Hiya guys! Today we have Rick R. Reed stopping by with the tour to his upcoming new release Dinner at Jack’s. We have a little guest post from Rick where he introduces us to Ruth, Rick also lets us have a peek at a new exclusive excerpt, we also have a fantastic giveaway and my review! So check out the post, enjoy and click that giveaway link! <3 ~Pixie~

Dinner at Jack’s

(A Romance With Recipes 03)

Rick R. Reed

Personal chef Beau St. Clair, recently divorced from his cheating husband, has returned to the small Ohio River town where he grew up to lick his wounds. Jack Rogers lives with his mother Maisie in that same small town, angry at and frightened of the world. Jack has a gap in his memory that hides something he dares not face, and he’s probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Maisie, seeking relief from her housebound and often surly son, hires Beau to cook for Jack, hoping the change might help bring Jack, once a handsome and vibrant attorney, back to his former self. But can a new face and comfort food compensate for the terror lurking in Jack’s past?

Slowly, the two men begin a dance of revelation and healing. Food and compassion build a bridge between Beau and Jack, a bridge that might lead to love.

But will Jack’s demons allow it? Jack’s history harbors secrets that could just as easily rip them apart as bring them together.

Rick R. Reed!

Dogs play a very important role in my books and my life. I just love them—to me, they truly are man’s best friend.

In Dinner at Jack’s my latest ‘romance with recipes’ we meet Ruth, a tough, smart-aleck pug who belongs to my main character, Beau St. Clair.

Here’s a scene where you can get to know Ruth (and Beau) a little better…and see how she’s faithfully with her owner as he takes steps into a dubious new life after leaving Seattle for his home town—the small Ohio river burg of Fawcettville.

Exclusive Excerpt

I sat in the yellow smart car I had once gaily dubbed Marilyn Monroe and stared at the rain pouring down the windshield, obscuring the orange Vacancy sign blinking on and off just outside, making an expressionist blur of it. I turned to Ruth, who sat on the seat next to me, and said, “I thought we left the rain in Seattle.”

“Apparently not,” Ruth replied. She yawned and licked her lips.

Now, before you start thinking I had completely wigged out, let me acknowledge that I ascribe appropriate dialogue to my pug in my head. It’s all imaginary. I don’t actually hear her voice.

Much.

Anyway, Ruth followed my gaze to the rain-smeared windows. She was probably wondering why we’d ended up here. She’d been a good traveling companion the last four days as we made our way eastward across the country, singing along with me as I tuned the Sirius radio to the ’80s disco station and listening intently to the anecdotes and opinions offered on NPR. All the while, Ruth was most likely anticipating some fabulous destination as a reward for all the miles rolling underneath the smart car’s wheels. After all, all good things come to those who wait, right? At least that had always been Ruth’s philosophy as she counted down the minutes by her stainless steel food and water bowls in our old kitchen in Wallingford. She’d lie there for a bit, and magically, food and water would appear. It never failed.

So maybe this long car ride would lead to something magical—and wonderful. Ruth had even behaved, never once having an accident in the car and sleeping dutifully each night in whatever no-tell-motel I had selected from the highway as we drove by.

I could see Ruth’s dark brown eyes peering through the rain’s wash and staring out at the one-story cinder block motel whose office was just a few feet away. I imagined her thinking “What the hell? We drove all this way for this? I should have stayed with Ross.”

I had to admit, I was on the same page with my dog. The Panorama Motel had been around since I lived here full time, and that was, like, twenty years ago. Even then it was run down, and I’d always wondered who stayed in its dozen or so rooms, with their rusting and dented orange metal doors. Even kids looking for a place to have a quickie avoided it. On the plus side, it did sit on a bluff overlooking the Ohio River as it curved southward toward West Virginia. “Don’t be put off, Stinkerbell,” I told Ruth, “I’m sure the views from every room are fabulous.”

Ruth looked at me as though she didn’t believe me. Maybe it was because I myself could hear the lack of conviction in my voice.

“Well,” I said. “There really aren’t any other options, as far as motels go. As far as I know. Unless someone has built lodgings since I left. And who would be foolhardy enough to do that?”

Ruth didn’t have an answer. She circled once or twice, then lay down on the seat, her head resting on her paws. In instants, she began to snore.

But the more I stared at the cinder block motel, the more I was certain I was making a mistake. I mean, yes, there were no other hotel/motel options until you went a little farther east and hit the outskirts of Pittsburgh, but I did have one other choice.

No. Not Dad. Never Dad. I could not spend one more night under the roof of that green house with the white trim. He would drive me completely nuts before dawn even arrived.

But there was Mary Beth. My little sister. My parents’ late-in-life baby who came along a dozen years after I did. My mother called her “the miracle baby.” My dad just referred to her as “the accident.” She’d grown up spoiled rotten by the two adults and one almost-adult living in the house with her.

As a sissified adolescent boy with few to no friends, Mary Beth got a bigger dose of love and protection from me than she would have gotten from, say, a more popular and sports-inclined older brother. I was laughed at and called names because I pushed Mary Beth around the neighborhood in her stroller. This was not something young males did in our ’hood. No, boys my age were busy fixing cars, debating the merits of the Browns versus the Steelers, and wondering if they’d ever succeed in getting a girl to touch them, you know, down there.

I could never talk to those guys, let alone hang with them. They’d never have understood my obsession with 1960s horror movies, the novels of Ira Levin, or how to make a perfectly crispy pizzelle waffle cookie.

About Rick

Rick R. Reed is all about exploring the romantic entanglements of gay men in contemporary, realistic settings. While his stories often contain elements of suspense, mystery and the paranormal, his focus ultimately returns to the power of love.

He is the author of dozens of published novels, novellas, and short stories. He is a three-time EPIC eBook Award winner (for Caregiver, Orientation and The Blue Moon Cafe). He is also a Rainbow Award Winner for both Caregiver and Raining Men. Lambda Literary Review has called him, “a writer that doesn’t disappoint.”

Rick lives in Seattle with his husband and a very spoiled Boston terrier. He is forever “at work on another novel.”

STALK RICK

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Giveaway!

Winner’s Prize: Dinner at Home ebook.
Runner Up Prize: Dinner at Fiorello’s eBook.

(Just click the link below)

Rick R. Reed Rafflecopter giveaway!

(Ends 12th October 2016)

Review

Title: Dinner at Jack’s

Series: Romance With Recipes 03

Author: Rick R. Reed

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novel (220pgs)

ISBN: 978-1-63477-671-4

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (3^rd October 2016)

Heat Level: Nil

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts

Reviewer: Pixie

Blurb: Personal chef Beau St. Clair, recently divorced from his cheating husband, returns to the small Ohio River town where he grew up to lick his wounds. Jack Rogers lives with his mother, Maisie, in that same small town, angry at and frightened of the world. Jack has a gap in his memory that hides something he dares not face, and he’s probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Slowly the two men begin a dance of revelation and healing. Food and compassion build a bridge between Beau and Jack, a bridge that might lead to love.

But will Jack’s demons allow it? His history could just as easily tear them apart as bring them together.

Purchase Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/dinner-at-jacks-by-rick-r-reed-7591-b

Review: This story is part of a series but can be read as a stand-alone.

When Beau gets divorced from his cheating husband there’s only one place he thinks of going to lick his wounds, to the small town he grew up. Not sure what to do now Beau spots an ad for a personal chef and decides to check it out, it leads him to a man he never thought he’d see again.

Maisie is desperate when she posts an ad for a chef, her son has retreated into himself and is often snarly and surly, and she hopes that good food will tempt her son but the first visit doesn’t go too well.

Jack can’t remember anything of the night that changed his life, he’s terrified to leave his room and he hates the man he’s turned into. When his mom hires a chef in a desperate attempt to get Jack to engage in life, Jack is resentful but Beau begins to chip away at Jack’s blocked memories.

This is a great story that fits in perfectly with the other Romance with Recipes books (Dinner at Home, Dinner at Fiorello’s), it’s a touching story of budding love and healing. Beau is a fantastic character who is feeling slightly wounded after his divorce, when he gets a challenge in Jack he’s determined to bring Jack back to the land of the living and to being the man he knew one magical evening many years before.

Jack is suffering, he’s scared to live, there’s something lurking in his memories that has him terrified and has taken him from being a man who embraces life to one who shuns it. Jack isn’t a very nice character when we first meet him, in fact he’s downright nasty but as we learn what he has been through we understand that it’s a coping mechanism so he doesn’t have to re-join the world. When he meets Beau his behaviour doesn’t chase the man away and Jack soon learns that maybe that’s a good thing.

The story is really well written and the storyline is great, it’s a story that surprised me as I figured that the story would be straight forward and the blurb covered everything, and yes that’s true but there’s a little bit more that had my breath catching and a twinge of sadness struck me for what was lost by an act of hatred and bigotry. Rick R. Reed writes in such a way that even the expected comes as a surprise and he can tease feelings from you that you don’t expect.

While there is a touch of romance developing between Jack and Beau there is a lot of healing and facing the past before we get to that point, so don’t expect a lovefest because there’s a lot of ground to cover especially for Jack. On a side note Jack’s mother Maisie and Beau’s father Niles are great characters and it was so sweet to see their little romance play out as well.

I recommend this to those who love stories that have a little meat to them, characters who know sorrow and pain, men who have suffered but who begin to heal and bloom, and a romance that is just beginning.