest
Only One Who Understands Me
Slow Burn to Obsession
Forbidden Love
Found Family (Garage Edition)
Touch-Starved Meets Touch-Hungry
Machine With A Soul
Love from the first Vroom
“Fucking Fox was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The shadows of the car wrapped around me, through me, surrounding every nerve with heat and motion.
I knew how to drive him, and Fox clearly knew how to drive me crazy.”
Buying a 1992 Mustang was a stupid idea, and Al knew it, but he had loved that car from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on him. He’d never expected that the car would love him back, until a dark, shadowy figure appeared in the passenger seat beside him, eager to show Al his gratitude. Al’s new car, Fox is a jealous, possessive, powerful machine that adores his new owner and will happily distract Al from his driving, but when the two are forced apart, both will have to make sacrifices before they can be reunited.
Please be sure to read the content warning carefully!
We’re touring April release, Brake Me by Athena & Marluxia Bliss. Guaranteed to rev engines and curl toes!
Brake Me
Release Date: April 24, 2026
Genre: Very Spicy MM Paranormal Romance
Possessive Love Interest
Only One Who Understands Me
Slow Burn to Obsession
Forbidden Love
Found Family (Garage Edition)
Touch-Starved Meets Touch-Hungry
Machine With A Soul
Love from the first Vroom
“Fucking Fox was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The shadows of the car wrapped around me, through me, surrounding every nerve with heat and motion.
I knew how to drive him, and Fox clearly knew how to drive me crazy.”
Buying a 1992 Mustang was a stupid idea, and Al knew it, but he had loved that car from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on him. He’d never expected that the car would love him back, until a dark, shadowy figure appeared in the passenger seat beside him, eager to show Al his gratitude. Al’s new car, Fox is a jealous, possessive, powerful machine that adores his new owner and will happily distract Al from his driving, but when the two are forced apart, both will have to make sacrifices before they can be reunited.
Please be sure to read the content warning carefully!
A wandering black hole is approaching Earth, and soon, everything will be gone. For husbands Don and Rodney, forty years of marriage suddenly feels like no time at all.
One last road trip. One final chance to say goodbye.
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea comes a story about what we owe the people we love when time runs out. Don and Rodney are in a race against the clock, driving from Maine to Washington State to settle unfinished business before the sky breaks.
Is it enough to burn bright, even if nothing remains of the ashes?
Along the way, they encounter a world choosing how to spend its final moments―from impromptu weddings and bright bonfires to those simply sharing a final meal. Under a kaleidoscope sky and a cracked moon, Don and Rodney must look back on a lifetime of highs and lows and ask the ultimate question: was our best good enough?
A bittersweet, life-affirming masterpiece about love, legacy, and the beauty of a life well-lived.
My thoughts: As the end of the world approaches, married couple Don and Rodney decide to carry out a promise they made to someone they both loved. They hope there’s enough time to carry out this final journey, driving from their home in Maine across the country to Washington state.
It’s not a long book, but it is a bittersweet one as Don and Rodney encounter people all trying to get through the last week before the world ends in their own ways. As they go, the two remember their long years together, some happy, some full of pain. They still have a great love and affection for one another, and there’s no one else they’d rather spend the end of the world together.
Some of the people they meet are struggling with the future, others are embracing their last few days, getting married, spending it with their loved ones (human or otherwise). It’s quite a heartwarming, life affirming book, despite the impending apocalypse.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
“Fucking Fox was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The shadows of the car wrapped around me, through me, surrounding every nerve with heat and motion.
I knew how to drive him, and Fox clearly knew how to drive me crazy.”
Buying a 1992 Mustang was a stupid idea, and Al knew it, but he had loved that car from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on him. He’d never expected that the car would love him back, until a dark, shadowy figure appeared in the passenger seat beside him, eager to show Al his gratitude. Al’s new car, Fox is a jealous, possessive, powerful machine that adores his new owner and will happily distract Al from his driving, but when the two are forced apart, both will have to make sacrifices before they can be reunited.
My thoughts: Ummmm…. so yeah, he does have sex with the spirit of the car but not the actual physical car, which I think is useful to know. Clearly inspired by Stephen King’s Christine (the sentient car bit but not murdering bit), but with sexy times in the driver and passenger seats, and then some.
This novella is a bit strange, but I can see that it might appeal to some. There’s some fantasy elements, and the back story could do with more explaining as it was interesting but the focus was on the relationship between Fox (the car) and Al.
I thought it was an interesting premise, and bits of it were quite funny, especially the antagonistic friendship between Al and Lui, but I don’t fully get the attraction between a man and his car – probably because I don’t drive, but then I also think the woman who married the Eiffel Tower is a bit strange.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all opinions remain my own.
A mesmerising historical novel, I Am You is a meditation on gender, an ode to artistic creation, and an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned painter Maria van Oosterwijck during the Dutch Golden Age.
At eight years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel family. When their daughter Maria sees through Gerta’s ruse, she insists Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, maledominated art world.
While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry, until the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything.
Victoria Redel is a first-generation American poet and novelist. Her work has been widely anthologized, awarded, and translated in ten languages. Her debut novel, Loverboy (2001) was adapted for feature film directed by Kevin Bacon. Redel’s short stories, poetry and essays have appeared in Granta, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Bomb, One Story, Salmagundi, O and NOON. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment forthe Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center. Victoria is a professor in the graduate and undergraduate Creative Writing programs at Sarah Lawrence College.
My thoughts: I actually found this a very sad book in many ways, Gerta is often unhappy and mistreated by her mistress Maria, who mocks her in public and is hot and cold with her in private.
The two women live a strange life, Maria is feted by society for her artworks but the men of the art world are dismissive of her talent, because she’s not a man, while also hoping to make her their wife or mistress.
She and Gerta become a couple, but must keep it secret from everyone. And as Gerta learns to paint and assist Maria, who suffers from what I think is Parkinson’s, unable to use her hands unless the tremors she suffers become apparent, their relationship changes.
Gerta narrates the story, and we see her pain and misery first hand. From being forced to dress and behave like a boy, to being raped by Maria’s horrible nephew. She finds little love in her life, often rejected by Maria, who toys with her and ultimately she is forced to make a decision that will affect them both.
Powerful, compelling and fascinating, this story of women in a man’s world, creative and cruel (Maria) and incredibly loving (Greta) is moving and intriguing, recreating a vanished world in Amsterdam.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re celebrating the release of dark, slow-burn romance, Only the Small Bones this week!
Only the Small Bones (Slow Burns & Tragic Beginings #1) Release Date: February 24, 2026 Genre: Dark MM Romance
• Non-verbal MC
• MC With Touch Aversion
• Human Trafficking Survivor
• Broken Boys
• Mental Health Rep
• Interracial Couple
• Slow Burn
• Delicious Tension
• Text Exchanges
• Hurt/Comfort
• Cameos from Infidelity cast members
As the founder of Freedom Fighters, famed music composer, William Mayes, is often the first port of call when the FBI needs assistance with human trafficking victims.
After receiving such a call one night, William abandons everything to catch the next flight home. Arriving at Manhattan Memorial, he finds a beautiful young man restrained to a gurney. His eyes are wild with fear, and blood stains his skin. No one has been successful in getting him to speak.
When even he can’t get the young man to cooperate, William does something he may later come to regret—he extends an invite to his home.
The young man is non-verbal, angry, and at times openly hateful. All of which gives him control over William’s emotions.
William slowly begins to spiral from his own struggles with his tormented past. His nightmares return, sleep becomes a lost cause, and the dark voices in his head are out for blood.
Amid their co-dependent isolation, William’s feelings evolve. Lines are blurred and then crossed altogether as they start down a path riddled with secrets and lies of omission.
The only thing that can set them both free is the truth. But maybe some things are better left buried. Because if the ugliest parts of William are ever unearthed, no one will be spared.
Only the Small Bones is an MM romance, and book 1 in the standalone series Slow Burns & Tragic Beginnings. This story features a non-verbal MC with touch aversion, and mental health representation.
Only the Small Bones is book 1 in the Slow Burns & Tragic Beginnings series. See below for a list of what to expect. As always, I encourage readers to put their safety above their curiosity.
• Non-verbal main character • Main character with touch aversion • Interracial couple • Human trafficking of adults and children. • Flashbacks involving the abuse they face at the hands of their traffickers (i.e. being drugged, bound, and transported). • Discussions involving cutting, sexual assault, physical and emotional abuse. • Depression representation • Off-page death of a parent, grandparents, and trafficking victims. • Survivor’s guilt. • Cameos from Infidelity cast members
We’re thrilled to present the cover for Swallowed by Night, a MM vampire romance by Jeremey Harrison!
Swallowed by Night
Genre: MM Vampire Dystopian Romance
Expected Release Date: April 14, 2026
Enemies to Lovers
Why Choose
Chosen One
Forbidden Love
Dystopian
Love Triangle
Golden Retriever Boyfriend Energy
“Touch Him and 💀”
In a world ravaged by war and a plague that threatened to end humankind,
Deliverance came with an unexpected consequence:
Vampires.
Vincent Asposito lives a life of luxury, locked in a gilded cage by his father. Longing to break free, Vinny devises a daring plan to sneak out, only to have his first taste of freedom end in being kidnapped by Jude, the human son of the resistance leader.
On the surface, Jude embodies everything Vincent should despise: a sworn enemy determined to destroy the only world he knows, yet he can’t help his attraction to the infuriatingly handsome man. Forced into a reluctant alliance, the two embark on a risky mission that could tip the scales of war between humans and vampires.
As their bond deepens, dangerous revelations come to light, forcing Vincent to decide where his loyalties lie—and who he’s willing to sacrifice.
Triggers – Sexual Content, Foul Language, Alcohol Use, Abduction, Use of Weapons (guns, knives, bombs), Descriptions of Blood, Injury, and Violence, Manipulation and Gaslighting, Death
When Everything Was Fresh & Green is An LGBTQ+ urban fantasy novel with magic, found family, an unlikely hero, and a touch of romance!
When Everything Was Fresh and Green
Expected Release Date: May 5, 2025
Genre: Urban Fantasy (+ LGBTQ)
Found Family
Band of Heroes (AKA Queeroes)
A Prophecy (Kinda, sorta, maybe)
Unlikely Hero (middle-aged mama)
Good vs Evil (But make it messy and grey)
Sapphic Romance (No spice
Magic is real. And so is anti-magic.
When Tessa, a single foster mom, is tasked with the care of Astrid, an abandoned teen witch, the mundane world as she knew it disappears. Discovering secrets about her lost foster child Theo, Tessa follows Astrid and her aunt, a fabulous witch named Cece, to a magical house. There, she joins the ranks of Magix, including a burly siren, a snake-charming ogress, a morbid little vampire, a pair of wild werewolf toddlers, and a coven of ice fairies, all of whom are in hiding from a murderous organization hell-bent on destroying the magical and non-magical worlds alike.
Interwoven with Tessa’s journey is the story of three friends: Val, Tish, and Gunner. Letters between the three outline their work to prevent a looming climate crisis at all costs. As their story collides with Tessa’s, it becomes clear that Tessa, Astrid, Cece, and even sweet Theo are mixed up in something far more sinister than they realized. Tessa must set aside her disbelief, fear, grief, self-doubt, and even her growing infatuation with Cece to join Astrid on a journey to find her family, finding her own family and the truth about herself along the way.
We’re proud to present the cover for To Make and to Mark by Amy Crook, the final book in The Future of Magic series!
To Make and to Mark (The Future of Magic Book 3)
Expected Release Date: January 20, 2026
Genre: Cozy Fantasy/ LGBTQ+
Low stakes
Fantasy romance
M/NB romance
Genderqueer character
Open-door spice
Cozy magic
Fraud
Will make you hungry and crave tea
HEA and extended denouement
Slice of life
Autumn winds blow trouble into Arthur and Jade’s cozy, magical life for this third book in The Future of Magic series.
Arthur and his former apprentice, Ariadne, run the apothecary shop in the witch’s district of United London. Arthur also makes bespoke teas for an exclusive clientele.
Jade is Arthur’s romantic partner, creating magical tattoos for the residents of the district and beyond. Jade also constructs charms for Arthur’s customers to make their lives easier.
Arthur’s disreputable relatives emerge from his abandoned past, bringing false healing and shady shenanigans to the community he and his found family have worked so hard to strengthen.
We love a good cozy fantasy and we highly recommend you check out Diffidence and the Rift by Amy Crook! You can now find it at your favorite retailer!
Diffidence and the Rift
Release Date: May 29, 2025
Genre: Cozy Fantasy/ MM Romance
MM romance
Half-orc/human
Crushes to lovers
Open-door spice
Found family
Unusual magic
Fiber arts
Lots of tea, this book will make you hungry
Diffidence Obedience Atonement Smythe is a grad student who prefers to never use his full name. Ever. He’s finishing a Ph.D. in Extemporaneous Magic, and his research project for his dissertation is closing the Rift between worlds that he accidentally opened when he was thirteen. Obviously, caffeine is an important part of his life.
Ergi Thusol-Von Klempt is a half-orc who works in the infamous Goblin Market, selling magical pastries to those who need them – or, in Diff’s case, just want them. He’s got bubblegum-pink hair, lovely lilac skin, and a smile like sunshine, at least if you ask Diff. Ergi is intrigued by his frazzled, but handsome, frequent customer.
The Goblin Market is a magical space that anyone can find if they truly need it, and most people visit once or twice if at all. Diff is there several times a week as he untangles the layered mysteries of the Rift, and has had years to develop his crush on Ergi.
In this cozy urban fantasy, Diff and Ergi find some solutions to life’s problems in the Market, along with the courage to talk to each other.
Diff might even find a future beyond the Rift that has consumed over a decade of his life.
ramblingmads 