Hi peeps, we have Josephine Myles stopping by today with her new re-release Scrap, we have a great excerpt, a brilliant giveaway and Aerin’s review, so check out the post and click that giveaway link! <3 ~Pixie~

Scrap

Josephine Myles

In a battle of the alpha males, who will end up on top?

On the surface, Derek “Call me Dare” Nelson’s life is simple. He’s happy doing up campervans while living in a slightly illegal caravan in his riverfront yard. But life gets more complicated when a smooth-talking, handsome property developer offers to buy the land out from under his feet—the very same man Dare had to escort from a party nine months ago for causing a drunken scene.

Grant Matravers is living a double life, attempting to adjust to weekends as a single, soon-to-be-divorced gay man while staying in the closet during the week. The strain of keeping up appearances at work while missing his kids is bad enough, but add in an attraction to the shaven-headed, tattooed, totally unsuitable Dare and Grant finds his emotional barriers wearing dangerously thin.

Dare blasts through those barriers in a way Grant isn’t prepared for, challenging everything he thought he knew about himself as a gay man. But as their chemistry heats up and the intimacy between them grows, Grant edges towards a decision that could blow up in his face. Exposing a mess of complications that could destroy any chance for their happily ever after.

Product Warnings: Contains one sharp-suited man desperately in need of redemption, another whose thuggish exterior does a pretty good job of hiding his heart of gold, frotting in camper vans, a sensual head-shaving scene and several (noisy) guest appearances from Mas.

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Excerpt!

Drunk Suit was still sobbing silently, but the heaving of his shoulders seemed to be slowing. Thank fuck they were in the maudlin stage now. He’d looked pretty bleedin’ angry with Mas back in the shop. And with Perry too, especially after the bloke had thrown that glass of wine in his face. Not that Dare wasn’t capable of handling an angry drunk—like he’d told Skull-crusher, he’d had enough practice with his nearest and dearest—but it was always easier when they’d got past that stage.

“So, where do you live?” Dare asked, pulling out his phone.

“What’s it to you?” Drunk Suit peered at him through his fingers before straightening up and folding his arms.

Okay, it was going to be like that, was it? “I’m going to need to know an address to give the taxi firm.” Dare used his calmest tones. No point fanning the flames, even though he’d thought Drunk Suit had been kind of sexy back there in the shop, radiating fury and macho possessiveness. Definitely a good-looking bloke, whatwith the chin dimple, bright blue eyes and dishevelled black hair. He might not have been Dare’s usual type— way too slick, for a start—but he was attractive enough to proposition if he hadn’t been five sheets to the wind. Ah well. You couldn’t have everything.

“I’ve got a car.” Drunk Suit stumbled out of the doorway and looked up and down the street. He fumbled a set of keys out of his pocket. “Left it outside a bar. It’s near here somewhere. Maybe down on the main road. You know, that weirdo’s place with the caterpillar on a mushroom in the garden.”

Dare snatched the keys out of his hand. “Oh no you don’t. There’s no way I’m letting you behind the wheel of a car right now.”

“What the fuck?”

“You’re pissed, mate. Totally rat-arsed. Come on. If you need your car getting home, I can drive you there.”

Drunk Suit straightened up. He was almost as tall as Dare, but not as brawny. If it came down to it, Dare could take him in a fight. And from the way he dropped his eyes submissively, Drunk Suit seemed to realise that. He still had some fight left in him, though. “You think I’m going to let some random thug drive my car?”

Dare smiled. “I don’t think you’ve got much choice, mate. Now, why don’t we try to find it before you end up getting it clamped.”

They found the car down on Stokes Croft, right outside the Zam Zam Shisha Garden, as promised. It was the kind of wheels Dare had expected from a man dressed in a suit that fancy. A sedate but classy black Beemer, the inside all in cream leather and with a lovely walnut dash.

He whistled as he ran his hand reverently over the bonnet. “She’s a beauty. Is she the 7-series?”

“She certainly is. You see why I don’t want you to drive her?”

“Yeah, but I bet you don’t want to risk wrapping her around a lamppost either. So why don’t you just settle yourself down in the passenger seat and let me do my thing.”

“You ever driven a BMW before?”

“No, but I’ve driven just about every other make of car and van there is. Trust me, I know what I’m doing. I’ll get you home in one piece.”

Drunk Suit visibly deflated and pulled open the passenger-side door. Dare smiled to himself as he seated himself behind the wheel. Fuck, she even smelled expensive. Now why hadn’t his dad ever had cars like this coming through the yard? Maybe if he had, Dare wouldn’t have switched over to camper vans when the old man kicked the bucket.

He turned the key in the ignition, and the engine purred to life. Beautiful.

He looked across to his reluctant passenger. “Now where is home, exactly?”

“Surrey.”

“You’re having a laugh, mate. I’m not driving you all the way to fucking London. You got somewhere closer I can drop you off? A hotel, maybe?”

Drunk Suit gave him a crooked grin. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a flat over in Hotwells too. You know Riverside Place?”

“That’s more like it. What, you’ve got two homes, have you?”

“That’s right. One with the wife in Surrey, and one over here so I can have fun.” The bloke laughed, but it came out bitter and kind of lonely sounding.

“It’s all right for some, eh? The rest of us commoners have to make do with one, you know.”

Drunk Suit just sniffed.

Dare entertained himself by passing comment on the various old haunts of his they passed by on the way. Most of them had been tarted up by now, and a few had been razed to the ground. But that was the way of things near the riverside. What had been a run-down dock when Dare was growing up was now some of the most sought after real estate in Bristol. Drunk Suit didn’t make much of a response to Dare’s monologue, but that was okay.

Dare was used to talking to his dog for hours on end, and she rarely gave him more than a snort in response. Maybe an enthusiastic hand licking on occasion.

He could do without one of those from Drunk Suit. Enthusiastic licking of other body parts wouldn’t have gone amiss, though, if the bloke hadn’t been quite so out of it. Right now, he wouldn’t trust the bloke not to pass out or throw up before they got down to business.

About Josephine!

English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.

Jo’s novel Stuff won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Bisexual Romance, and her novella Merry Gentlemen won the 2014 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Romantic Comedy. She loves to be busy, and is currently having fun trying to work out how she is going to fit in her love of writing, dressmaking and attending cabaret shows in fabulous clothing around the demands of a preteen with special needs and an incessantly curious toddler.

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Review

Title: Scrap

Series: Bristol Collections #3

Author: Josephine Myles

Genre: Contemporary

Length: Novel (325)

Publisher: Josephine Myles (22^nd June 2017)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥ 3 hearts

Reviewer: Aerin

Blurb: In a battle of the alpha males, who will end up on top?

On the surface, Derek “Call me Dare” Nelson’s life is simple. He’s happy doing up campervans while living in a slightly illegal caravan in his riverfront yard. But life gets more complicated when a smooth-talking, handsome property developer offers to buy the land out from under his feet—the very same man Dare had to escort from a party nine months ago for causing a drunken scene.

Grant Matravers is living a double life, attempting to adjust to weekends as a single, soon-to-be-divorced gay man while staying in the closet during the week. The strain of keeping up appearances at work while missing his kids is bad enough, but add in an attraction to the shaven-headed, tattooed, totally unsuitable Dare and Grant finds his emotional barriers wearing dangerously thin.

Dare blasts through those barriers in a way Grant isn’t prepared for, challenging everything he thought he knew about himself as a gay man. But as their chemistry heats up and the intimacy between them grows, Grant edges towards a decision that could blow up in his face. Exposing a mess of complications that could destroy any chance for their happily ever after.

Product Warnings: Contains one sharp-suited man desperately in need of redemption, another whose thuggish exterior does a pretty good job of hiding his heart of gold, frotting in camper vans, a sensual head-shaving scene and several (noisy) guest appearances from Mas.

ISBN: B072FH86BC

Product Link: Amazon

Review: This isn’t like Myles’s other books in this series. Definitely not what I expected at all, not after the delight I got from the first two books. Where did all the humor go? I remember laughing and smiling the whole time while reading book two, but I found no humor in this book. Aside from the stray smile here and there, this was a pretty serious read.

There no real angst in this book, instead it deals with coming out later in life, and the family dynamics after the bombshell was dropped. I can’t say I liked Grant in book two when he was introduced to us, but I didn’t dislike him either. Somehow, I got a partial dislike for Dare and I was apprehensive to start reading this book, since Grant and Dare are the main characters.

I’m happy to say that I really like both Grant and Dare a lot at the end of this book; I love Grant’s courage and determination to be happy with whom he is, and I liked Dare, he was such a kind-hearted person. I liked the way Dare supported his brother and never gave up on him.

That being said, I couldn’t warm up to them as a couple. I liked the whole different class concept, it shows that we don’t have to be alike others in order to match perfectly. In this case, the relationship between them didn’t work for me at all. Maybe because I didn’t quite feel any chemistry between Dare and Grant.

They had sex a lot, there’s more sex in this book than there was in the first two books combined; and it’s dirty, sweaty, kinky sex that two men would have when there’s no emotional attachment. I just couldn’t help but wish there was some emotion involved. And I know they’re supposedly in love, but I couldn’t see that either. And the way Grant went from exclusively a top to a hungry bottom who never wanted to top again wasn’t very believable.

I enjoyed Grant’s relationship with his daughters and I appreciated his willingness to stay friends with his wife. I liked that his daughters came first, that should be any parent’s priority.

One aspect that amused me, and not necessarily in a good way, was Grant’s boss’s determination to buy Dare’s land under any means. He was such a deplorable human being; I loathed him from the bottom of my heart.

But the whole Mob showdown was ridiculous; it was a rather silly case of since you showed me yours, I’ll show you mine, and sadly we’re not talking about cocks. In my experience, when one’s being threatened the police are notified and involved; I think I would’ve preferred that route.

Overall this was a good book, and it can be read as a standalone. There’s mention of two of the characters from book two, but it’s not necessary to read the previous books in this series. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy coming-out stories.