Fresh Ink: Irons and Works Short Story Collection

Irons and Works #related

by E.M. Lindsey

Visit old friends and a few side characters with over a hundred-thousand words of short stories from the original Irons and Works series.

From weddings to vacations, from bad days to the best ones, from weeks later to years in the future, Fresh Ink tells what happens to the tattoo artists at Irons and Works as they lived past their happily ever afters.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, M M Romance, Queer, Anthologies, Short Stories, Adult

347 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 16, 2024

About the author

E.M. Lindsey is the author of MM contemporary romance. She presently lives and works in the southeastern United States.

EM Lindsey also writes MM Paranormal Romance under the pseudonym Ariel Millar.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visit old friends and a few side characters with over a hundred-thousand words of short stories from the original Irons and Works series. From weddings to vacations, from bad days to the best ones, from weeks later to years in the future, Fresh Ink tells what happens to the tattoo artists at "Irons and Works" as they lived past their happily ever-after's.
I own the entire "Get Inked" collection, and I was just wondering how long it would take me to reread it...but thanks to these 15 short story collections, I have reunited with my favorite characters from the Get Inked & Irons & Works series.

The 4.5-star rating instead of my usual 5 for this series was due to my having to "search" my bookshelves to see which original book the main character was featured in. It would have been nice if the stories had been printed in the order that the characters appeared in their original books...or at least had the title of their original book somewhere in the front... but hey...I'm not in anyway, complaining...after all I got to reunite for a couple of days...and I can reread as many times as I want, at my leisure...so it's all okay. It's not the author's fault that I have a short memory:)

Some of the things that were revisited I had completely forgotten about and others I really didn't remember happening...but I whole heartedly thank the author, E.M. Lindsey, for this trip back and finding out what has happened to one of my favorite group of guys. I wish other authors would do this for long running series...that we readers hate to see end.

Overall, they were 15 wonderful short stories...and you don't really need to have read their individual books to enjoy meeting these men and their chosen families...but you are missing out on a genuine treat if you don't.

[J.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been years, in some cases, since I read the original books featuring these characters from Lindsey's long-running Irons and Works series. However, this collection offering glimpses into their happily ever afters made meeting them feel like yesterday as I was swept back into this unique, interconnected world. Lindsey has truly embodied what "found family" means in this series, heightening the concept even more in these stories. Sure, Lindsey could have easily thrown their readers some spicy day-in-the-life glimpses without much substance, but these stories remind us that happily ever after is a process, not a guarantee. I love that moving the Irons and Works series to a new location doesn't mean saying goodbye to favorites, and I appreciated this opportunity to catch up with some old friends even while I'm excited to meet new ones.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a love/hate relationship with books like this! I love getting new info on the day-to-day lives of all of the characters that I have come to love and appreciate over the years, but I hate when I have to go back to the original book when I just can't quite place a person or child!

As always, this was an amazing roller coaster ride of emotions... sex... family times... sex... sex... sex... yeah, we get a lot of sex scenes in this one... imagine that! LOL!!!

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Catching up with the Irons and Works crew hit the feels

This was a perfect book. Catching up with characters that we haven't seen in quite a long time was wonderful. Watching their mature love, seeing their everyday problems, reading how their life became normal after finding their great love. It was absolutely perfect. Makes me wanna go back and pick up all of the originals again.

[Meagan (FranticVampireReads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this! It was so much fun seeing all the little extra bits and pieces of everyone’s stories. Getting to see so many different little life moments like characters getting engaged or married, having children, aging, growing together in new ways. It was the perfect way to wrap up the this part of the series. My only complaint about this short story collection was that it wasn’t in chronological order. Otherwise, this was fantastic and it’s getting a solid four stars! I’m also really looking forward to the expansion series and the spinoffs. 😊

[Sharing The Book Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im a huge EM fan but I had never read a snippets collection like this and tbh isn't something I'd probably read again

Was great to see some more of the characters hmm future's but I found it a bit clunky as we are reading characters in the same 'world' but the timings seemed off...

There were also quite a few mixed up word edits etc wait for weight

[jasmin · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

"Wyatt's fingers drifted down the back of Mat's neck, feeling across the little beaded line that decorated the right side of his spine which stretched from his neck to the top of his ass, a sentence that only he was allowed to read... 'You're the only human being in my entire life that ever gave me hope.'"

A collection of shorts from my favourite E.M. Lindsey universe: Irons and Works. I love these guys so much. These were short and sweet with quite a bit more steam than I was expecting. BUT I don't think I'd ever want to read these again. Whilst sweet, they felt clunky and confusing. They definitely didn't read in any kind of order but perhaps that would've made the reading experience better.

Also Rowan and James had me confused… one short they’re saying they don’t need to ever get married and the next short they’re husbands???

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed these peeks into the lives of the people we read about in the Irons and Works series. The individual stories were quite mixed, but still fun to revisit, even if this book wasn't as emotionally impactful as the rest of the series.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was nice to go back and visit old friends as well as meet some new tangential really related ones. I really do adore this series, mostly because the disability rep is excellent. I really like that everybody gets to find love, no matter what issues they have to deal with in their lives

[Lyn Solomon-Linville · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me really happy and I needed that after this week. How good it felt to reunite with the men from Irons and Works to see them married, still in love, a little older, with more children in the mix. They are all still there for each other with support, advice and love.

[Marsha L Respess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved catching up with these characters' lives but I agree that I did have to look up some of the people to refresh my memory.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet and steamy collection of snippets of favorite couples from this series.

[Lynette · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️❤️❤️

[Laura]

Dnf

[its_a_bookish_life_for_me · Rating 5 out of 5]

not me sobbing because i've now officially read the whole series 😭😭😭 i'm gonna miss these characters and this world so much

[Tina J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not classify this as a collection of short stories because, really, they are more like "Bonus Scenes" or Bonus Epilogues.... A few scenes set AFTER the book that was written for the couple.
Catch up with all the couples after they've gotten their HEAs, all in one book.
Some are entertaining, others heartwarming. Some will make you feel a wide array of emotions.