Ad Librum Aeternam

Hello, folks! 

Or space colleagues? smirks

Either way, I'm glad you're here because today I've got something exquisite to show you:

The cover of Anticipated Angel by Laura Navarre, a delicious sci-fi erotic MM romance novella. Trust me, I'm halfway through the book and gosh, it's… not what I expected, but I needed it and dang do I love it! I squeal and chattered to my bestie about it, non-stop. I think he was slightly afraid of my mental state at that moment, yet he thought it sounded awesome! 

Now, how about we start this fun ride by introducing you the author?

Here we go!

tries to mimic (poorly) the Star Trek theme song

Is it me or is it getting hot in here??? fans her face overdramatically with her hand

Okay, but what about ze book, Cat?

Ah-ha! So, you want to get right into the matter, hmmmm? 

Here's a fun deal: I'll tell you more about the book, but you'll have to wait a lil' bit more for the cover… Why? Well, if you're here, reading such a forbidden MM romance trope, I bet you rather enjoy cranking up the tension till release, right? 😉

That's what I thought.

Space Cadets, More Info, Please!

Author Name: Laura Navarre

Publishing Company: Ascendant Press

Release Date: Friday, April 1 2022

Format: eBook

Is This Book Romance?: Yes

ISBN: 978-1-955236-06-5

ASIN: B09PHXMPZ2

Price: .99

Story Type: Novella

Word Count: 20,000

Cover Artist: Kim Killion

Genres: MM romance, sci fi romance, futuristic romance, space romance, space opera, new adult, erotic romance (not erotica), LGBTQ+ sci fi

Pairings: This novella contains an M/M pairing only. It's the prequel to a newly published MMMF series involving the same males among others.

LGBTQ+ Identities: Novella contains two bi males. The subsequent series is poly MMMF with three bi males and a straight/ally female.

Tropes: forbidden love, friends to lovers, first time, coming of age, most mindblowing sex ever, cultural differences, interracial relationship, alpha character, true love

Is This Part of a Series?: Yes

Series Title: Astral Heat Romance Series

Position (Number) in Series: Prequel (comes before Book 1)

Necessary to Read Previous Books: No, But It Doesn't Hurt

Other Books in Series:

1 – Interstellar Angel

2 – Renegade Angel

3 – Atomic Angel

Was This Book Published in An Earlier Edition?: No, but the book will be published again as part of the box set later in April.

WARNINGS: This book contains explicit M/M encounters. Bi-curious hero comes from an empire that crucifies lovers for same-sex unions, but no crucifixion is shown or described in the book. This MM romance prequel leads into a poly MMMF series with explicit M/M, M/F and MMMF encounters in the subsequent books.

Are you ready?

Really, really???

Bite your lip in expectation and…. BEHOLD!

TAH DAH!!!!!!!! 

Now, I gotta say I really like the striking colours and the gorgeous details.

Oh, the guys? Yeah, I guess they're… handsome. (Lesbian here, so fawn over them all you like! I just prefer reading amazing MM romances… that includes such amazing books and fanfics, too.)

Beautiful cover, in my opinion. :) 

But what the story?

I thought that was enticing enough, but I guess I can sometimes be wrong. 

You naughty, demanding reader. 😉

Here it is:

All Hail the Book Blurb!

On an alien world that crucifies men for prohibited desires, two boyhood best friends risk the ultimate punishment to explore a forbidden passion.

Nero: He’s the most intimidating guy at our intergalactic next-gen leaders’ camp, and his psycho galactic tyrant of a dad has a crucifixion fetish. Our two races are deadly enemies, but Dex was my boyhood best friend. Suddenly this summer, he’s all grown up—and suddenly he can’t seem to stop staring at me. I don’t know whether to be afraid that it’s all a figment of my telepathic imagination…or that every dangerous desire we’re forbidden to acknowledge is searingly real.

Dex: I’m one combat-to-the-death away from the imperial command I’ve devoted my life to achieve. All I need to do is keep my dick in my pants. Besides, Ben Nero’s my oathsworn brother. Not to mention the most gorgeous, most maddeningly unattainable, most sought-after guy at leaders' camp. There’s no way he’d ever look twice at a buttoned-tight, hyper-competitive, compulsive overachiever like me.

 Until the night I blundered in on Nero in the shower. Which was a total catastrophic mistake. Because now I’ve seen what he looks like naked…now I’ve heard the way he sounds when he’s moaning my name…how in blazes do I keep him at arms’ length? Because my father crucifies men for loving men.

Which means letting Ben Nero in close, the way I’m burning to do, means risking the ultimate punishment.

For both of us.

Anticipated Angel is a steamy, angsty, friends-to-lovers MM new adult sci fi romance novella and the standalone prequel to the award-winning Astral Heat Romance Series.

Of course, you have the choice not to.

But do you really want to miss out on that sexy thing?

Liked it? Want more?

Here's an excerpt just for you! 😀

Excerpt (You're Welcome!)

Still damp and dripping under the tunic and breeches he’d dragged over his desperately aroused body, breathless and panting from pounding through the jungle after his frenzied best friend, Ben Nero stood on the step outside Dex’s dormitory cabin and glared at the locked door.

Dex never locked his door. They’d been coming and going from each other’s dorms day and night for three summers straight.

Sure, Dex was arrogant, aggressive, pigheaded, surly, introverted, hypercompetitive, a compulsive overachiever. The golden boy at leaders’ camp. In other words, a typical Mogadon.

Nero had hated him on sight. Until everything changed.

Since the night Dex waded into battle to defend him, Nero had been secretly crushing on the guy.

Now—this summer—their final summer when they both gained their majority and left leaders’ camp behind forever, the sexual dynamic between them had torqued so much tighter. Their unspoken chemistry had condensed into an alchemical compound so volatile it was practically pyrophoric. With Dex grown into something between a deadly predator and a tawny god, Nero knew his secret summer crush stood in acute danger of developing into a connection fathoms deeper.

And far more lethal to his guarded heart.

But given Dex’s inherited battery of hang-ups and all that sexual baggage his best friend was carting around, the state of his heart was one secret Nero fully intended to keep.

Until tonight. Cat’s out of the cave now. Of all the possible, gods-cursed times for Dex to show up for a late-night shower…

For at least the twentieth time, he cursed his own rotten timing. Wryly he admitted the inferno of heat glowing in his chest and scorching his face had less to do with exertion than sheer embarrassment.

No use pretending it didn’t happen. Dex has been pushing me away all summer. What he just saw me doing while I moaned his name will probably finish the job and end our friendship for good.

Especially with their rival planets poised on the brink of war. Nero huffed out a breath harsh with frustration.

The next time I encounter Dex Draven after summer camp will probably be in deep space at the wrong end of a solar cannon.

Grimly Nero jabbed a finger at the entry button—for the third farking time. The chime caroled away like his whole world wasn’t imploding around him. Beyond that door, his psychic senses whispered, Dex was pacing his cabin’s spartan confines, wearing a path in the silica floor.

Staring at his own locked door, heart slamming against his sternum like a meteor bombardment. If he didn’t open it…if he didn’t answer…

Nero shoved a mental barrier between them to give the guy a little privacy as a basic matter of telepath ethics. Same way he’d been doing all summer. Fighting like hell to do the decent thing and respect his best friend’s boundaries and stay out of his head.

Now he scowled at the stubborn silence but held tight to his temper.

“Dex?” He pitched his voice to carry. “Let me in. We need to talk. Anyway, you, uh, left your blaster in the shower house.”

The silence stretched between them. A silence tighter than a pressurized airlock, shredded by the shrill scream of a hunting panther. Intuition told him the critter was on the prowl, hunting for blood and savage with hunger. If the cat tracked him to Dex’s doorstep, Nero would have to defend himself. Not with Dex’s blaster, which he’d buckled around his own hips, but with the psi fire he was learning to channel as he honed his rapidly expanding arsenal of psychic powers.

Doggedly he pounded on the door. “Come on, Dex. I know you’re in there. I could feel you fulminating halfway down the path. Open up.”

“No bloody talking. I’m not in the mood.” Dex’s muffled voice sounded surly. And more than a little desperate. “For gods’ sake, Ben, it’s after midnight. Go away.”

Nero squared his shoulders and hardened his voice. “Open this door or I’ll open it for you.” 

Violet sparks flared at his fingertips. Fiercely he reeled in the billowing surge of psi fire sizzling through his channels before he lost control and blew Dex’s door through the opposite wall. Tonight he wanted to talk to Dex, not fight him. And a full-out assault would only trigger all those primitive Mogadon instincts Dex was always striving to suppress.

Apparently some god with a fondness for bisexual adolescent telepaths decided to take pity on Nero’s awkward dilemma and whisper a word of reason in Dex’s ear. With a chirp, the maglock released and the door swung wide.

“Finally.” Pushing out a breath, Nero strode into the moonlit darkness. “What the hells, Dex…”

His words stuttered to a stop.

In the narrow confines of the shadowy cabin whose angles and corners he knew by heart, Dex stood silhouetted against the viewport. Wearing nothing but an insubstantial pair of sleeping trousers that clung to his supple hips and spectacular ass.

The light of Paragon’s three moons limned his broad shoulders and corded back and bulging triceps in a way that made Nero burn to sink his teeth in and just nibble his way down the guy’s body. Starlight flamed in Dex’s cropped golden hair and caressed the sun-bronzed skin Nero longed to trace with his tongue.

Nero sucked in a hit of oxygen to clear his damn head and felt his senses spin. He was already half-drunk on lotus pollen, a seductive sweetness like spicy sugar tickling the back of his throat. Now his head was reeling with the potent kick of Dex’s scent—that heady whiff of pheromones Mogadon males exuded that telegraphed aggression, territoriality, or arousal.

Nero ached to know which of those stimuli was driving Dex tonight.

Ferociously he fought back the temptation to shove aside his inconvenient ethics, peek inside Dex’s brain, and find out for himself. And screw his farking ethics and screw his best friend’s privacy.

And screw his best friend.

Screw his best friend senseless.

 Wait… Cat, you mentioned a series?

Yeah, I'm glad you remember!

(Now, THAT's hot! PFEW!)

Where Can I Buy Anticipated Angel? 

Right here, loves!

(PSSST, it's a universal buy link! No worries.) 

SURPRISE! 

Giveway time! WOOT WOOT!

The author Laura Navarre is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card with this reveal!

I'll leave you on my favorite cover icon :). See you in a few weeks for the review!

Thanks again to Laura Navarre and Other Worlds Ink!