Ava March | The Novel Approach

Archive for the tag “Ava March”

13 Dec 2012

The Bound Series by Ava March

Seduce my mind and you can have my body. Find my soul and I’m yours forever. – Unknown

It’s official. I’ve discovered my favorite Ava March series. I guess I should qualify that with “so far”, though, since I haven’t had the chance to read everything she’s written. Yet.

Bound by Deception, Bound to Him, and Bound Forever are joined by two FREE erotic vignettes, Deliberately Unbound and Deliberately Bound, in telling the complete and perfect story of two men, friends since childhood, who eventually find a way to claim each other in spite of being bound by the reality that their love is against the law and that one of them, Lord Vincent Prescot, has some preconceived notions to overcome before he can be free to belong to Oliver.

Lord Oliver Marsden is the object of Vincent’s desire, though Vincent doesn’t realize he wants Oliver at all until he believes Oliver is a submissive whore called Jake, because Oliver has manipulated Vincent’s perceptions to make it so. What follows is the seamlessly told story of the redefinition of a relationship. It is the story of a man who must face, albeit rather reluctantly, the knowledge that not only does he prefer men but that he prefers his best friend above all others, which is not a simple task when the possibility exists that he may be obligated to marry and produce an heir to the Saye and Sele marquisate.

Their story is a delicate balance of necessary public discretion and uninhibited lust behind closed doors. It’s a balance of understanding that sexual submission does not equal a complete surrender of control in all things. It’s the story of two men falling completely and irrevocably in love and discovering that the depth of their love has also bred a terrible fear that it could be taken away at a moment’s notice, and in the effort to protect what it is they’ve found, it is a fear that nearly tears them apart.

I love historical romance, and one of the things I think Ava March does so well is romanticizing the Regency Era. Maybe there should be something a little unsatisfying about watching a couple fall in love yet not be able to live openly together and acknowledge that love freely, but there isn’t, at least not for me. Maybe it has a something to do with that love being personal and private, not sharing it with the world but holding it close and protecting it with everything you are in order for it to thrive and survive. It’s a different sort of romantic love and it challenges my contemporary notions of happily-ever-after. Whatever it is, Ms. March hooks me every time, with her skilled storytelling, strong characters, and sizzling love scenes.

If you don’t mind a little BDSM in your historical erotica, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this series.

Find these and more of Ava March’s work here:

08 Dec 2012

4 Comments

Convincing Arthur and Convincing Leopold by Ava March

When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe. ~ François de la Rochefoucauld

Did you pick up these two books when Ava March was offering them for $.99 apiece at Amazon? If not, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have been at all upset if I’d paid full price for them. Of course, I’m always happy to pad my reading list with a little historical erotica, and this is most definitely both historical and erotica, so score!

Convincing Arthur and Convincing Leopold are companion books and should definitely be read in order. Together they tell the story of two men who’d begun a friendship ten years prior, but because of fear and inaction on Leopold Thornton’s part, that friendship ended before it’d had the opportunity to become anything more.

For ten years, Arthur Barrington found himself as one half of what he thought was a whole relationship with a man. Unfortunately, Randolph Amherst wasn’t in what he thought of as a relationship as much as it was an arrangement that included sex. When Randolph announced he was engaged to be married, with the expectation that he and Arthur would continue their forbidden liaison, Arthur finally understood the truth that not only didn’t Randolph love him, but he also didn’t care when Arthur put an end to their affair.

Ten years of carousing and sleeping with any man who was ready, willing, and able, earned Leopold a reputation, a reputation that Arthur is all too familiar with, and one that Leopold is going to have a difficult time overcoming if he’s to convince Arthur he’s waited ten long and lonely years for the chance to be faithful to him and only him. Leopold has the will; now he must find the way. But first he must also work to convince himself he’s worthy of Arthur’s attention and affection.

Convincing Arthur is the book that builds up to the relationship; Convincing Leopold is the book in which they work to hang on to the new and fragile connection they’re attempting to build. And frankly, they’re making more than their fair share of mistakes along the way. Is their connection based solely on sex, or is it something that goes much deeper than their physical compatibility? Does Arthur love Leopold even a little, or has he found himself in something much like the arrangement Randolph had once had with him?

Their sexual connection and the desire they have for each other is real. But is it enough? Or is there more? They nearly miss the answers to those questions because Arthur and Leopold are afraid of both the questions and the answers.

I haven’t been disappointed by an Ava March book yet, and that streak of good luck continues with Arthur and Leopold. I must have a thing for Regency Era sex and conflict because that’s what this author seems to do best, and it’s why I’m thoroughly convinced I’ll keep coming back for more.

Find these Ava March titles and more here:

Posted in All Romance Ebooks, Ava March and tagged All Romance Ebooks, Ava March

05 Dec 2012

O Come All Ye Kinky Edited by Sarah Frantz

Let’s be naughty and save Santa a trip. – Gary Allan

Well, happy hot, hot holidays, everyone. Seems ‘tis the season to be bound and gagged and spanked and sexed up to the nines, when gifts aren’t tied up in ribbons and bows as much as folks are tied up in leather and ropes and are begging for the gifts of pain and pleasure, and all that glitters is duct tape, and everyone is giving the gifts of dominance and submission, those gifts that just keep on giving all year long.

O Come All Ye Kinky is a collection of eight BDSM themed stories:

Tree Topper by Jane Davitt
’Twas the Night by Ava March
Fireworks by Katie Porter
Candy Caning by L.A. Witt
Submissive Angel by Joey W. Hill
Open Return by Elyan Smith
Ring Out the Old and In the New by Alexa Snow
His Very Last Chance by Kim Dare

And each individual story in this anthology makes reading them all more than worth it. From a couple trying to figure out their roles in a relationship; to a woman struggling so hard to believe that she could ever come first in anyone’s life; to a transgendered man who’s coming home after a fifteen year absence, unsure of whether he still has a place there; to a man trying desperately to recover from the aftereffects of a violent crime, these stories all seem to have one underlying similarity, regardless of the author—they each center around a couple (or a threesome) who find that love is the one gift you can give away and will be more than glad when it’s returned.

Honestly, O Come All Ye Kinky has a little bit of something for everyone. Before I picked it up, I was one-hundred percent certain that four of the eight authors were going to deliver because I was already a fan of their work. After reading it, now I can say with one-hundred percent certainty that I count myself a budding fan of those new-to-me authors as well.

Whether you’re looking for historical erotica, something with an ethereal magic to it, something that will tug at your heartstrings, or something that’s just flat-out dead sexy, you’ll find it in this well written and complementary collection of short fiction. I can guarantee you there are more than noses being nipped at here, so go ahead and be naughty; add a little fetish to your holidays. You may never look at candy canes and wrapping paper and Christmas lights quite the same way again.

Buy O Come All Ye Kinky here:

Posted in Alexa Snow, Ava March, Elyan Smith, Jane Davitt, Joey W. Hill, Katie Porter, Kim Dare, L.A. Witt, Riptide Publishing and tagged Alexa Snow, Ava March, Elyan Smith, Jane Davitt, Joey W. Hill, Katie Porter, Kim Dare, L.A. Witt, Riptide Publishing, Sarah Frantz | Leave a Comment

30 Nov 2012

More Goodies To Share That Just Might Fit Into Your Book Buying Budget

Hi All!

I just ran across an announcement on Twitter from author Ava March and thought I’d share it with anyone who might’ve missed it, or for those of you who don’t Tweet.

Ms. March has six (::pfft:: I just accidentally typed “sex” and had to correct myself. OY!)… Yes, that’s six titles on sale at Amazon for just $.99! Of the six, the only one I’ve read is His Cient, which I loved (the Brook Street Series is great too!), and I’m thrilled to have had the chance to snatch up the other five titles, because when it comes to historical fiction, Ms. March has rapidly become one of my “go to” authors.

So, if you have a Kindle, why not snatch these up? But hurry, I’m not sure how long this sale will last! Just click on the cover images to go directly to the page for each book.

Posted in Ava March, Loose-ID and tagged Ava March, Loose-ID | Leave a Comment

16 Jul 2012

1 Comment

His Client by Ava March

“It’s hard to pretend you love someone when you don’t, but it’s even harder to pretend you don’t love someone when you do.” – Unknown

Jasper Reed knows a little bit about what it feels like to be Nathaniel Travers. No, Jasper and Nate don’t travel in the same social and economic circles—Nate’s uncle is a viscount, and Jasper…well, Jasper’s a whore and is the bastard son of a gin-whore mother, so, no, these two men couldn’t come from more vastly different life experiences. But Jasper knows what it feels like to be Nate because Jasper understands what it feels like to watch the person you love, love someone else. He also understands that there’s no greater pain in the world than loving someone you know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, you will never have. Jasper knows this because he loves Nate the way Nate loves his dearest friend, Peter Edmonton, the man who’s set to marry Miss Catherine Harper, the woman Peter loves and very much wants to spend the rest of his life with.

How much does Jasper love Nate? Enough that Jasper could’ve quit selling his body well before the fifth year of their association, but the idea of retiring and never seeing Nate again was far too high a price to pay to bear considering it. It’s not as though Jasper and Nate could be seen together in London, after all. Nate has not been Jasper’s only client over the course of his decade at Madame Delacroix’ brothel, and it would certainly not do to sully Nate’s reputation to associate publicly with Jasper, nor would it do to put Nate on a fast track to the gallows should his sexual preferences ever be discovered. So allowing Nathaniel to continue to pay for his services is the only way Jasper is able to gain any amount of time with the one man who has, from the very start, done the one thing no one else ever has—treated him with kindness, with respect; treated him like a human being rather than a whore whose only value is measured by what he can do on his back, on his knees, or bent over in whatever position he’s being paid to assume.

For five years, Jasper has been the one Nate has turned to and trusted with the pain of his unrequited love for Peter. For five years, Jasper has been the one Nate has turned to and trusted with the secret of his sexual proclivities. For five years, Jasper has been Nate’s beck-and-call boy, but now, after five long and heartbreaking years of knowing that the only reason Nate keeps Jasper’s company is because Nate pays for the pleasure of having his physical needs satisfied, Jasper understands that it’s time to end the pretense of their friendship and start over new, to begin again somewhere that no one knows who he is or how he made his living.

“You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” turns out to be less a cliché and more a canon for Nate Travers when Jasper tells him goodbye. Nate had spent years pining for a man he couldn’t have, or more so, pining for the idea of a man he couldn’t have, all the while being so utterly blind to what was right in front of him, just waiting to be claimed. It took five years to build their relationship, a mere moment to lose it, and then just a matter of weeks for Nate to finally wake up to the realization that he’d just let the best thing to ever happen to him slip away as if all they’d shared had never mattered.

Now the question is, is it too late for Nate to convince Jasper that missing him has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with a love he didn’t recognize until it was no longer within his reach? And how far will Nate go to prove it?

I’m tempted to huff just a little that it felt as though Nate stumbled upon his feelings for Jasper a bit too quickly, especially after he’d spent the past five years with Jasper, pining over Peter. But that’s most likely due to the fact that for the majority of the book, it felt as though Ava March was trying to break my heart—and was doing an excellent job of it. When Nathaniel finally comes to his senses, there was a heaping sense of what-took-you-so-long? with a small side of well-that-seemed-easy-enough. But maybe that’s the way love is when you finally recognize it and can put a name to it and then come to the realization that you must get out of your own way in order to claim it—you want it with a sense of urgency born in the shame and embarrassment of it having taken you so long to figure it all out.

Regardless, His Client is another tick in my success column for Ms. March. I am a fan of her writing style, her Regency era settings, her characters, and the love stories she spins around them.

Buy His Client HERE.

Posted in Ava March, Loose-ID and tagged Ava March, Loose-ID

13 Jul 2012

Rogues (Brook Street #3) by Ava March

“The difference between friendship and love is how much you can hurt each other.” – Ashleigh Brilliant

Linus Radcliffe and Robert Anderson have been friends for eighteen years, have even, on occasion, been friends with benefits in spite of the fact that Rob is an aggressively straight man, as committed to finding his next widow or unhappily married woman to bed as Linus is devoted to homing in on the next willing man he can use to slake his lust.

Robert was Linus’ first—his first man, his first kiss, the first to touch Linus’ in all his most intimate places, but over the course of their friendship, Linus has willed himself to let go of any hope he’d once held that he and Robert would ever be anything more than just friends. Linus hasn’t given up on having Rob in his life but has come to accept that, in spite of the pain of surrendering a dream, there are simply some things that are not meant to be, and a future as Rob’s lover and partner is one of those things.

It seems, however, that regardless of Linus’ hard fought intentions to keep the status quo of their relationship intact, Robert has inexplicably become determined to redefine the parameters of whatever it is that’s been going on between the two of them over the course of nearly two decades. Robert’s serial philandering suddenly isn’t so appealing to him anymore, and being forced to watch Linus make his way through the men of the ton hurts in more ways than Robert can express verbally, so there’s little left for him to do but to let his actions speak for him, determining that it’s time to go on the offensive and storm the walls Linus has built to define their friendship and to protect his heart. Robert launches a full-frontal assault in declaring himself and his wants. What he doesn’t expect, however, is for Linus to go on the defensive and thwart the attack so effectively.

Linus understands that Robert tends to want what he can’t have, which makes Robert’s pushing of the boundaries that’ve been safe and comfortable, if not altogether pleasant, all the more painful, for Linus feels he has no choice but to repel his friend’s advances. The harder Robert pushes, the further Linus retreats with the fear that even the slightest change in the circumstances between them will cause an outcome that Linus absolutely could not bear. Not having a forever with Robert is difficult enough. Not having an anything with Robert is intolerable.

So, when there’s nothing left to do but to do something that feels a lot like surrender, it’s Robert who concedes. For Robert, the only course of action is his own inaction. In order to keep Linus in his life, in whatever capacity Linus is capable giving, Robert must let go and send up a silent prayer that whatever lies within Linus’ heart and whatever will come of it, that he, Robert, is worthy and will be enough.

It’s truly something when you can say a book isn’t your favorite in a series, yet are still able to say that you loved it, all the same. Brook Street: Rogues is that book for me. While there weren’t the challenges of the social inequities of Lord Benjamin and Cavin’s relationship, the sexuality conflicts of Sasha and Thomas’, or the betrayal of Oscar by Julian that delayed their happiness, there was a definite poignancy in this friends-to-lovers story: the fears of destroying a trusted bond, the acceptance that friendship is enough, and the sure knowledge that discretion is a fair price to pay for a forever love.

Buy Brook Street: Rogues HERE.

Posted in Ava March, Carina Press and tagged Ava March, Carina Press | Leave a Comment

12 Jul 2012

Fortune Hunter (Brook Street #2) by Ava March

“Love is a state in which a man sees things most decidedly as they are not.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Oscar Woodhaven may be the loneliest man in all of London in spite of the fact that he’s young, excessively wealthy, a member of the London ton, and has a small but loyal group of friends with whom he associates. One would assume that Oscar’s life was both filled and fulfilling but one would be wrong because despite the fact that Oscar’s social calendar is indeed full, he is still an incredibly lonely man who is rarely appreciated for who he is but for what he has.

The death of his parents saw Oscar taken in by an aunt and uncle who did little more than tolerate his presence and milk his insecurities because it bought them a comfortable life. They didn’t want Oscar himself but they certainly did want the inheritance and all the property and prestige that accompanied him when they claimed him. Yes, Oscar has trust issues because for most of his life, people have seen him not for the priceless gifts he can give of himself—kindness and loyalty and friendship—but for the material objects and status by association his wealth can provide.

Julian Parker, a black sheep by virtue of being born into the wrong flock of Lord Benjamin Parker’s family, returns to London from America, penniless, saddled with his father’s poor reputation, without social prospects, and in search of a wealthy woman to marry in order to secure his financial future. Marriages of convenience were more the rule than the exception in London society, after all, so not being at all attracted to, let alone in love with the woman he settles on isn’t much of an excuse for Julian not to blindly pursue his objective, and meeting Oscar proves to be a most fortunate advantage for this poorest of the Parker clan.

Who better than the wealthy and connected Oscar to help Julian gain entrance to the social circles he must infiltrate in order to accomplish his goals? And it’s with the best of intentions that Oscar opens his home and purse in friendship to Julian. But, of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the road to love is paved with broken hearts, and some of the most painful lies aren’t the ones you tell but the ones you purposefully omit. When Oscar quickly becomes so much more than a benefactor to Julian, it’s those lies by omission that prove to Oscar he has been seeing things most decidedly as they are not, which leaves Julian with nothing else to do but to prove to Oscar that love is not a deception and that the Julian who was is not the Julian who will be—a man in whom Oscar can place his trust and the man who will love Oscar for who he is and not for what he can buy.

Brook Street: Fortune Hunter is the story of the worth of a man and the weight of his integrity. It is the story of a man who gambles away love and friendship along with his self respect, and loses far more than he’s prepared to pay. Julian Parker must determine the value of his character, the cost of his convictions, and determine what he’s willing to forfeit in order to gain, not the least of which is his own honor and the respect of the man whose worth is immeasurable.

There’s a definite blueprint to each book in this blueblood series, a design I’ve been more than happy to follow to each happy ending that Ava March has constructed from the conflicts her characters navigate. Redemption and second chances are won only after the men suffer for the love of the other, each reward coming at a price but one each man is willing to pay in defiance of what society demands, for the sake of his own happiness.

Buy Brook Street: Fortune Hunter HERE.

Posted in Ava March, Carina Press and tagged Ava March, Carina Press | Leave a Comment

11 Jul 2012

My True Love Gave to Me (Brook Street, #0.5) by Ava March

“Love is a reciprocal torture” – Marcel Proust

From the start of this forbidden romance, it’s exceedingly clear that Thomas Bennett is not as invested in Alexander Norton as Alexander is invested in Thomas. Where Alexander thrives in the glow of the all-encompassing love he feels for Thomas, the polite and well mannered Thomas, a man who is strong and confident and so sure of himself in every other way, is knocked entirely off kilter by the way his body reacts to his Sasha.

From the tightening of his posture, to the instinctive flinch from even the most innocent of public physical contact, Sasha expects that one day those immediate reactions in Thomas will fade, as Thomas grows more comfortable with the love they feel for each other. What Sasha did not, could not expect, however, is that Thomas’s heart would be so little invested in their relationship that it would be Thomas himself who would fade from Sasha’s life, as though he’d never existed at all.

Running away from England, from Sasha, as well as from his own sexuality, Thomas disappears to New York City for four years, never offering even a single word of explanation to the man who had been willing to give of himself entirely in spite of the complications of their relationship, to the man Thomas cruelly abandoned just before the Christmas of 1817, after he’d raised Sasha’s hopes then destroyed them in a single decisive move. What Thomas does discover is that an entire ocean and the passage of time are not enough distance to diminish his feelings for the nineteen-year-old boy who’d awakened the man he was meant to become.

But the Sasha that Thomas returns to England for, the Sasha that Thomas hopes to win back, no longer exists. In his place is a cold and cynical man who was left devastated when Thomas rejected and abandoned him and the gift of his love. Now, it will take everything in Thomas’s power to prove himself worthy of forgiveness and to convince Sasha that the love they felt for each other is still there burning just beneath the surface, even if it means Thomas humbling himself and accepting cruel treatment when that’s all Sasha has to offer.

Though Ava March wrote My True Love Gave to Me as part of Carina Press’ Men Under the Mistletoe holiday collection, the Christmas theme shouldn’t keep you from reading this one now, especially if you’re a fan of well written Regency romance. This story can be read as a standalone even though it’s staged in the same setting of the author’s Brook Street series, a series that I’m discovering a huge passion for, beginning with the book Thief.

Ava March draws the reader into a well written world that transports you directly into the lives of the London ton and into the lives of these men who dare to love despite the danger and the odds against them. I, for one, can’t wait to make my way into the next two books, expecting they’ll be every bit as lovely as the first two.

Buy My True Love Gave to Me HERE.

Posted in Ava March, Carina Press and tagged Ava March, Carina Press | Leave a Comment

10 Jun 2012

Thief (Brook Street #1) by Ava March

Lord Benjamin Parker has been granted the serenity to accept the things he cannot change. He has been granted the courage to change the things he can. And he possesses the wisdom to know the difference.

Benjamin realizes that he has no passion for women, no desire to marry and provide an heir, but he must prove it to himself, once and for all, that what he feels is real. He’s tired of fighting his attraction to men, tired of worrying about the consequences of his desires, tired of going through the motions, and tired of the not-so-subtle hints from his siblings that it’s time for him to settle down. If he can engage in an encounter with another man, and finds that he enjoys that encounter, he will accept that he is an “unnatural” and will live the life he’s meant to live rather than subject a woman to a life of unrequited feelings.

There’s a medieval proverb that says, “a fox is not caught by gifts,” but Benjamin’s single and incendiary encounter with Cavin Fox nullifies that adage, because the gift that Benjamin gives the clever and elusive Fox snares him as surely as if he’d fallen into a steel trap.

Cavin Fox is a grifter and Benjamin was to be nothing more than his next mark for the evening. He was to seduce Benjamin and relieve the nabob of all his valuables, but instead, Benjamin stole Cavin’s heart when he entrusted the thief with his first sexual encounter with another man. It is more than Cavin’s conscience can bear and is enough to make the man begin to rethink his entire existence; it’s enough to make him wish he were someone different, to be a better man and to be a man who is worthy of Benjamin’s affection. ”The fox changes his fur but not his habits?” No, Cavin disproves that proverb as well; his transformation is complete when he falls in love with a man who is seemingly beyond his reach.

Brook Street: Thief is the story of two men from diametrically opposed social classes in Regency England and the way they find each other and connect in a time when the love they share dares not speak its name. Benjamin and Cavin overcome the obstacles that would otherwise keep them apart, believing that love will always find a way.

This is my first experience with Ava March’s work and I couldn’t be happier to have given this book a chance. The foundation has been laid for the next book, and while it’s not a continuation of Benjamin and Cavin’s romance, I do sincerely hope the two men make an appearance in Fortune Hunter because I liked them too well to let them move on just yet.

Buy Thief HERE.

Posted in Ava March and tagged Ava March, Carina Press | Leave a Comment

The Novel Approach

Reviews, Ramblings, and Randomness

Archive for the tag “Ava March”

The Bound Series by Ava March

Convincing Arthur and Convincing Leopold by Ava March

O Come All Ye Kinky Edited by Sarah Frantz

More Goodies To Share That Just Might Fit Into Your Book Buying Budget

His Client by Ava March

Rogues (Brook Street #3) by Ava March

Fortune Hunter (Brook Street #2) by Ava March

My True Love Gave to Me (Brook Street, #0.5) by Ava March

Thief (Brook Street #1) by Ava March

Warning:

Search

Recent Posts

Archives

Follow Blog via Email

Authors

Publishers

Posts I Like

Twitter

Blogs I Follow

Follow “The Novel Approach”

Reviews, Ramblings, and Randomness

Archive for the tag “Ava March”

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Post Navigation

Warning:

Search

Recent Posts

Archives

Follow Blog via Email

Authors

Publishers

Posts I Like

Blogs I Follow

Follow “The Novel Approach”