Release Day Review, Excerpt & Giveaway: Medley (Changing Lanes #2) by Layla Reyne

Medley by Layla Reyne
Series: Changing Lanes #2
Will the race for gold cost them their hearts?
Publisher: Self-Publish
Release Date: April 30 (Print & Ebook)
Length (Print & Ebook): Approx 270 pages
Subgenre: MM Romance, Bisexual Romance, Contemporary Romance, Sports Romance, New Adult Romance

With Medley, Layla Reyne combines love, self-discovery, swimming, and the excitement of the Olympics in to one stellar event. I loved Jacob and Bas’s story. --Anna Zabo, author of Syncopation

Book synopsis:
 
Sebastian Stewart was never Mr. Dependable; he was more the good-time guy who only wanted to swim, party, and ink tattoos. Until he cost his team the Olympic gold four years ago. Bas is determined to do right this time around—by his medley relay team and his rookie mentee.

Jacob Burrows is in over his head. The Olympic experience—from the hazing, to the endless practices, to the unrelenting media—makes the shy nineteen-year-old’s head spin. He’s trying to be everything to everyone while trying not to fall for his gorgeous tattooed teammate who just gets him—gets his need to fix things, his dorky pirate quips, and his bisexuality.

When Jacob falters under the stress, threatening his individual races and the medley relay gold, he needs Bas’s help to escape from drowning. Bas, however, fearing a repeat of his mistakes four years ago, pushes Jacob away, sure he’ll only let Jacob down. But the only path to salvaging gold is for Jacob to finally ask for what he needs—the heart of the man he loves—and for Bas to become the dependable one.

“How can you be your best when you’re not sure if your best will measure up? That’s the dilemma facing Bas and Jacob, as they deal with the immense pressure of swimming for Olympic gold while also trying to sort out their tangled hearts.” --Layla Reyne

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Excerpt:

Lawyer, priest, shrink.

Maybe bartender.

Ask someone to name their confessor and those were the usual suspects.

Bas would argue tattoo artist for the last spot in the top five. Humming needle in hand, he’d heard more than a few confessions over the years.

From the second a client stepped into his shop, they told a story. The design they picked. How much liquid courage it took. The tale of joy or woe that spilled from their lips after the first shock of the needle. Their reaction when it was done—relief, pain, regret, pleasure.

He’d heard almost every story.

In love, in lust, in rebellion, in hate, in freedom, in chains.

But he still couldn’t figure out the story that’d nagged him most the past ten days. He swiveled on the stool in the rented studio, droplets of dark ink splattering his worn jeans. “You gonna give me something to go on, Pup?”

Straddling the fancy tattoo-massage chair, Jacob laid a cheek in the cradle and glanced to his side. Mint green eyes, tequila-hazy, peered out from under long burnished lashes. “This was your idea, not mine.”

Maybe there was the start of a story. Why did his nineteen-year-old teammate have a fake ID, and why was he so friendly with Mr. Cuervo? Was it the same story as countless other college undergraduates?

Bas didn’t think so.

Jacob’s eyes slipped shut again, lips turning up in a faint smile. “You said you needed to get out of there and work.” He shrugged his bare left shoulder, the one closest to Bas. The breaststroker’s upper back was wide, like most swimmers’, his delts and lats hard and lean beneath suntanned skin. Not yet fully developed, given his age, but stronger than most. “So do what you need,” Jacob said. “Work it out.”

There.

There was the start of the story.

What I thought about Medley

Bas is desperate to make sure he doesn't repeat the mistakes of the last Olympics which cost the medley team the gold medal. He's determined to do the right thing, and that includes staying away from the pup, Jacob. Jacob is the newest member of the team and he's got what it takes to get the medley team to that gold medal, but it's all so very complicated.

The complication? Well, Bas has feelings for Jacob and Jacob has feeling for Bas. Both bisexual, they share an understanding of how people don't get what that really means. I liked the inclusion of the women swimmers in this part of the storyline.  And since they are rooming together during the practices before the Olympics, Bas feels the need to deny his feelings for Jacob, thinking they will impact their ability to bring home the gold. Until one fateful night when Bas gives Jacob what he wants and needs, leaving Jacob devastated and unsure the next day. His confidence in tatters, Jacob enters the Olympic competition ripe for head games from the competition and he get those head games from Bas's ex. 

Only Bas can fix this and it takes him a while to see that. I really loved these two guys and what they went through in the midst of the Olympic games. They are both trying to do the right thing and yet everything turns out wrong. While there is a definite sexual spark between them, what I loved the most about this story is how these two men felt about each other, and how much they cared about doing the right thing. It was great to see how Alex and Dane (the main characters in Relay, the first book in the series) contribute to Jacob and Bas's getting together too.
 

I loved the Olympic aspects of the story and how the incredible pressure during the games was part of the story. And Jacob's home life and his father's issues were a very touching part of this story, especially since Bas really got how much it all meant to Jacob.

Medley worked for me as a sports romance. I really liked Jacob and Bas (and the whole swim team) and I was rooting for Bas to get his act together when that was what he needed to do. Medley works well as a standalone, but you probably want to check out Relay too. 

An ARC was provided for review.

 Giveaway: win 1 of 3 ecopies of any back catalog ebook by Layla Reyne 

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About Layla Reyne

 

Author Layla Reyne was raised in North Carolina and now calls San Francisco home. She enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline-fueled suspense and heart pounding romance. When she’s not writing stories to excite her readers, she downloads too many books, watches too much television, and cooks too much food with her scientist husband, much to the delight of their smushed-face, leftover-loving dogs. Layla is a member of Romance Writers of America and its Kiss of Death and Rainbow Romance Writers chapters. She was a 2016 RWA® Golden Heart® Finalist in Romantic Suspense.

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Release Day Review, Teaser & Giveaway: Relay (Changing Lanes #1) By Layla Reyne

 

Series: Changing Lanes #1

Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Release Date (Print & Ebook): January 8th, 2018

Subgenre: M/M Contemporary Sports Romance

Link: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/relay 

"Layla Reyne is one of the most exciting new voices in queer romance, and her newest book does not disappoint. RELAY is everything you'd want in an enemies-to-lovers tale and a sports romance. While reading, I had the same heart racing excitement as I do when watching the Olympics and could not put it down." -RITA nominated author Santino Hassell

Book Blurb:

Captain is not a title Alejandro “Alex” Cantu takes lightly. Elected by his teammates to helm the US Men’s Swim Team, he proudly accepts the role, despite juggling endless training, team administrative work, and helping out on the family farm. And despite his ex-lover, Dane Ellis—swimming’s biggest star—also making the Olympic Team.

Dane has been a pawn in his celebrity parents’ empire from crib to pool, flashing his camera-ready smile on demand and staying deeply in the closet. Only once did he drop the act—the summer he fell in love with Alex. Ten years later, Dane longs to cut his parents’ strings, drop his too-bright smile, and beg Alex for another chance.

Alex, though, isn’t ready to forgive and forget, and Dane is a distraction he doesn’t need on his team, until an injury forces Alex to accept Dane as his medley relay anchor. Working together, their passion reignites. When Dane’s parents threaten reprisal and Alex is accused of doping, the two must risk everything to prove Alex’s innocence, to love one another, and to win back their spots on the team, together. 

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Teaser Excerpt:

“How’s it going in there?”

Dane opened the stall door, eyes downcast as he tried to straighten out his shirt. “There are a lot of snaps.”

Alex inhaled sharply, and before Dane could wrap his head around that sound, around the blush streaking those high cheekbones, Alex had already moved on. To standing right in front of him. “You’re supposed to leave the shirt open.”

Dane lifted his hands, and Alex batted them away. He grabbed the uneven shirttails and ripped the buttons apart, the staccato snaps mirroring Dane’s stuttering heartbeat. Alex’s grip on the chambray lingered, as did his presence in Dane’s space, and with each heaving breath, each whiff of cologne tinged with chlorine, a pore-deep scent no swimmer could shake, Dane’s paper-thin resolved shredded.

What I thought about Relay

 This is my first book from this author, and I was intrigued to include this on my review list because I think this is my first sports romance dealing with the world of Olympic swimming and I was eager to see how that would be handled.  I love it when a sports romance actually includes the sport, and I did like how Layla Reyne incorporated the sport into the story.

Dane and Alex fell in love with each other ten years ago at a developmental camp. When Dane can't stand up to his ultra conservative family and be honest about himself, Alex moves on but doesn't forget what he feels is a betrayal. Ten years later, Alex and Dane are back together again, training for the Olympic swim team.  Things do not go well for them at the beginning, as Alex tries to take out some of his anger on Dane by keeping him out of one of the relay teams. He believes that Dane is just a product of his privelige and the grudge he holds against Dane is pretty big.

What Alex doesn't realize is that Dane is a product of his ultra-conservative parents and their manipulation. Dane is very unhappy with his life and the way his parents control him, but it isn't until he faces this head on that he gets himself together.  After a "truce", Alex shows Dane what kind of life he could have, and that starts Dane's journey to being his own man.

When Dane's parents find out and make threats, everything almost falls apart, including the Olympic team. Dane has to really find his backbone to make things right.  There's a bit of a mystery and a few surprises along the way too.

I liked Relay, especially how the team dynamic was utilized in the story.  That may have been my favorite part of this sports romance.  I adored Alex and Dane's illicit night out, especially Alex showing him how those less fortunate live.  It's an eye-opener for Dane all the way around, and he responds to it just beautifully.   

Relay whet my appetite for more in this world, so I'm already looking forward to the next book.  I hope to get a view of the team at the Olympics! 

An ARC was provided for review. 

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Relay, Layla Reyne is giving away two paperback copies of Relay. Open internationally!  

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About the Author 

Author Layla Reyne was raised in North Carolina and now calls San Francisco home. She enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline-fueled suspense and heart pounding romance. When she's not writing stories to excite her readers, she downloads too many books, watches too much television, and cooks too much food with her scientist husband, much to the delight of their smushed-face, leftover-loving dogs.

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