Showing posts with label Pat Henshaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat Henshaw. Show all posts

20 December 2017

Release Day Blitz and Review + Giveaway: Short Order by Pat Henshaw

 
Title: Short Order
Series: Foothills Pride #8
Author: Pat Henshaw
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication date: December 13, 2017
Price: $3.99/£2.99
Format: eBook
Genre: Contemporary Gay Romance
Cover Design: AngstyG
Length: 28,400 words/89 pages
Add on Goodreads


 Synopsis

When recent horticulture graduate Dr. Fenton Miller arrives in Stone Acres, California, he thinks his only concern is which job offer to accept after spending the holidays working at his cousin’s plant nursery. But after he rents a room from another shorter-than-average man, sous-chef John Barton, Fen falls in lust.
While he’s attracted to Fen, John’s got bigger concerns when two men from his past arrive in town and pressure him to return to San Francisco. Although John tries to stop Fen from getting involved, Fen realizes his lover is in trouble and is determined to protect him.
As the holidays get closer and Fen makes his own enemy, the joy of the season gets lost in the ill will around them. To ensure love triumphs, Fen and John must stand tall to show that short, dark, and handsome is a recipe for love.





Teaser
 


Excerpt

That night I stood freezing at Barton’s door, admiring Blue Cottage. The snow drifts piled on the lawn made the house look greeting-card perfect. I searched for a doorbell. Instead, a lion-headed knocker snarled at me. I grinned. Every house needed an intimidating guardian, right?
A man who looked about my age and height opened the door and slipped out, shutting it behind him. I was curious to see inside, but I got that the guy wanted his privacy. No problem.
“Hi. I’m Fen.”
He looked me over, then turned to the left along the shoveled porch. As he walked, he played with the keyring, bouncing a key in his hand. Did I make him nervous? If so, was that a good thing?
“This way.”
Okay. I took a breath and followed his pert ass and brisk steps as we rounded the porch to a steep staircase. From my brief glance at his face, he seemed okay. I was still slightly put off by his brusque manner. But hey, I reminded myself, I was renting from him, not fucking him.
In silence I followed him up to a small porch and a solid-looking back door, which he opened after only a little fumbling.
I was greeted by the stuffy, closed-up odor of a place long left undisturbed.
“You’d be my first renter. It’s furnished, but I can store anything you don’t want.” He made quick eye contact with me. The words erupted from him like I made him uncomfortable or something. Maybe it was my piercing and the tattoo, or maybe the hair color. I tried a smile, but he blushed and turned away, gesturing to the rooms.
Even though the air inside was chilly, I looked around and fell even more in love than I had when I’d first seen the house. The 1940s era furniture and knickknacks turned what could have been sterile rooms into my kind of home. I exhaled, letting the ambience settle in my soul as I wandered through a country kitchen, tiny dining room, sitting room, two bedrooms, and a classic bathroom, ending eventually at a circular tower room. I fell even deeper in love along the way as I touched the scratched kitchen table, a velveteen-covered parlor settee, a solid-looking four-poster bed, and the needlepoint-cushioned window seat in the tower.
If I were Barton, I’d charge thousands a month for this place. I prayed he wasn’t me and was relieved when my prayers were answered.
“You want to keep the furniture?” He still didn’t look at me as he bent over the kitchen table to fill out the rental agreement. Who needed him staring? I could live with letting his voice pour over me and seeing his kissable lips.
“I can’t imagine living here without all of it.” Or maybe even you, I thought, eyeing his pert butt wiggling at me as he wrote.
He stopped, stood, and eyed me for a few seconds before bending and going back to writing. I hadn’t said that about his butt out loud, had I?
As I was daydreaming about his ass and the scarred table, he stopped writing, looked over the form, and finally twisted it toward me. “Sign here, initial here, and date it. Then I need your rent for the month.”
I was signing before he changed his mind. The rent was ridiculously cheap. “No deposit?” There had to be a catch, right?
“No.”
I glanced up. He was gazing down at the table, or maybe at my hands. Or my groin? I signed as fast as I could and wrote a check to John Barton, the name on the rental agreement. So he had a first name, and we had a deal.

I drove back to my cousin’s house whistling. Within an hour, and with Beth and Kate’s help, I was moved in. Having only clothes and electronics made the move a one-trip job. Then I went food shopping for breakfast stuff and frozen dinners. We all celebrated by eating a late dinner outside town at a diner called the Rock Bottom Cafe. Renting a place with a wonderful kitchen hadn’t automatically taught me to cook.

Even with an enigma for a landlord, my life was perfect.


Review

Short Order by Pat Henshaw is a short novella about a horticulture graduate Dr. Fenton Miller  who moves back to Stone Acres, California after graduation. Working in his cousin’s plant nursery, Fenton rents a room from sous-chef, John Barton and instantly falls in lust for the shorter than average man. John keeps his distance from Fen, not letting him into his past. He becomes an enigma that holds many secrets. Then again, Fen does as well. It’s not until Leo and Ricky show up that the past surfaces causing John and Fen to open up further to each other.


I’ve had the pleasure of reading one other book in the Foothill Series by Pat Henshaw. It was the first one that came out called What’s In A Name?.  Short Order did not disappoint. For an 80 page novella, there was quite a bit of detail and back story given. The characters were well thought out and the world development was quite nice. What I would like to see though is for this to be extended so that we can get a better glimpse into the lives of the characters. All in all,  I would recommend Short Order by Pat Henshaw to anyone looking for a cozy afternoon read.





Buy The Book

 Amazon UK 
Kobo  

Rafflecopter Giveaway
Enter to win one of THREE $10 Coffee Gift Cards




About the Author


Pat Henshaw, author of the Foothills Pride Stories, has spent her life surrounded by words:  Teaching English composition at the junior college level; writing book reviews for newspapers, magazines, and websites; helping students find information as a librarian; and promoting PBS television programs.
Pat was born and raised in Nebraska where she promptly left the cold and snow after college, living at various times in Texas, Colorado, Northern Virginia, and Northern California.  Pat enjoys travel, having visited Mexico, Canada, Europe, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Egypt, and Europe, including a cruise down the Danube.


Her triumphs are raising two incredible daughters who daily amaze her with their power and compassion.  Fortunately, her incredibly supportive husband keeps her grounded in reality when she threatens to drift away while writing fiction.
 

Follow The Author



BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE



December 16
Noteworthy Book Reviews GUEST POST AND REVIEW

December 17
The Way She Reads GUEST POST
The Blogger Girls GUEST POST

December 18
December 19
December 20
December 22
Drops of Ink GUEST POST


~
at 3 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

21 November 2017

Review: What's In A Name? By Pat Henshaw



Title: What's In A Name?
Series: Foothills Pride Series Book 1

Author: Pat Henshaw

Cover Artist: AngstyG
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Gay Romance
Length: Novella


Synopsis

A Foothills Pride Story

Barista Jimmy Patterson thinks it's a good idea to get rip-roaring drunk on his birthday after he’s dumped by his boyfriend. When the burly owner of Stonewall’s Bar rescues Jimmy, the night starts to look up. 

Now Jimmy just wants to know the bartender's first name since he's worn a different name tag every time Jimmy's seen him. "Guy" Stone gives Jimmy seven guesses, one for each night he takes Jimmy out on a date. 

While Jimmy’s trying to come up with his name, he's distracted by the destruction of his coffee shop and what looks more and more like a hate crime.


Excerpt

Falling in love in your 30s, I'm here to tell you, is the shits.  Take it from me.  You're rolling along, minding your own business--in my case as the working owner of Stonewall Saloon--and then wham!  You think you're immune, especially since you see so many crap-ass guys doing stupid shit every night.  Maybe it's the bar.  Who knows?  I never thought good guys went to bars a lot until I met Jimmy.


Along about November a year or so ago, Jimmy Patterson and his stupid as fuck boyfriend started dropping by Stonewall three, four times a week around 8 or 9 and staying sometimes until closing, but mostly for a couple, three hours.


The boyfriend, this asshole named Alex, would parade in wearing whatever passed as the latest style and park Jimmy on a stool at the bar.

Now, see, Jimmy's the real friendly type.  Shoot, he was even nice to Gus, a regular left over from when my Grandpa was owner and bartender.  Gus can't see or hear too well now and for some reason gets on the nerves of my younger customers all the time.  Mostly because you gotta yell and repeat what you say to him about a million times.  And then he still doesn't get what you said.


Jimmy never blinked an eye at Gus.  Just treated him like all the other guys who sat down next to him to bullshit.


"Good boy, that Jimmy," Gus'd tell me over and over when Jimmy and Dickhead came in.


I had to agree.  During slow periods, Jimmy and I'd talk about all sorts of things.  He wanted to open a coffee shop in Old Town, around where Stonewall is, and asked me questions about places along the strip.  We even talked quarterlies during tax time and shit like that.


There's a few queer-run places now the big city guys have discovered us, and Jimmy wanted to know how they got along.  Yeah, sure, there's some resistance from blowhards like Tommy Thompson and a few others, but mostly we're a live and let live kinda place.


At Christmas we laughed about some of the stupid ass holiday decorations along Main Street.  Jimmy'd even asked if I was going to decorate.  My answer?  Blow me.  For a minute it looked like he considered it.


The more we talked, the more lost I was.  Got to the point I told one of the other bartenders to come get me if I was in the back when Jimmy came in.  Go figure.  Never done that in my life.


In the meantime, every time they were here, Dickhead the boyfriend was making the rounds.  I caught him a few times sucking cock in the back.  Made me so mad I nearly hit him up one side and down the other.  I didn't though cuz I didn't want Jimmy to stop coming in.


It bothered me though.  You know, one of those moral dilemmas.  Should I tell Jimmy or not?  So I started asking around.


Didn't help when I learned Jimmy'd moved into a condo with the Dickhead.  What kind of friend tells a guy his boyfriend's a scumbag?  On the other hand, what kind of friend keeps the news to himself?  Moral dilemma, like I said.


Okay, so we're coming up to Jimmy's birthday, which I know because after I had another bartender card him, I wrote the date down.  I decide to give the Dickhead one more chance.  See if he could man up on the big night.  I knew a bunch of Jimmy's friends were gonna throw him a party at Stonewall, you know try to get him drunk, all the regular crap.  So I'd better be seeing Dickhead stand up and act right.


By that point, I've already been smacked around by Jimmy-love and am ready to beat down walls to make him happy on his big day.  He's never gonna see his 20s again and he's feeling the pain.  At least that's what he's said.  I just want the guy to be happy, real happy.
What happened?  Well, yeah, you gotta read Jimmy's side of the story.  I mean, don't listen to me.  I can't tell a story about love.  Shit, I can barely tell a clean joke. Just listen to Jimmy.  He's got it covered.

Review 

What’s in a name? by Pat Henshaw is a short novella about a Barista by the name of Jimmy Patterson who gets dumped at a bar on his birthday by his boyfriend Alex. The burly bartender who we first know as Alex 2 then later as “Guy”, comes in to save the day when Jimmy gets drunk off his backside and finds himself in the bathroom with his head over the toilet bowl. All Jimmy wants is to know the bartender’s first name. The story starts unfolding when “Guy” makes a deal with Jimmy. He has seven days to guess “Guy”’s first name; one guess each day.

While each day for the next week, Jimmy and Guy’s relationship becomes deeper to the point where they end up falling in love and do find their HEA, there is so much more to this story than just your typical boy meets boy, boy falls in love with boy, they live happily ever after type scenario. Jimmy and his co-owner of Penny’s coffee shop learn that not everything is going to be a bed of roses as thriving business owners when someone ends up trashing their mall branch shop. Jimmy and Guy have their own issues that they need to work out through the week that they’re together as well.

What I found interesting as well as refreshing about What’s in a Name? is that right from the very beginning the book had a fairytale feel to it. First there was the feel of a Rumpelstiltskin story in so far as having to guess Guy’s name and getting seven guess’s to figure out out. I’m not going to give away the ending of the book or the answer in this regards but the fairytale overlays continue throughout the book.

There were quite a few twists and turns to What’s in a Name along with unexpected surprises that pop up throughout the read such as Jimmy’s ex boyfriend Alex, who we meet at the beginning of the book, showing up later. There was some mystery to this story as well and the person we thought was the culprit wasn’t the one “Who done it” after all.

The one big downfall that I found while reading the story was that “Guy’s” first name became predictable by at least the middle of the story for me. Luckily that wasn’t the main plot otherwise there was a good chance I would have lost interest in the book. There were quite a few underlying and overlying aspects to What’s in a name that it kept me coming back to see what happened between the two men. What’s in a name is a quick read that I got through in a day and it took me that long only because it was during the weekend when I had other things going on. I would definitely recommend this to my friends.


Buy Link





Meet The Author

Currently living in Sacramento, California, and a former book reviewer, Pat grew up in the middle of the United States and subsequently lived on all three coasts. At various times, she has been a librarian, an English composition instructor, and a theatrical costumer. She's also traveled around Europe, Central America, and Asia.


Follow The Author

Facebook
Goodreads
Amazon
Instagram
Dreamspinner Press
Google +
Twitter



at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)