Hi guys, we have J.L. Merrow popping in today with her new release Wake Up Call, we have a great excerpt, a brilliant giveaway and Aerin’s review, so check out the post and leave a comment to enter the giveaway! <3 ~Pixie~

Wake Up Call

J.L. Merrow

South London mechanic Devan Thompson has gone to Porthkennack to track down someone he’s been waiting all his life to know. But Dev’s distracted from his quest by Kyle, a broodingly handsome local of only a few months, who’s already got a reputation as an alcoholic because of his strange behaviour—including a habit of collapsing in the street.

Kyle Anthony fled to Porthkennack to escape from the ruins of his life. Still raging against his diagnosis of narcolepsy—a condition that’s cost him his job as a barrister, his lover, and all chance of normality—the last thing he wants is another relationship that’s doomed to fail. But Dev’s easy-going acceptance and adaptability, not to mention his good looks, have Kyle breaking all his self-imposed rules.

When disaster strikes Dev’s adored little sister, Kyle steps up to the plate, and Dev sees a side of his lover he wasn’t prepared for: competent, professional—and way out of Dev’s league. With one man determined that they don’t have a future, and the other fearing it, life after Porthkennack is starting to look bleak for both of them.

J.L. Merrow!

Hi, I’m JL Merrow, and I’m delighted to be here today as part of the blog tour to celebrate the release of Wake Up Call, the first of my contemporary MM romances in Riptide’s multi-author Porthkennack series.

About Porthkennack

Welcome to Porthkennack, a charming Cornish seaside town with a long and sometimes sinister history. Legend says King Arthur’s Black Knight built the fort on the headland here, and it’s a certainty that the town was founded on the proceeds of smuggling, piracy on the high seas, and the deliberate wrecking of cargo ships on the rocky shore. Nowadays it draws in the tourists with sunshine and surfing, but locals know that the ghosts of its Gothic past are never far below the surface.

This collaborative story world is brought to you by five award-winning, best-selling British LGBTQ romance authors: Alex Beecroft, Joanna Chambers, Charlie Cochrane, Garrett Leigh, and JL Merrow. Follow Porthkennack and its inhabitants through the centuries and through the full rainbow spectrum with historical and contemporary stand-alone titles.

Check out Porthkennack!

Excerpt!

From his house on the cliff, Kyle gazed out at the darkening sea, its waves at this distance no more than ripples on an endless, featureless pond. The sky’s sunset bloom was muted by the lowering clouds, their silver linings a lie. He waited for the sense of relaxation he usually got from the view to wash over him. Calm him.

It was slow to come tonight.

For God’s sake, just when he thought he’d settled in here. Had got himself enough of a reputation that people would leave him alone.

Of course, he probably shouldn’t have come somewhere with a continual influx of tourists, then, should he?

Like the young man from the café this afternoon.

The attack had come on suddenly—Kyle barely had time to get to the bench before he was out like a light.

He’d come round to the sound of a concerned London accent. When he’d opened his eyes, he’d half thought he was still asleep and dreaming. There’d been a young man bending over him, his brown eyes impossibly large, staring right at Kyle from only inches away. His hand had been on Kyle’s shoulder, his grip firm. Warm.

He was breathtakingly handsome. Light-tan skin—genetic, not from a tanning bed or out of a bottle. Black hair, cropped aggressively short at the sides and gelled up on top. Casual clothes. Here on holiday, of course, although he didn’t seem the sort to be a family man.

His face had looked somehow familiar. Not in itself, but in its lines, its features. Maybe his mixed-race ancestry included some Turkish blood, like a lot of the darker-skinned residents of the town.

Not that it was any of Kyle’s business.

The young man had laughed and joked with him, as if Kyle’s humiliating collapse was nothing to worry about. For a moment, it almost hadn’t been. For a moment, Kyle had almost believed it was something that could be taken in stride. Just another part of him. Something to joke about.

He hadn’t felt so normal, so light since he’d come to Cornwall. No, since he’d been diagnosed and realised he wasn’t ever going to get better.

Then it had all gone wrong somehow. Something Kyle had said, something he’d done, had made the young man take a step back, his face suddenly wary. The weight had settled on Kyle’s shoulders once more.

He’d left as soon as he could marshal his wretched, treacherous limbs to carry him.

The young man had had an interesting face, though. A strong jawline, almost belligerent, that was at total odds with those soft, dark eyes of his.

Kyle reached for his sketchbook and pencils almost before he knew what he was doing. He frowned, very deliberately sat down and, with a soft pencil, sketched out the scene before him, devoid of all human life.

Then he tore out the page, crumpled it, and threw it blindly at the bin behind him.

Read more at: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/wake-up-call (just click the excerpt tab)

About J.L.

JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.

She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novella Muscling Through is a 2013 EPIC ebook Award finalist. She is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.

Connect with JL:

• Website: www.jlmerrow.com
• Twitter: @jlmerrow
• Facebook: facebook.com/jl.merrow
• Goodreads: goodreads.com/.J_L_Merrow

Giveaway!

To celebrate the release of Wake Up Call, one lucky winner will receive a $20 Riptide credit!

Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

Review

Title: Wake Up Call

Series: Porthkennack #1

Author: J.L. Merrow

Genre: British Contemporary

Length: Novel (320 pages)

Publisher: Riptide Publishing (April 17th 2017)

Heat Level: Low – Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts

Blurb: South London mechanic Devan Thompson has gone to Porthkennack to track down someone he’s been waiting all his life to know. But Dev’s distracted from his quest by Kyle, a broodingly handsome local of only a few months, who’s already got a reputation as an alcoholic because of his strange behaviour—including a habit of collapsing in the street.

Kyle Anthony fled to Porthkennack to escape from the ruins of his life. Still raging against his diagnosis of narcolepsy—a condition that’s cost him his job as a barrister, his lover, and all chance of normality—the last thing he wants is another relationship that’s doomed to fail. But Dev’s easy-going acceptance and adaptability, not to mention his good looks, have Kyle breaking all his self-imposed rules.

When disaster strikes Dev’s adored little sister, Kyle steps up to the plate, and Dev sees a side of his lover he wasn’t prepared for: competent, professional—and way out of Dev’s league. With one man determined that they don’t have a future, and the other fearing it, life after Porthkennack is starting to look bleak for both of them.

ISBN: 9781626495401

Product Link: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/wake-up-call

Reviewer: Aerin

Review: This was a beautiful, charming, touching story set in the tourist town of Porthkennack on the Cornish coast of England. Aside from the authentic British dialog, I’m used to getting lots of humor in Merrow’s books and each book in the past was a guarantee to make me smile and laugh; this book was different. Wake Up Call is so much more than a humorous book; it’s touching and sad with a touch of gloominess that follows Devan Thompson like a dark cloud.

evan is a young man (early 20s) who grew up in the foster care system, where he met his foster sister Tasha, the only family he has. Dev came to Porthkennack to track down and possibly meet and start a relationship with his birth mother, who gave him up for adoption after birth. What was supposed to be a three week vacation reserved for connecting with his mother, ended up being a journey of new friendships and love. Dev meets a prickly waitress names Ceri, whom he starts a tentative but everlasting friendship with. Dev also meets Kyle, a man in his 30s who people assume to be a drunk, given his habit of collapsing randomly all over town.

Kyle is definitely not an alcoholic; he abandoned his job as a criminal attorney when he started suffering from narcolepsy with cataplexy, a disorder that causes him to suddenly fall asleep during the day and to lose muscle tone and suffer from a form of temporary paralysis. Leaving everything behind and breaking up with his longtime partner, Kyle escaped to Porthkennack and isolated himself from the world around him. Kyle has pretty much given up on himself, refuses treatment for his condition because medicating means accepting and he isn’t ready to accept his new normal. He doesn’t try to make any friends in Porthkennack and doesn’t correct the locals when they start thinking he’s a drunk.

Dev and Kyle are immediately drawn to each other, a connection that I couldn’t help but be excited about. They become friends and instinctively trust each other, and becoming lovers only serves to show how good they are for each other. But Kyle doesn’t want to saddle Dev with his condition and believes Dev deserves a life with a younger, healthy man who can offer him the life he deserves. Dev wants more than anything to give their relationship a real chance, but fears a man as successful as Kyle is embarrassed to openly share his life with a mechanic with no education.

Dev’s sister needs help and Kyle steps to the plate, getting the confidence he needs to take charge of his life again. Unfortunately, once Dev’s sister and Mal become an active part of this story, we get less focus on Dev and Kyle, right when they need it the most. While I loved seeing Dev with his make-shift little family, I craved seeing Kyle become part of it as well. It seemed to me like the two separate parts of Dev’s life (Kyle/ Mal, Ceri & Tasha) never quite merged together; we are told they did in a beautiful epilogue, but we were not a part of that particular journey.

The “Kyle and Dev move in together” chapter of their lives also happens off page, and I thought the reader needed to be a part of that, after all the uncertainty regarding Kyle and Dev throughout the book.

This book is a beautiful start to a new series and I’m very excited to read the next one, even though I have no idea who we’re going to be reading about.

Check out the other blogs on the blog tour!