Want something a bit different for the holidays? Horror has never looked this enticing! New release, All in Fear, is a gorgeous collection of horror tales from some of the hottest names in queer fiction. Be prepared to be titillated...and terrified.

By KJ Charles, Roan Parrish, J.A. Rock,

Steve Berman, Avon Gale, and Kris Ripper

Horror wears many faces, and its masks can be tantalizing. Some of the top names in queer fiction come together to spin their own versions of horror. Worlds rife with dark beauty and mystery, the familiar becoming terrible, creatures ethereal and alluring—and all bearing the gleam of love. Does hope lie along these grim passages or only doom? It will become clear. All in time—and all in fear.

Company by Roan Parrish

Nick Levy’s family is falling apart and he has no friends, but at least he can escape into the world of his favorite comic book series, The Face of the Vampire. Naturally, when the vampire in question shows up one day, Nick is enthralled. After all, what could be better than his own personal fantasy made real? Except that Nick isn’t exactly sure whether Michel is real or not. And when the arrival of a new boy in school promises romance, Nick sees a side of Michel he never could have imagined. This Michel is cruel, jealous . . . and he’ll do anything to keep Nick for himself.

Love Me True by Kris Ripper

Palmer's life is as good as it gets. Well, okay, so he hates his mind-numbing office job. But he's found a hot, smart, incredibly kinky guy. The sex is explosive. The power play is off the hook. And if he gets his way, Jon will soon be his husband.

When Palmer asks, Jon says yes. For the first time ever, Palmer thinks things might be really good. Sure, bad things happen in the world—to other people. But this is all he needs: Jon at the end of the day, in their bed, arms around him.

How could he have possibly been so stupid?

The Price of Meat by KJ Charles

Johanna Oakley will do anything to save her beloved Arabella from the cruelty of Mr Fogg’s madhouse—but ‘anything’ turns out to be more than she bargained for when she finds herself working for a man suspected of worse than murder. As Johanna is plunged from the horror of Sawney Reynard’s barber shop into the foul, lawless labyrinth at the heart of London, can she or anyone get out alive?

His Mouth Will Taste of Chernobyl by Steve Berman

Joining Zeta Psi isn’t Steve’s dream, it’s his dad’s. Nevertheless his dad’s gift of the mysterious Bailey flask gets Steve an in to the frat house, and maybe his best shot at being accepted on campus. But the flask’s silver sheen may only be lighting his way into the darkness at the heart of the frat—and the darkness he’s learning is within himself. Steve wants to choose who he is, but choices are dropping like flies as he learns the true mystery of the Bailey flask. How does he give back a gift that’s also a curse?

Legion: A Love Story by Avon Gale

STAFF SERGEANT JASON ESSEX, YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING ORDERS FROM THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS:

REPORT TO: CAIN INSTITUTE [ADDRESS REDACTED]

ACTIVE DUTY COMMITMENT: GUARD AN ENTITY CURRENTLY HELD IN AN ENCLOSURE AT THE CAIN INSTITUTE. RECORD DAILY MEASUREMENTS. KEEP ANY AND ALL PERSONS FROM ENTERING OR LEAVING THE FACILITY. ENSURE THE ENTITY REMAINS COMPLETELY INCARCERATED. OBSERVE THE ENTITY WITHOUT ENGAGING.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS: THIS ASSIGNMENT WILL BE CARRIED OUT IN FULL ISOLATION. PLEASE BE ADVISED.

Beauties by J.A. Rock

When Dr. Lester Usole attends an event at AI developer Carnificiality, he’s introduced to Beauties: artificial beings designed to provide tailored sexual experiences for their human owners. Lester isn’t interested in sex—but he is fascinated by Ira, a Beauty too violent to be sold.

Lester convinces Carnificiality to give Ira to him. Lester has always wanted the chance to work with an adult AI, and around Lester, Ira isn’t violent. He’s strangely innocent, uncannily perceptive, and his company does much to ease Lester’s loneliness. Except something’s not quite right: Ira roams at night, even when Lester’s sure he’s locked Ira’s door.

Soon Lester is certain of only one thing: Ira has a secret. Something that will link their pasts and change the course of their future—if Lester is willing to face what’s on the inside.

Learn more on Goodreads.

Order it now: Publisher’s Site | Amazon | B&N | ARe | Apple | Kobo

“An engaging anthology of queer fiction filled with monsters, mysteries, and menace.” — Kirkus Reviews

About the Authors:

Steve Berman loves to tell stories that are both queer and weird. He was a Zeta Psi back in his college days at and remembers being hazed. He survived and graduated and even earned a Masters Degree in Liberal Studies. He has written and sold over a hundred articles, essays, and short stories. His YA novel, Vintage, was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award.

Website: www.steveberman.com

KJ Charles

KJ Charles is a writer and freelance editor. She lives in London with her husband, two kids, and a cat with murder management issues. KJ writes mostly historical romance, mostly queer, often with fantasy or horror in there.

Find her on Twitter @kj_charles, pick up book info and free reads on her website, get the infrequent newsletter, or join her Facebook group, KJ Charles Chat, for sneak peeks and exclusives.

Avon Gale wrote her first story at the age of seven, about a “Space Hat” hanging on a rack and waiting for that special person to come along and purchase it — even if it was a bit weirder than the other, more normal hats. Like all of Avon’s characters, the space hat did get its happily ever after — though she’s pretty sure it was with a unicorn. She likes to think her vocabulary has improved since then, but the theme of quirky people waiting for their perfect match is still one of her favorites.

Avon grew up in the southern United States, and now lives with her very patient husband in a liberal midwestern college town. When she’s not writing, she’s either doing some kind of craft project that makes a huge mess, reading, watching horror movies, listening to music or yelling at her favorite hockey team to get it together, already. Avon is always up for a road trip, adores Kentucky bourbon, thinks nothing is as stress relieving as a good rock concert and will never say no to candy.

At one point, Avon was the mayor of both Jazzercise and Lollicup on Foursquare. This tells you basically all you need to know about her as a person.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Newsletter / Goodreads 

Roan Parrish

Roan Parrish lives in Philadelphia where she is gradually attempting to write love stories in every genre.

When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.

Sign up for her Newsletter to receive updates about new releases, works-in-progress, and bonus materials like sneak peeks and extra scenes! 

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram  

Kris Ripper lives in the great state of California and hails from the San Francisco Bay Area. Kris shares a converted garage with a little kid, can do two pull-ups in a row, and can write backwards. (No, really.) Kris is genderqueer and prefers the z-based pronouns because they’re freaking sweet. Ze has been writing fiction since ze learned how to write, and boring zir stuffed animals with stories long before that.

Website / FB Group: Ripper's Irregulars / Twitter

J.A. Rock is the author or coauthor of over twenty LGBTQ romance, suspense, and horror novels, as well as an occasional contributor to HuffPo Queer Voices. J.A. has received Lambda Literary and INDIEFAB Award nominations for Minotaur, and The Subs Club received the 2016 National Leather Association-International Pauline Reage Novel Award. J.A. lives in Chicago with an extremely judgmental dog, Professor Anne Studebaker.

Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook  

My friend Lexie over at Fastidious reader started an ARC Challenge 2013 together with Deniz from Closet Geeks and Slow Mo. The challenge is pretty simple - read and review at least 1, if possible two ARCs a week and it goes on till the end of this year. Since I am literally swamped with ARCs some of which I requested rather foolishly, I have to admit, I decided to join them. 

I have posted two ARC reviews this week:

Crash into You by Katie McGarry which I read a couple of weeks ago and I totally love it and - my review 

The Devil's Reprise by Karina Halle which was also rather good - my review

Next week I will be reviewing Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan and Sempre by J. M. Darhower. I have already finished the books, now I just need to write the reviews. I hope to start reading Castle Hill: A Joss and Braden Novella by Samantha Young and Jagged (Colorado Mountain 5) by Kristen Ashley. 

Title: The Devil's Reprise (Devils #2)

Author: Karina Halle

Date of publication: 29 Oct 2013

Genre: NA Romance / Horror / Paranormal

Author's links:

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

My rating: 3.5 stars

Goodreads Blurb

Given a second chance, music journalist Dawn Emerson and guitarist Sage Knightly are reunited, only to have their lives threatened again by a demonic bargain. The sequel to THE DEVIL’S METAL, from USA Today bestselling author Karina Halle.

When Dawn Emerson got the chance to go on tour with her favorite metal band, Hybrid, she thought she landed the writing gig of the century. But what started off as a dream for the budding music journalist quickly turned into a nightmare that she and guitarist Sage Knightly barely escaped alive.

Now, months after they went their separate ways, Sage invites Dawn to accompany him on his first solo tour across Europe and write about it for Creem Magazine. But like the last tour, nothing is as easy as it seems. Sage is a broken man on the path to self-destruction and Dawn isn’t sure if she’s the right person to save him. And aside from having to pick up the pieces of their burgeoning relationship, they have to negotiate the mysterious new photographer assigned to Dawn’s story, as well as vindictive promoters and demonic groupies they thought they’d never see again.

Because this time, it’s Dawn who made a deal with the devil and the only thing worse than having to uphold a bargain with the prince of darkness is not remembering how you’re supposed to pay it back.

It may be with their souls.

My Review

This is the second and final book in the Devils series by Karina Halle. I really enjoyed the first one and I had very high expectations of this one. They were met and surpassed in some aspects, still I was disappointed with some things.

This book continues the story of Dawn and Sage after they survived the unthinkable. The focused is really on their relationship or rather on their struggles to form a relationship under most unusual circumstances. 

The story is told from the POV both of Sage and Dawn and this we get to see deep into the mind and soul of both of them. We already knew a lot about the inner world of Dawn but here we are taken deep into the head of Sage as well. And it is a dark and turbulent place and at the same it is passionate, intense. There was more than occasion when I slipped making all the wrong choices but ultimately he proved to himself and to Dawn that he was capable of love.

I liked Dawn when she was talking about music and her feelings for Sage, but the deal she supposedly made with the Devil and her fight out of it fell flat for me. Things were too similar to Sage's situation in book one, but they were also fuzzy and unclear, lacking the thrill of the unexpected. We were already familiar with the Jacobs and the demons and their fights were seemed predictable.

A major let down for me was the fact that this book didn't recreate the atmosphere of the music scene of 1970s as well as book one in the series. Reading the story of Sage and Dawn, I often forgot that the events were taking place in the 1970s, they could have easily happened at any other time, to any other rock star. 

Overall, the love story is steamier and more emotionally intense which I really liked. The action portion of the book had stronger elements of horror and more powerful presence of supernatural forces, yet it failed to excite me as much as it did in book one. The story is marked by in-depth portrayal of emotional turmoil and the writing of Ms Halle is as usually brilliantly captivating. This book is a must-read if you have started the series and I believe it will be greatly appreciated by all Ms Halle's fans.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Here are the rules: 

• Grab your current read 

• Open to a random page 

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

• Be careful not the include spoilers! 

• Share the title & author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers. 

I have modified them slightly for my Teasers. It will not be two sentences from a random page but two, usually more, sentences from the pages I have read so far that have struck me as most interesting, original or that I just happen to like a lot.

My teaser this week comes from The Devils Reprise by Karina Halle. It is the second and final book in her Devils series. It is a rock/metal music paranormal/horror romance. I loved the first book in the series, The Devil's Metal (my review). This one was also pretty good, more focused on the paranormal elements and the relationship between the characters than the first one, where I felt the emphasis was on the music scene.

It was difficult for me to choose a teaser from this book, so I am offering you two - the first one is from the Prologue and gives you an idea of what's to come in the book, while the second one is a passage on the thrill of live music which I really liked. Enjoy!

"My name is Sage Knightly. One of the few surviving members of the metal band, Hybrid. I'm about to embark on my first solo tour, to be the rock star I was always meant to be. 
But something tells me I'm not coming out of this alive.
And neither is she."

"He'd just put his battered heart on a platter, and we all gobbled it up. We couldn't be sated with anything he could give us; we always wanted more and would always want more, that needy relationship between the consumer and the artist."

The Devil's Reprise - Karina Halle 

When Dawn Emerson got the chance to go on tour with her favorite metal band, Hybrid, she thought she landed the writing gig of the century. But what started off as a dream for the budding music journalist quickly turned into a nightmare that she and guitarist Sage Knightly barely escaped alive.

Now, months after they went their separate ways, Sage invites Dawn to accompany him on his first solo tour across Europe and write about it for Creem Magazine. But like the last tour, nothing is as easy as it seems. Sage is a broken man on the path to self-destruction and Dawn isn’t sure if she’s the right person to save him. And aside from having to pick up the pieces of their burgeoning relationship, they have to negotiate the mysterious new photographer assigned to Dawn’s story, as well as vindictive promoters and demonic groupies they thought they’d never see again.

Because this time, it’s Dawn who made a deal with the devil and the only thing worse than having to uphold a bargain with the prince of darkness is not remembering how you’re supposed to pay it back.

It may be with their souls.

Title: The Devil's Metal (Devils #1)

Author: Karina Halle

Date of publication: 21 Sept 2012

Genre: NA Romance / Horror / Paranormal

Author's links:

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

My rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Blurb

It’s the summer of 1974 and 21-year old Dawn Emerson has only three things she wants to do: compete one last time in the Ellensburg Rodeo, win back her ex-boyfriend Ryan, and become the best damn music journalist at Central Washington University. But all her plans are left in the dust when she’s contacted by Creem magazine to go on the road with one of her favorite groups, the up-and-coming metal band, Hybrid. 

At first the assignment reads like a dream come true. Not only will Dawn land some much-needed credibility as a female music journalist, but she’ll finally get to experience life from the other side of the stage, and maybe crack the drunken, enigmatic code that is guitarist Sage Knightly. Instead, Dawn finds herself on an aging tour bus filled with ego-maniacs, band politics and a whole lot of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. When monsters start showing up in dressing rooms and some of Sage’s groupies become increasingly strange and dangerous, Dawn discovers the band is not only going places – they’re going straight to Hell. 

And Dawn has a backstage pass.

Author's note: The Devil's Metal is the first book in a two-part New Adult Horror/Paranormal Romance and very (very!) loosely based on the author's exploits as a music journalist. Hell comes in different forms.