Waking up Izzy felt refreshed even though she had slept on the floor. That all she had in the two bedroom house she rented was what she could fit in her car. She left the rest in Iowa.Dominic is Izzy’s ex and took everything from her and left her broke.Kara is Izzy’s best friend but also is Dominic’s sister and helps Izzy escape.   She only had the essentials. Izzy’s family hates her now. and she had them behind her. The stares and the gossip about Izzy was spreading like wildfire. Izzy ended up in Washington state. She lived in Monroe now. A small town with a great feel to it. Izzy knew she needed to get a job. Izzy felt to sleep in a bed and cook a meal for herself would feel like heaven. Evelyn was the homeowner Izzy knew she would love her. Kara called Izzy to check o  her, she had already told Izzy to find a hot biker and leave. They both loved bikers from when they were teens and read MC books. Izzy was out planting some flowers when she realized someone was there, it turned out to be a little girl of six or seven.They started to talk the little girl was Eve and she lived at the end of the block. She says her money isnt around but she lives with her daddy. Izzy says if it is ok with her daddy Eve can come over the next day and help. Izzy wondered how long it had been since she had a fun time with another female.  Izzy and Eve planted flowers for two hours. Eve was like the daughter she would never have. Izzy carrying a child is close to zero, Domonic toje that form her. On Saturday morning Izzy is woke up to knocking on her door and it’s Eve They spend time together then her dad- Braxton Ryles /Brax stops by, Brax is Hot and TROUBLE. Then Eve’s dad offers Izzy a job at his shop as a front office girl. The shop is Ryles Custom Shop. Brax surprises Izzy so much she is out of her element. Brax is like a tornado ready to knock Izzy on her butt. He just blew into her life , and she somehow changed it forever. Braxton will do anything to make Eve happy.  What’s it gonna be like working for this smooth-talking- sexy-as- hell badass biker? Saturday night Brax showed up with dinner for her. He had grilled chicken and said “didn’t want you going hungry”, winked at her and left to walk back down the street to his house. Izzy likes calling him Braxton. Izzy realizes Braxton may be complex,and a master of mind games, but he is also vulnerable. He is a man in need of something special. He also has a big heart. Braxton’s best friends/co-workers are Knox and Brody. Eve’s mother is Tiffany and trying to be a mom although Braxton has his doubts in that. Tiffany comes into Izzy’s office at work when she is hugging Braxton in comfort and Tiffany tells Brax have that girl-Izzy- to take her hands off Braxton. Brax tells Tiffany she lost the right to say anything a long time ago as he pulled Izzy closer to him. Tiffany won’t let go even though Braxton told her they had been over a long time. She doesn’t want Braxton but wants no one else to have him.Tiffany tracks down Dominic and tells him everything and   Dominic is determined Izzy is going to be with no one but him, and he knows about Izzy and Braxton and where Izzy is. Dominic kidnaps Izzy and tortures her, he even cuts her. Kara is determined Izzy will be free of Dominic.

I absolutely loved this book I loved Izzy and Braxton together and how they interacted except when he hurt her emotionally. I loved Eve and felt she definitely added to this book/ I loved the drama, suspense, and betrayal in this book. I loved how Kara was such a best friend to Izzy especially as she was Dominic’s sister but then again… This book takes you on an emotional roller coaster but you don’t want to put this down. This had me from page one until the last page. This made me chuckle at times and choke up at others. I loved the twists and turns . The author did handle the subject of domestic violence very good in this book. I do think Izzy fell a little too hard fr Braxton a little too quick especially after what Dominic put her through. She also forgave Braxton too easily after he hurt her emotionally because he made a mistake hasn't she been through enough get some backbone Izzy. This was a great debut novel in my opinion. I hated Tiffany but more so Dominic but that was their purpose. I loved this book, the characters and the twists and turns of this book and I highly recommend it.

eARC courtesy of Entangled Publishing and NetGalley.
Published: 7/23/18
Let me start out by saying I requested this book because it sounded interesting with a different trope/plot-line than what I normally read. When I first started reading, I had some concerns and if the general "likability" of either Ryder or Monica would be enough to overcome what issues I had with it. While I thought Monica was TSTL at the beginning, I liked her at the end. She had some good business ideas and the talent to carry it out. Ryder, on the other hand, I thought was an asshole and made a little improvement, but not enough. The rest of this review is hidden behind the awesome page break. I can't talk about the issues I had with this book without giving anything away. 

Gets better every single time I read it.  

***

“Roe. Monroe Harold Davis. You are not a piece of shit. You are not garbage. You are not less than anybody. In fact, I think you’re probably better than most people I know. I know for a fact you’re a better person than me.”

I love this book more and more with each read and each time I am more surprised by that. This includes scenes that for me are so kinky and yet the characters are developed in such a way that you totally understand every situation, every touch and every need. Roe is such a beautifully rich character and so amazingly depicted and Travis is so loving, caring and just exactly what Roe needs. Yeah...I love a good swoon.




****

So yeah...I've now listened to the amazing narration by Iggy Toma. Just fabulous...and I am left as emotionally impacted as I was the first time (I know...it's only been two days...but still). What unbelievable characters. I still can't write a proper review so I will just continue to ramble with each re-read until my thoughts begin to make sense.

***

Well so I said I would write a review. For 24 hours now I've thought of nothing but this book and what the hell to say about it.

Yes it's kinky kinky but boy did it work here...and boy did it work for me. I truly believe this book has to land on the reader at just the right time on their MM reading journey. Too soon and the kink could scare the reader off because all they would see is the kink. Well I'm here to tell you that the kink is necessary here...it works and it's not what the book only consists of. The relationship and character development of our two men was unbelievably rich and beautiful to watch unfold.

Plus add one of the most passionate best friends that I've seen. Haley is sweet but fierce and her scene near the end of the book had me cheering her name through the tears on my face.

Now...is this the review I wanted to write??? NO. Is this my final review??? NO. So, what am I to do?? Well...how about I buy the audio and start the beautiful story all over again. Yes. Yes. That's exactly what I will do.

Until then..here are a few quotes in addition to the beautiful quotes below in my updates that left me pretty breathless.

He came in slow. He had his eyes on me the whole time, hard and strong, which was the only thing keeping me from turning away. Until the last second I thought he was going to do something kinky, like bite me or lick my lips. That would have been fine. But after he bent down, my unsteady breath against his mouth, he kissed me. Soft. Sweet. Unbearably gentle. It made me feel jangly and strange. Made me ache, made me hurt. Made me want to turn away, and I started to.

My whole body gave over to him. My body trusted him, not just my mind. Trusted him with everything.

I was never the devil, and I didn’t deserve to be treated like one. Hate can never be love, not for any excuse.



And I failed to mention that the cover of this book so beautifully represents the story within. I love it.

Reading Updates:

2%

When they turned me loose for good, I got out of Algona.
I was tired of it. Tired of letting other people make me feel like shit. Tired of people treating me as if I had the plague. Tired of alternating between blaming everybody else for my problems and thinking if I acted guilty enough they might forgive me.
I got tired of waiting for home to come to me.
I like Monroe already.

10%

All the bad things everybody had said about me back home were true. I was degenerate and fit only for hell. Because if this was hell, then fucking sign me up.

Me too. *fans self*

17%

Kayla...you bitch...


27%

“You were beautiful. You made my teeth ache just watching you.”
Right then I felt beautiful. Sore and tired and beautiful. And not lonely. Not lonely at all.
Totally falling hard for these two. ❤️❤️

43%

“I want you to work for me and cook for me and talk with me. And then I want to fuck you, Roe. I want to fuck you so good I ruin you for anybody else. I want to make you mine. Mine. I want to brand you like the cattle. Not because I’m in love with you. Because I want you, and because I don’t want anyone else to have you.”
Phew.

56%

Goddamn it, I needed to run so bad it was a knife in me. But I couldn’t. Couldn’t go home. Couldn’t run. Couldn’t cook. Could only stand there, bleeding out but never dying.


71%

There, on Christmas Day up in my apartment holding Haley while she cried with the dogs by us, that was when I had my first glimpse of home.
Gaaaaahhhhh. I'm a fucking mess.

84%

I reached out, fingers shaking. He met my hand halfway, and he gripped it tight. I felt his strength come into me, and I think I took my first real breath in ten minutes.
Yeah...still a fucking mess.

90%

I swear this Haley's last name should be Covington!!! ❤️❤️❤️


2nd Read: 2015, September 28th -29th

1%

Yeah work be damned...I am starting the audio. <3

2%

5 minutes in and Iggy Toma is absolutely perfect.


18%

...it messed me up something awful to have someone look at me with love and tell me how wrong I am. They act as if there’s a Monroe Davis who is good somewhere, and I am the demon in his way. Like I have to die so he can live.

28%

I was getting lost again. Every time I was with him, I could let go.

45%

This wasn’t any asking. This was claiming.
I wasn’t sorry. I felt like that crazy sea inside me was settling into a calm. He had drawn it out of the bottle I kept it in, but when I looked up at him, it eased, because if my wild insides were a sea, his gray eyes were the world’s biggest fucking bowl, and they held me. Caught me and held me and bore me up.

59%

He grabbed me around the waist, and when I tried to fight him, he pulled me back and wrestled me to the floor. I kicked and clawed and swore, but he held me down. He pressed his body against mine and held me to the carpet while I shouted and cursed and tried to fight. Held me until I stopped fighting.

60%

"...They want me to be a Roe I can’t be, and it will only hurt everybody more if I go back. But it’s hard to hear him asking and not answer.”
It seemed so damn simple when I said it like that.
“Who’s the Roe you can’t be?” he asked.
I was still staring at the wall, but it was fading, turning to gray mist. “Straight.”

78%

I shouted and slammed at gates, pushing deeper and deeper into the ranch. Past the barn, out into the pens we had sorted the pregnant ewes into. I didn’t even check on them. I just kept going. There was this whisper gnawing on me, asking me where the fuck I thought I was going, but that made my chest tighter, and I shook my head, clenched my teeth and whispered, “Nowhere. I ain’t going nowhere.”
Then I realized I was already there. I was such shit I fucked up nowhere.
Oh, Roe.

82%

“You really mean it. You really do think you’re garbage compared to other people.” When I tried to turn my head away from him, he held my chin fast. “Roe. Monroe Harold Davis. You are not a piece of shit. You are not garbage. You are not less than anybody. In fact, I think you’re probably better than most people I know. I know for a fact you’re a better person than me.”
Yep...cue the tears...again.

91%

“Listen.” Kayla was back on her feet and pissed as hell, but Haley rounded on her, pregnant belly and everything.
“No, you listen. You too, Pastor. You listen, and you listen fucking good. You get your ears turned all the way on, because today I have the gospel for you, and you had better fucking take notes.”
Love Haley!

3rd Read: 2016, February 1st - 3rd

1%

Yeah I need some kinky Heidi to balance out the Disney one. Sue me.


7%



18%

But it messed me up something awful to have someone look at me with love and tell me how wrong I am. They act as if there’s a Monroe Davis who is good somewhere, and I am the demon in his way. Like I have to die so he can live.

29%

I find myself wanting to repeat the same posts I already have posted previously. Oh well...at least I'm consistent. :)
“You were beautiful. You made my teeth ache just watching you.”
Right then I felt beautiful. Sore and tired and beautiful. And not lonely. Not lonely at all.

43%

He came in slow. He had his eyes on me the whole time, hard and strong, which was the only thing keeping me from turning away. Until the last second I thought he was going to do something kinky, like bite me or lick my lips. That would have been fine. But after he bent down, my unsteady breath against his mouth, he kissed me. Soft. Sweet. Unbearably gentle. It made me feel jangly and strange. Made me ache, made me hurt. Made me want to turn away, and I started to.

45%

"I want to make you mine. Mine."

54%

He pulled me down and held me tight, so tight I almost couldn’t breathe. He kissed my neck, nuzzling it with a tenderness that almost broke me.

57%

Run.
Goddamn it, I needed to run so bad it was a knife in me. But I couldn’t. Couldn’t go home. Couldn’t run. Couldn’t cook. Could only stand there, bleeding out but never dying.

gaaaaahhhh :-(

83%

He put it around my neck and told me it was to remind me I belonged at Nowhere and Nowhere belonged to me. Which I knew was his way of saying he belonged to me.

"You are not a piece of shit."



85%

I reached out, fingers shaking. He met my hand halfway, and he gripped it tight. I felt his strength come into me, and I think I took my first real breath in ten minutes.



91%

4th Read: 2016, July 24th - 25th (BR/Audiobook with Marco)

Nothing more to really say that I have not already said above.  I absolutely love this book.

Monica went into the wedding reception that should have been hers and Matt- the rats. She was drunk but did make it to the platform where speeches had been given and she told the people there she was suppose to be the bride and that Matt had stolen all her money and then married the floozie- Josie- who was now Matt the rats new bride. Matts new brother in law  Ryder literally put Monica over his shoulder and carried her out to his truck and took Monica from the reception. Monica is very drunk and wants revenge and tells ryder she will give him fifty thousand dollars to marry her because Matt will be jealous if he thinks she is happily married to fryder. Ryder desperately needs money to sink in his ranch and his horse therapy program he wants to start. A tornado had badly damaged his barn. The bank was knocking at his door and wouldn’t give him a loan. She can be Rapunzel and he can be her prince. Also Ryder thinks of the look on his ex- Stephanie’s face when he sees Monica on his arm as Ryders new bride. Ryder agrees to marry monica and the go to Vegas Ryder has Monica sign an agreement about a partnership in the ranch and would split the profits until she got her money back  she had invested into the ranch. Monica was a photographer in the fashion scene and was making a name for herself. Matt had taken all her money all she had was her last paycheck for money. When Monica comes to she has no idea where she is or what has happened until Ryder tells her and says she can’t leave the ranch until he has the money she promised him he kept his part of the deal and married her.

I enjoyed this book . It wasn’t realistic as far as I am concerned but a fun summer read. This was a light easy read. . I did chuckle at times while reading this. I did love Ryder and Monica together and how they interacted with each other. I liked the pace and the plot. I liked the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend.

the choice isn't always ours.I think we can all agree that in general stereo-types suck and while some are worse than others in terms of their implications, some can also have a basis in reality...like the fact that some cultures place a great deal of importance on things like family, which isn't to say that they're the only cultures that value family and honestly, try as I might I can't see this as a bad thing. But as much as a person can love their family sometimes, that same family can have expectations that aren't fair or may even have just been misinterpreted...hey, it could happen.

For Vincent Fierro family means everything and as an Italian man, he's sure that being gay isn't an expectation his family would have and certainly not something that they would accept from him but after 40 years and 3 divorces Vincent is starting to realize that he needs to find a way to live his life for himself and hopefully...maybe if the stars aligned he'll still get to keep his family. 

Trey on the other hand doesn't have a lot of family and maybe that's a good thing because all he's got is his gran and his mom...and mom...to say the least is sucking the life from him. Mom's got an addiction issue and we'll talk more about that later.

'Family Man' isn't a new story by any means it was released in e-book format back in 2013 and it's been on and off of my radar on a somewhat consistent basis every since but when I saw that it was out on audio I decided that this was a sign that it was time for me to check this one out.

Colin Darcy is the narrator and this was my first time listening to a book narrated by him and not my last. Mr. Darcy impressed the hell out of me. Overall I enjoyed his narration but I have to admit I quickly became a fan of Vince's voice. It was so perfectly the voice that I imagined Vince would have and I was simply delighted with Vince and while I hadn't really given as much consideration to Trey's voice once again things worked and in general the same can be said for the secondary character voices as well. It all just worked.

Ok, so without spoiling this for those of you who haven't read or listened to the audio on this one...overall I liked this story. I liked the way that Vince grew and developed as the story progressed seeing him come to terms with his sexuality and while it was a struggle for him at times and he didn't always do the right thing at first he still kept trying and it never felt like he was giving up on himself or on being with Trey in spite of what he thought he was risking and I loved that when Trey needed him the most he was there for him and while their relationship was definitely a work in progress neither of these men were afraid of a little hard work if it meant having what they wanted.

Now I can't say this was the part of the story that I liked the best because that's not the case but I had a definite appreciation for how the author's dealt with Trey's mom's addiction issue. It wasn't glorified in that she magically got better and everyone thought she was wonderful for it and all of the damage that she caused with her addiction suddenly disappeared or was forgotten and without giving away specifics of the story I'm not going to go into this any deeper except to say that as someone who has had the experience of being involved with a person who had addiction issues as with most things in this world each person, each disease, every issue is unique and while there may be commonalities there are also things unique to that person and their situation and while I saw the commonalities in Trey's mom to the situation that I was in I also saw the things that were different and unique to this characters story and for me that was a a touch of realism that came naturally to the story. 

Ironically as much as I enjoyed this story I can't say that I"m sorry it took me so long to get around to this one because I thoroughly enjoyed Colin Darcy's narration and again...the voice of Vincent...it was so worth waiting for, but even if you're not a fan of audio...hey, it can happen the story is a worthwhile reading experience.

*************************

An audio book of 'Family Man' was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.