The Magpie Lord: A Charm of Magpies Book 1, KJ Charles

I adore this story.  I've read it probably five times and feel the series fits the genre, the period, and the two men are given adequate justice in the romance, the sexual, and the intrigue department.  This book is worth devouring as the magic is fascinating as is the whole structure surrounding the use of magic.  Stephen is wonderfully insecure and yet self-assured and Lucien is his match in fierceness and determination.  They make a wonderful pair and I find myself coming back to this series again and again when I want a detailed yet fast-paced story filled with magic, frustration, and sexy MM love.

Lord Crane is arrogant, lofty, frustratingly dominant, and yet fantastic.  There's something in him that drew me in right away and his "eff you, London" attitude was refreshing as he wasn't a repressed aristocratic "gentleman".  Stephen is equally frustrating except in a very different way.  Their relationship will absolutely be difficult because where Lucien has all the "freedom" afforded him by money, options, and societal respect due to his title, Stephen has nothing but his spit and pride.  They're an awesome match in far more than the bedroom, but it'll take quite a while and a journey to get them onto the same page and to get Stephen willing to be all in with Lucien.

Being a practitioner is no easy thing because there's a whole hierarchy and in-fighting and justice issue piling up and Stephen is bearing an incredible weight under it all.  And to top it all off with a request to help a man with the name and face of his family's tormentor and you've got a virtually unbearable load on his incredibly slight shoulders.  But when they find themselves in the country and at the mercy of some very evil warlocks, we get a ton of excitement, utterly intriguing magic use, and a powerful alliance.  The action, once it gets to the big confrontation, is both disturbing and awesome.  It moves so quickly that you almost fight to slow down to catch every word, every nuance, every bit so you're not lost.  Much of it comes back in the third story of the series, so my caution is to get caught up in the pacing, but be careful in its reading.

I can't find anything I don't love in the story.  While not something I expected to love because sometimes historical MM romances can be a bit dodgy, this fit nearly every bill and left me both reeling and swooning.  Such an awesome read.

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A lord in danger. A magician in turmoil. A snowball in hell.

Exiled to China for twenty years, Lucien Vaudrey never planned to return to England. But with the mysterious deaths of his father and brother, it seems the new Lord Crane has inherited an earldom. He’s also inherited his family’s enemies. He needs magical assistance, fast. He doesn't expect it to turn up angry.

Magician Stephen Day has good reason to hate Crane’s family. Unfortunately, it’s his job to deal with supernatural threats. Besides, the earl is unlike any aristocrat he’s ever met, with the tattoos, the attitude... and the way Crane seems determined to get him into bed. That’s definitely unusual.

Soon Stephen is falling hard for the worst possible man, at the worst possible time. But Crane’s dangerous appeal isn't the only thing rendering Stephen powerless. Evil pervades the house, a web of plots is closing round Crane, and if Stephen can’t find a way through it—they’re both going to die.

Project Hero, Briar Prescott

Dang, this was such a cute story!!  It definitely follows the formula for the tropes included so the overall story is lighter, fluffy, and has a fair bit of steam to make it all the better.  There is virtually no angst and the Big Mis is more about reconciling the beginning goals with the feelings for someone different which causes a little heartache, but nothing major and it's easily rectified.  The ending was totally sweet and really worked for both characters as individuals and as a couple.  And with an epilogue that brought them through the years to a truly happily ever after, I was gone.

Andy rambles, is incredibly intelligent, awkward, and more honest than anyone could anticipate, and absolutely adorable.  He's misguided, but it's clear that he doesn't dwell in denial at all and for that I'm grateful.  There are moments where his initial intention wars with his newfound feelings, which is understandable, but the distance that precedes the confessions of feels is on Law rather than Andy.

Law is sweet and earnest and despite his struggles with his family, he's not angst-ridden and doesn't let it carry over into what's growing between him and Andy.  I like that he knows what he wants for his life and even if he's reluctant to come clean to his parents it's not one of those conflicts that make the story overly complicated or overly dramatic.  It's handled off page but revisited in the epilogue in a satisfactory way.

While Falcon was the best friend and original love interest, he wasn't around much and it was pretty telling that their relationship was changing and had always been imbalanced.  I really had zero interest in Falcon right from the start and was glad he didn't take up very much page time.

Ultimately it's all about the fluff, the awkwardness, the acceptance of everything you are and the person that sees it all and wants it all.  I liked both guys and thought they were really well-matched.  The story was just the right kind of sweet that I needed for a quick pick-me-up.

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What if you accidentally fell in love with the right guy?
Andy:
If my life was a movie, I would be the sidekick. Not an especially promising start when my plan is to finally let my best friend know I have a crush on him. No worries, though. I have a plan. I just need a complete makeover. Change everything about myself so that when Falcon returns from his summer vacation, he can finally see I’m the love of his life. I totally know what I’m doing here.
Well, not really.
If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn’t look like every nerd cliché wrapped into one awkward package.
In short, I’m screwed.
But then Law Anderson enters the picture…

Law:
It’s all very simple. I need somebody to tutor my hockey team, and Andy needs somebody to help him with his crush. Sounds like a match made in heaven.
Only the more time I spend with Andy, the more I like this quirky guy who makes me laugh, and pretty soon I’m the one who’s tutoring Andy in way more than we initially agreed upon.
It’s fine.
I have it all under control.
But as weeks pass and the chemistry between us turns explosive, I’m starting to think that I might be in way over my head with Andy.
If only I could make Andy realize that he doesn’t need to change himself for love. If only I could make Andy see that he just needs to be with somebody who has considered him perfect all along…

Reveal: Men of Hidden Creek Season 4 Book 4, HJ Welch

Whenever a geek scores a jock, or in this case a fireman, I just about melt.  There's a lot to unpack in Jason Miller's view of self-worth, but because Channing is patient, sweet, and kinda oblivious, they create a lot of magic together.  Reveal gives us a ton of my favorite tropes (ugly duckling, opposites attract, fake relationships...), an antagonist that actually sees his karmic return gift, a bit of danger, and a whole lot of tenderness and first time steam.

What I really appreciated about this story was the "love yourself first" concept.  Jason has spent his entire life trying to fit in with his peers or to just blend into the background.  His one bit of self-acceptance was when he got to live out his geeky imagination back in the day with a couple childhood friends.  There's a whole lot of "real man" talk that's pretty deplorable as well as over-the-top and because Jason is incredibly vulnerable he gets sucked into those ridiculous ideas of societal norms.  He has a big "A-ha!" moment in the salon where he gets completely schooled by his friends.  It brought to the forefront that his ideas about the LGBTQ+ community around him are just as hurtful as his ideas about himself.  It was a toxic mix of projecting his insecurities on the community at large as well as internalizing all the hate that can come from the ignorant masses.

I won't say that a few outfits, a haircut, some makeup, and a killer pair of boots will fix all the years of internalizing all the damaging rhetoric, but it can definitely give you the boost to see yourself beyond the box you've shoved yourself into.  For Jason, it gives him a glimpse through other people's eyes that they're suddenly seeing a glimmer of confidence and personal expression that was completely missing before.  It's a stepping stone to seeing himself as more.  When he was in charge of his own look, he was still too deep into the workplace abuse he'd endured to embrace any real change.  He needed the help of friends who saw the real him.

As for the relationship, it was mainly sweetness, exploration, and subtle revelations with a small period of them figuring their individual stuff out enough to realize they wanted to be together.  There was no real conflict there and certainly no real angst regarding sexual inclinations on Channing's part.  I'm not a fan of one character making decisions for the other, especially in regards to their own wants, needs, and desires, and Jason really fell prey to that.  And with the karmic justice, it was well-earned by the slightly cliched bully and I especially loved the reckoning coming from the spouse.  She, along with quite a few other side characters, gave a good base for Jason and Channing to find their way both alone and together.  I kept thinking about how I want friends like these ones...Hidden Creek gets all the good ones.

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“I wish this were real with you.”

Geeky Jason Miller has never really been with a man, and his bullying colleagues at NASA know it. But when an innocent white lie gets out of hand, Jason never would have guessed his gorgeous-but-straight childhood friend would leap to his rescue.

Firefighter Channing Forster saves people every day, so when protecting his former next-door neighbor turns into faking a relationship for a work getaway, he doesn’t hesitate. As the weekend goes on, though, Channing starts to think that he doesn’t just see cute Jason Miller as a buddy anymore.

Are Channing’s feelings for Jason real enough that he could be his first? Jason needs to accept his true self before he can love another. But when his colleagues and boss discover his many secrets, will he lose everything forever, including Channing?