Sylvan Collection by Jan Irving - Cat's Release day Reviews, Guest Post & #giveaway #mmromance @Dreamspinners

Sylvan Collection

Return to small-town Sylvan in Jan Irving’s bestselling series 

Reimagined and re-edited with an all-new bonus novella

The small Western town of Sylvan is a place for new beginnings for those who won’t settle for anything less than true love. These sweet tales of slow-simmering romance and the old-fashioned values of commitment and pulling together when times get tough prove that sometimes the best matches are also the most unexpected.

With the help of a storm, a washed-up Olympic swimmer and a carpenter cracking under the strain of caring for his Alzheimer’s-affected father learn that opposites sometimes really do attract.

A likable cowboy called Happy Nate is determined to help a mute boy speak again—and to help his father move beyond the repression of the Mennonite community to find the love he deserves.

When a hard-partying cowboy is suddenly saddled with a surprise baby, he’s at his wit’s end. Luckily the local doctor is available to help, and if the two men can find the courage to accept themselves and step into a new life, they might just make a real family. They’ll need to lend each other strength when an unspeakable tragedy strikes—and when it’s time to pick up the pieces.

Find Sylvan here: Dreamspinner Press | Amazon 

Cat gives this one 5 Meows overall with a 2 Purr heat index (each story is a bit different in the heat, but all the sexual content is done tastefully and sensually)...

This is a collection of four stories in one.This book is amazing. It will make you laugh at time and cry for sure. be sure to have a box of tissues. Each story is sweet, heartwarming and sexy. It's hard to choose a favorite. 

Sylvan 5 Meows  

Mal was on an Olympic swim team but kept coming in third. He didn't focus and liked to party so he was cut.He decided to go back to Sylvan and visit with his Nan that raised him for a while to get his head on. When he called he found out she had passed away.Returning to sylvan to mourn and take care of the estate he met Leif, a handsome Nordic God looking man.  Leif is very old-fashioned and wants a relationship, a man of his own, but his father with dementia makes  it hard for him to do anything other than work. 

This is a sweet story. I loved Leif and had to grow to like Mal. The descriptions of the characters and setting were awesome. I felt like I was right there with them. I also could relate to both Mal( having to start over in life) and Leif having a parent with a disability)

A great start to this collection and it introduced a couple characters that lead into the next story.

Luke 5 Meows

Oh wow. I fell in love with Luke and Morgan. This isn't your usual two gay guys meet and instantly fall in love.

Luke is a straight man saddled with a three-month-old baby. He has tried to take care of Baby Jessie but he can't get a job with the baby, his money is running out and he is overwhelmed and not sure what to do.He wants her but thinks it would be best for her to give her up. This leads him to a small mission in Sylvan where he meets Dr Morgan after Jessie gets sick.

Morgan had spotted Luke in the Mission and was immediately taken by the sexy cowboy with sad eyes.  Even though Luke is straight he takes him and Jessica in and they form a bond. The story is sweet, heartfelt and sexy.

Nate 5 Meows

I loved Nate. He is a carefree happy cowboy that loves to dance. He brings new meaning to dancing to your own beat.I could visualize him He likes Aaron a simple man that has come to cook for the ranch after losing his wife. Aaron has a son that doesn't speak. He also likes Nate but doesn't understand his attraction to the man.

This story is so sweet and heartfelt. I could feel Aaron's confusion and Possessiveness when he gives in. He is quite a surprising Character. Of course, Sam is adorable. Who doesn't like a child and one with a disability makes the story more touching.

We get a freebie with Luke's Baby 500 oops-5 Meows

This is a story about Jessica when she is eight and a tragedy that happens. I will warn you to have a box of tissues handy for sure. In this story, it describes things that have happened I wish I had seen happen. I would love this one in a fully detailed novel  or novella.

If you like unique characters,bittersweet stories, heartfelt stories, gay for you, dealing with disabilities, and some hot but sensual man-sex I highly recommend this book.

Guest post with Author Jan Irving...

Jan Irving returns to the western town of Sylvan

I always loved a series I did early in my writing set in Sylvan. They were best selling novellas which I thought of as 'heart' stories. Stories about caregivers dealing with parents with dementia, or new parents without a clue how to take care of a baby on their own. Writing about this series was like going back to my small town roots. And I always found myself wishing I could go back, visit with those characters over again. I wished I hadn’t written them so fast because just the writing was like stopping by.

I know as a reader I have always loved series books, especially western or family series. When I’d feel down, there are certain go-to books I return to. And it turns out, it’s the same as a writer, so after many years gap, I returned to Sylvan.

I took this western town series and I added new content, more than 2000 words to each novella. They include Sylvan, the title story, about Mal, a washed out Olympic swimmer and Leif, a carpenter. Mal is the king of hook ups and the fast life, but turns out he’s lost himself on the way. When he returns to Sylvan after crashing and burning, he ends up working for Leif, a man who is weighed down with his father’s memory loss and his role as a caregiver. Can the party boy get real? Can he commit to someone with old fashioned values and a fragile heart?

The second story is Luke, my story of a cowboy who wakes up on wrinkled sheets with a hell of a hangover...and a baby on the bed beside him. Turns out she’s the result of one of Luke’s one-nighters. Now what? He’s has no idea how to take care of a kid. Fortunately he meets Sylvan’s town doctor, caring Morgan Gallagher, who offers Luke a home and a refuge to figure out this father-business. And maybe, if Luke is brave enough, a new love.

In Nate a young cowboy nicknamed Happy helps a mute boy and his father pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, helping them find hope and family.

The all new-story I wrote for the anthology is the gut-wrenching novella called Luke's Baby, which picks up a few years after Luke.

I did all this writing very rapidly over a period of days. In fact, I remember when I resubmitted it, that Elizabeth at DSP commented she was surprised I did it so fast. Luke's Baby, I wrote in one day. Almost ten thousand words! But it just poured out of me. And I was in tears for most of that writing. It was just so powerful.

So I hope that if you haven't read the series before you let yourself in for a treat. If you have, these stories are...well, frankly, better. These are very healing stories. Trust me, I was dealing with my mother's recent diagnosis of dementia and I was as close to down as ever in my life. I wrote the entire series to help myself find a kind of hope. Luke's Baby I think I wrote as almost a prelude to a major thing that was to happen in my real life, as my mom passed away shortly after writing it. In fact, I had to change one of the afterwords to reflect she'd passed.

Also, they are a great deal. Four novellas for the price of two! And DSP gave me back the cover that I so loved for Luke. I'm very grateful that readers can now buy them in a beautiful collector’s addition.

Here’s an excerpt from Luke’s Baby:

“Dr. Harris left these for you,” the nurse indicated the green scrubs on the trolley table for Luke and Morgan.

Morgan realized then that he was still wearing his surgical scrubs with his daughter’s blood on them and Luke had her blood and her horse’s on his clothes. He’d come straight from the sheriff’s office. 

“Luke, I’ll stay with her. Go shower quick.”

“No.” Luke shook his head, not looking away from Jessie.

“Luke...” And Morgan couldn’t believe what he said, but it just fell out, “When she wakes up she can’t see us covered with blood. She’s going to be scared. She won’t be able to move—“

Luke jerked to his feet, stumbled, and grabbed the offered clothes. He walked out like a zombie.

Morgan reached out and took Jessie’s hand. “You know he’s not coming back from this, Jessie. You have to stay with us.” Morgan could feel her, as he’d felt other patients, not quite in her body, not quite gone. He knew she’d want to go; her body was broken. Pain waited for her here.

But so did two men who would never be the same if she left them.

Jan Irving has written more than 40 books and novellas, all of them about people finding themselves and love along the way. She recently won an award for best multicultural book. You can find Jan at www.janirvingwrites.com and on facebook under Janice Irving.

Giveaway for readers from the Author: My m/m/f novel Princess-- A novel about finding love in the worst of times. Here’s a wee part of the blurb for it: Fearing passion after she’s been hurt, Princess Serafina hides until two warrior slaves are commanded to become her lovers and protect their innocent princess.

When my mom recently passed, I lost myself in books by Nora Roberts and Katie McGarry (a YA author of wrenching novels I highly recommend) for a while. What books do readers reach for when times are tough? Leave your list here for a chance to win an ebook copy of Princess.

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