Another Place in Time by Various Authors

4.5 STARS

There are 6 stories in this historical anthology and every one of them is a winner.

Office Romance by Tamara Allen
Introducing Mr. Winterbourne by Joanna Chambers
The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh by KJ Charles
Unfair in Love and War by Kaje Harper
Carousel by Jordan L. Hawk
Deliverance by Aleksandr Voinov

The stories take place in different historical eras and each one is a little gem that I can totally recommend. WW2, Regency, Victorian, The Crusades... each story features terrific characters, actual plots, sexy and romantic interludes, real emotions, laughter and tears. I mean they have everything you'd want in a historical romance no matter the era. I'm not one for short stories usually. I find many of them lacking substance. Not these!

They were all so, so good, but if you were to demand that I choose a favourite, I'd have to say The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh by KJ Charles. The heat in this story, the intensity of the two characters in their dealings with each other, the moments of humour and the moments of sadness... man... it was really really really good. :)

I should add that the only author I'd not read before was Joanna Chambers and she's now on my Get More Books By This Author list. I have her Provoked in my TBR pile.

So if you want to check out some historical m/m romance, this is a terrific place to start! It's also a must-read for those that are already loving the genre. :)

Blue Skies by Tamara Allen

3.5 STARS

Time travel stories usually make me cross my eyes more than once as I try to wrap my head around all the 'what if's and paradoxes that come up. Blue Skies was no different but be that as it may, I still enjoyed it a lot.

I picked Blue Skies up because it was getting a decent bit of buzz in the Romance portion of my Twitter feed. It was recced as a time travel romance with a prominently featured second couple that was m/m. I had read a couple of the author's short stories and quite enjoyed them, so, I picked up the book. When I finally got around to reading it this week, imagine my surprise to find out it wasn't quite as advertised! *LOL*

I would describe Blue Skies as a time travel adventure with a romantic secondary plot. Or plots. Because there ARE two couples. I think that maybe the intention was to give both couples equal time, but in my opinion, I think the m/m couple got more attention and page time. And the romances aren't really the main story here. It's the time travelling.

I liked the characters a lot. Especially Neil, the present day high school teacher. I liked his snarky grumpiness. :)

Now, be warned, there is not a lot of sex in the book and what there is of it is rather mild. Mind you, the author does a lovely job with the kisses. So if you're in the mood for a time travelling adventure with a dash or two of romance thrown in the mix, you could do far worse than Blue Skies.

If It Ain't Love by Tamara Allen

3.5 STARS

3.5 stars because Goodreads has a Stupid Rating System.

This was a good little love story, set in the early days of the Depression. I loved the two main characters, Whit and Peter. Up until we actually find out about Peter's 'situation', I was totally on the wrong track about who he was. :) 

The writing is really lovely, something many m/m romances are lacking. It's almost as if authors are afraid to use a beautiful turn of phrase for something masculine. The love scenes are exactly that, love scenes as opposed to sex scenes; nothing graphic but still sexy and sweet as perfectly fits the atmosphere of the story. And I loved the bit about the chair. :)