All Bets are Off with Kelly Reynolds

Sports romance is having a moment right now thanks to the Crave series Heated Rivalry, based on the book by fellow Canadian author Rachel Reid. But hockey’s not the only game in town (see what I did there?) Baseball has its own rituals, its own heroes, and a lot of tight pants and hands on crotches, just saying…

All Bats are Off

ALL BATS ARE OFF is a spicy MM novella (25k+ words) set in the Rose City Roasters universe. This one night stand-to-lovers romance between a thicc (with two c’s) bisexual baseball player who loves bread almost as much as blowjobs, and a gay, long-haired sports journalist with a pierced peen, features drag queen Bingo, braiding hair as a love language, county fair food porn, hotel bathtub hook-ups, and an almost entirely LGBTQIA+ cast of characters.


From the author’s bio:

By day, Kelly Reynolds works primarily as a freelance writer, professor, and author’s assistant. By night, she hosts the comedic romance novel review podcast, Boobies & Noobies. Since receiving her MFA in Screenwriting in 2016, she’s worked with several casting, development, and production companies and contributed to programs appearing on such networks as MTV, ABC, Hallmark, GSN and Netflix. Originally hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, she currently lives in Portland, Oregon and spends the bulk of her time dreaming up sexy romcoms about fierce, fat girls falling in love.

Find Kelly here: https://substack.com/@authorkellyrey

Find out more about her book All Bats are Off here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230070367-all-bats-are-off

“…my only want is MORE!!”

Like a lot of authors, I try not to read too many reviews of my work. Reader opinions are wildly subjective, and what one reader might think of as a spicy little romance is to another reader smut-fueled trash (but they mean it as a compliment.) I have caught myself calling certain books “sweet” even though they contain corpses, betrayals, panic, trauma, and someone getting seriously blown up. YMMV.

But sometimes you actually ask for feedback, and I will hang my hat on this particular bit, because what do you mean I made you binge my book???

https://www.mmromancereviewed.com/2025/12/the-single-life-by-will-forrest.html

Heather runs one of the best queer romance blogs around and is the convener of the Northern Rainbow Readers & Writers event in Toronto. She’s a huge booster of MM and other types of queer romance, so much that I did in fact thank her in the acknowledgements for The Single Life.

And honestly, I needed this review. This year has kicked the crap out of me so it’s nice to know that my writing is connecting with people. Maybe there’s hope for me yet…

The Single Life is available from fine ebook retailers everywhere and on paperback from Amazon.

Passion and Peril with C.G. Macington

Surely we’re not scared of a little infection, right?

If you like some chills with your thrills and some panic in your plots, C.G. Macington has you covered with this thrilling story that will have you on the edge of your seat (or maybe hiding under the blankets!) But sometimes love thrives under pressure…

Outbreak Protocol

One doctor saves lives from behind a screen. The other saves them with his hands. When the world ends, they are each other’s only hope.

Dr. Felix Müller trusts his gut, and his gut tells him the horrifying new illness tearing through his Hamburg ER is no ordinary flu. When his superiors ignore the mounting body count, Felix risks his career on a single, desperate email to a reclusive, brilliant epidemiologist who is his last resort.

Dr. Erik Lindqvist trusts in data, not gut feelings. For the reclusive scientist, emotions are a liability. He arrives in Hamburg expecting to correct a flawed analysis, but instead finds a city on the brink of collapse and a frontline doctor whose fiery compassion threatens to shatter the walls around his heart.

Forced into an uneasy alliance, the two men are the city’s first and last line of defense. But as the virus consumes Hamburg and military law is declared, their professional friction ignites into a desperate and dangerous intimacy. In the quiet moments between disasters, they find a connection that could be their only comfort—or a fatal distraction.

As the death toll climbs and the city is sealed from the world, they are in a desperate race for a cure. But the greatest threat might not be the evolving pathogen—it could be the terrifying choices they are forced to make about how much they are willing to sacrifice… and who.

Outbreak Protocol is a gut-wrenching, epic MM romance set against the backdrop of an apocalyptic medical thriller. A perfect story of opposites attract, hurt/comfort, and the found family that can rise from the ashes of the world. Prepare to have your heart seized.


From the author’s bio:

C.G. Macington is a passionate storyteller from Edmonton, Canada. Specialising in heartwarming gay romance, C.G. explores love, identity, and courage, celebrating the nuances of queer life. With a background in arts and creative writing, he crafts narratives that resonate deeply with readers. When not writing, C.G. enjoys reading and spending time with his partner of eleven years.

Find C.G.’s books here: https://www.amazon.ca/stores/author/B0CM73SPDF/allbooks

Read Outbreak Protocol here: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FMDWBQCQ

A look back to the very first Indie Author Spotlight with Kashel Char

Though I’ve been swapping mentions with authors since I started my readers club newsletter (one of the best ways to start building subscribers) I only started the Spotlight earlier this year. Kashel Char was my first author, and I’m always intrigued with their daring approach to science fiction and romance and the ways these can intersect. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, but I could kind of go for being a blue-skinned alien’s intergalactic mate. Seems like I’d have to do a lot less laundry.

Kidding aside, indie authors are the vanguard of the publishing industry and I will not be taking questions, you can just take that as a fact. No one is more inventive, daring, or diverse, and I love that for us.

From the author’s bio:

I am a Canadian speculative fiction author, writing in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal.

My writing explores who we are, where we come from, and where we are going as a human race on Earth. 

I enjoy weaving and exploring questions and subjects about our history and origin by creating new, exciting worlds and characters. My stories are unpredictable, twisted with a dash of humor, and centered on gay characters. 

You will question your existence among these worlds and wish you could escape to these places filled with foul-mouthed heroes who struggle and strive to save humankind.

I hope you’ve discovered something that excites and intrigues you. Please share your thoughts by leaving a review, visiting my website, or contacting me to learn more about my latest works.


Discover Kashel’s books here: https://kashelchar.com/

Now playing on the Historical Romance Sampler podcast…

We’re back with another author profile except this one’s about…me!

Catch my interview and reading on Katherine Grant’s podcast The Historical Romance Sampler, where we talk about the power of fiction and why Jessica is the best Sweet Valley High twin. As well I read from my gay Regency romance An Inconvenient Earl.

(Please enjoy this sarcastic promo image, because apparently putting the word ‘Gay’ on your book cover isn’t enough of an indicator for some people who think queer identities should come with a trigger warning.)

Find my episode here (or search for Historical Romance Sampler on your favorite podcast service): https://katherinegrantromance.com/historical-romance-sampler-podcast/will-forrest-samples-an-inconvenient-earl

Why do they hate us?

So, it’s like that, is it? You really want to read this book that badly, huh? All I did was casually post the meme that inspired it and my Threads blew up. At least compared to my normal bookish content.

I don’t expect any of my other book promo posts to do this well. The mysterious entity we refer to as the social media algorithm (but which is really a bunch of underpaid staffers supporting their billionaire employer’s fascist ideology) doesn’t want to see us win, and will crush your reach if it senses even the slightest chance that you’re going to reach people organically.

Good thing I had a review copy link ready to give people. Even so, I wish I had set up pre-orders, because not everyone wants the responsibility of a review copy. JK there is zero responsibility. I just want people to read the damn thing.

So if you like queer romance full of disaster gays making bad decisions and learning to get over them, adorable twinks who don’t understand how many people want to cherish them, and the trope I like to call Oblivious-to-Lovers where two best friends (who occasionally bang) realize that this is what love looks like for them: I got you, babe.

OMG yes I want to read this book.

Representation matters (so don’t f*** it up)

For the first time in my writing life I paid someone to critique a manuscript. It took a week for me to get up the nerve to read the report, because folks, this book is my baby. In a way no book has ever been. There’s something about my main character that won’t let me go. The editor had a similar reaction. In fact, they said some of the nicest things I’ve ever heard about something I wrote. More importantly, they got it: the point, the vibe, the Universal Tropes driving the story.

That being said, the book is not perfect. It may in fact be deeply flawed. Nothing I can’t redeem, and absolutely worth the effort to do so because I want this book to SHINE. If my character Izzy resonates with other readers the way he did with someone I paid to be professionally mean to me, then this might be my first major success. It can’t be held back by a mediocre subplot, wishy-washy supporting characters, and accidental queerbaiting.

That last criticism hurt. With surgical precision, because it was true. For those who haven’t heard the term or perhaps don’t know the meaning, in modern media analysis queerbaiting means to present a character as if they are queer, but never allow them to be openly queer. Worse is when the queer-coded character turns out to be straight. For example Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory: would you have been at all surprised if he had been gay? You know, like Jim Parsons, the actor who played him?

That’s a good indication why queerbaiting is a problem. We see so few queer characters in popular media whose queerness is both present in the story and…not the plot of the story. Because not every story with queer characters needs to be a painful coming out story. Not every Trans character has to struggle with body dysmorphia. We don’t all get rejected by our families. And more to the point, most of the time we aren’t thinking about our orientation. It’s just a fact about us, like the color of our hair and eyes, or whether or not we can stand the taste of coriander. But by not letting characters be openly queer, it traps queer people in this shadow realm of not properly existing in the public consciousness.

Some might argue that the queer agenda is taking up too much air these days. As much as I can speak for the LGBTI+ community at large, we certainly didn’t plan to become ammunition in the culture wars. But the cats are out of the bags, we are out of the shadows, and that’s simply the way of things now.

Which is a lot of words to say, I fucked up. I did myself what I decry in others’ work. Telford seems gay. Possibly asexual. So why did I bend over backwards to make him kiss a girl? Honestly, it was nothing more than carelessness. I am so dialed in on my main character Izzy that I just kind of did whatever for poor Telford. He deserves better. And Izzy deserves my best.

More posts to come on this process, I’m sure. It’s the longest book I’ve ever written and I think it’s going to change my life. If I get it right…

Why choose?

Reverse Harem and the (r)evolution of Romance writing

If you aren’t an avid ebook reader, it’s likely you’ve never heard of the genre, which has begun to call itself “why choose” because algorithms are prurient snitches. Yet it’s the strongest trend in self published romance, with no signs of slowing down.

It is also an astonishing indicator of where culture is headed. Because two out of every five ebooks sold are romance, and reverse harem tropes are EVERYWHERE.

So what the heck is it? Nothing more or less than a romance story where the heroine gets ALL the boys. Without having to choose between them, favoring one and only one. Without lying or cheating, with the consent of all the men, which is perhaps the most fantastical aspect of the genre, that three or more cis-het guys could get over their egos enough to get along with their partner’s metamour.

OK so what the heck is a metamour?

It’s the point at which the Why Choose genre gets really interesting. Because, pardon me if I’m wrong, but this is polyamory. A metamour is your lover’s lover. Not your competition, just “the other person who loves the same person as me.”

Meaning the strongest trend in romance writing is a vigorous, fun-loving, open-hearted repudiation of the nuclear family. One of the lynchpins of Western society, blamed repeatedly (and quite sensibly) for maintaining women’s inferior status. Less than half a decade ago, women in the US were being arrested for wearing pants. A wife needed her husband’s permission to open her own bank account. The assumption was nearly universal that all women wanted was safety. That women weren’t sexual, weren’t interested in freedom in being their own person, in existing for any reason besides replicating DNA aka having babies.

Oh, my sweet summer child…

That has never been enough. And hear me out, this is not some Sandberg gaslighting about how every woman miraculously can have it all aka a high paying high pressure job as well as a functional marriage, happy children, and time enough to seek personal meaning. Such women usually have nannies. And they are frequently miserable. The women, not the nannies, though I reckon a fair few of them are less than thrilled with what often functions like a sort of indentured servitude.

This is of course not universal. But that’s the point. Women want different things. Women can finally have what they want. And yes, RH is a book trend. It isn’t a sign of the death of marriage. But it is certainly a sign that the Overton window has shifted hugely in the direction of even more freedom for women. And for men, who must bear the brunt of being denied softness, emotionality, compassion. Who are taught they must defend their tiny tribe against an entire world which wants them dead. Truth is, the world usually isn’t paying attention. Truth is, modern marriage isn’t a siege state. Wives are not chattel, nor are they princesses, to be kept in a tower and denied the world.

Women are raw, and horny, and also nice and pretty and kind, but still red-blooded, salivating, alive. And we are tired of being told what to do.

There is a world filled with possibilities. Even it’s only words on a page or a screen. A world where women get exactly what they want, and men are happy for it to happen. So come on over! Sometimes the grass really is greener even once you’ve hopped the fence.

What I read on vacation

against the backdrop of a bright blue ocean, someone lays on the pale sandy beach reading a paperback bookbeach

I went on a trip the end of April with the serious intent of reading some light fiction. I write it, so keeping up with what other writers are doing is kind of a job requirement, but I sometimes just don’t read at all.   Unfortunate but you know how it goes, *insert modern life* and all your plans are suddenly negotiable.  Regardless, I did do a fair bit of reading while away.  I’m not including buy links, just look ‘em up yourself. You got the internet on that thing, right?


When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

A nice book about how to die well.  I contemplate own mortality with more frequency than most people (don’t applaud, it’s maybe a bad thing) so nothing in here stunned me, but its gentle solace is a perfect fit for these grieving times.


Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Did Not Finish at 40%.  I might have finished it if it was the only book at a beach cottage when the weather was bad.  I’m not big on murder mysteries and we’ll leave it at that, because I have Many Feelings about this book, its plot, its characters, and other books like it which I don’t want to voice. Inevitably, there’s a movie now.


The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

A brave little novel that tries really hard to not be a Cancer Story by being a book about books, yet is still inescapably a Cancer Story. But good, though I found the dialogue a bit forced. Yes, the characters are well-read for their age, but my own 19th Century aristocrats barely talk that high falutin’.  The author character was a nice touch, but again, another book I only read because it was on the shelf at the vacation rental.


Glitterland by Alexis Hall

I have no logical response to Alexis Hall ‘s romance novels. They’re all amazing IF you like his style, which is exuberant and passionate and unapologetically queer and very “head-space” with lots of ruminations by the main character. I will resist the urge to discourse on the historical antecedents of this sort of novel, but rest assured Hall does it on purpose.

What we end up with is a scorching POV of a man with serious mental illness and his star-crossed lover from Essex which is evidently the UK equivalent of the Jersey Shore. I told Hall himself that I hadn’t read a finer regional accent in prose since Irvine Welsh, and I now call everyone a ‘donut’ when they mess up but adorably. Ten million stars. It’s about to get reissued with (ahhh!!!!) bonus content and for the first time ever I am going to buy a book I already own.


His Lordship’s Secret by Samantha SoRelle

Born in poverty, ascended to wealth, Alfie hires his long lost friend Domenic to protect him from whomever is trying to kill him.  Events Ensue in a twisty and quite macabre Regency-era plot with interesting class commentary and solid period detail. I love a “dress you up” trope, which I didn’t expect to encounter but which aligned perfectly with our historical fashion-themed vacation. All in all, a nifty self-published novel in the growing canon of Queer Historical Romance


The Middle of Somewhere by Roan Parrish

Barely news (there’s a pun in there) to anyone who reads MM Contemporary Romance, but I am a decade behind thanks to an extended reading drought. Aaaaaaaanyway, I don’t typically like present tense in novels, but I grit my teeth and kept on with this one, because what else do you do on the plane? I was rewarded with good, gritty characters and a strong love story that hits a lot of comforting tropes without being too stereotypical. And the sex scenes are lit.


Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater

An author who is finally getting the acclaim she deserves. Like her prior Regency fairy tale Half A Soul, this was a joy to read, with wonderful, complex female leads and a heart-breaking yet ultimately redeeming love story driven by genuine personal growth on everyone’s part. I adore her rendering of the realm of Faerie, 10/10 would visit but very cautiously. This story also aligned with our fashion-themed vacation, being mainly to do with magical embroidery e.g. the ten thousand stitches of the title.  Bravo Ms Atwater!

“Is This Seat Taken?”

a woman's beautiful bare legs as she sits in an easy chair by the window

So: your boyfriend who has family connections to your MBA supervisor invites you to an anonymous orgy. You want to go, because you like to fuck, so much that you agree, despite the fact that you will know probably half of the people there. But you try on the expensive mask he had made which really does cover your face well, a tight fitting cap of blood-red leather that extends to the base of your nose and conceals your hair. You look, in the mask and nothing else, totally gorgeous, a fact he tells you continually as he fucks you from behind, watching himself in the mirror over your shoulder. He is not wrong, and thinking of all the other men who will fuck this gorgeous masked woman, you come, shaking so hard he pulls out, thinking he’s hurt you somehow.

Idiot, you think again.

Yet you go to the party. The orgy. You wear the mask and a garter belt and stockings and heels and a long coat and nothing else. He has waxed not just his pubes but his chest, striding about in leather pants with a tear-away crotch. You spend very little time together, because the pants make you laugh, and as a designated sub that’s the kind of disrespect that earns you a shift in the stocks.

You like getting spanked. You do not like humiliation, being hung out for anyone to torment. Too many of the older men who dominate this scene fall back on that trope, one more reason why you are sitting alone in the back corner of the mansion’s front parlor, wondering if it’s possible to ghost on an orgy.

“Is this seat taken?” Before you answer the man sits down anyway on the other end of the little couch. “I just gotta relax for a bit.” He flops back, breathing hard, his half-hard cock laying against his thigh.

You check him out, because it’s that kind of party. A black beaked mask, Dread Pirate Roberts with a hint of Plague Doctor. The fit body of a dedicated college athlete keeping his shit together. No gray hair in the pubes. Who is he?

“Is the master enjoying his evening?”

“Don’t do that master stuff. You can just talk to me. And I don’t know. Yes and no. I’m thinking about going home.”

Ask me. You blush, because no matter how many dicks your boyfriend lets you have here and now, he will not lend his subs. He has told you so himself, because so many in his clique have asked to fuck you. Asked him, not you.

“Me too,” you say. The plague pirate turns to look directly at you, and you shiver, because the mask is only half of his menace, the rest in his dark eyes that seem to swallow you.

“I want your number,” he says.

“Okay. How—”

“I’ll remember it. And if I don’t, it’s my fault, right?”

“Okay.” You tell him your number.  He says it back to you. “You got it.”

“Does your boyfriend, sorry, master, read your messages?”

“God, no.”

“Good.” He stands up and stretches.  Like the slut you are, you stare at his erection.

“Are you leaving?” you ask.

“Yep.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to—”

He turns to you, and you shiver again under his dark gaze. “Not here. I want you paying attention.”

“Oh.”

He winks and walks away. His ass is amazing.

“Who was that?” your boyfriend asks as he approaches.

“I don’t know.”

“What did he want?” He is fiddling with his detachable crotch again. You do not love him. Now you know that you do not like him either.

 “Nothing.”

“Really?”

 “I’m getting one of those headaches.  Do you have any idea where my coat is?”

(2020)