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Garrett Leigh, who also goes by the pseudonym Grace Leigh is an award-winning British novelist and graphic designer best known for a series of popular contemporary romance novels. She currently works with Fox Love Press, Riptide Publishing, Loose Id, and Dreamspinner Press. She genuinely does not remember how she got into writing, asserting that it just happened and she ran with it. She would go on to win the Best Bisexual debut for her first novel Slide at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards. In 2016, Misfits her polyamorous novel made the shortlist at the LAMBDA Awards. Besides her writing, Leigh is an award-winning graphic designer and came in second at the 2016 Benjamin Franklin Awards.
She designs e-book designs for independent authors and a range of publishing houses at blackjazzdesign.com. She also co-owns moonstockphotography.com with Dan Burgess the famous LGBTQA photographer. When she is not writing or designing, she loves to spend her time on twitter and asserts that she is one of the greatest procrastinators in the literary world. On most days you can find her scrolling through her feed doing very little, while shouting at her animals and menagerie of children, all the while attempting to tame the wonderful though unruly FOX. She is a trained chef and most of the recipes in her novels such as Strays are ones that you could find her cooking for her family on weekends. While they are not the most picky of eaters, Garret makes quite an effort with a good spinach/lentil/lamb curry or a good veggie chill accompanied by a good roast regular fare during the weekends.
The fact that she has won so many awards is a testament to how consistent and solid of a writer Garrett Leigh is. She has one of the most endearing styles and a unique way with language that makes her novels fit for any type of reader, even as the novels are mainly written for the LGBTQA crowd. The novels have great energy and flow that it would not be possible for one to start reading one and not finish it in one sitting. What make the novels so great is the psychological, mental, and emotional aspects, which Garrett executes almost effortlessly to write compelling narratives. Writing a romance narrative, particularly a ménage, or any novel that involves more than two persons in a relationship calls for unbelievable connection, which is present in almost all the novels. The novels will typically involve two romantic characters that are coasting along until that special someone comes along to create that all important connection that completes the ménage. After reading several novels, the reader is always struck that given the similar themes in the novels none of the novels have any sameness about them. Leigh has made a career of coming up with damaged, beautiful souls that never alike, and mending them through the relationships that they need to have.
The Urban Soul series of novels is one of Garret Leigh most popular. They are a remarkable narratives of finding and falling in love in a soulless urban London. The characters are so realistically portrayed, which makes them fallible and very relatable. What makes them so human is that they are so accessible and suffer from the same illogical thinking that afflicts all humanity. Nero, Tom, Jake, and Cass always keep trying and often get things wrong even after making educated guesses. The fact that there are several different characters to understand means that the reader has to sink their teeth into the narrative and character. Leigh Garret does a phenomenal job weaving the narratives together as all the characters are misfits and strays that eventually evolve into something beautiful. The relationships are built up over time as the characters start out as friends and end up as lovers over time. It is love in its purest form as all the men are deeply flawed, yet they come to accept and cherish each other just as they are. The novels are arguably the best contemporary male on male contemporary romance series you could ever read. They come with a lot of cooking, and sex scenes that are a little bit dirty, a little bit kinky, yet intimate and displaying intense connection between the characters making for that unbelievable magical combination.
Misfits is the first novel of the Urban Soul series of novels featuring Cass and restaurant owner Tom Fearnes, who have been partners for as long as they can remember. The logistics of work often keep them apart, and so when Tom meets Jake a striking young man in Camden, their first heady encounter threatens to turn into something more. Jake Thompson thinks he is the luckiest man in Camden to wake up in the bed of the kind and gorgeous Tom, who declares that he is taken. Jake turns cold when Tom invites him to join their open relationship with Cass, though the allure of Tom is so fascinating that he gives in. He now finds himself the rock in the midst of a troubled sea that is Cass and Tom’s relationship. Even as Cass Pearson loves Tom with all his heart, he is such a troubled soul that most days he feels like he does not have anything to give. Believing Jake to be the solution, Cass tries everything he can to push Tom and Jake together, but Jake remains wary of Cass dark past that soon rears its head. Jake now has to dig deep and lead the two men he has grown to love out of the darkness.
Strays is the sequel to Misfits and can be read as a continuation of the earlier novel or a standalone. Nero is enjoying his lonely life of work, sleep, and work until Cass Pearson asks him to employ a gorgeous young man as a kitchen apprentice. Despite his lifelong developed ability to alienate himself and his irritation at having to work with the stray with no kitchen experience, he takes him in, particularly when he hears his story. Lenny Mitchell is the victim of a stalker, and is living in fear, with nowhere to hide, until he is offered the job at Shepherd’s Bush, the hottest restaurant in town. He is soon loving the addictive and heady kitchen life and it is not long before he is head over heels for Nero, his employer and roommate. After a month neither Nero nor Lenny can live without the other but Nero’s lifetime of horror stands in the way of them ever enjoying their newfound love. And to make it worse, Nero is unable to share it with Lenny even as he understands that their happiness hinges on it.
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Not A Word is the latest chilling thriller written by Linwood Barcly. A man visits his parents house only to discover them dead. What appears to be a murder-suicide is apparently so much more. And just as the man is taking it all in, he receives a phone call that's going to change everything.
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Are you a Jack Reacher fan? If so, you absolutely have to read the Peter Ash series by author Nick Petrie.
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