Chasing Chance (Gilcrest University Guys #1)

Title: Chasing Chance: Gilcrest University Guys Book One
Author: M.E. Parker
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: March 17, 2019
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance, Sports
Page Count: 175
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

THE MORE YOU KNOW (shooting star... RAINBOW): The author notes: "Chasing Chance" is the first book in the Gilcrest University Guys series. It’s a full-length, “friends to lovers” romance novel. It has “coming out” and “first-time gay” themes, is stocked full of STEAM, heartache, and laughter, and it has a guaranteed happy ending. The series will follow the love stories of four college friends. "Chasing Chance" is the first of two books that will tell Andy and Chance’s love story. Look for book two, "Catching Chance," to come out next month!" Be aware that we aren't getting Andy and Chance's complete story in "Chasing Chance" and the ending is up-in-the-air and incomplete.

I must admit that I love the best-friends-to-lovers trope and the first part of this book is sweet as 6-year-old Chance and Andy become best friends and have a great childhood that includes camping together and building a great tree house that Chance designs (he's always been interested in becoming an architect). We get alternating POVs here and through a series of flashbacks see how good things are between the two boys ... until they aren't.

An Uncommon Whore (An Uncommon Whore #1)

Title: An Uncommon Whore Second Edition
Author: Belinda McBride
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: August 27, 2019
Genre(s): Science Fiction / High Fantasy
Page Count: 192
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Blurb: Read book blurb here

Okay, I devoured this galactic high fantasy / space opera - I mean, c'mon, a hard muscled and battle worn rock-hard badass pirate with supple black leather pants, long black wavy hair and a leather patch over one eye ... in space ... and a lost-lost king, the hope of his people, sold and turned into a whore with a memory-suppressing chip embedded in his brain.

The author slowly doles out Grif and Helios' shared history as boys, later lovers, and then leader and bodyguard, balancing it against their efforts to return to their people, restore the kingdom and learn the names of the traitors who betrayed their people. It absolutely destroys Grif to know that Helios' memory may never fully return, yet Helios draws strength from what he's experienced the past five years:

I've learned to step back. I've discovered that humility is not such a bad thing and that strength can be found through submission. I've learned that I am not always right, and being wrong is not a bad thing, nor is it a weakness.