adoption | Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

Tag Archives: adoption

Release Blitz: Perfect Gifts by RJ Scott & V.L. Locey

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Mirrigold

Perfect Gifts | RJ Scott & V.L. Locey

Harrisburg Railers #12

Release Date: November 18th, 2022

Publisher: Love Lane Books

Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Universal Link

Add to Goodreads

READ MY REVIEW

Perfect Gifts cover

Blurb

Family comes first in all things. Whatever the cost.

Ten had always heard the saying, “Out of the mouths of babes,” but he hadn’t expected it to hit home as it had. After a comment from their daughter, Ten and Jared ponder an addition to the family. Moving into the adoption process is nerve-wracking and riddled with anxiety—kind of the way the Railers have been playing as of late. Bringing two young men into their homes and hearts won’t be a smooth ride. But with patience, humor, and love, the bumpy road might just be a little easier to travel.

Expanding their small family was always in the cards, but no one could have foreseen the process clashing with the worst ever start to a Railers season. A string of losses, a vital player missing from the defense, a captain in the emergency room—and winning a single game seems impossible, let alone getting the team to the playoffs. Faced with hard decisions, Jared refuses to take his work home, but it’s difficult when your husband is at the leading edge of the losing streak. His focus fractures when one sibling they’re matched with is frustrated, angry, and has a healthy dose of mistrust.

Jared and Ten’s parenting skills are tested, but they’ll do anything to make a place in their home the perfect gift for two children lost in the system.

Excerpt

“Levi, my… the middle brother, he’s in L.A.?”

“I know Levi.” When you’ve married into a dynasty of skaters, you get to know others in the same situation pretty quickly, particularly if they are likened to the Rowe family in a ton of articles. I knew I was biased, but not one of the Bonetti family were as good as my Ten. Hashtag, so biased.

“He’s uhm… he’s…” Tanner’s face crumpled, and I didn’t know what to do as tears rolled down his cheeks. “He’s…” His words were choked.

I was up and out of my chair in an instant, pulling it with me, grabbing the box of tissues I used to clean the whiteboard, and handing them to him as I settled next to him. I didn’t know what to do, but I placed a hand on his arm, and he leaned toward me as if he needed to check I was there.

“It’s okay,” I soothed and patted his arm gently, wishing there was someone in the room who knew the best thing to say right now.

“It’s not,” he sobbed suddenly, and fuck, it was painful watching someone cry with such depth of emotion and pain dragged up from some deep dark place where grief lived.

“It’s okay,” I repeated, “I’m here, talk to me.”

He took a Kleenex, blew his nose repeatedly, and then swiped at his eyes. He was wearing a training T-shirt and sweats, and he looked smaller than six-foot, all hunched up in the chair.

I thought on my feet—I knew Genevieve was here today, our team counsellor, and maybe she was better suited to helping Tanner. “I can listen if you need me to, or I can get Genevieve down if you need to—”

“He’s my brother you know, he’s my hero.”

Okay, so this was a brother thing?

“I get that.” Ten didn’t like to admit it often, but he idolized Brady and Jamie, and even though they were rivals, they were brothers first. Siblings who were there for each other in good times and bad, able to form such a strong bond that together they were better than when they were apart.

“He used to train with me, you know, because Alfie was older and was drafted first round and was gone so quickly; so, it was just me and Levi for a long time, and then, he left, and it was just me, and I lost him for a while. We texted, met up, but we were apart. All three of us were apart, and they were the ones who knew the real me.” He stopped again, tears collecting in his eyes, making the blue sheen fracture into tiny diamonds. “I hated being apart so much.” He tore at the Kleenex, and I offered him the bin and some replacement tissues, which he took. “But we were always there for each other, you know?”

“Yes.”

“He’s been… he has… cancer.” My stomach fell. I was so hoping this would be a sibling argument or something way less serious. “Medullary thyroid cancer, and they hope… but they won’t be able to tell until… I can’t… I don’t…”

About The Authors

RJ Scott, author of M/M romance.

Writing love stories with a happy ever after – cowboys, heroes, family, hockey, single dads, bodyguards

USA Today bestselling author RJ Scott has written over one hundred romance books. Emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, single dads, hockey players, millionaires, princes, bodyguards, Navy SEALs, soldiers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, cops, and the men who get mixed up in their lives, always with a happy ever after.

She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing. The last time she had a week’s break from writing, she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a box of chocolates she couldn’t defeat.

Social Media

VL-Image

V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee.

(Not necessarily in that order.)

She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a flock of assorted domestic fowl, and two Jersey steers.

When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in hand.

Social Media

Perfect out now insta

Release Publicity: LGBTQ+

Absolutely lives up to its title and then some!

Posted on November 17, 2022 by Mirrigold

Perfect Gifts cover Perfect Gifts by R.J. Scott & V.L. Locey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well this was just a whole load of “awwww” in a book coupled with serious moments and a lot of humour.

I do love RJ and Vicki’s ice hockey world, with its interconnected teams and families and here we get to see a bit of it all as Tennant and Jared look at expanding their family.

It has guest appearances from all my favourite Railers, Raptors and associated friends and family.

There’s obviously ice hockey-ing and there’s a pair of brothers who will steal your heart and have you rooting for them from the off.

A lovely festive treat and some intriguing hints at what’s coming next.

#ARC kindly received from the authors in return for an honest and unbiased review.

View all my reviews

Reviews: LGBTQ+

Release Blitz: Listen by RJ Scott

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Mirrigold

Listen | RJ Scott

Single Dads #5

Release Date: March 18th, 2022

Publisher: Love Lane Books

Length: 67,000 words

Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Universal Link: http://rjscott.co.uk/read-listen

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54009587-listen

READ MY REVIEW

05-Listen

Blurb

He only wanted to make the best home for his new daughter; he never meant to fall in love with the man who might steal her away.

Nick and his husband had always wanted a big family, but when cancer took Danny six years ago, Nick was left a single dad of three. He never considered his broken heart would heal enough to add to his family, but as soon as he meets Teegan he knows he wants to adopt the little girl.

Born profoundly deaf, Teegan has been rejected twice already in the adoption process and hasn’t found her forever home. Nick wants to be her hero—her dad—and create a world that is safe and happy for her. He knows he wants to make her life perfect—he doesn’t know how to go about it or understand the best thing to do for his family, and he needs help. Enter Elliot, and Nick finds himself falling for the frustrating, sexy, inspiring, and caring teacher who can make things right.

Elliot is wary of helping the man who appears more interested in public opinion than the needs of his own family. But, learning that Nick, wealthy and entitled, is now adopting a deaf child, Elliot knows this is a step too far and strides into battle. As the child of deaf adults, Elliot knows he is the best person to advocate for little Teegan and, if needed, he is determined to intervene and halt the adoption. Nothing and no one will get in Elliot’s way when it falls on him to protect Teegan.

This single dad story features a widower struggling to make things right, a teacher battling for a child’s wellbeing, an adorable toddler, three loving siblings, a home with a view of the ocean, and families standing behind them both.

Start the Series

Single – rjscott.co.uk/read-single

Today – rjscott.co.uk/Read-Today

Promise – rjscott.co.uk/Read-Promise

Always – rjscott.co.uk/Read-Always

Listen – rjscott.co.uk/read-listen

Excerpt

“She’s fine.”

I wished he’d just let me talk. “I thought that—”

He didn’t even wait to hear what I was saying, exiting the room and slamming the door so hard the wall shook.

I stared at the space he’d been taking up as if it had all the answers. Five minutes, that was all that had passed in the aborted meeting, and I’d never witnessed such a range of emotions. I didn’t know how long I stared, but it was long enough to conclude that Nick Horner had lost his shit in a spectacular way. I picked up Hannah’s paperwork and shuffled it into a pile—lost in thought when the door flew open again—and Nick walked back in. He closed the door behind him and leaned there, his chin on his chest.

“Christ,” Nick muttered, then pressed his fingers to his forehead.

“Mr. Horner?” I asked cautiously, not wanting to spark anything weird. There were only maybe five steps between us, and I was close enough to see his wet eyes—it wasn’t fear I was feeling, but compassion. “Nick?”

He winced when I used his name. Had I overstepped? Or was there something else going on?

“Do you have a bathroom?” he asked.

I gestured to the end of the conference room, and he headed that way. I followed him a few steps, wondering if he needed something, confused as hell, and when he didn’t close the door but just splashed water on his face, I waited at the doorway for him to talk.

“Do you need me to get anyone?” I asked.

He turned toward me so fast I took a step back. “No—I know there’s something going on with Hannah.” He pressed a wet hand to his chest and left a damp spot there. “I know in here that I’m letting her down because I can’t get my head straight, and she’s carrying a load I should be lifting.” He yanked paper towels from the supply and scrubbed his face, then threw them into the trash can. “I came back to apologize, but…” He pressed fingers to his temples and winced.

“Hannah is an exceptional student, and I just want what’s best for her.”

“I know that I’m failing at this, and if people find out how about her, how do you think this will look to them?” he asked tiredly, supporting his weight by gripping the vanity.

Wait? What? He was upset because he didn’t want people to know his daughter was struggling? “Sorry?” I was angry then. I couldn’t help it, and the irrational side of me spilled out all over him. “Are you saying you care more about your media profile than your daughter?”

“No. What?” He looked horrified. “That’s not what I meant. Of course, I don’t think that.”

“Really?”

“No! Yes. You don’t understand. There are people who think they know me and judge me for every goddamn move my family makes.”

His anger slipped, and in its place was a vulnerability so raw that I took a step closer and raised a hand. I didn’t know what I would do, touch him in reassurance, pat him, thump him for shouting at me? God knows, but he was confusing the hell out of me.

“You don’t know what it’s like for everyone to be watching you all the time!” he said and then slumped.