Hello my lovely followers,
I am delighted to have you on my blog today since I want to share the Release Blitz + Review of Cole McCade’s upcoming book Just Like That (out June 30).
It’s part of Carina Press’ new line Carina Adores and it’s advertised as:
Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories featuring beloved romance tropes, where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.
So if you’re into romances taking place in a private boys’ school, huge age gap stories and in general fan of a romance between a TA and his professor he had a crush for years this book is yours. 🙂
Read also further for my review and all the other necessary book details.
Happy reading.
RELEASE BLITZ
Title: Just Like That
Author: Cole McCade
Series: Albin Academy # 1
Genre: M/M Romance, Contemporary, College Romance
Release Date: June 30, 2020
Publisher: Carina Press (Carina Adores)
Length : 320 pages
Format: Trade Paperback *ebook and audio formats also available!
Price: $14.99 U.S.
ISBN: 9781335146458
Add to you bookshelf:
(click on the button or this link)
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Apple Books | Google Play
Barnes & Noble | Kobo
Blurb
Summer Hemlock never meant to come back to Omen, Massachusetts.
But with his mother in need of help, Summer has no choice but to return to his hometown, take up a teaching residency at the Albin Academy boarding school—and work directly under the man who made his teenage years miserable.
Professor Fox Iseya
Forbidding, aloof, commanding: psychology instructor Iseya is a cipher who’s always fascinated and intimidated shy, anxious Summer. But that fascination turns into something more when the older man challenges Summer to be brave. What starts as a daily game to reward Summer with a kiss for every obstacle overcome turns passionate, and a professional relationship turns quickly personal.
Yet Iseya’s walls of grief may be too high for someone like Summer to climb…until Summer’s infectious warmth shows Fox everything he’s been missing in life.
Now both men must be brave enough to trust each other, to take that leap.
To find the love they’ve always needed…
Just like that.
In Just Like That, critically acclaimed author Cole McCade introduces us to Albin Academy: a private boys’ school where some of the world’s richest families send their problem children to learn discipline and maturity, out of the public eye.
Carina Adores is home to highly romantic contemporary love stories featuring beloved romance tropes, where LGBTQ+ characters find their happily-ever-afters.
A new Carina Adores title is available each month:
The Girl Next Door by Chelsea M. Cameron (available now!)
The Hideaway Inn by Philip William Stover (available now!)
Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters (available July 28, 2020)
Better Than People by Roan Parrish (available August 25, 2020)
The Love Study by Kris Ripper (available September 29, 2020)
If You Can’t Stand the Heat by KD Fisher (available October 27, 2020)
Just Like Us by Cole McCade (available November 24, 2020)
Excerpt
“Extinguisher first, then sand,” the voice ordered. “Dr. Liu, if you insist on getting in the way, at least make yourself useful and remove anything else flammable from the vicinity of the blaze. Quickly, now. Keep your mouths covered.”
Summer’s entire body tingled, prickled, as if his skin had drawn too tight. That voice—that voice brought back too many memories. Afternoons in his psychology elective class, staring down at his textbook and doodling in his notebook and refusing to look up, to look at anyone, while that voice washed over him for an hour. Summer knew that voice almost better than the face attached to it, every inflection and cadence, the way it could command silence with a quiet word more effectively than any shout.
And how sometimes it seemed more expressive than the cold, withdrawn expression of the man he remembered, standing tall and stern in front of a class of boys who were all just a little bit afraid of him.
Summer had never been afraid, not really.
But he hadn’t had the courage to whisper to himself what he’d really felt, when he’d been a hopeless boy who’d done everything he could to be invisible.
Heart beating harder, he followed the sound of that voice to the open doorway of a smoke-filled room, the entire chemistry lab a haze of gray and black and crackling orange; from what he could tell a table was…on fire? Or at least the substance inside a blackened beaker was on fire, belching out a seemingly never-ending, impossible billow of smoke and flame.
Several smaller fires burned throughout the room; it looked as though sparks had jumped to catch on notebooks, papers, books. Several indistinct shapes alternately sprayed the conflagration with fire extinguishers and doused it with little hand buckets of sand from the emergency kit in the corner of the room, everyone working clumsily one-handed while they held wet paper towels over their noses and mouths with the other.
And standing tall over them all—several teachers and older students, it looked like—was the one man Summer had returned to Omen to see.
Professor Iseya.
He stood head and shoulders above the rest, his broad-shouldered, leanly angular frame as proud as a battle standard, elegant in a trim white button-down tucked into dark gray slacks, suspenders striping in neat black lines down his chest. Behind slim glasses, his pale, sharply angled gray eyes flicked swiftly over the room, set in a narrow, graceful face that had only weathered with age into an ivory mask of quiet, aloof beauty.
The sleek slick of his ink-black hair was pulled back from his face as always—but as always, he could never quite keep the soft strands inside their tie, and several wisped free to frame his face, lay against his long, smooth neck, pour down his shoulders and back. He held a damp paper towel over his mouth, neatly folded into a square, and spoke through it to direct the frazzled-looking group with consummate calm, taking complete control of the situation.
And complete control of Summer, as Iseya’s gaze abruptly snapped to him, locking on him from across the room. “Why have you not evacuated?” Iseya demanded coldly, his words precise, inflected with a softly cultured accent. “Please vacate the premises until we’ve contained the blaze.”
Summer dropped his eyes immediately—habit, staring down at his feet. “Oh, um—I came to help,” he mumbled through the collar of his shirt.
A pause, then, “You’re not a student. Who are you?”
That shouldn’t sting.
But then it had been seven years, he’d only been in two of Iseya’s classes…and he’d changed, since he’d left Omen.
At least, he hoped he had.
That was why he’d run away, after all. To shake off the boy he’d been; to find himself in a big city like Baltimore, and maybe, just maybe…
Learn not to be so afraid.
But he almost couldn’t bring himself to speak, while the silence demanded an answer. “I’m not a student anymore,” he corrected, almost under his breath. “It’s…it’s me. Summer. Summer Hemlock. Your new TA.” He made himself look up, even if he didn’t raise his head, peeking at Iseya through the wreathing of smoke that made the man look like some strange and ghostly figure, this ethereal spirit swirled in mist and darkness. “Hi, Professor Iseya. Hi.”
Copyright © 2020 by Cole McCade
Just Like That by Cole McCade
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
*~~*ARC kindly provided by the author to me in exchange for an honest review *~~*
When I heard about the Carina Adores line I was beyond excited to hear what titles were acquired and when I read that a book by Cole McCade was one in the new line I was literally dancing in my flat.
Since Over and Over Again and the Criminal Intentions series this author is one I don’t want to miss in my collection and Just Like That is just another splendid title.
In the opening (of my blog post) I already mentioned that you’ve to like age gap stories if you want to enjoy this. The author also knows to handle kinda taboo topics very well. Some would say Professor Fox Iseya is taking advantage of Summer’s crush for him but very early in the story the reader is aware it’s a consent, mutual decision to start what originally was just a “reward” for Summer to overcome his fears and be brave. The anticipation was well built from page one and within the length of the book we saw a huge character development in not just shy, almost timid Summer but Fox as well – perhaps he is even making the biggest change over the book.
True to the author’s style of writing the book has a kinda poetic language, it almost flows and waves you into a story you hardly can’t escape – even when you’ve closed the (e-)book – at least I’ve had to ponder about the feelings it evoked in me when if was done. A very challenging book, not just because of the said age gap, the conflicts it evokes, the dynamics in their power based on their positions but also because we have the display of several panic attacks (Summer’s as well as Fox’), also dealing with grief and on-page talk about the death of a side character and the heavy influnce in the person’s daily life.
The heat between Fox and Summer is simmering and hot, yet I’d describe their romance as a slow burn, even if they kiss and be affectionate with each other very early in the book but it’s clear the (real) emotions are developing over the time – especially in Fox’ case.
Fox is displayed in the book as some kind of enigma, a person not just the reader but Summer has to de-ideologize, but that’s something the author is handling very well and in a very smart way. The author is painting Fox Iseya as some kind of untouchable, emotionless, icy authority within the academy, well respected if not feared, someone who’s achingly captivating and beautiful in their own matter. It’s kind of a learning curve, an eye-opening moment for Summer to see beyond the (several) layers of ice, of Fox’ distancing from the society and when Summer is aware how much Fox is hurting it’s the beginning of their mutual healing process. And it’s beautiful as it is painful to endure as a reader.
A small cameo appearance (in form of a short mention) is there for fans of McCade’s Criminal Intentions series (and vice versa, see Season 1, Episode 10) – so if you’re an avid reader of the author’s works you’ll probably noticed it pretty soon. 🙂 (For those who haven’t read this series – I can highly recommend to get them and dive into it.)
This book was a perfect example how to deliver a slow burn, age gape, kinda taboo romance between a shy TA who’s overcome his fears and his professor who’s dealing with lots of grief – and in the end they’re rewarded with each other’s compassion and love.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Author bio – Cole McCade
Cole McCade is a New Orleans-born Southern boy without the Southern accent, currently residing somewhere in Seattle. He spends his days as a suit-and-tie corporate consultant and business writer, and his nights writing contemporary romance and erotica that flirts with the edge of taboo—when he’s not being tackled by two hyperactive cats.
He also writes genre-bending science fiction and fantasy tinged with a touch of horror and flavored by the influences of his multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual background as Xen. He wavers between calling himself bisexual, calling himself queer, and trying to figure out where “demi” fits into the whole mess—but no matter what word he uses he’s a staunch advocate of LGBTQIA and POC representation and visibility in genre fiction. And while he spends more time than is healthy hiding in his writing cave instead of hanging around social media, you can generally find him in these usual haunts:
Author links / get in contact
Website
Facebook Account
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter
Instragram
BookBub
Tumblr
Release blitz and blogtour materials provided by Carina Press.
Mikku-chan 