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The Escapade #2
Stripped Away
HE DOESN'T RECOGNIZE HIMSELF
David Moorehouse has spent his life hiding behind masks. Nice guy. Best friend. Reverend's kid. After finding his father dead on the floor, he's been stripped of his job at the family church and his identity as the quiet, nice guy. The life he knew is over, and he doesn't know what to do next.
HE KNOWS ANGER BETTER THAN ANYONE
Ricky Slade is itching for a fight. By the time he meets David, he's struggling to save his business, his best friend, his drug-addict brother, and his own sanity. He's got no patience for his business partner's judgmental sibling showing up and getting in his face.
Their furious heat turns into a fiery inferno, but Ricky's fresh off a bad breakup, and David is getting guilt-tripped by his family and his ex. Every time they fight, they fall into bed, but will that be enough when things around them come apart?
Be advised, this book contains: two small town, blue-collar men with big egos and bigger trucks, more emotional baggage than they can carry, and highly-charged man on man action.
David Moorehouse has spent his life hiding behind masks. Nice guy. Best friend. Reverend's kid. After finding his father dead on the floor, he's been stripped of his job at the family church and his identity as the quiet, nice guy. The life he knew is over, and he doesn't know what to do next.
HE KNOWS ANGER BETTER THAN ANYONE
Ricky Slade is itching for a fight. By the time he meets David, he's struggling to save his business, his best friend, his drug-addict brother, and his own sanity. He's got no patience for his business partner's judgmental sibling showing up and getting in his face.
Their furious heat turns into a fiery inferno, but Ricky's fresh off a bad breakup, and David is getting guilt-tripped by his family and his ex. Every time they fight, they fall into bed, but will that be enough when things around them come apart?
Be advised, this book contains: two small town, blue-collar men with big egos and bigger trucks, more emotional baggage than they can carry, and highly-charged man on man action.
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 27, 2014
4 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Ellis Carrington
14 books125 followersEllis Carrington was born after the Christmas of 2010 when she was gifted a Kindle and discovered the gay romance category on Amazon that same day. Sometimes her heroes are human and sometimes they aren’t, because angels and vampires deserve love too. Her favorite things are great friends, great music, and books that make her forget the outside world.
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dnf-not-4-me
October 11, 2014UPDATE: Early reviews aren't great. Bummer. I'm going to hold off for just a bit.
Angry sex anyone?
I thought so!
Angry sex anyone?
I thought so!
August 8, 2014
Once again one of those times that I wish we could give half stars.... this is a 2 1/2star for me.... sadly.
After loving Stripped Clean so much I was really looking forward to reading Ricky & Davids story however, way too many things rubbed me wrong with this book from the get go. Please do not read any further if you don't want this book spoiled for you!!!!!
***SPOILER***SPOILER***SPOILER****
First off, I was totally floored when I realized that Carlos did not go to the funeral with Greg. WTF?! That just in no way made sense. In Stripped Clean we left off the night before the funeral and they were going to drop things at their new place and immediately drive down to NC for the funeral. Greg and Carlos are so in love and Greg is a complete mess about his Dad's death on the heels of his tiff with Dad,etc.etc. Now we're supposed to believe that visiting this "friend" in the hospital after a car accident is more important?! BUllSHIT! From book 1 we know that he didn't have any close friends so there is no way that I can find this believable. In fact, in all honesty this book now makes me think that Greg and Carlos don't have a HEA or much of a relationship at all. Which just really sucks!
Furthermore, while yes, the angry sex was hot to begin with it got old really quickly. These two are both just too screwed up all the way through to the very end. I didn't see anything to make me believe that they even liked each other let alone loved each other. Hell, David is so insecure it's not funny and even by the end Ricky can't settle on one gender and David is still worrying if he'll be enough. Ricky's choice of porn there toward the end proved to me that David's concern was founded and will ultimately be proven correct.
Finally, there were so many, many disjointed scenes...
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
away from each other, self-doubting check
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
away from each other, self-doubting check
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
away from each other, self-doubting check
see something involving a woman to bring on more doubts check
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
thought they were gonna die check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
fade to black check
away from each other, self-doubting check
etc.etc.etc.....
~sigh~sigh~
This is not HEA, this is fucked up, real life, sad dysfunctional relationship on the road to ruin....
After loving Stripped Clean so much I was really looking forward to reading Ricky & Davids story however, way too many things rubbed me wrong with this book from the get go. Please do not read any further if you don't want this book spoiled for you!!!!!
***SPOILER***SPOILER***SPOILER****
First off, I was totally floored when I realized that Carlos did not go to the funeral with Greg. WTF?! That just in no way made sense. In Stripped Clean we left off the night before the funeral and they were going to drop things at their new place and immediately drive down to NC for the funeral. Greg and Carlos are so in love and Greg is a complete mess about his Dad's death on the heels of his tiff with Dad,etc.etc. Now we're supposed to believe that visiting this "friend" in the hospital after a car accident is more important?! BUllSHIT! From book 1 we know that he didn't have any close friends so there is no way that I can find this believable. In fact, in all honesty this book now makes me think that Greg and Carlos don't have a HEA or much of a relationship at all. Which just really sucks!
Furthermore, while yes, the angry sex was hot to begin with it got old really quickly. These two are both just too screwed up all the way through to the very end. I didn't see anything to make me believe that they even liked each other let alone loved each other. Hell, David is so insecure it's not funny and even by the end Ricky can't settle on one gender and David is still worrying if he'll be enough. Ricky's choice of porn there toward the end proved to me that David's concern was founded and will ultimately be proven correct.
Finally, there were so many, many disjointed scenes...
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
away from each other, self-doubting check
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
away from each other, self-doubting check
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
away from each other, self-doubting check
see something involving a woman to bring on more doubts check
argue check
make up sex check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
thought they were gonna die check
half hearted, fucked up discussion check
fade to black check
away from each other, self-doubting check
etc.etc.etc.....
~sigh~sigh~
This is not HEA, this is fucked up, real life, sad dysfunctional relationship on the road to ruin....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 14, 2014
*I received a free ARC of Stripped Away from Ellis Carrington via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
Hot, complicated and heartbreaking! Dave has a hard time dealing with his father's passing away, especially because the late pastor has shown his true colors of womanizing embezzling and having a secret family known only after his death.
This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews
Hot, complicated and heartbreaking! Dave has a hard time dealing with his father's passing away, especially because the late pastor has shown his true colors of womanizing embezzling and having a secret family known only after his death.
This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews
August 3, 2014
There are times when you read a book from an author, and you enjoy it. There are times you read a book from the same author, and you don’t. Unfortunately, Stripped Away falls into the latter category for me.
Finding out that David Moorehouse was getting his own book had me curious. We knew bits about Greg’s new brother after we learned about their father’s death in Stripped Clean. So this brother is also into boys… or so it would seem as the blurb says it’s about him and Ricky… Ricky? You mean Greg’s friend who is also the brother of Sam, who is… okay then?
Ricky and David don’t like each other much in the beginning. The boys did not have a traditional meet cute as they meet at the funeral for Reverend Moorehouse (David and Greg’s father), and things were a bit awkward. Not as tense as the story tells us further in, but it was an odd place to meet the dude you would soon be having sex with. David is pretty much in the closet with having his late father be a pillar of the community though his reputation is now in the toilet with secrets that got out. Ricky is the type of guy who likes to sample a bit of everything off the menu when it comes to sex, be it with men or women. The classic opposites attract trope and “you didn’t know you wanted this until you met him” happens and then I got distracted.
I hate to say it, but I did not connect with either Ricky or David as individuals nor as a couple. There was zero chemistry between them. I am a sucker for the first kiss in a romance, and this one made me feel nothing. I am not sure what it was? Maybe I had my editor hat on while reading and that is never a good thing. There was a lot of telling in this story. A lot of telling and that took me out of the world I should have been engaged in and never gave me a chance to feel what was happening and happening faster than insta love speed, between the men.
There were many instances where I would notice something that was out of place; for example – two people are speaking in the same paragraph without a separation. Normally, say if David is talking and then Olivia either answers or asks a question etc., you start a new paragraph for clarification. It could have been the copy I got off NetGalley but the format was wonky. It made it very difficult to read, and I had to go back a few times to make sure what I read was what I read so I could attempt to keep up. Again, my editor cap was firmly on while reading this and I couldn’t help it. I think a strong edit would have done wonders for the book and could have cleaned up many of the issues that pulled me out of the story.
The insta love came out of left field. I still have no real reason as to why the boys fell so hard and fast for one another and honestly never felt like there was an ounce of emotion or intimacy between them to fall in love the way we were told they did. It was so fast and intense that it wasn’t believable to me, and the distrust David kept talking about with Ricky or Rick depending on who he was at the time… there was never a reason for it.
The side story with Olivia and her ex-boyfriend and then the drama with Jeremy was over the top. By the time, we get to the Jeremy deal there was already so much going on I wanted to stop reading, but I kept going to see where it all ends up. I guess that says something? Maybe?
I will say that the first book, Stripped Clean, I enjoyed. I felt the connection between Greg and Carlos but David and Ricky fell flat for me.
*ARC was provided by the author via NetGalley*
2.5stars
Finding out that David Moorehouse was getting his own book had me curious. We knew bits about Greg’s new brother after we learned about their father’s death in Stripped Clean. So this brother is also into boys… or so it would seem as the blurb says it’s about him and Ricky… Ricky? You mean Greg’s friend who is also the brother of Sam, who is… okay then?
Ricky and David don’t like each other much in the beginning. The boys did not have a traditional meet cute as they meet at the funeral for Reverend Moorehouse (David and Greg’s father), and things were a bit awkward. Not as tense as the story tells us further in, but it was an odd place to meet the dude you would soon be having sex with. David is pretty much in the closet with having his late father be a pillar of the community though his reputation is now in the toilet with secrets that got out. Ricky is the type of guy who likes to sample a bit of everything off the menu when it comes to sex, be it with men or women. The classic opposites attract trope and “you didn’t know you wanted this until you met him” happens and then I got distracted.
I hate to say it, but I did not connect with either Ricky or David as individuals nor as a couple. There was zero chemistry between them. I am a sucker for the first kiss in a romance, and this one made me feel nothing. I am not sure what it was? Maybe I had my editor hat on while reading and that is never a good thing. There was a lot of telling in this story. A lot of telling and that took me out of the world I should have been engaged in and never gave me a chance to feel what was happening and happening faster than insta love speed, between the men.
There were many instances where I would notice something that was out of place; for example – two people are speaking in the same paragraph without a separation. Normally, say if David is talking and then Olivia either answers or asks a question etc., you start a new paragraph for clarification. It could have been the copy I got off NetGalley but the format was wonky. It made it very difficult to read, and I had to go back a few times to make sure what I read was what I read so I could attempt to keep up. Again, my editor cap was firmly on while reading this and I couldn’t help it. I think a strong edit would have done wonders for the book and could have cleaned up many of the issues that pulled me out of the story.
The insta love came out of left field. I still have no real reason as to why the boys fell so hard and fast for one another and honestly never felt like there was an ounce of emotion or intimacy between them to fall in love the way we were told they did. It was so fast and intense that it wasn’t believable to me, and the distrust David kept talking about with Ricky or Rick depending on who he was at the time… there was never a reason for it.
The side story with Olivia and her ex-boyfriend and then the drama with Jeremy was over the top. By the time, we get to the Jeremy deal there was already so much going on I wanted to stop reading, but I kept going to see where it all ends up. I guess that says something? Maybe?
I will say that the first book, Stripped Clean, I enjoyed. I felt the connection between Greg and Carlos but David and Ricky fell flat for me.
*ARC was provided by the author via NetGalley*
2.5stars
Read
March 27, 2015DNF at 50%
Well, I tried. Let me tell you what I look for in a good MM novel and where I guess this fell short.
1). I need emotion. A bit of angsty tug of war with emotions or storyline.
2). If I don't get the decent emotion described above, I can usually get past it if I get strong MCs with FUCKHOT chemistry. But I need one or the other, preferably both.
In this book, I didn't get either of those necessities.
I didn't love either MC. The main character, David, reminded me of a dorky guy, the kind that forever lives with mom and dad and hangs in front of a computer in their basement for life. The second MC calls him Church boy...not helpful. He IS the son of a pastor, by the way. The second MC, Ricky, is frequently being described as smelling like sweat so from the get-go I think of a big dude, cowboy hat, bad teeth and B.O. Their dialogue drove me batshit. Church boy refers to his parents as Mama and Daddy. Grow up. There's slang constantly but not the hot slang we hear from alphas, more Hicksville USA slang I picture them saying with a piece of straw hanging out their mouth in the back of David's rusty pick up.
So, my visuals blew it. The story didn't really capture me. This was an arc but several sentences I had to read a couple times and still didn't figure out what she meant.
On to the next book...
Advanced reader's copy received by author via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.
Well, I tried. Let me tell you what I look for in a good MM novel and where I guess this fell short.
1). I need emotion. A bit of angsty tug of war with emotions or storyline.
2). If I don't get the decent emotion described above, I can usually get past it if I get strong MCs with FUCKHOT chemistry. But I need one or the other, preferably both.
In this book, I didn't get either of those necessities.
I didn't love either MC. The main character, David, reminded me of a dorky guy, the kind that forever lives with mom and dad and hangs in front of a computer in their basement for life. The second MC calls him Church boy...not helpful. He IS the son of a pastor, by the way. The second MC, Ricky, is frequently being described as smelling like sweat so from the get-go I think of a big dude, cowboy hat, bad teeth and B.O. Their dialogue drove me batshit. Church boy refers to his parents as Mama and Daddy. Grow up. There's slang constantly but not the hot slang we hear from alphas, more Hicksville USA slang I picture them saying with a piece of straw hanging out their mouth in the back of David's rusty pick up.
So, my visuals blew it. The story didn't really capture me. This was an arc but several sentences I had to read a couple times and still didn't figure out what she meant.
On to the next book...
Advanced reader's copy received by author via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.
August 7, 2014
ok...in case you didn't figure it out in stripped clean, ricky is a badass. and i kinda love him. out of all the characters in these 2 books, he seems like he's the one that has it the most together...until you get into his head. he has a lot of growing up to do and with everything that's going on around him, he finally gets that.
dave on the otherhand is blatantly struggling with life from the get-go. he's had a really crappy life and has never been himself. he's lived his life for everyone else and it hasn't been pleasant for him. his maturation and settling into himself is awesome. i love how he embraces his relationship with his newly discovered brother.
dave and ricky's sexual tension is off the charts and they seem to be made for each other...if they can just make each other realize that!
dave on the otherhand is blatantly struggling with life from the get-go. he's had a really crappy life and has never been himself. he's lived his life for everyone else and it hasn't been pleasant for him. his maturation and settling into himself is awesome. i love how he embraces his relationship with his newly discovered brother.
dave and ricky's sexual tension is off the charts and they seem to be made for each other...if they can just make each other realize that!
August 2, 2014
3.5 stars rounded up
*copy from netgalley in exchange for honest review*
Overall I ended up enjoying this one. It's a classic opposites attracts story. The uptight closeted preacher's son (David) falling for the rough gun toting owner of a strip bar (Ricky). The chemistry between Ricky & David was decent and I enjoyed their romance. My main problem was with the Jeremy storyline
I believe this is part of series, book 1 features a different couple. I didn't read the first book so this can be read as a standalone novel.
*copy from netgalley in exchange for honest review*
Overall I ended up enjoying this one. It's a classic opposites attracts story. The uptight closeted preacher's son (David) falling for the rough gun toting owner of a strip bar (Ricky). The chemistry between Ricky & David was decent and I enjoyed their romance. My main problem was with the Jeremy storyline
I believe this is part of series, book 1 features a different couple. I didn't read the first book so this can be read as a standalone novel.
August 1, 2014
Ellis Carrington writes complicated characters. Non of her guys have it easy. They didn't in Stripped Clean and they certainly don't in Stripped Away. Anyone who read the first in the series will remember that Ricky is the co owner of the strip cub with his BFF Greg, who was the first to get his love story told. Sammy, Ricky's drug taking brother, who featured heavily in book one as Greg's cheating boyfriend, is now in rehab, Tatiana, his ex fiancée is back on the scene coaching the girls at their strip club; still showing signs of interest in him, and the business is struggling. To top it off there's unrest about the nature of the club from local factions so all in all Ricky is teetering on the edge of losing it...only just managing to keep his shit together!
David is Greg's half brother. It was only at the end of the last book that the two of them found out about each other, their duplicitous dad having kept the knowledge of his two separate families secret from each other and that's how the story begins, with Greg meeting David for the first time after traveling to their fathers funeral, taking Ricky with him for moral support as Carlos, his partner and lover, is away visiting a friend in hospital.
Both Greg and David had had issues with their Reverend father who, as it turned out, was far from the pious, local religious pillar he was supposed to be, having been found out to be cheating and embezzling money from the New Hope Center he ran, for his own devices. In fact it was David who'd found his father dead and is the one shouldering the fall out from his lying parents disastrous fall from grace. He's lost his job and standing because of it, plus he's worrying about Olivia, his once upon a time, not so successful, girlfriend-turned-best friend who he's not spoken to since she hooked up with a loser boyfriend he hadn't approved of. His one long(ish) gay relationship with Jeremy the local vet, has fizzled and died because of Dave's need to keep his sexuality secret from his parents and peers and last but not least his mothers Diabetes is getting worse... so, like Ricky he's also floundering in a sea of despair! So you can imagine the friction when these two taut as a piece of elastic, ready to snap, men meet!
I loved the sexual tension Ms Carrington had going on between Greg and Carlos in Stripped Clean, and I equally loved it between Dave and Ricky! Hoo boy do those two spark off each other. For me the pull is like being a kid in a candy store. I can't resist it...give me great ST and I'm a happy reader, get it wrong and I'm disconnected. The first half of the book is packed with antagonism and you can feel the strain building every time they're in each other's company, although you can also feel the underlying magnetic attraction as well. From the first meeting at the funeral they square off against each other and when Dave has to fall back on his newly found brothers invitation to go visit the strip club sometime (an offer he wasn't really going to take up) because he and Olivia have to run from her abusive boyfriend—they're thrown together even more and from then on the two of them are like a couple of sticks of dynamite.
Put them in the same space together, light the fuses—then stand well back!
"He and Dave got on like gas in a coal mine. They were explosive and dangerous, and needed to burn each other out of their systems."
It's like foreplay in sex scenes...sometimes that's more erotic than the actual event because it's the lead up and anticipation that gets the juices flowing and it's why I personally love it when there's a yummy clash of personalities between two stroppy guys. Enemies to lovers, love/hate relationships...they're two of my favourite tropes in a romance and are a great platform for hot, angry sex and steamy interludes.
Ricky's lips touched his, and when he pushed inside, Ricky sucked in with a breath so hard he stole all the air from Dave's mouth. "Holy...fuck."
When Dave and Ricky finally 'hit the sheets' after their sniping at each other it's nothing short of combustible. Electrically charged sex is always hot to trot!
"Let me. The fuck. Up." "Really? Why?" Dave's stubble scraped across Ricky's cheek. "Hasn't this kinda been our thing? You insult me, I insult you, and then we push and shove until we're both ready to come in our pants?"
I thought the love scenes at this point in their partnership were delicious. The heat between them was tangible and the banter, quite funny in a dry, at times, caustic way. Considering Dave's 'churchy' background he's really sexy and quite dominant with Ricky in the bedroom, and of course because the tension is so charged between them it made the sex even more satisfying, not just for them but for me as a reader too. Like I've said I had no complaints about that side of their pairing at all!
But then there's the matter of misunderstandings and miscommunication, and if any pair of guys could be poster boys for it, it's these two! To be honest this part of their relationship did become slightly wearing at times and if one thing grates on me in a book it can be this. Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying the story too much to ever fully lose patience with them but I did have an odd mumble to myself every time they hit another crossroad in their on/off romance that would generally have them backing away from each other, because one would be convinced the other wasn't really interested, when it was obvious to everyone else but themselves they were in fact pretty crazy about each other! Sheesh! I think this was a case of two extremely stubborn, obtuse men not taking time to step back and look past their own differences and troubles enough to take time to do what most people would do in most of the situations they encounter and that's...TALK for goodness sake!....for more of review Follow link~ http://bit.ly/1kpS3Sr
September 6, 2014
Life has not been kind to David Moorehouse. Raised by a part time father whose church, money and second family all came first, David is a bit of an emotional basket case. Torn between his “duty” to be an upstanding pillar in a now shattered faith community, and the need to be who he really is and embrace his sexuality, David is thrust into picking up the pieces of his father’s destructive legacy and take care of his ailing mother. So when his recently discovered gay half-brother walks into their father’s funeral with a gun toting, smartass friend, Ricky, David feels his world begin to crumble.
When a phone call to his only friend, Olivia, morphs into a rescue mission, David turns to his half-brother for help. Now holed up in a strip club hotel and fighting his growing attraction to Ricky, David is faced with a life that threatens to spiral out of control and take the only man he has ever loved with it.
While Stripped Away is book two in Ellis Carrington’s Stripped series, it could, if necessary, be read as a standalone. I, however, recommend reading the first in the series, Stripped Clean to really get a feel for these characters and particularly David’s father. Poor David. What a conflicted man! Always having sought approval from a dad who lead a secret life and preached relentlessly on the evils of David’s own sexuality, David now stands teetering on the edge of an abyss of his own making. He alternately hates the fact that he is gay and desperately wants to be with a man—find happiness in his arms. When the brusque, fractured Ricky graces the scene, we realize that this guy is barely hiding his own vulnerability and fears. These two are like fire and ice, and their attraction is explosive. When you throw in a cast of secondary characters, from an ailing mother to a possessive ex lover, you get a story that is rich in angst, rife with action and overall, a real joy to read.
The strength of this series, and in particular, this novel, is that Ellis Carrington writes intricately woven passages that reveal the inner turmoil each of her characters is living. Yet, she does so in a way in which they react to each other and their circumstances, making every chapter a subtle revelation of how each person’s mind is working. Despite what appeared to be his overactive paranoia, I really enjoyed getting to know David and watching his story unfold. He had amazing inner strength reserves that he drew on again and again. Ricky turned out to be a really tender-hearted guy once you got past the relentless sarcasm and biting wit. All in all, this couple became such a dynamic duo that it made the story flow along beautifully and kept the pace moving.
Stripped Away is a worthy sequel to Ellis Carrington’s original work, and fans of the first novel will find this one does not disappoint. Perhaps the only negative for me was the decided lack of appearance of Carlos, Greg’s boyfriend. I felt it strange that when Greg had his accident, Carlos was nowhere to be found, and written off as busy with school and such. However, this was minor in an overall good novel that kept me involved to the end.
When a phone call to his only friend, Olivia, morphs into a rescue mission, David turns to his half-brother for help. Now holed up in a strip club hotel and fighting his growing attraction to Ricky, David is faced with a life that threatens to spiral out of control and take the only man he has ever loved with it.
While Stripped Away is book two in Ellis Carrington’s Stripped series, it could, if necessary, be read as a standalone. I, however, recommend reading the first in the series, Stripped Clean to really get a feel for these characters and particularly David’s father. Poor David. What a conflicted man! Always having sought approval from a dad who lead a secret life and preached relentlessly on the evils of David’s own sexuality, David now stands teetering on the edge of an abyss of his own making. He alternately hates the fact that he is gay and desperately wants to be with a man—find happiness in his arms. When the brusque, fractured Ricky graces the scene, we realize that this guy is barely hiding his own vulnerability and fears. These two are like fire and ice, and their attraction is explosive. When you throw in a cast of secondary characters, from an ailing mother to a possessive ex lover, you get a story that is rich in angst, rife with action and overall, a real joy to read.
The strength of this series, and in particular, this novel, is that Ellis Carrington writes intricately woven passages that reveal the inner turmoil each of her characters is living. Yet, she does so in a way in which they react to each other and their circumstances, making every chapter a subtle revelation of how each person’s mind is working. Despite what appeared to be his overactive paranoia, I really enjoyed getting to know David and watching his story unfold. He had amazing inner strength reserves that he drew on again and again. Ricky turned out to be a really tender-hearted guy once you got past the relentless sarcasm and biting wit. All in all, this couple became such a dynamic duo that it made the story flow along beautifully and kept the pace moving.
Stripped Away is a worthy sequel to Ellis Carrington’s original work, and fans of the first novel will find this one does not disappoint. Perhaps the only negative for me was the decided lack of appearance of Carlos, Greg’s boyfriend. I felt it strange that when Greg had his accident, Carlos was nowhere to be found, and written off as busy with school and such. However, this was minor in an overall good novel that kept me involved to the end.
August 1, 2014
HE DOESN'T RECOGNIZE HIMSELF
David Moorehouse has spent his life hiding behind masks. Nice guy. Best friend. Reverend's kid. After finding his father dead on the floor, he’s been stripped of his job at the family church and his identity as the quiet, nice guy. The life he knew is over, and he doesn’t know what to do next.
HE KNOWS ANGER BETTER THAN ANYONE
Ricky Slade is itching for a fight. By the time he meets David, he’s struggling to save his business, his best friend, his drug-addict brother, and his own sanity. He’s got no patience for his business partner’s judgmental sibling showing up and getting in his face.
Their furious heat turns into a fiery inferno, but Ricky's fresh off a bad breakup, and David is getting guilt-tripped by his family and his ex. Every time they fight, they fall into bed, but will that be enough when things around them come apart?
***
My thoughts:
This was my first introduction to Ellis Carrington and the Stripped Clean world. I have to say it was a very well told story, that showed heart, depth, and passion between two people who are so opposite that they fit together like seamless puzzle pieces.
Since this was my first introduction to the Stripped Clean series, I felt like there were some aspects to the relationships I was missing, particularly, Greg and Carlos. This didn't take away from the book at all, I just had to be more open with their storyline.
Their were some minor details in Ricky and David's characterization that didn't make sense to me at the beginning. Mainly how hard Ricky was on David about his father and working around David and Greg's relationship. Again, this could be a result of missing details in Stripped Clean. Maybe this was to show how tough and immovable Ricky is as a person? Perhaps. My issues on this were quickly dissolved once David and Ricky became a couple.
Overall:
This was a gem of a book in the m/m genre, and overlooked I might say. More people need to give this author a chance! Such a treat! I didn't find many faults, any that I did have were resolved by plot development and the alternating hero perspectives. I definitely will be picking up Stripped Clean (I need to hear about Carlos and Greg now!), and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by Carrington.
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.
David Moorehouse has spent his life hiding behind masks. Nice guy. Best friend. Reverend's kid. After finding his father dead on the floor, he’s been stripped of his job at the family church and his identity as the quiet, nice guy. The life he knew is over, and he doesn’t know what to do next.
HE KNOWS ANGER BETTER THAN ANYONE
Ricky Slade is itching for a fight. By the time he meets David, he’s struggling to save his business, his best friend, his drug-addict brother, and his own sanity. He’s got no patience for his business partner’s judgmental sibling showing up and getting in his face.
Their furious heat turns into a fiery inferno, but Ricky's fresh off a bad breakup, and David is getting guilt-tripped by his family and his ex. Every time they fight, they fall into bed, but will that be enough when things around them come apart?
***
My thoughts:
This was my first introduction to Ellis Carrington and the Stripped Clean world. I have to say it was a very well told story, that showed heart, depth, and passion between two people who are so opposite that they fit together like seamless puzzle pieces.
Since this was my first introduction to the Stripped Clean series, I felt like there were some aspects to the relationships I was missing, particularly, Greg and Carlos. This didn't take away from the book at all, I just had to be more open with their storyline.
Their were some minor details in Ricky and David's characterization that didn't make sense to me at the beginning. Mainly how hard Ricky was on David about his father and working around David and Greg's relationship. Again, this could be a result of missing details in Stripped Clean. Maybe this was to show how tough and immovable Ricky is as a person? Perhaps. My issues on this were quickly dissolved once David and Ricky became a couple.
Overall:
This was a gem of a book in the m/m genre, and overlooked I might say. More people need to give this author a chance! Such a treat! I didn't find many faults, any that I did have were resolved by plot development and the alternating hero perspectives. I definitely will be picking up Stripped Clean (I need to hear about Carlos and Greg now!), and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books by Carrington.
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.
November 19, 2014
****Ellis Carrington, via NetGalley, provided me with a complimentary ARC of this book for my honest review****
3 stars
David Moorehouse is lost. When he finds his father dead and scandal reaches their sleepy town, a part of him dies along with him. His public identity. He's always hidden behind the safety of it to keep the biggest secret of them all, he's gay. No longer the beloved town reverend's son who works in the quiet church library, he's left to pick up the pieces his father left behind and figure out where to go from here. The other thing his father gifted him with? A half brother he knew nothing about till the scandal. When his new family member shows up to their father's funeral, he's left with even more mixed feelings. The ruggedly handsome and very intimating "body guard" that shows up with him doesn't help matters. David shouldn't be attracted to Ricky, he should be attracted to safe men like his ex Jeremy, the town veterinarian. Ricky has his own baggage and it may just all be too much for David to navigate.
Ricky finds the conservative and slightly nerdy half brother of his best friend and business partner infuriating. Between his struggling business and family issues the last thing he wants to do is to take on more. However, his best friend Greg, needs the support while navigating uncharted waters.
When the sparks fly between the two they may just burn the house down.
Steam was no problem with this story. The flow could be awkward at times but there was good chemistry between Ricky and David, the struggles not lacking authenticity, and the attraction believable. There weren't many redeemable side characters in this one for me but I did like the relationships between David, his half brother Greg and Ricky. The best friends, the lovers, the half brothers who never knew each other until their dishonest father's funeral. However, most of his relatives and his best friend Olivia I could have left out and been just as happy just reading about the three. For some reason, I didn't click with Olivia and his family was so heavily judgmental and lacking acceptance that I wanted to automatically stand up for Dave. Although, I guess that says something about my feelings and connection to him. There was enough action and a twist I didn't really see coming that kept the story fresh and entertaining.
August 7, 2014
Stripped Away is the second book in The Escapade series. The Escapade is a stripper club owned by two gay men. We met Greg in book one, Stripped Clean, and learned a little about his business partner Ricky. We also learned Greg has a step-brother, Dave, who he has never met. Stripped Away is Dave's story and brings the two brothers face to face for the first time and bringing Ricky into Dave's carefully constructed world that is now falling apart around him.
This story has one of my favorite tropes, hate to love, which means a lot of sexual tension and some angry frustrated sex while they try to work through their feelings, throw some possessiveness in there and YUM! While I loved all the button pushing they did to each other, this story is more about Dave's internal conflicts and growth. The book starts out with Dave's world destroyed. All the choices he has made have been to please someone else and do what was expected of him, especially his dad. He had to hide his sexuality from his family and the community, settling for a secret relationship with the local vet, Jeremy. He even he had to suppress his true sexual desires because Jeremy didn't approve. By the time Ricky shows up Dave is one frustrated, confused and angry person. Ricky is everything Dave wanted but could never have. Carrington did an excellent job explaining what was going on in Dave's head as he slowly freed himself from the emotional prison he built for himself. There is also a little bit of a thriller plot twist at the end.
I liked this story better than book one mainly because of the way Dave is written. Carrington broke my heart as I read about these two men who want to love and be loved so desperately. Then put it back together again as they learned to trust each other and realize they deserve it.
This story has one of my favorite tropes, hate to love, which means a lot of sexual tension and some angry frustrated sex while they try to work through their feelings, throw some possessiveness in there and YUM! While I loved all the button pushing they did to each other, this story is more about Dave's internal conflicts and growth. The book starts out with Dave's world destroyed. All the choices he has made have been to please someone else and do what was expected of him, especially his dad. He had to hide his sexuality from his family and the community, settling for a secret relationship with the local vet, Jeremy. He even he had to suppress his true sexual desires because Jeremy didn't approve. By the time Ricky shows up Dave is one frustrated, confused and angry person. Ricky is everything Dave wanted but could never have. Carrington did an excellent job explaining what was going on in Dave's head as he slowly freed himself from the emotional prison he built for himself. There is also a little bit of a thriller plot twist at the end.
I liked this story better than book one mainly because of the way Dave is written. Carrington broke my heart as I read about these two men who want to love and be loved so desperately. Then put it back together again as they learned to trust each other and realize they deserve it.
August 14, 2014
Stripped Away is a complicated book that I loved getting wrapped up in, trying to figure out what will happen next. Can you imagine being the pastor's son, having lived a life totally involved in the family's church, and when your father dies it's all stripped away? Secrets, terrible secrets, have been kept for years and now they're coming out to make David's world tilt on a different axis. He feels responsible for protecting everyone, making things right, but it's all out of his control. Add to that David's own closeted secret and it's a real mess. Dad is dead, Mama is sick, there's a new family member with his own problems, a new potential boyfriend who may be more poison than comfort, and a best friend who has chosen a dangerous way to solve problems. This is an exciting book that you won't be able to put down until the last word on the last page. Highly recommended.
December 17, 2014
HEARTBREAKING AND SWEET
With wise cracking, humorous and hawt Ricky, add straight laced and geeky David and you have quite the relationship on your hands. This dysfunctional, humorous romantic story about two men who have nothing in common but out of this world sex, is a rollercoaster ride. From the moment when the two brothers meet at their fathers funeral to them helping each other after a devastating fire. This story was about family and forgiveness and growth. I liked all the elements of expanding the characters and what they had to go through. I liked that they didn't all fall in love and fall in bed together. They had to work through their problems to make a connection. This was a wonderfully written very entertaining story about two men that didn't always fit so well together but made it work anyway. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!!!
With wise cracking, humorous and hawt Ricky, add straight laced and geeky David and you have quite the relationship on your hands. This dysfunctional, humorous romantic story about two men who have nothing in common but out of this world sex, is a rollercoaster ride. From the moment when the two brothers meet at their fathers funeral to them helping each other after a devastating fire. This story was about family and forgiveness and growth. I liked all the elements of expanding the characters and what they had to go through. I liked that they didn't all fall in love and fall in bed together. They had to work through their problems to make a connection. This was a wonderfully written very entertaining story about two men that didn't always fit so well together but made it work anyway. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!!!
May 27, 2018
I really love these characters & this series. I am so hoping the author continues. I don't feel I've gotten enough of Ricky and David. A lot goes on in this small world the author has created and this was such a touching and emotional story. I am not ready to let them all go.
August 26, 2015
Beautiful story, very well-written. I was hooked right from the start. The chemistry between David and Ricky was just off-the-charts!!
July 25, 2014
Advanced reader's copy received by author via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.
David Moorehouse has in a nutshell lost his identity. Though, he wasn’t enjoying life, nor living a life for himself, he at least had a job, a home, and a father. Everything changed the moment he found his father dead on the floor, blood pooling around him. Life wasn’t the same since then, and he certainly wasn’t the same guy who worked for his father’s church bookstore. Secrets are exposed, revealing an arsenal of dirty laundry that his father left behind. And, David has secrets of his own, but after all is laid bare, who can he trust? Can he even trust himself when he doesn’t know who he is?
Well, that is answered David. Yes, readers, he comes to realize that he is:
And the plot thickens. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
As for Ricky Slade things aren’t so peachy either.
That pretty much all I can say on the two. Going in I was all kinds of excited. We got advised that we had two men with ‘big egos’ and bigger trucks (Mind you, it solely Ricky’s) and ‘whole lot of sizzling man on man action.
Point One: The Big Ego’s. Quite surprisingly for how David read he wasn’t this yielding man, he was just as stubborn as Ricky. Mix them together and you get this confusing product. Not because of when they get together, or them as couples. It had more to do with the ‘why?’ I never really got what grated on each other nerves at the beginning.
Point Two The Sizzling Man on Man Action. Some of us can live without the chapter to chapter sex scenes. Some of us hate that erotic scenes happen once on page, and the rest are just given in fragments of the action. But, when the blurb read that their furious heat turns into a fiery inferno, well, you expect a sauna up in there. Except, when you get a lot of fizzle and no flame for your s’mores, lets just say someone is not happy.
I’m not at all saying the book was by any means bad. Hopefully I worded that correctly. What I am saying is that there was a lot of telling with no purpose, it was like a rambling sort of book. David’s father (which he refers to Daddy through out the book, and maybe it’s just that I’ve never called my father that, but it just irked me) has just died, understandably he’s sad, a bit lost, but then the whole book read like this big maze. David hasn’t come out to his parents, with reason, he also lost his job, he’s homeless, he’s helping his best friend get her life together, he has a new family member who he maybe wants to reconnect with, his mother is ill. Get the point, right? Usually, in a book you get the crisis and then slowly, but progressively the characters make to fix theirs lives. Does David resolve anything? No, but by the last page everything is miraculously wrapped up under the tree, when the day before he hadn’t even known it was Christmas.
I’m there watching them, hoping for that incendiary chemistry, and what do I get? Two people who for some weird reason have sex the first time, and then get into pointless arguments, that stem from nothing, seriously you’re like, “But....just last page you’d say you’d try and now a week has gone by and you haven’t talked, but now you’re having sex after wanting a talk, but that you said you just wanted to see him?” To, “Bro, you were just happy, and hopeful, but now you’re having doubts and accusing him of what exactly?” and “ I’ll stay with you” but quickly changes to “I have to go back home......to feed........that bird....or was it a fish?” (There was no fish but that’s how I felt it read. Got so off point, what I was trying to say is that they were in the middle of a fight that in their head could potentially, most definitely, be the end of them. Meaning they parted ways, but for some reason lead them to have sex.
David for having no job sure spent a lot of gas money in, I don’t know if it was weeks or months? Time kind of lapsed and jumped without further notice. He kept hoping, and then will go so pessimistic on things that you’d just get a raincloud on your head in an instant. Then, the ordeal with the mother left you with whiplash.
OH! and don’t get me started on David ex, Jeremy, and what he did. Ending in David stating that he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Mate, you can be an angelic person, hell a nun (is it bad I used hell in the same sentence as nun?), whatever divine deity, but when someone does what Jeremy does to you, if you don’t want to be evil at least don’t care what happens to him and let him deal with the consequences. It almost seemed pointless by then end of the tribulation,
So whilst I’m there watching the back and forth’s between the two towns, the accidents with Escapade and Jeremy, and the bickering with David and Ricky.
I get to the end, and I’m just like what?
I mean is this part of a series, like more gets explained in a second part. In which we actually get character and plot development, because if not....someone explain.
David Moorehouse has in a nutshell lost his identity. Though, he wasn’t enjoying life, nor living a life for himself, he at least had a job, a home, and a father. Everything changed the moment he found his father dead on the floor, blood pooling around him. Life wasn’t the same since then, and he certainly wasn’t the same guy who worked for his father’s church bookstore. Secrets are exposed, revealing an arsenal of dirty laundry that his father left behind. And, David has secrets of his own, but after all is laid bare, who can he trust? Can he even trust himself when he doesn’t know who he is?
Well, that is answered David. Yes, readers, he comes to realize that he is:
And the plot thickens. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
As for Ricky Slade things aren’t so peachy either.
That pretty much all I can say on the two. Going in I was all kinds of excited. We got advised that we had two men with ‘big egos’ and bigger trucks (Mind you, it solely Ricky’s) and ‘whole lot of sizzling man on man action.
Point One: The Big Ego’s. Quite surprisingly for how David read he wasn’t this yielding man, he was just as stubborn as Ricky. Mix them together and you get this confusing product. Not because of when they get together, or them as couples. It had more to do with the ‘why?’ I never really got what grated on each other nerves at the beginning.
Point Two The Sizzling Man on Man Action. Some of us can live without the chapter to chapter sex scenes. Some of us hate that erotic scenes happen once on page, and the rest are just given in fragments of the action. But, when the blurb read that their furious heat turns into a fiery inferno, well, you expect a sauna up in there. Except, when you get a lot of fizzle and no flame for your s’mores, lets just say someone is not happy.
I’m not at all saying the book was by any means bad. Hopefully I worded that correctly. What I am saying is that there was a lot of telling with no purpose, it was like a rambling sort of book. David’s father (which he refers to Daddy through out the book, and maybe it’s just that I’ve never called my father that, but it just irked me) has just died, understandably he’s sad, a bit lost, but then the whole book read like this big maze. David hasn’t come out to his parents, with reason, he also lost his job, he’s homeless, he’s helping his best friend get her life together, he has a new family member who he maybe wants to reconnect with, his mother is ill. Get the point, right? Usually, in a book you get the crisis and then slowly, but progressively the characters make to fix theirs lives. Does David resolve anything? No, but by the last page everything is miraculously wrapped up under the tree, when the day before he hadn’t even known it was Christmas.
I’m there watching them, hoping for that incendiary chemistry, and what do I get? Two people who for some weird reason have sex the first time, and then get into pointless arguments, that stem from nothing, seriously you’re like, “But....just last page you’d say you’d try and now a week has gone by and you haven’t talked, but now you’re having sex after wanting a talk, but that you said you just wanted to see him?” To, “Bro, you were just happy, and hopeful, but now you’re having doubts and accusing him of what exactly?” and “ I’ll stay with you” but quickly changes to “I have to go back home......to feed........that bird....or was it a fish?” (There was no fish but that’s how I felt it read. Got so off point, what I was trying to say is that they were in the middle of a fight that in their head could potentially, most definitely, be the end of them. Meaning they parted ways, but for some reason lead them to have sex.
David for having no job sure spent a lot of gas money in, I don’t know if it was weeks or months? Time kind of lapsed and jumped without further notice. He kept hoping, and then will go so pessimistic on things that you’d just get a raincloud on your head in an instant. Then, the ordeal with the mother left you with whiplash.
OH! and don’t get me started on David ex, Jeremy, and what he did. Ending in David stating that he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Mate, you can be an angelic person, hell a nun (is it bad I used hell in the same sentence as nun?), whatever divine deity, but when someone does what Jeremy does to you, if you don’t want to be evil at least don’t care what happens to him and let him deal with the consequences. It almost seemed pointless by then end of the tribulation,
So whilst I’m there watching the back and forth’s between the two towns, the accidents with Escapade and Jeremy, and the bickering with David and Ricky.
I get to the end, and I’m just like what?
I mean is this part of a series, like more gets explained in a second part. In which we actually get character and plot development, because if not....someone explain.
November 3, 2017
Greg and Carlos were a great couple in the first book. This second book was a disappointment. Ricky was unlikable. David was immature. Their relationship was a long hookup with no emotional development.
August 5, 2014
Stripped Away, The Escapade 2, Ellis Carrington
Review from jeannie zelos book reviews
So, I’d not read the first book, but this is one of those series where the books are standalone and just connected via the characters either being friends, family, workmates or something. I’ll say right from the beginning that sadly this book didn’t work for me It sounded great but in practice I felt it fell flat.
David didn’t seem to know what he wanted, and for someone who’d previously worked in the church book shop and was now jobless he sure spent a lot of money...He felt directionless, and very “under the thumb” from his parenst at an age where he should have been making his own way. He worked in the shop as he didn’t know what else to do, lived at home with his pastor father and mother ( mama and daddy – urghh), was tucked deep in the closet, though he did have a boyfriend. Given the way gossip works in small towns and his family being high profile I couldn’t imagine his vet boyfriend was a secret – it was mentioned when visiting the clinic he always used the back entrance – sorry, but that made me snigger ( blush – schoolgirl humour I know) Then there’s Ricky – the “bad” boy. There was an attraction between them we’re told, and yet I didn’t feel it. Somehow it just seemed they argued and had sex, then argued some more...
There were so many plotlines here that it began to get muddy for me. first his fathers death/possible suicide, then the missing funds, losing home, mama’s illness – one moment David can’t leave her, she depends on him, then she’s in hospital then, well – she’s got the aunts and cousins who can look after her, so he can go trilling off to Ricky, Greg and co... Make up your mind David – but that’s a big part of the problem for me, he never did, just seemed to go with whatever happened....Then the gossipy aunts, how did they not see he was gay, they were all very closely connected, and of course then it turns out his father had another family...and yet was such a bigot about everything. We here about Ricky’s drug addict brother but never meet him, and then there’s his past problems which are only briefly alluded to. As well as all David’s problems there was the business, David’s friend Olivia ( think that was her name) and her problems, arson attacks, kidnapping and physical attacks – its a book so full of plots and yet none really connect or are explained in detail. For me less plots and more expansion, more chance for a connection between Ricky and David would have worked better. Its a good premise but.. I didn’t like David very much, he was such a – well, wimp really... and then Ricky, we get told he’s the bad boy etc but never really get to see it through his actions. That ending – unexpected and seemed displaced really to me. It took me by surprise but didn’t really add anything to the story for me.
Stars: Two. Sadly this one is not for me, I struggled to finish it.
ARC supplied via Netgalley and publishers.
Review from jeannie zelos book reviews
So, I’d not read the first book, but this is one of those series where the books are standalone and just connected via the characters either being friends, family, workmates or something. I’ll say right from the beginning that sadly this book didn’t work for me It sounded great but in practice I felt it fell flat.
David didn’t seem to know what he wanted, and for someone who’d previously worked in the church book shop and was now jobless he sure spent a lot of money...He felt directionless, and very “under the thumb” from his parenst at an age where he should have been making his own way. He worked in the shop as he didn’t know what else to do, lived at home with his pastor father and mother ( mama and daddy – urghh), was tucked deep in the closet, though he did have a boyfriend. Given the way gossip works in small towns and his family being high profile I couldn’t imagine his vet boyfriend was a secret – it was mentioned when visiting the clinic he always used the back entrance – sorry, but that made me snigger ( blush – schoolgirl humour I know) Then there’s Ricky – the “bad” boy. There was an attraction between them we’re told, and yet I didn’t feel it. Somehow it just seemed they argued and had sex, then argued some more...
There were so many plotlines here that it began to get muddy for me. first his fathers death/possible suicide, then the missing funds, losing home, mama’s illness – one moment David can’t leave her, she depends on him, then she’s in hospital then, well – she’s got the aunts and cousins who can look after her, so he can go trilling off to Ricky, Greg and co... Make up your mind David – but that’s a big part of the problem for me, he never did, just seemed to go with whatever happened....Then the gossipy aunts, how did they not see he was gay, they were all very closely connected, and of course then it turns out his father had another family...and yet was such a bigot about everything. We here about Ricky’s drug addict brother but never meet him, and then there’s his past problems which are only briefly alluded to. As well as all David’s problems there was the business, David’s friend Olivia ( think that was her name) and her problems, arson attacks, kidnapping and physical attacks – its a book so full of plots and yet none really connect or are explained in detail. For me less plots and more expansion, more chance for a connection between Ricky and David would have worked better. Its a good premise but.. I didn’t like David very much, he was such a – well, wimp really... and then Ricky, we get told he’s the bad boy etc but never really get to see it through his actions. That ending – unexpected and seemed displaced really to me. It took me by surprise but didn’t really add anything to the story for me.
Stars: Two. Sadly this one is not for me, I struggled to finish it.
ARC supplied via Netgalley and publishers.
August 12, 2014
3.5/5 stars...
Growing up in a strictly religious home where his father made an art form out of bigotry all while wearing the title of Reverend, David Moorehouse kept his sexuality a secret. So the betrayal cuts very deep when upon his father’s death, David and his mother learn that his father had another family, another wife and another son just a few hours away. And then to add salt to the still gaping wound, that brother and the brother’s best friend show up at his father’s funeral.
They get off to a rocky start, but when his brother Greg leaves, his best friend Ricky makes David promise to call him if he needs anything. Circumstances lead David to have to make that call. When David gets out from under the judgement and expectations he’s lived his entire life, his eyes are opened and he sees that there is a lot more to life than the one he’s been living. Problem is, he’s scared to death of being hurt, so going back to his mundane existence may be better than a broken heart.
Ricky Slade is Greg’s childhood best friend and business partner. As he explains to David at one point in the story, he doesn’t like labels, labels belong on cans, why would he put his ass on a shelf. You see, there is this insane animalistic attraction thats shooting sparks between Ricky and David. But David is confused because Ricky has been with and was even engaged to a woman. Being a closeted gay man in a small hatefull southern town tends to cloud the brain a little.
These two have two temperatures, hot and cold. Things can get broken at either temp, the question is whether it’s the bed, or someone’s face. While I enjoyed the underlying story of the openly bisexual free spirited man meets the closeted religiously strapped and confused gay man, the angst drove me bat shit crazy! I HAD to know where the relationship was going to go though, so I pushed through. There were some choppy moments along the way as well, where the story seemed to fall off or just break, the flow wasn’t consistent. And the majority of the time miscommunication was their only form of communication.
I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the three dimensional secondary characters. The brother and his devoted partner, the best friend running from an abusive boyfriend, the psycho ex, the moms and of course, the smoldering hot male leads. That lovely twist at the end threw me as well, and I do like when a story can surprise me, so Kudos to Carrington for keeping me guessing.
If you like stubborn ass alpha male types, some pretty good sex that doesn’t necessarily always happen in a bed, and hard won love stories then this is a safe bet for you.
* Review based of a complimentary NetGalley ebook in exchange for an honest review *
Growing up in a strictly religious home where his father made an art form out of bigotry all while wearing the title of Reverend, David Moorehouse kept his sexuality a secret. So the betrayal cuts very deep when upon his father’s death, David and his mother learn that his father had another family, another wife and another son just a few hours away. And then to add salt to the still gaping wound, that brother and the brother’s best friend show up at his father’s funeral.
They get off to a rocky start, but when his brother Greg leaves, his best friend Ricky makes David promise to call him if he needs anything. Circumstances lead David to have to make that call. When David gets out from under the judgement and expectations he’s lived his entire life, his eyes are opened and he sees that there is a lot more to life than the one he’s been living. Problem is, he’s scared to death of being hurt, so going back to his mundane existence may be better than a broken heart.
Ricky Slade is Greg’s childhood best friend and business partner. As he explains to David at one point in the story, he doesn’t like labels, labels belong on cans, why would he put his ass on a shelf. You see, there is this insane animalistic attraction thats shooting sparks between Ricky and David. But David is confused because Ricky has been with and was even engaged to a woman. Being a closeted gay man in a small hatefull southern town tends to cloud the brain a little.
These two have two temperatures, hot and cold. Things can get broken at either temp, the question is whether it’s the bed, or someone’s face. While I enjoyed the underlying story of the openly bisexual free spirited man meets the closeted religiously strapped and confused gay man, the angst drove me bat shit crazy! I HAD to know where the relationship was going to go though, so I pushed through. There were some choppy moments along the way as well, where the story seemed to fall off or just break, the flow wasn’t consistent. And the majority of the time miscommunication was their only form of communication.
I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the three dimensional secondary characters. The brother and his devoted partner, the best friend running from an abusive boyfriend, the psycho ex, the moms and of course, the smoldering hot male leads. That lovely twist at the end threw me as well, and I do like when a story can surprise me, so Kudos to Carrington for keeping me guessing.
If you like stubborn ass alpha male types, some pretty good sex that doesn’t necessarily always happen in a bed, and hard won love stories then this is a safe bet for you.
* Review based of a complimentary NetGalley ebook in exchange for an honest review *
April 3, 2015
3.75 stars
I liked this--not as much as Stripped Clean, but it was still good. A few too many quirks to earn a full 4, but better than a 3 (3s usually leave me more than somewhat annoyed, which this did not), hence the 4 rating.
Some other reviewers said they didn't feel a connection between David and Ricky, and I did, although the way they bickered was sometimes annoying. I'm all for bickering and hate-to-love relationships, but I think they fought one or two times too many--things were just a little too rocky. Ellis Carrington seems to like to throw in a lot of obstacles, and I'm actually a big fan of that, in the deep recesses of my heart. :) But sometimes things don't need to be quite so trying.
On top of that, the copyediting was shoddy (I don't know where "Tatiana" came into the picture, and an easy search/replace to change to "Trinity" sure would have been nice), and the stuff with Jeremy was weird.
I wish we'd had a bit more Carlos and Greg, and I don't know how I feel about Olivia, but I was entertained and the story kept my attention. If there's another one in the series, I'll read it (unless it's about Sam--I really don't care about that guy at all).
I liked this--not as much as Stripped Clean, but it was still good. A few too many quirks to earn a full 4, but better than a 3 (3s usually leave me more than somewhat annoyed, which this did not), hence the 4 rating.
Some other reviewers said they didn't feel a connection between David and Ricky, and I did, although the way they bickered was sometimes annoying. I'm all for bickering and hate-to-love relationships, but I think they fought one or two times too many--things were just a little too rocky. Ellis Carrington seems to like to throw in a lot of obstacles, and I'm actually a big fan of that, in the deep recesses of my heart. :) But sometimes things don't need to be quite so trying.
On top of that, the copyediting was shoddy (I don't know where "Tatiana" came into the picture, and an easy search/replace to change to "Trinity" sure would have been nice), and the stuff with Jeremy was weird.
I wish we'd had a bit more Carlos and Greg, and I don't know how I feel about Olivia, but I was entertained and the story kept my attention. If there's another one in the series, I'll read it (unless it's about Sam--I really don't care about that guy at all).
September 16, 2014
I like complex stories where the two main characters don't just meet & fall in love-lust and live HEA. I liked watching David trying to figure who he was after having all the trust around him of a faithful religious father, church, house and job gone in the blink of an eye when he discovers his father has been a cheating, deceiving man. David takes chances - going beyond his comfort zone to help a friend and in doing so interacts with the half brother he never knew he had and with Greg's best friend Ricky who owns a strip club. David & Ricky have a ton of stressful situations that they stumble through hardship after hardship with their family, health, jobs etc. and they eventually figure out they can deal best with everything together. Very good read.
July 31, 2014
They fight. They have sex. They fight again...more sex. I guess that's what this book is suppose to be about.
From the book description:
"HE KNOWS ANGER BETTER THAN ANYONE"
"Ricky Slade is itching for a fight"
"Every time they fight, they fall into bed"
My advice: less anger more heat.
I received this ARC from NetGalley.
From the book description:
"HE KNOWS ANGER BETTER THAN ANYONE"
"Ricky Slade is itching for a fight"
"Every time they fight, they fall into bed"
My advice: less anger more heat.
I received this ARC from NetGalley.
August 7, 2014
I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the storyline. The characters were good but I didn't feel connected to them. In this book it seemed to lose focus sometimes, just ramble on about mundane things. Just think the characters need more developing and book needs a little more editing.
I loved the storyline. The characters were good but I didn't feel connected to them. In this book it seemed to lose focus sometimes, just ramble on about mundane things. Just think the characters need more developing and book needs a little more editing.
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September 11, 2014I'm at about 33% and this book just could not grab my interest. It's rough and I can't seem to connect to David. Ricky I love but David's character is moving along like molasses. When I read through David's POV I feel myself start to nod off he's so boring. I may or may not come back to finish but for now it's going in the DNF pile..
August 2, 2014
I received a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is an OK book. The characters were flat to me. David really annoyed me in general. Ricky wasn't much better. I found the book a bit repetitive. I'll be honest, I skimmed the last half.
This is an OK book. The characters were flat to me. David really annoyed me in general. Ricky wasn't much better. I found the book a bit repetitive. I'll be honest, I skimmed the last half.
April 26, 2015
Loved this book!
Ellis is one of my fave authors. She knows how to play with her characters and make you feel everything they're feeling.
Ellis is one of my fave authors. She knows how to play with her characters and make you feel everything they're feeling.
August 9, 2014
Enjoyed the complicated relationship between David and Ricky, I like when opposites attract. I was shocked with Jeremy, never saw it coming.
August 18, 2014
I loved David but spent most of the book thinking Rick was a complete asshole. Mostly liked that David got his HEA and obvs keeping me drawn in is a plus.
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