Somewhere to Belong (A Thornwood Novel) by Caitlin Ricci | Cat's Release day Review & #giveaway @Dreamspinners @CaitlinRicci

A Thornwood Novel 

Needy. Obsessive. Clingy. Twenty-five-year-old Eli Walker has heard it all. That’s why he doesn’t bother calling back the guys he’s been with anymore. Sex should be about fun, not a relationship, and no one has complained about him getting overly attached in years. If only he actually felt wanted for once instead of empty and used when guys are done with him.

Grayson Pendleton is a wealthy business consultant with clients all over the world. His life is often glamorous, but it leaves him no time for a relationship, and at forty-eight, he’s starting to notice the lack of romance in his life. His only romantic connection is Eli, but they’re just two guys who have sex occasionally. It took him months to get Eli’s first name, and even now they only communicate through a hookup app.

When Grayson inherits a house in Thornwood, Colorado, it’s one more thing he doesn’t need in his life, and he knows he won’t be there enough to enjoy it. Still, the old house has the potential to be a home, and more importantly, it gives Grayson a chance to save Eli when he needs it most.

Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Cat gives this one 4 Meows with a 5 Purr heat index...

Eli is 25 and doesn't do relationships. He has it firmly in his mind that men only want him for his body, treat him like an object not taking his feelings or needs in mind. He gets all his hookups from a sex hook up site. His first meeting he lost his virginity on the app, the guy would never return any messages leaving Eli hurt so now he guards his heart.

Grayson is a businessman with no time for a relationship. He is never in the same place more than a few days or weeks, living in hotels, so the app works great for him filling his needs. Unlike most guys with one-night hookups, he likes having his favorites in the cities he visits. Eli is one of his favorites. Grayson inherits his father's house and decides to stay there when he does get a few days off a month to save some money, and it's close to where he does meet up with Eli. When Eli shows up with bruises and beaten pretty bad that are not from a horse fall, Grayson tries to get Eli t move in with him to help watch the house while it's gone.

There are a lot of characters in the story that I disliked. BUT they were butt holes and I am sure Caitlin means for us to dislike them.They do evoke emotion! It took me a while to warm up to Eli, but eventually, I came to like him more as we learned more about him. I loved that he works at a horse rescue and would have liked more of that in the story instead of some of the sex. There is a lot of sex. I also think the story could have been shorter. 

What I liked a lot is that this story deals with interracial relationships, large age gaps between two men, and gay romance. Three of my favorite sub-genres.

Excerpt...

A ROCK held the door slightly open to hotel room 221, just as PendletonGray had promised it would be. The lights were on, and I smiled at him as I leaned against the door to close it behind me. The lock clicked on its own, and I quickly began stripping off my T-shirt and tossing it onto a nearby chair. PG, as I’d taken to thinking of him over the past two months since we’d first started hooking up, lay stretched out on the bed with a sheet over his lap. It was bunched up to expose as much of his dark skin as he possibly could while still being at least a little modest, which wasn’t needed around me since I’d seen him naked about a half-dozen times now, but maybe he’d done it just in case one of the cleaning crew had come by and peeked into the open room.

“Hey,” I said as I kicked off my sneakers and then pulled down my tight jeans. They were special jeans meant to ride in, but he didn’t know that I rode horses. He didn’t know anything about me, actually. I was naked under them, and I pulled a condom out of the back pocket of my jeans before joining him on the bed.

“Did you have any trouble finding the hotel?”

PG liked to change the location of our hookups each time, but they were always in a hotel, and always a really nice one too. We could have just gotten together at any cheap motel, or in the back of my car like the other guys I screwed from the app we both used. But he was classier than that.

I shook my head. “Golden isn’t that far from me, so it was easy.” He didn’t know where I lived. I could have been lying, and I kind of was, depending on his definition of close. I’d driven over an hour from Castle Rock to get to him today, but I knew he was always worth it, so I didn’t even think twice about agreeing to be with him when his request had come in.

He moved the sheet aside, exposing his thick cock and the soft patch of dark hair at its base. I was pretty free from hair, without even trying, but I was also twenty-five. If I had to guess, PG was somewhere in his late forties or early fifties, judging by the trace bits of gray in his short black curls. I slid over his lap, and he settled his hands loosely on my hips. While I smiled at him, I let his tip kiss my entrance before I moved my hand there and removed my plug. I tossed it off the bed to be retrieved later.

He didn’t look surprised by me having one in. He shouldn’t have been either after knowing me in this capacity for so many months. “How long were you wearing it this time?”

“Three days.” PG didn’t ask me if that had been three days straight minus bathroom breaks, probably because he knew me better than that. I generally didn’t go more than a day without meeting someone from the app, and since my profile was public, anyone who was curious enough would have been able to see my activity.

He tightened his fingers on my bony hips, and I felt the eagerness coursing through him. I had been looking at his profile too, and I knew he’d been busy, just as I had been, so it was nice to know that I was still wanted. I made quick work of spreading the lubricated condom over his cock. Sliding onto him was easy since I’d been stretched already. That was one way I controlled these hookups. Since I was always ready, there was no way anyone could go too fast with me.

I ground into him, moving my hips until I found the right angle and pace that worked for me. After months of seeing him, I knew this was how we did things. When he was on the bed, I rode him, and I got to find my climax all on my own. Sometimes it felt like I was using him as I slapped our bodies together and knew I wasn’t giving him what he wanted. But it never took long for me to come, as I rested one hand on his chest and wrapped the other around my cock, which had been painfully hard while I’d thought about him on the highway up there.

I whimpered as I fought back my orgasm and tried to hang on just a little while longer. I should have jacked off before getting in my car. Then maybe I would have lasted more than a few minutes with his cock rubbing perfectly against my prostate in the most delicious way possible. But PG sent me over the edge as he moved his hands from my hips and reached up to tug on my nipples. A bit of pain was my thing. Not anything hardcore, but just enough to send that zap of energy coursing through me. It was a bit of a shock, since I was never sure how he was going to give me that extra bit of a boost, but he usually did.

PG grabbed my ass and turned me over while I was still coming down from my climax, which had ended up all over his chest and stomach. He pressed my knees back against my chest with his shoulders and slammed into me while I was still limp under him. Unlike a lot of guys, he didn’t say someone else’s name while he was fucking me. He generally didn’t say anything at all. Just a bunch of grunts and groans to let me know he was enjoying me as much as I loved having him.

He kissed me as I lay under him. It was the only time we ever kissed. He was needy and rough, biting my lips with his teeth as he panted into the kisses. Once I had control of my hands again, I brought my fingers up and ran them through his hair. His tight curls were coarse but also soft at the ends. Like he used some expensive conditioner but it had become less effective this late in the evening. It was nearly eight o’clock.

He met my gaze a second before he came with a loud groan, and though I would never tell him, I liked seeing the vulnerability in his dark brown eyes as he climaxed. He’d come, so he stopped kissing me. He pulled out, tossed the condom aside, and rolled away from me all within a few seconds.

We lay there together for a while, just panting and trying to catch our breaths. I was the first to get up. I went to my plug, washed it off, and put it back in with the help of some lube I kept on me at all times, then pulled on my jeans. They were harder to get on than they had been to take off because I was so sweaty, but I managed them anyway. When I put my feet in my sneakers, I found PG watching me with a smile on his face. He’d moved the pillows behind his head, propping himself up a little.

“You know you can stay and shower here, right?” he asked me.

I shrugged before I pulled on my shirt. “Yeah. I know. You’ve told me that before. But I’m good. Not staying around isn’t just a thing I do with you.” I’d learned better than to be clingy in the few years since I’d started using the app to get my needs taken care of. I just wanted to go.

Read this excerpt in its entirety at Dreamspinner Press.

Caitlin began writing when she was in middle school but it wasn't until 2012 that she first got up the guts to submit something to a publisher. That first short story was accepted and later that same year she quit her job and became a full time author. She is forever grateful to her readers for giving her first short story a chance and for their continued support as well. Caitlin was fortunate growing up to be surrounded by family and teachers that encouraged her love of reading. She has always been a voracious reader and that love of the written word easily morphed into a passion for writing. If she isn't writing, she can usually be found studying as she works toward her counseling degree. She comes from a military family and the men and women of the armed forces are close to her heart. She also enjoys gardening and horseback riding in the Colorado Rockies where she calls home with her wonderful fiance and their two dogs. Her belief that there is no one true path to happily ever after runs deeply through all of her stories.

• Caitlin's Website: http://www.caitlinricci.com/

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