Kate Benson was raised in Texas and currently resides in central Florida with her husband and their growing army of fur minions.She learned to read at the age of four and has been hooked ever since. She credits her passion for literature to her mother, her love of story-telling to her father and her unwavering faith in happily-ever-after’s to her husband, Sean.Some of her favorite things include rainy days, loud music, superhero movies, hot tea and of course, lazy afternoons with a great book.To find out more about Kate, her work or to just say hello, she loves hearing from her readers and can be found on social media.
After half a lifetime spent in short-term liaisons that allowed no intimacy, charismatic Irish police officer, Colin Campbell, found the love of his life. Dark-eyed, steady Joshua Abrams burned through Colin’s emotional barriers and taught him to look at life through new eyes, eyes that made room for the love and closeness he had always denied himself. Deeply in love and completely happy, their life together remains idyllic and their fiery passion for each other seems limitless.
They survive the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ riots, though not without scars. But later that month Colin’s position with the campus police force places him in charge of an informant program designed to crack a dangerous drug ring. Fully aware of the risks, he swears to Joshua that he will oversee the program without becoming directly involved. But Colin’s promise begins to crumble when he becomes the only one who can save a young Nigerian exchange student from a deadly drug lord.
Video – Colin and Joshua’s Story
Excerpt
“Listen,” Colin said, “what you said earlier, Josh. You had a point.”
Joshua turned to face him and shrugged. “Maybe. But wallowing in self-pity isn’t exactly constructive either and I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”
Colin pressed his lips together. “Yeah. Me too.” He gestured to the couch, inviting Joshua to sit. “I don’t mean to shut you out, Josh.”
“Then why do you?” Joshua asked, collapsing to the couch beside him. “Makes it a pretty lonely life for both of us, Colin.”
Colin switched the television off and turned to face him. “Nothing I feel for you has changed, Josh. Nothing. Why can’t you believe me and just give me some space for awhile?”
“Why can’t you trust me enough to let me in, Colin?” He hesitated for a moment, then spoke: “When you were in the hospital you told me that I could never really leave you because I was part of you. If that’s true then let me be part of you! Let me share what you’re going through. Don’t go through this alone!”
Colin grimaced, his whole body tightening. “I can’t, Josh! You don’t know what it does to me, being this helpless…being in this much pain. I fucking hate having anyone see me like this, especially you!”
“Needing me doesn’t make you weak, Colin, and yes, seeing you in pain is hard on me too. But it’s still something we need to go through together!” He took Colin’s hand in his. “Let me say it another way. I’m lonely! I miss the man I love. I miss his company and his smile and his kisses. I miss him and I feel desolate without him. I want to be there for you, Colin. I’m your partner and I want to help you through this. But I can’t if you won’t let me. Please don’t let your pride keep us apart at the moment when we need each other most!”
About the Author
My name is Janice Jarrell. I am a retired grandmother who lives in Seattle, WA. I have two children and three grandsons. I’ve been writing gay romance since I was twelve years old, only back then it wasn’t called ‘gay romance’. In fact, it had no name at all. It was the fifties, and it was worth your life to admit to being gay, let alone confess to being a girl who constantly fantasized about relationships between gay men. Hell, I didn’t even know what a homosexual was. I lived on a farm out in the sticks in a tiny Michigan village and I’d never, to my knowledge, even heard the word. I just knew I loved the thought of boy on boy romance. I just knew that there was something hot going on between Tom Corbett and his Space Cadets and all those guys on ‘Combat’.
I wrote slash fanfiction for 30 years, writing over 337 stories, some as short as 100 words (a drabble) some as long as a series which was over 119,012 words. I enjoy writing my stories. I enjoyed the feedback I received from my readers. It was a creative release I’d been searching for my entire life and I blessed the Internet for leading me to this artistic oasis for my spirit.
Love’s Magic was my very first step into writing my own characters. I will always be grateful the slash fanfiction community for nurturing the budding author until she was ready to blossom into a fully realized novelist. It’s been an amazing thing to watch the gay community’s growth over these past twenty years. My own journey has echoed theirs in many ways, and I’m grateful to all those gay activists who fought to give the gay community the rights and privileges they always deserved.
I’m also grateful to the gay romance community, readers, authors, publishers and promoters, who are making these, my retirement years, the most creative ones of my life. When I’m not writing, I’m traveling, walking, hiking, knitting, crocheting, and weaving.
I’m very excited about the upcoming release of my second contemporary gay romance novel, Love’s Trials. Those of you who fell in love with Joshua and Colin in Love’s Magic are in for a treat because they are the STARS of Love’s Trials, though they may not thank me for it given the very difficult ‘trials’ they are about to face.
All words I’d used to label him. Exactly what I’d always believed he was. All that changed one spring morning when I realized I didn’t know the man behind the facade at all.
Angry. Desperate. Broken. Mine.
All words I’d use to define him after I interfered. Once our eyes locked, I was all in. There was no turning back. He tried to push me away, but I refused to let him go. I was determined to save him. What I didn’t expect was that he would save me, too.
Cy
I was so close to ending my misery. Mere seconds away. Then she stumbled upon our argument, and I changed my plans. She wasn’t supposed to be there. She knew too much. Even with my entire world burning down around me, she wouldn’t walk away.
I’ve always been on my own. No one had ever fought for me before. Why should anyone start now? But she did, no matter how much I tried to stop her. I knew I was nothing, unworthy of her, but she was persistent. Once she got under my skin, I couldn’t let her go, because where I end, she begins.
Michelle Dare is a romance author. Her stories range from sweet to sinful and from new adult to fantasy. There aren’t enough hours in the day for her to write all of the story ideas in her head. When not writing or reading, she’s a wife and mom living in eastern Pennsylvania. One day she hopes to be writing from a beach where she will never have to see snow or be cold again.
An award-winning romance author, Rachael is a Midwest girl (yes, they say she has an accent but no, she doesn’t hear it) who loves to create amazing stories that tug at your heartstrings. Keep your tissues handy.
When she’s not writing, you can find her on the golf course in the summer or cuddled up with a cup of coffee and her Kindle in the winter.
To keep up with what Rachael is doing at the moment, follow her on social media (IG is her fav) or sign up for her newsletter. bit.ly/2KDE5dG
When I left, I was instructed to stay away. Don’t look back, my mother said. Only good things lie ahead, and looking back would keep me from achieving everything I wanted out of life.
She was wrong.
The first year was the hardest. Everywhere I turned, I saw him. Everything reminded me of him, of the trip we took together. The time we shared together that summer. The one night that changed the rest of our lives.
Wyatt was my life, and then my parents ripped me from him.
All it took was one misstep and it was over for us. Once they found out about him, they made sure it was over between us. They didn’t care about the circumstances. In their eyes, he had destroyed my life, my future. They cared more about their reputation than how I felt. They always have and still do to this day.
Per my mother’s instructions, I’m to come home for her birthday celebration and then head back to Denver. No detours. No pit stops. No fooling around.
As if I could face him after all this time.
The secrets I’ve kept from him will come to light one day, but it won’t be this weekend. It can’t be. I’m not ready to confess all my sins. Five years may be a long time, but it still feels like too soon, yet too late to ask for forgiveness.
Some things are beyond forgiveness and this secret is guaranteed to be one of them.
It feels like a lifetime and yet there are moments when it feels like it was only yesterday I stared out of the passenger window of my father’s car, watching as my life was changing before my eyes.
I remember holding my stomach as we drove past Garrett’s, the realization that Wyatt would never know why I left. He would never know that we created a child together. He would never forgive me for keeping his child from him, for denying him the opportunity to be a father.
But I wasn’t denying him, my parents were. At least, that’s what I’ve tried to convince myself of. Every time I look into her eyes, I see him. I see the life we planned for us. And all that convincing fails me.
I should have been stronger.
I should have fought harder.
I’ve had the opportunity to try and make amends, but my fears have held me back.
Hannah Johnson is a lady in a man’s clothing. Orphaned at a young age, she is forced to take over her father’s livery to survive. She works hard to save enough to buy a house of her own. When the bank in her town is robbed, she has only one choice—go after the money herself.
Roan Maxwell rides into Beltane, Arizona, looking for a bed for the night, but instead gets a bullet in the back during a bank robbery. Afraid folks will think him one of the robbers, he flees. When Hannah stumbles over him, he’s rather her think him a robber than yellow bellied.
Can these two learn the truth about one another, catch the robbers and fall in love, too?
Falling in love with romance novels the summer before sixth grade, D’Ann Lindun never thought about writing one until many years later when she took a how-to class at her local college. She was hooked! She began writing and never looked back. Romance appeals to her because there’s just something so satisfying about writing a book guaranteed to have a happy ending.
D’Ann’s particular favorites usually feature cowboys and the women who love them. This is probably because she draws inspiration from the area where she lives, Western Colorado, her husband of twenty-nine years and their daughter. Composites of their small farm, herd of horses, five Australian shepherds, three ducks and cats of every shape and color often show up in her stories!
Seeing my ex-husband four years after the ink dried on our divorce papers was not part of my plan. Returning to the small town where we’d grown up and fallen in love to rebuild my life at the exact time he’d chose to do the same thing wasn’t part of my plan either. It was, however, the reality.
Back in the place where it all began so many years ago, memories of our past, both good and bad, consumed me. I’d never stopped loving him, needing him, wanting him. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, seeing him. Stolen moments told me he felt the same way.
But could he ever forgive me?
Could I ever forgive myself?
Infertility had torn our marriage apart, bit by excruciating bit. Was our love strong enough to put it back together?
Jennifer was born and raised on Long Island, in New York. She relocated to South Carolina in 2002, where she met the love of her life. They got married in 2008, and live happily ever after just outside of Charleston with their fur-kid: a spoiled rat terrier named Daisy. When she’s not reading or writing, she works as a behavioral therapist, and is also a graduate student, pursing a Master Degree in Psychology as well as a Graduate Certificate in Behavior Intervention in Autism. She knows amateur photography, traveling, and music … it’s a bonus when she can combine all three. Jennifer is also a breast cancer warrior, having been diagnosed in 2017 and declared cancer-free in 2018. She independently published her debut novel, Our Moon (JACT 1), in June 2015.
Kate Benson was raised in Texas and currently resides in central Florida with her husband and their growing army of fur minions.She learned to read at the age of four and has been hooked ever since. She credits her passion for literature to her mother, her love of story-telling to her father and her unwavering faith in happily-ever-after’s to her husband, Sean.Some of her favorite things include rainy days, loud music, superhero movies, hot tea and of course, lazy afternoons with a great book.To find out more about Kate, her work or to just say hello, she loves hearing from her readers and can be found on social media.
