Licking Thicket – Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Licking Thicket – Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com Thu, 07 Dec 2023 05:55:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.1 http://www.ilovenovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Licking Thicket – Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com 32 32 Turkeys (Licking Thicket – Horn of Glory #3) Read Online Lucy Lennox http://www.ilovenovels.com/turkeys-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-3-read-online-lucy-lennox Thu, 07 Dec 2023 05:55:27 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/turkeys-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-3-read-online-lucy-lennox Genre: M-M Romance Authors: Lucy Lennox Series: Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox
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Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)

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Hunter Jackson’s Sage Advice for a Happy Thanksgiving

When your turkey-thieving, town-abandoning, former childhood friend reappears in Licking Thicket after fifteen long years, looking like a snack and smelling like all your favorite treats put together, it might be tempting to, well, dig in.

Don’t.
And when your plan to teach the man a lesson goes spectacularly awry, becoming less of a wattle-wearing walk of shame around the Thicket’s Thanksgiving festival and more of a sexy turkey-twerk in a skin-tight bird costume featuring the hottest pair of drumsticks the town’s ever seen, you might think it’s time to get over your feud and, well, take a bite.

Resist.
But when Charlton Nutter finally shows you the sweet, pure heart he’s hiding under all his fine, big-city feathers, and you realize, thanks to the town’s meddling matchmakers, that the man is hungry for the kind of love and belonging that only the Thicket can provide, you might decide that both of you have been acting like a pair of turkeys, and in that case you should…

Gobble. Him. Up.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

CHARLTON

They say “you can never go home again.” Unfortunately, I was learning this was not true. Notably, I felt the concept should be corrected to “you should never go home again”… especially if “home” was a tiny speck of southern-fried lunacy somewhere in north-middling Tennessee.

I stared out the front window of the town car at the sign flapping in the breeze above Walnut Street and stifled a groan.

It’s Stuffin’ Time! the sign proudly proclaimed in bright orange paint, though it was unclear whether this was a threat or a promise. How many Thicketeers’ goodies can YOU fit in your pie hole this Thanksgiving? Stuff your neighbors and get stuffed in return this Wednesday morning. All are welcome! The more the merrier! At the bottom, a dancing parade of red, brown, and orange handprint turkeys looked way too much like people raising their hands to volunteer as tribute.

“Whoa. So, ah… this is your hometown, huh?” my driver asked. He’d been silent and professional from the moment he’d picked me up at the airport in Nashville, but it was clear his professionalism was no match for the tsunami-level force of the Thicket’s pun-tastic holiday cheer.

One could hardly blame him.

“I’m from Chicago,” I corrected, silently adding “now” to the end of my statement and telling myself it wasn’t a lie. “I have family here, but I haven’t visited in years.”

“Right,” he agreed, still staring at the sign like the double entendres might disappear if he looked hard enough. More fool him—nothing much changed in this town, ever, and the puns were eternal. “It’s, ah… it’s real different here, huh?”

I snorted. Understatement.

Licking Thicket—the actual, believe-it-or-not, on-the-map name of the town where I’d grown up—was considered by most folks in the area to have a sort of “rustic charm.” A lovely place to live, they said. A welcoming and safe place to raise a family. A fine locale for any human with an affinity for rich soil and hearty livestock. A haven for those who enjoyed seasonal festivals, zany local rituals, and terrible double entendres.

And this was true.

But for those of us who’d had the good sense to leave the place, the Thicket was more rustic than charming and held way too many embarrassing memories to ever be comfortable.

It was not, for example, a place where a man’s colorful polos and tasteful but quirky business socks had ever earned him any sort of respect or deference.

Not a place where a gay man could hope to find romance since it was probably the world’s only Grindr dead zone.

Definitely not a place where a man could hope to find a decent espresso, let alone an iced, skinny salted-caramel oat milk latte (no whip), either, since the town boasted more dairy cows than humans.

And it was most certainly not a place where people appreciated a heroic (if somewhat misguided) rescue carried out to avert a senseless tragedy.

“Never been out this way,” the driver went on. His eyes pinged from side to side as we made our way up the main drag, while I firmly kept my gaze on my phone, but I knew without looking exactly what he was seeing: the ancient “community center,” a renovated barn where all the most important Thicket gatherings had been held since the dawn of time; the Feed and Seed with its 1950s vibe; the Thicket Tavern, which was a throwback to the 1970s; the high school with its Fighting Bovines logo that I’d thought was so impressive when I was a child and so scornfully silly once I’d left town for St. Killian’s Prep.

“Pretty cool that your town has a bakery that does gluten-free, though,” he said cheerfully. “My girlfriend would kill to find a gluten-free place near us. And the Wisteria Cafe says you can ‘support local schools with every sip.’ What’s that about?”

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Hacked (Licking Thicket – Horn of Glory #3) Read Online Lucy Lennox http://www.ilovenovels.com/hacked-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-3-read-online-lucy-lennox Wed, 10 Aug 2022 01:09:54 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/hacked-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-3-read-online-lucy-lennox Genre: Contemporary, Crime, M-M Romance, Romance Authors: Lucy Lennox Series: Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox
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Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112244 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)

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Read Online Books/Novels:	Hacked (Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory #3)
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Lucy Lennox
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B09QH65N6G
Book Information:
Well-known computer security infiltration specialist Jasper Huxley has never met a system he can’t hack. Whether his assignment is accessing a highly-classified Pentagon server or modifying his little brother’s high school report card, he’s always got a botnet, an exploit, or a little bit of social engineering he can call up to get the job done. But there are certain things he can’t finesse, no matter how hard he tries. •Beating the infuriatingly adorable and maddeningly handsome Kevin Rogers in the ice mammoth expedition during Horn of Glory’s first annual Horn Master Championship week. (Robbery.) •Accessing stolen cartel data on a device that’s never connected to a network. Pretty sure it’s the fault of a certain busybody gamer who will not be named. (Kev.) •Sharing a house and–worse–a network with Kev. (Gah.) •Being forced to allow a non-trained, non-serious, and non-resistable civilian to take part in a critical intel operation. (•side-eyes Kev) •Navigating social situations with grace when he continues to run into Kev–and his new gamer “boyfriend”–at society events during the course of a critical mission. (Like any serious relationship starts during a game.) •Keeping Champion Security’s system safe from increasingly sophisticated black hat threats. (Not Kev, but still… annoying.) In short, when Kevin Rogers is in the picture, the safe and peaceful life Hux has managed to construct for himself gets suddenly and irrevocably… hacked. (And it’s all Kev’s fault.)
Books in Series:	Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox
Books by Author:	Lucy Lennox

1

KEV

SmittyKitty clearly needed my fuzzy dice… and I was in the mood to give them to him.

Watching new guys play Horn of Glory wasn’t generally a hobby of mine. If I wanted to watch a bunch of cocky know-it-alls fuck around—and I did not—I could find a plentiful supply in my real life since my cousin-slash-best-friend Carter had fallen in love with a life-sized GI Joe doll named Riggs, who came complete with a huge entourage of overgrown “security expert” badasses including his boss, Champ, and—in a shockingly unpleasant turn of events—my Horn of Glory archnemesis, Jasper “HogMasterHux” Huxley.

As of two weeks ago, Champ, Hux, and the whole crew of Champion Security had practically moved into our house while they pinpointed a vulnerability in their security, where they’d proceeded to steal my cheesecake brownies and gobble up the bandwidth in my dedicated internet connection.

Not that I was bitter about that or whatever.

But Smitty was the exception to my newbie rule and had been since the first moment I’d noticed him trespassing on my HOG homestead looking for abandoned tools and seeds a few weeks back.

Not to blow my own, erm, Horn, but I was kind of a big deal in the game. Even the rankest newbie knew the only players allowed on my land were me and Carter, and encroachers would meet the business end of my rhubarb wand. I’d messaged Smitty to give him a chance to retreat before I turned him into compost, because I was a nice person like that.

HogDocKev: You seem to have gotten off course, Swamp Minion.

I’d waited for him to apologize or pretend he’d wandered past my wards accidentally, but he hadn’t done either.

SmittyKitty: Oooh, scary. *yawn*

I’d leaned toward my computer screen, my finger hovering over the obliterate button, but I’d had to admit, this was… new. It had been a hot minute since someone in the game—besides HogMasterJerkface, obvs—had dared to disrespect me. So I’d typed back.

HogDocKev: You want to battle? *eyeroll* I don’t battle newborn babies. Accrue some actual game play time and we’ll talk.

SmittyKitty: Puh-lease. Like it would be a fair fight even then. You can’t be killed. Not when you have BOTH the Apple Butter Booster AND the Hedgerow of Health booster. The odds are stacked against me.

HogDocKev: Yeah, cause I stacked them myself through hard work and commitment. I completed every quest needed in order to obtain both boosters. I have earned every pip I’ve ever spent in this game.

SmittyKitty: Sure you have. You’re like a knight in shining armor, Sir Pipsalot. And did it ever occur to you that those quests were only open to ranked players? Just like almost all the quests required to compete in Ascendant’s Class in the Conqueror’s Tournament require a certain ranking. New guys have to work twice as hard, and it’s still not a level playing field.

HogDocKev: I’m not apologizing for playing HOG longer than practically anyone. Move along.

SmittyKitty: Just saying, Pip, I could beat you in any fight… if the fight was fair.

After that, he’d turned around and stalked off my land… and I’d let him go, for a bunch of different reasons.

For one thing, destroying a newbie would be a hollow victory. And for another thing… Smitty intrigued me. I liked his frankness and confidence. I liked the way he challenged me. And I liked that he made me rethink stuff I took for granted, like which players were eligible for quests and tournaments… and what I could do to make the game more fair.

Since then, I’d kept an eye on the guy, and what I’d seen had intrigued me even more. I learned he used he/him pronouns, lived in the upper peninsula of Michigan, and worked as a cashier at a pet supply store. The only thing I was unsure about was his age, so I ran his chat strings through an AI assessment tool, which estimated his age to be around late twenties, early thirties.

I also knew that he was a really talented player.

And that he continued to call me Pip, even though—or maybe because—it bugged me.

Tonight, I’d watched him swindle a marauding red panda out of his rubies—which required serious strategic thinking skills—but Smitty hadn’t gotten ten paces in his air speeder before he was beset by a pack of lightning orcs who’d watched the whole showdown and wanted the rubies for themselves. Without fuzzy dice in his air speeder to up his transportation points, Smitty was a goner.

HogDocKev: Hey, Smitty. Your air speeder needs these. Enjoy!

After sending the dice as an in-game gift, I sat back and stretched, moving my eyes off my monitors for the first time in hours. I rubbed my eyes and adjusted my glasses.

It was late… or early, maybe. Somewhere in the 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. range, according to my internal clock. I’d been watching Smitty for maybe half an hour, but I’d been playing Horn of Glory since midnight. With the new Valentine’s theme release, it had been easy to lose track of time. There were a million reasons I loved a theme update in the game, but this one had been extra special because Carter and Riggs had gotten married yesterday on Valentine’s Day.

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Hitched (Licking Thicket – Horn of Glory #2) Read Online Lucy Lennox http://www.ilovenovels.com/hitched-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-2-read-online-lucy-lennox Mon, 13 Jun 2022 12:38:12 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/hitched-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-2-read-online-lucy-lennox Genre: Contemporary, M-M Romance, Romance Authors: Lucy Lennox Series: Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox
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Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)

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Read Online Books/Novels:	Hitched (Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory #2)
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Lucy Lennox
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B09D9XQFMX
Book Information:
Former Marine Percy “Champ” Champion has never encountered a problem he can’t handle. Flying bullets? Daring jungle rescues? Building Champion Security from the ground up? Making people seriously regret using his hated first name? No problem. He’s gotten the job done without a hitch each and every time. But it turns out there are some situations Champ can’t handle alone, like: • Going undercover as a wedding planner to retrieve some missing cartel data in time to avert an international crisis. • Keeping his jerk of an ex from threatening his business. • Preventing Quinn Taffet, Licking Thicket’s gorgeous, charming new wedding planner—and Champ’s fake fiancé—from getting into danger… or from getting the wrong idea about their relationship. • Fighting the pull that lands him in Quinn’s bed night after night, despite his very best intentions. • Stopping the pun-happy matchmakers of the Thicket from destroying the sane, well-ordered life he’s built for himself. • And, most troubling of all, protecting his traitorous heart from all the romance in the air. In short, Champ needs an extraction plan ASAP before he finds himself well and truly… hitched.
Books in Series:	Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox
Books by Author:	Lucy Lennox

1

QUINN

I was not a morning person.

I hadn’t been one back when I was a kid spending summers in Licking Thicket, even though my Aunt Cherry had bribed me with baked goods, blasted ’80s pop songs loud enough to make the windows of her old Victorian rattle, and reminded me crisply that, “Spending your time dreaming is as useless as pining for a man, Quinn. Reality never lives up to expectations.”

And at age thirty, despite founding two successful event-planning businesses, accumulating a roster of incredibly demanding clients, and having enough failed relationships under my belt to recognize that Cherry had been spot-on when it came to men, I’d accepted that I was never going to be a morning person either.

Dreams were just more compelling than reality, period-period.

So when I sensed morning light filtering through my curtains one January morning, was it any surprise that my first impulse was not to jump out of bed or even to roll over and check my phone for the onslaught of messages from the half-dozen nervous brides on Taffet Events’ current client list?

Heck no.

In fact, I pulled my pillow over my head to block out the light, yanked my quilt up to my chin, and slid right back into a dreamy, sensuous slow dance with the handsomest, most charming man I’d ever met—a man whose tan skin set off his sun-kissed hair and blue eyes, who was witty and intelligent, whose biceps were as big as my thighs, whose lips tasted like amaretto and secrets, and who said my name all hot and slow, like…

“Quinn? Hey, Quinn!”

Um, no. My personal Prince Charming wasn’t supposed to say my name in that curt, impatient tone. He was supposed to rumble my name from the depths of his chest, the way he had the first time he kissed me. Or to shout my name, hoarse and helpless, like he did when I made him mindless with wanting. Or even to whisper my name sleepily, like he sometimes did when he wrapped his arms around me in the dark of night. He was definitely not supposed to say—

“Quinn!” A big, callused hand shook my calf, knocking me out of my dream entirely. “Fuck’s sake, man. I’ve seen dead bodies that were easier to rouse. Did you see where my T-shirt ended up? I have a meeting at work this morning, and I’m running late.”

I heaved a sigh, shoved the pillow off my head so hard that it tumbled to the hardwood floor, wiped the drool off my face, and sat up to confront reality—all six feet and several blond-haired, blue-eyed, grouchy-as-fuck inches of him.

Staring directly at the magnificence that was Percy Champion was a little like staring at the sun. He wasn’t actually a dream man, I reminded myself. Just a regular old guy.

With a run-of-the-mill gorgeous face and garden-variety broad shoulders, trailing down to a plain-as-dirt narrow waist and dime-a-dozen eight-pack abs that glistened with tiny water droplets from his morning shower like a benevolent god had encrusted them with diamonds.

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Hijacked (Licking Thicket – Horn of Glory #1) Read Online Lucy Lennox http://www.ilovenovels.com/hijacked-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-1-read-online-lucy-lennox Wed, 08 Sep 2021 08:01:30 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/hijacked-licking-thicket-horn-of-glory-1-read-online-lucy-lennox Genre: Contemporary, Funny, M-M Romance, Romance Authors: Lucy Lennox Series: Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox
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Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97134 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)

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Read Online Books/Novels:	(Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory #1) Hijacked
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Lucy Lennox
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B08WKYTFYF
Book Information:
Renowned cardiologist Carter Rogers is used to having things under control. His life, his prestigious reputation, his career, his future. Things he can’t control this time around: • His meddling grandfather • His annoying gamer cousin • Buggy South American jungles • Being the meat in a feuding cartel sandwich • Getting kidnapped by a monologuing drug lord •Falling for the very hot, very mouthy ex-soldier from his past In short, Carter’s peaceful, well-planned life has been… hijacked.
Books in Series:	Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory Series by Lucy Lennox
Books by Author:	Lucy Lennox

1

Riggs

If I’d known I was going to walk into a reaming, I would have downed a few shots of whiskey first.

“Who in the fucking fuck takes a private client call in front of their Grindr hookup?” Champ raged.

I knew he didn’t really want me to answer, but I did anyway. I was no shrinking violet. “He was in the bathroom, ah, taking care of some… things. I didn’t think he was listening.”

My boss’s broad shoulders made his wingspan look even bigger than it was as he waved his long arms around our office reception area. “You didn’t think. That’s what I hear when you flap your fucking jaws. You didn’t think. No shit, Sherlock. What would have happened back in Ghazni if you’d simply ‘assumed’ Azim was preoccupied with his douche routine while we were trying to break in and disarm the bomb?”

I tapped my lips with a finger. “I don’t think Azim was gay. And if he was… the dude was putting off major toppy vibes. At least before the, ah… bomb thing happened.”

“Riggs, damn it, shut the fuck up.” The vein on Champ’s temple that sometimes bulged enough to worry me was making an appearance, so I shut the fuck up.

I respected Percival Champion more than anyone else in my life. (Which was why I’d never call him by his first name.) He’d been my commanding officer through some seriously sketchy moments, and he’d always gotten us out of the shit. Sometimes it seemed like magic. Where Champ led, I would always, always follow. And I hated that I’d let him down. So if he wanted to ream me over one relatively insignificant mistake—which, yeah, okay, had led to the loss of a pretty significant client—then I was gonna take it and be quiet.

Mostly quiet.

“If you’d underestimated Azim, we’d be dead,” Champ said, continuing his tirade. “But yet you had a whole convo with the guy from HOG Corporate about their massive upcoming personnel reallocation—”

“Layoffs,” I corrected under my breath. I didn’t think the dozens of graphic designers and programmers that the HOG CEO had wanted me to escort out of the building the morning after that fateful call felt “reallocated.” They felt unemployed.

“—where your Grindr hookup could hear every damn word and then relay those words back to the lead developer, who, upon hearing that he was one of the people about to be reallocated—”

“Fired,” I interjected, ignoring Champ’s glare.

Champ ground his teeth together so hard they squeaked, which could not have been good for his oral health. “—then took off with a mission-critical software access code, a code he could use to disrupt gameplay for Horn of Glory, the world’s largest and most popular video game, and potentially put HOG out of business. And now it seems like the man has been trying to sell that code to the highest bidder, and no one can get in touch with him because he’s left town. And HOG understandably fired our asses and only chose not to prosecute us for violating the nondisclosure agreements we’d signed because they didn’t want the publicity. Sound about right?”

“Buck Nutter and his Magic Seed,” I said helpfully.

Champ blinked at me. “I… what? What?”

“The lead developer is Buck Nutter. And the code he took is known as his Magic Seed. Apparently they call it that because—”

Before I had a chance to explain further, a woman came blasting through the front doors. She had on slim-fit hot pink pants, a flowy white blouse that didn’t do much to hide a zebra-print push-up bra, and at least four-inch stiletto heels that click-click-clicked across the marble floor. I expected her to bite the dust at any moment.

“I need to speak with Percival Champion,” she wailed. It was only then I noticed the smeared makeup, tear tracks, and bird’s-nest hairdo.

Champ’s jaw tightened. “There’s no one here by that name.”

When I say Champ hated his name, I mean he really hated it.

The young woman wailed even louder. “I’ll talk to anyone at Champion Security, it doesn’t matter who. I need any strong man! Won’t somebody please help me?”

Champ and I looked at each other before looking back at the hot mess in front of us. I took a chance. “Are you here for the receptionist position? Because I’m afraid it’s been filled.”

It hadn’t been filled. We’d had a string of horrible people using the position as a high-speed revolving door. But I wasn’t taking any chances with this one. I could tell she was nothing but a soap opera in high heels.

“No, I’ve lost my brother. Not lost so much as… oh my heart!” she said, pressing her cleavage. “I can’t stand it. The forces of evil have taken my brother. They have him in their clutches.” She collapsed into sobs.

The theatrics echoed off the walls of the nearly empty reception area.

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Read Online Books/Novels:

Hacked (Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory #3)

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

B09QH65N6G

Read Online Books/Novels:

Hitched (Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory #2)

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

B09D9XQFMX

Read Online Books/Novels:

(Licking Thicket - Horn of Glory #1) Hijacked

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

B08WKYTFYF