Forbidden

by Phoenix Black

Jake has spent years secretly in love with his best friend, Max. One drunken kiss back in college was the closest he ever got before Max buried the moment and moved on—without him. When Max announces his engagement to Monica, Jake is heartbroken but determined to be the best man at his wedding, even if it means watching the man he loves marry someone else.

A long weekend cruise for Max’s destination wedding was supposed to be a distraction, but one night at the ship’s bar changes everything. Enter Cooper—mature, confident, and devastatingly sexy. Their chemistry is undeniable, their night together hot and unforgettable… but when Jake wakes up, Cooper is gone.

The real shock comes when Jake is formally introduced to his mystery lover the next day—as Max’s estranged older brother.

Now, trapped on the cruise with a mountain of unresolved feelings, Jake finds himself drawn to Cooper in ways he never expected. Cooper is nothing like Max, and yet he challenges Jake in all the best ways. But as their undeniable connection deepens, Jake is forced to confront the past he’s never let go of—and the future he never saw coming.

With old feelings rising, new love forming, and a wedding that may or may not happen, Jake must decide where his heart truly belongs before the ship docks… and everything falls apart.

A steamy, heartfelt MM romance about love, longing, and taking the risk that could change everything.

Genres: Contemporary, M M Romance

188 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2025

Reviews

[Smutty Sully]

Another author promoting their MM Romance Book in the Book Lovers for Trump Facebook group.

What are these people on?!?!

[XYZ]

The book does not deserve a rating
This author's real name is Denise Banner Digh and she is a member of the Facebook group "Book Lovers for Trump". She exploits the gay community for profit, do not give her your time or money.

[Kiran Malancharuvil · Rating 1 out of 5]

This author writes fetish MM books which harmfully represent gay men. She’s a participant in “Book Lovers for Trump” and regularly writes about how she doesn’t support gay marriage. Do not allow her to profit off a community she actively works to oppress.

[Kelsey Rhodes · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is BAD! It’s clear the person writing it doesn’t understand how to write diverse characters. The plot is all over the place. The characters are 2-dimensional. At times it felt like the characters were being fetishized for being male and queer. Would never recommend this book/author to anyone.

[Nadine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not Worth the Time

Gosh, this is kind of a mess. The story concept is a good one, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. It’s third person POV, but in several places the POV shifts from one paragraph to the next, making it super confusing. And, why we needed random side characters’ perspectives makes no sense to me.

As far as pacing is concerned, it’s very rushed. Yes, this is a shorter story, but that doesn’t mean it has to be choppy and rushed. Honestly, the whole story had the pacing of a dream, in disjointed chaos and wild jumps where you can’t quite figure out how you went from being at work to flying a plane over an island using your arms instead of wings, and somehow keep ending up in the freezer aisle at a grocery store.

There’s also a few instances of continuity errors. Like, Jake sees Connor at an event on the first day that is a private wedding event, talking to the groom, but when he meets him later in a club, neither knows that the other is associated with the wedding? Then there’s a whole section of several pages that just repeats?

The “feelings” between the main characters don’t feel earned at all. There’s two spicy encounter with very little conversation where one MC runs away afterward and the other MC says he think he’s falling for him. Like, huh? Based on what?! And they’re somehow admitting they love each other after a week when, on page, they hardly spent any real time together getting to know each other? If maybe the main characters had met at, say, the engagement party and been thrust together time and time again over the course of the months of weddings planning, and everything finally came to a head during the cruise, that might have been believable. This, was not. It felt empty.

And, finally, not to get to in depth about the logistics of sex between two men, but the spicy scenes made me cringe in sympathetic pain. Note to the author: butt stuff requires lube and prep.

All in all, I wouldn’t waste time reading this unless the author goes back and does some serious retooling. Maybe ask for an alpha reader or two, and definitely an editor.

[Gisselle]

I'm not rating this because I dnf'd almost immediately.

I purchased this book for free on stuff your Kindle Day because it looked like an interesting premise, and then I saw that the audiobook was also available for free.

Unfortunately, the audiobook is AI narrated. I do not support AI narration or authors that use it. For one creative to basically strip a job away from other creative and use AI instead of a human audiobook narrator is pretty gross to me.

So yeah, I only made it like 1 sentence after the opening credits because of this so this review has nothing to do with the actual content of the book.

[Berry's Books · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful book. Terrible writing. Fetishized gay men. AND WRITES UNDER A PEN NAME. Purposely wrote this book in protest and to profit off of people. Awful.

[Yukitosmom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what to say, this book was all over the place. The concept was great just not well executed. So this couple is getting married but nobody has parents? The main couple had lots of sex but very little actual conversation, so they fell in lust. It was short so of you want a quick read give it a go.

[Lillian Francis]

Note to self:

This author is a self-proclaimed ‘conservative’ and Trump supporter while writing and profiting from gay romance.

This author wasn’t even on my radar before but now she is, for all the wrong reasons.

Never buy one of her books.

[Michelle Labelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, so the bones of this story are very good. I think the writer has lots of potential, however it really failed on establishing emotional intimacy from the jump. The two MCs sleep together, but there's literally zero conversation or discussion that's anything deeper. Then suddenly around the 30% mark, the older MC is suddenly completely over the moon for the younger MC? I think had there been a bit more depth established sooner, I would have been more than ready to buy in to the story. Brother's best friend is one of my literary catnips, so I'm writing as someone who would actually be the audience for this!

This part was not the author's fault, but it drove me a bit nuts - whoever formatted this for Kindle... I don't know, the spacing and paragraphs made it seem like a section was over, but it wasn't. The other thing that did throw me off a little bit is that the book starts off for the first third in the younger MCs POV, but then all of a sudden it starts swapping up the POV of different characters? I think it would have been better if there were headers with each character's name when it was in their voice, maybe?

Anyway, I'm giving it two and a half stars because I like the premise, and I think the bones were good, but I just couldn't get invested unfortunately...

[Lilibet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted it to be good.... but it failed

Having been in a reading slump for some time. I decided to take a chance on someone unknown.

The basics of the story were good, but it really needs more work. It's choppy, repetitive, and almost immature. I can't quite put my finger on how it made me feel, except annoyed, bored at times, and frustrated.
It's a real shame as this story could've been awesome, and I hate to leave a low star rating, but I pride myself on being honest.

[This Ain't It · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's Phoenix Black, promoting her mm romance in the Book Lovers for Trump fb group. You don't get to profit off of and fetishize queer people while voting to strip away their human rights.



(It turns out they use AI book covers. Intersectional trash.)

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible writing, reads like a first attempt at fanfic and no better than basic word salad.

Also BIG FAT NOPE if you're actively voting to destroy the very persecuted minorities about whom think you can write.

[P3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forbidden

The title is of this book is misleading. I got lost in this book and I don't mean lost in a good way. This book was very disjointed and confusing. There was continuity problems and errors. I really had high hopes for this book, I just didn't enjoy it.

[Jillian Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

nothing better than a forbidden romance.

Jake and Cooper’s showed that loved should never be hidden or bottled up but instead be shown in every gesture whether big or small and embraced with everything you have. Such a touching story.

[Greer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t write a book featuring MM penetration without doing research. This reads like a MF sex scene and is completely unrealistic.

[Amie Canfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick but hot and steamy. A fun little read for an afternoon!

[Betsy]

🚩 "virtual" AI audiobook
🚩 Trump supporter
🚩 probably AI written (as other reviews mention the story is a mess)