Dylan Conway thought he had a chance at the big leagues when a scout from the Oakland Raiders asked him to come for a tryout for the team. After earning a football scholarship from Iowa State College, Dylan thought it was a sure thing.
It wasn’t.
Losing his dream to play pro ball, Dylan found a job in LA delivering pizza. What he didn’t expect was to be propositioned at every delivery. Then, to his amazement, he’s asked to work for a photographer of male nudes, which led him to another deeper, darker industry.
Sean Dean, alias ‘Rippin Long’, was tired of working as a gay porn star. For seven long years he was the top earner for Tartarus Studios. Sick and tired of the demands, yearning a real life and respectable work, Sean is stunned to see the latest addition to the Tartarus studios stable of stars. The delectable Dylan Conway. And Dylan did not hide his instant attraction to Tartarus’ prized stud. To Sean’s terror, Dylan makes a move that scares him to death. Not for sex. Dylan wants a ‘relationship’, something Sean has been avoiding eternally after continuously being idolized as the porn star and not the human being behind the façade.
As the two men collide on set, burning up the screen like no other men before them has, could there be any chance of a real bond between them?
One man jaded and at the end of his porn career, the other fresh and just beginning a new life in it, the possibility for any kind of future between the two seems daunting.
But Dylan finds sage advice from a surprising source which he clings to. To thine own self be true. Learning to trust in himself.
About the Author Award-winning author G.A. Hauser was born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, USA and attended university in New York City. She moved to Seattle, Washington where she worked as a patrol officer with the Seattle Police Department. In early 2000 G.A. moved to Hertfordshire, England where she began her writing in earnest and published her first book, In the Shadow of Alexander. Now a full-time writer, G.A. has written over eighty novels, including several best-sellers of gay fiction. GA is also the Executive Producer for her first feature film, CAPITAL GAMES. For more information on other books by G.A., visit the author at her official website. www.authorgahauser.com G.A. has won awards from All Romance eBooks for Best Author 2010, 2009, Best Novel 2008, Mile High, and Best Author 2008, Best Novel 2007, Secrets and Misdemeanors, Best Author 2007.
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I think that should just be my review. Well, I'll say this:
I thought OMFG every time I turned a new page reading this. Like, half the time it was serious, and the other half it was totally fucking wacky and hilarious. For the first half I was kinda taking it seriously, even the part where , but then I just kept laughing out loud over and over again as this story took turn after turn that I never ever expected. It's obviously just for fun, because even though its a sweet and serious story at it's core, the characters and their actions are just so fucking wacky.. I couldn't believe it, so I just didn't. I ran with it and laughed it up. I think this is the first book I've ever read where the characters really annoyed me half the time but I just didn't care! The ending was PRICELESS!
I love Dylan near the end where Sean has to get it up for a scene and Dylan is like FLUFFER! Fluffer here! Fluffer coming through! I'm his fluffer now everyone! practically busting up knees to get to kneel fast enough... hilarious!
The only thing I found disturbing (well EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA disturbing, lol) was the way everyone talked to Ms. Rosy like she had no life left and nothing to look forward to but them "generously" offering her their dicks.
So, I'd say read it, but don't expect a whole lot going in, just try to roll with it and have fun :D
I couldn't bear to finish this book but skipped to the end for the purposes of this review just to check who Dylan ended up with as the possibilities were so numerous. Dylan has come from Iowa to California to try out for a football team but is unsuccessful. Too proud to go back home he stays and gets a job delivering Pizza. He is determined to get into football eventually. With his good looks he is always being propositioned while on his delivery rounds. Including by an 82 yr old former actress whom he lets "fondle' him while he looks at a picture of her in her heyday. This is while he still thinks he is straight. He is spotted at the gym and goes to a photography session with a photographer who specialises in nude men. Although he is able to get an erection in front of 6 men in the studio he still thinks he is straight. Someone suggests he tryout at another place that turns out to be a porn movie studio and he thinks it is straight porn until he gets there...... Overnight he turns gay, and it just became more and more irritating and frankly unbelievable. I won't reveal the ending as someone may want to read it despite my 1 star, but really, don't waste your money. Hauser is a puzzle to me. She is not consistent. The last two I read, The Wedding Planner and Man To Man redeemed her after the awful Acting series, but now I don't know what I am going to do when her next book comes out.
After being highly disappointed with Hauser's "The Odd Couple" I wanted to read another offering and give her a chance to redeem herself. I figured a "bestselling" author with 80+ titles under her belt could get one wrong but must be doing something right overall... right?
WRONG.
Straight (ish) small town hottie/football star Dylan is tired of being propositioned by creeps all day as he delivers pizzas all over LA and accidentally lands himself a job doing gay porn. This is a brilliant set up that is utterly ruined by some completely amateur hour decisions at just about every possible turn. Dylan comes to terms with the fact he likes dudes with absolutely NO stress or drama over it whatsoever, does his first porn shoot, falls in love with/pursues his older co-star (who's at the end of his own career), wins the total trust and love of "Mr. Emotionally Unavailable" and gives up his porn career to move in with his man, ALL WITHIN THE SPAN OF 72 HOURS.
I literally couldn't decide which initial reaction I was having was stronger; humor at the the sheer absurdity of what I was reading or anger at the blatant insult to my intelligence. Turns out I was more angered than amused and this is why; Anyone that has written 80+ novels should have a better idea about what makes characters interesting and what makes good drama.
Regardless of the genre one is writing in, the rules do not change. Characters MUST be fully developed. The arc from being a Friday night lights, cheerleader banging quarterback to being willing to accept cash to take a dick up your butt is in itself a fascinating journey worth reading (even with no romance element introduced) but does Hauser take the time to show us what that journey would really be like? Of course not. Hausers' QB Dylan had no real feelings to begin with, never experienced love with the few girls he's dated and is basically living like a monk despite being the hottest guy anyone in LA (including everyone at the porn company he signs up with) has ever seen.
It wasn’t the first time men at the gym checked him out. It was Los Angeles, not Ames, Iowa, after all. Dylan was shy to every glance, male or female. He hated to admit how many nights he’d jacked off. Half of him wanted to just find a girlfriend and play, but he kept feeling a sense of not being a permanent resident here. What was the point in getting involved if he ended up going back home to Iowa?
Really??? What's more sexy? A hot guy getting laid all over LA or a monk? What's more interesting? A guy with a girlfriend/fiancee/wife who ends up in gay porn and THEN falls is love with his co-star and now has to choose between the two or a guy with no conflicts? Not ONE single moment of conflict, self doubt or angst over any of the discoveries Dylan makes ever occurs making his journey not just uninteresting, but utterly ridiculous. Every bit as silly (if not more so) is established porn star Sean's transformation from completely emotionally detached porn stud to "I can't get hard for any guy but Dylan now and even though we've only had sex one time on camera I suddenly can't bear the thought of him having sex with anyone else." all within the same 72 hours.
It's bad enough that Hauser utterly ignores every possible opportunity to fully explore the obvious scenarios (coming to terms with bisexuality, balancing working in porn while dating a porn star, the dark side and pitfalls of the porn industry, etc...) in favor of a string of purely juvenile options but she doesn't even bother to give her shallow premise the dignity of allowing it to develop at a pace that is at least believable making the HEA ending (provided by a lovely but wasted character in the form of a Norma Desmond-ish former Hollywood star Dylan befriends while delivering her a pizza) even more absurd than it already is.
I downloaded and had planned to review Hausers' "Cowboy Blues" next but there's no way in HELL I'm wasting my time on it or any other of her offerings in the near (or distant) future.
This was most definitely a hot story. Dylan moved from Iowa on the hopes of being the next star QB for the Oakland Raiders (GO PATRIOTS!!!) and never made the cut. Instead, he ends up delivering pizzas and being propositioned by his customers. Until he meets Madison Henning and gets a job modeling for him. That leads him to Tatarus Films and gay porn, where he meets Rippin Long (Lord, is there a cheesier porn name than that?) It is love at first sight for Dylan and he has to convince Rippin, better known as Sean, that he should give love a chance.
My major issue with this book is that it all takes place in a week. A frickin' week from "hey, I'm a straight guy delivering pizza who dreams of playing football" to "I'm a gay guy doing porn madly in love with another porn star" with NO anxiety about being with a guy for the first time or anything like that. No freaking out, just flipped a switch and "hey, I'm into dudes now!" lol
I want to give this 2 stars, maybe three, because one particular sex scene is really hot -- but one (long) scene isn't enough to redeem what is otherwise a very silly story. In the end, I'd go with 1.5 stars.
After a promising beginning the story heads right downhill. Dylan goes from shy/straight/tongue-tied to spouting Hallmark-Card psychobabble and giving relationship advice to the man he falls madly in love with after one sexual encounter. To me, he sounds hopelessly girly, and it completely squicked me out. One improbable situation gets piled on top of another, topped off by an equally improbable -- but happy -- ending.
I've tried two other books by this author, and run into the same issues there, too: awkward dialogue, emotions dialed up to eleven and unbelievable situations/plotlines. I won't be reading any more by this author, thanks.
I tried to like this book I did, but... I think it has potential, but I've had a lot of problems with execution. I rather like 'insta-love' trope, so I didn't have problems with this part, but the rest was not good. I just left out ms. Rosy storyline, coz that was plain horrible (I threw up in my mouth a little from their first encounter), but almost all the other stuff hadn't been much better. Frequent emotional bouts, too much similarities in MC's lives, without any explanation (why it was needed I didn't get) and fluffer - really? I thought the most obvious solution would've been for them to fuck only each other in movies - or at least for Dylan to only be fucked by Sean. The ending was fairytailish, but I like this kind of stuff, so I didn't mind.
I am 9/10ths of the way through this book, and I still don't think I will finish...the story had a great concept and I was excited to read it, but it falls way short of expectation...way short! The main character, Dylan, who I loved for the first half of this book, completely annoys me once he meets Sean...Really you are in love after 2 hours...REALLY??? And he "fell in love" with him, before he was anything more than a cardboard, two-dimensional cliche of a sexy man...and then they had the same birthday and both had just one younger sister that was 3 years younger than them...awful...I just did not like this book at all...
This is one of those books where you will shake your head with every page wondering where you left your brains, but you will love it anyway. It is hard not to fall in love with Dylan and how he makes it through living in LA is beyond me. Naive and an eternal optimist, we find Dylan at his lowest. He has been turned down for playing for the Raiders and is delivering pizza...he finds himself in all types of situations including gay porn. Dylan is on the cusp of being categorized as TSTL, but he is not.
Have fun with this, it is the only way to read this story.
What could have been quite an interesting read ruined by authors premature ejaculation! I mean, the main character, realises he is gay, gets recruited into gay porn, meets the man of his dreams and moves in with him then quits gay porn in the space of a week. Srsly? A week. Book. Ruined.
I really did get into this story. It had a pretty good plot even if it did seem too good to be real. The only thing I didn't like was the ending - just really over the top no possible way that could happen but hey it's a book LOL
This is actually a really cute book. I was really surprised by it and although there are a lot of "suspension of disbelief" moments, I ended up really liking the characters and the story. I loved the characters of Dylan and Ms. Rosy especially, but I also liked Dean and Angel. How realistic is it? I don't know - maybe not so much. But it was very entertaining and funny and ultimately positive. And really, I've had more than enough reality today, so I needed some entertainment.
Dylan is a naive midwestern (and why are we always presented as naive???) star college quarterback who moves to California for a shot at the pros. Unfortunately that doesn't pan out for him and he is stuck delivering pizzas for a living. I can't imagine how a guy with a bachelor's degree with honors can't find something better, but that's not the point of this story.
Dylan is really frustrated by his job and he wants something better. He's very good looking and still in football shape and he gets propositioned on half of his deliveries - including lots of men, married women and Lila Rosy, a wealthy retired and elderly actress. Finally at the gym, a photographer asks if he'd be interested in doing modeling - for male nudes. He agrees to come see with a test shoot. He gets very turned on by all the attention. One of the guys at the photoshoot suggests that Dylan meet him at the studio where he also does film work. Turns out it's a porn studio - and not only that - it's gay porn - which shocks Dylan to no end. He's very turned on, but now he's really worried that he's gay.
Dylan is very attracted to Madison, the photographer who initially found him so he stops by his house and asks for his advice. Madison tells him to calm down and see if it's something he wants to do. He tells him that the studio he's working with a good one - he is friends with the owners. He's also got a partner which disappoints Dylan since he's very attracted to older men as it turns out.
Dylan decides to try the porn thing and he meets Sean Dean, aka Rippin Long - the king stud of the studio - who is in his early thirties and has been doing porn for 7 years. He knows it's getting towards the end of his career, but he doesn't know what he'll do. For Dylan, it's love at first sight. He is completely besotted with Rippin from their first scene together. He follows him to his car after the day's shoot and Rippin takes him home with him.
I don't want to spoil the rest of the story, but Sean is ambivalent about relationships and Dylan is head over heels in love with him. The rest of the story deals with the two men working out how they will work with each other and maybe more. It also has a really sweet ending.
I varied between 2 and 3 stars for this story. But in the end, I decided on 2 stars.
There were some interesting intimate scenes between the two that made the reading more heated and there was a sweet nature to Dylan. But they couldn't overcome the strangeness of the story. So just 2 stars.
Oooh, this ran on for quite a while, but even though the first have had me wondering which guy the other hero was (was going nuts there) it wasn't boring at all. It was hot! Poor Dylan. I can't imagines being so consistently and frequently harassed by practically everyone I meet. Heheh. Oh and Sean is adorable. OMG and those porn sex scenes just about gave me a heart attack they were so hawt! Wooh! So, yeah, I loved the story and the characters (pretty much all of them) and I love G. A. Hauser for being so good, and writing so very many straight-men-who-go-gay stories. My favourite. Sigh. A little overly sappy at times, but nothing that took away from my enjoyment of this. You go, G!
This book combined two of my favorite things - football and gay porn. I was so excited to read it and I just didn't like it :( I've read and enjoyed many of G.A.'s books and this one was a disappointment. I wanted to like or care about the characters but they were so unreal, so scattered, fell in love so quickly that I just couldn't get into.
G.A. Hauser is a wonderful author and I will continue to buy and read her books. This is simply one title I don't recommend.
This was a great read. You have a young man who wanted to play football, but was unable to go pro. He ends up doing modeling and porn. Soon he falls in love and it is that love struggle that makes the book so good. You just feel the sappy love or as the character says, "qoutes from Halmark." The writter is very good. I will check out other books.
I didn't hate it, this story was simply weak. The insta love and perfection was definitely too much for my taste. Quick read, but there is a chance you will want to throw this book across the room. Utterly unbelievable and naive - Dylan and his ensure about everlasting love. Seriously, you've just met this guy! Ekhm...
I loved this story. Things did happen very quickly and there were little things here and there along the way I didn't like, but I loved the characters and didn't want the story to end. I will definitely be looking to add more of her books to my shelf.