Love and Lust recs: 'Connections' and 'Protector of the Alpha'

K.C. Wells and Parker Williams together write a wonderful gay BDSM series called Collars & Cuffs. Connections and Protector of the Alpha are examples of the breathtaking, powerful stories they publish separately as each takes a different direction in their writing before coming back to the series they write together. One writes a deeply romantic story, while the other delves into magic, shifters and true evil. Something for everyone here today.

Connections by K.C. Wells

What it's about (courtesy Island Tales Press):

With one week until Christmas, David Poulter is on his way to a reunion of his chemistry degree group, 15 years after they all graduated from Manchester University. He's looking forward to seeing his old friends. They've lost touch over the years, and it will be good to see them all again. Especially Cameron Trent. Talk about the one that got away ... Still, David wasn't out when he was a student, and as for Cameron, David didn't have a clue as to his friend's sexuality.

So when David finds himself unexpectedly sitting opposite Cameron on the train to Manchester, he can't believe it. And when he learns that not only is Cameron gay, but that his confident exterior hid a shy young man who was too nervous to come right out and ask him on a date all those years ago, the trip up north takes a new direction — one that David is not going to forget. And Christmas might be very different this year.

Why you should read it: The holiday season is the time for happy little novellas about families, however you define the word "family." Connections begins with a class reunion just before Christmas of a dozen friends who majored in chemistry at Manchester University 15 years ago. Two of them accidentally meet up on the train to Manchester. Each man is gay, unknown to each other, and each man had a secret crush on the other during their college years.

When they get to the reunion hotel, many secrets are revealed as David and Cameron individually and together decide to explore what could have been. Quite certain they are being discreet, just as their admiration of each other was unnoticed by others during their school years, David and Cameron are shocked when a certain bet is revealed.

This is a sweet, sexy novella about love delayed but not forgotten, friends (and one not-so-friendly character), and it has the HEA ending K.C. Wells is known for. A quick read, very satisfying on a cold winter evening by the fire, and highly recommended.

Protector of the Alpha by Parker Williams

What it's about (courtesy Parker Williams):

Adopted at an early age by a wealthy family, Jake Davis has always seemed to have an easy life. Even in college he was blessed with good grades and an apparently clear path to a pro football career. Good thing his best friend keeps hanging around to keep his head from getting too swollen.

Zakiya Incekara has always been ... odd. Being fluent in six languages and having a flair for international cooking should open the world to him, but those skills leave him isolated.

When Jake sees Zak for the first time, with water beading down his slender form, something inside him shifts, and it hungers for Zak. To have him. To claim him. And Jake knows that whatever it is, it won't be denied.

When they are approached by a man who claims knowledge of a secret past they share, Jake and Zak are thrust into a world they would never have believed existed. The forests of Alaska might seem an odd place to find your destiny, but these men will meet the challenges head on, as they learn that sometimes you have to make sacrifices to be Protector of the Alpha.

Why you should read it: Usually a book is either character-driven or plot-driven. A really good book is both, and such is the case with this shifter story.

Jake is a popular football player, well liked by everyone on campus, but he has his eyes on the one person who constantly pushes him away. Zak is brilliant, not into sports, and he speaks in an unusual manner, very formally and never using contractions. His personal space is extremely important to him, and he will lecture anyone who gets too close that they did not have his permission to touch him.

These men are drawn together, although neither understands why. Even Jake's best friend, Casey, is baffled by the fact that Jake stalks the unwilling Zak. All Jake will say is he needs to protect Zak.

On to the secondary characters … Jake's parents have essentially raised Casey since Casey's own parents have little time or interest in their son. They are even paying Casey's college tuition on the condition that he attends the same college as Jake. The reason for Casey's importance to Jake's family is a mystery, as is the explanation for Jake's parents' sudden disappearance.

The angst in this story comes from the many unexplained events and characters cast against type. Oh, and there is a villain, one of the most evil bad guys to grace the pages of a book. The more he is attacked, the stronger his magic becomes until … well, you'll have to read it for yourself to discover what happens when the plot takes Jake, Casey and Zak to an Alaskan forest, of all places, where they encounter this malevolent entity as well as a variety of shifters who need a leader. And why is that skunk stalking and spraying Casey with his stink all over the forest?

I couldn't put this novel down from start to finish. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories of magic, evildoers, heroes of all kinds, steamy sex in the cold wilderness and the fact that love is love, no matter the form it takes.

Becky Condit is a widow, mother of three and grandmother of 10 who reads all kinds of books, but her go-to comfort books are erotic romances. A romance novel coupled with just-out-of-the-oven chocolate-chip cookies and a glass of cold milk is her idea of heaven. She reads and reviews more than 250 books a year, so you won't often find her without her Kindle in hand, but when you do, she'll probably be gardening, doing needle crafts, working in her upholstery workshop and spending time with her family.