Sinners

by S.E. Jakes, Stephanie Tyler

Sometimes a broken man ends up stronger than he ever was—and far more dangerous…

Travis Smith is a grifter who’s wanted by both the Russian Mob and the FBI. He’s got the means and motive to stay hidden—until he’s picked up by Lochlan “Loch” Black, a CIA operative who threatens to unravel all Travis’s secrets.

Loch has enough secrets of his own, and they all lead back to the man he and the CIA have been hunting for years. And when Loch realizes Travis might be the key to that op, he and longtime friend and fellow agent, Tarquin “Tar” Simons, have no choice but to keep Travis under their protection.

But no one’s able to protect them all from the man who’s been hunting them back for years. Jabez Snow is a former CIA operative who didn’t stop his experiments when he disappeared.

And when Travis, Loch and Tar get involved, it triggers a chain of events none of them could foresee, and it threatens all their futures, unless they can hunt down Snow…before he finds them.

***
This is a brand new, never-before released title from SE Jakes. It's also a standalone with an HEA and complete wrap-up at the end of the book.

Genres: M M Romance, M M M, Romance, Menage, Contemporary, Action, Mental Health

310 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 13, 2019

About the author

SE Jakes writes m/m romance. She believes in happy endings and fighting for what you want.

You can contact her the following ways:

You can email her at authorsejakes@gmail.com

You can post to her Facebook page: Facebook.com/SEJakes

You can Twitter her: Twitter.com/authorsejakes

You can post on her Goodreads Group: Ask SE Jakes

You can follow her on Tumblr: http://sejakes.tumblr.com

You can ask her a question as part of the Ask The Author program on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/4595...

Truth be told, the best way to contact her is by email or in blog comments. She spends most of her time writing but she loves to hear from readers.

***
SE Jakes is the pen-name of New York Times Bestselling Author Stephanie Tyler (and half of Sydney Croft!)

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars ... almost 5 - wishing for more time with the three together after the event. This was gritty, dark and had a great twist to it. I read this all night and was totally consumed... but, what a shame it finished at 80% on my kindle ? with an epilogue/ ending that felt a little rushed. Still a fabulous read if you can manage the darker, depraved side of life.

[Leaf of Absence]

SE Jakes has an obsession with voyeurism and surveillance. Every house anyone is ever in has cameras in every room which various characters use to spy on the inhabitants. It is super creepy and super unrealistic. This book is also full of typos and unrealistic plots and a sex scene every couple of paragraphs (it seems). Like, I'm not sure how those dicks aren't completely rubbed raw.

I think I've outgrown SE Jakes. I've read too many really good action-y romance-y books in the last couple years, that I've come to expect a certain kind of realism and coherence before I can suspend my disbelief.

Pretty certain I won't finish reading.

[JenMcJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise but the sex to plot/story ratio was too high (I can't believe I'm saying this). The sex was hot but it kept getting in the way of a story that should have been gripping but fell short.

I would have been a lot happier if this had some real seeming science or explanations behind it. The stuff with Liam and Loch...how? What? I couldn't buy it. The stuff with Creed/Travis was better explained in the first part of the book once the reader was clued into what it all meant but later parts of the book seemed to gloss over the DID issues and conveniently make them seem lesser somehow.

I did love that the baddy got taken care of and didn't get away to be chased again in another book. I like resolutions like that.

And the worst part is that this ends somewhere around 80-90% and then is nothing but excerpts of prior books. I hate that. I think I have a lot of storytelling still coming and then, bam!, book is over. Argh.

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chemistry wasn’t there for me in this one.

[Joyfully Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Joyfully Jay review.

3.5 stars

Sinners is a story that keeps unwinding in new and unexpected directions the more you read. Things are never quite all they seem and as the story unfolds, there were some really nice twists and turns. I was impressed by the way Jakes crafted this one and it kept me guessing through the whole book. I also think she has created some interesting characters here in Tar, Travis, and Loch. These men each have complex (and I mean COMPLEX) pasts and they are well developed and nicely twisty. Again, there is a lot I didn’t see coming until it is revealed.

Where I struggled here is that I found the storyline so complex that much of the time I had no idea what was going on. I think that with a book that unveils new twists and turns throughout, there is a line between giving away too much information up front and revealing so little that it is hard to follow, and unfortunately, the story fell on the latter end for me. I would say the first third of the book had me so confused I was barely hanging on, and by the 50% mark I still don’t think I could have clearly explained the plot. It isn’t so much that the plot is complicated (though it is). It is also that there is so much happening and information is parsed out in such tiny increments that I never felt like I fully understood a lot of it.

Read Jay’s review in its entirety here.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

[AussieMum]

DNF 61%
Too many twists and turns for me to keep up. And I just didn’t feel a real connection between the three other than sex. Lots of sex.

[LauraSt · Rating 5 out of 5]

MMM books for the win!

This was a surprise book for me. I follow SE on all her platforms and when I saw this new book I was totally and happily surprised. This book was AMAZING! It had action, thrill, unexpected developments, deceit, love, suffering, you name it, it had it and in spades! Plus, let’s not forget the steamiest scenes I have read in a long time! So freaking HOT! I don’t actually think I’m ready to let these men go, I want more more more!

[Sandi ♥'s way too many M/M books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had many ups and downs of craziness, it was very good and different, I really enjoyed getting to know these men. The book actually ended at 82% The rest is clips of previous books. So it was shorter than I thought.

[Amanda Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 holy shit stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The blurb does not do this book justice. I was a little confused at first because there was a lot of half information or partial explanations but I totally get why the author did that. When we start really getting into the story of these three men, it spins you on your head.

One man on a bender for 8 months is pulled back in to hell to rescue (maybe the right word is help...not sure without giving a lot away) another man who is on the run from evil. The man on the other end of the rescue, the best friend and only other person who knowns the hell the devil put them all through. And hint the devil they will.

I don’t want to get into it too much because it would kill the impact but this book was awesome. It was gritty, evil and tender when that’s what these men needed. Awesome story!!

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars.

[JustJen "Miss Conduct" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for an interesting, gritty, low on fluff, menage story? Ms. Jakes brings it with this one. I had no idea from the blurb that this would take the interesting turn that it did, or that it would have so many little twists. I love when books do that!

So, this story centers around a psychopath who used to work for the CIA but has long-since gone rogue. Snow became a sort of cult leader where he basically nurtured the type of individuals he would later use to further his larger plan. He chose people who had family issues or were easily manipulated into split personalities. Those dual personalities would then be trained as assassins, one personality covering up for the actions of the other, often unknowingly, as the one pushed aside is unaware of what happens while the other is in charge.

That brings us to our main guys. Tar and Loch are current “operatives” for the CIA helping to eradicate traffickers and other baddies. Tar was one of Snow’s subjects who managed to escape and in doing so, freed Loch (who is connected in a different way). They have been helped by a few people along the way, their superior and another doctor, with their ultimate goal to take down Snow once and for all. They happen across Travis, and in the process, determine they will not turn them in but will try to help him on their own instead.

Tar and Loch have a bit of an unsteady past. They are or were best friends who used to share guys until one managed to come between and force them apart. They still work together, and there is clearly a deeper connection. Travis awakens that again and starts to repair their relationship. But secrets come out, trust issues abound, and before the three of these guys can make it work, they have to go through some pretty bad stuff reliving and dealing with their pasts being front and center.

So, there is not a lot of fluff here, which I loved. But there is smoking hot sex, interesting storylines and page-turning excitement as the details unfold. I was fully engaged throughout though I wish there had been more along time with the threesome once the waters settled for them. Regardless, this keeps Ms. Jakes/Tyler on my auto read list, and I can’t wait to see what she brings to the table next.


Review written for Love Bytes Reviews.

[Kristie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had a great story/really cool plot going for it, but...

Too much sex. Too much sex meant to heal all the pain. Too many stilted conversations and places that felt like something was missing, like a paragraph or two where connecting scenes would go. Like, how did they catch Snow in the house and how did Creed get him into the box when they were just outside? Like, if there was not going to be a connecting scene that shows that struggle and hunt for him in the house, that capture, then there needed to be a literal break in the text. There were a lot of little things like this that really bothered me.

But seriously, the story and back ground, while confusing through a bit of the book because a lot of those connecting scenes are missing, was very interesting and I really couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I just wish it was more put together. Flowed better. And now, even though this is a standalone, and this was it, I'm wondering if there will actually be more given how it ended.

I don' know. It was okay.

[Antisocial Recluse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t quite captivate me.

I was reminded of Bound by Law, from the Men of Honor series, except I just couldn’t enjoy this quite as much. Loch, Travis/Creed and Tar shared a connection through Snow, a psychopath who had been training assassins for the CIA. How they meet and their histories were convoluted and I had to go back and reread the first 25% or so to try and make sense of it. S.E. Jakes likes to lay out a tangle before gathering it all into an overarching plot. It was a bit too much for me to keep up with at times. There are so many names and clues, plot twists and lots of action. Lots of sex too but I never got invested in it. I loved, loved the Men of Honor books, so maybe my nostalgia got in the way here.

A good editing would have helped too, I think. Too many misspelled, extra and missing words, plus I wasn’t sure who was speaking in certain lines of dialogue at times.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up to 4 stars

This story confused me at first. I felt like I was dropped into the middle of an action movie, and I missed the first 15 minutes.
The story starts with a bang, and I was left playing catch up from there.
This is a m/m/m story, filled with pain and heartache. It's also a very dark tale, filled with all sorts of triggers of abuse. Be forewarned now.
The love story is dark and erotic. The sex is hard, fast, and oh so enjoyable. There is a HFN ending,and a hope there is more to come to put a stop to child trafficking.
If you like to read about broken alpha males, trying to overcome their past, and fighting their way toward a new healthy beginning, thus book is for you.

[Shaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have been a higher rating if not for the editing errors that plague this book. I feel sorry for the author in a way, because her editing team have truly let her down in this one!

Having said that, the book is what I expect from S.E. Jakes. There is a lot of hot, hot, hot sex, a lot of action and lots of good/bad guy scenario's. Is all of it completely realistic? Well, I'd hope not, lol, but I read these books for fiction, not necessarily for reality. And in that this book truly delivers. Hot, smexy MC's, twists and turns, either expected or unexpected, characters that grow within the book... what more do you want?

As I said, this book is let down by it's editing errors which is a real shame. I hope S.E. Jakes hears enough about it to re-edit the book and put out a second edition. I would award that a 5 star for sure.

[Nite · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was Henry Cavill in a towel hung low level of hotness!

The story was good though in some parts hollow-ish and hurried. But all together it holds water.

I liked the ending not only because it is happy but also because it is not unrealistic. In the end we don’t have I love you’s from all sides, but an announcement that we’ll get to that.

S.E.Jakes is still a must read for me!

[Staci · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dark, gritty MMM that kept you on your toes! It takes awhile to figure out what's going on until more of the story unfolds.

I really wanted another chapter at the end to show more with these three actually being together.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked the different characters.

[yaishin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The overall story was good but the details were a bit....not up to the limit. I couldn't even understand what was going on the first few chapters. I mean, it was like random facts were thrown together and I was supposed to make sense of them. I've read enough books where the MC's past was not exactly outlined but I could at least guess what had happened but not in this one.

I also know enough about DID to know that alters are usually present to save the actual person from painful memories or experiences but here it was like Creed was protecting Travis not the other way round. In every flashback of Creed's bad memories it was Creed himself who was experiencing it, instead of it triggering Travis to come forward. And whenever something bad happened to Travis it triggered Creed to come forward.

I was also hoping for more of Travis' side. The book started with Travis but then after Creed came forward Travis didn't come out much. And I wish Tar and Loch got to know Travis better and loved him too. It was like after meeting Creed once they decided it was him they wanted and didn't bother about Travis. It was like they were treating him just as an extra and not as another person.

I loved the grifter/con side of Travis and I would've loved to read more about how Travis escaped Snow or how he killed those three men at the docks without getting caught, but there was not much details.

And also other details like how big exactly was the experiment? Like 1000 victims large or larger than that? Or what exactly happened in Creed's childhood that he suffered from DID? And how a person (Travis) who successfully pretended to be a mobster's lover and killed three men belonging to the mob without getting caught could not lie to save his life?

[Veronica-Lynn Pit Bull · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars; review contains minor spoilers.

Lochlan “Loch” Black and Tarquin “Tar” Simons are BFFs. They met as teenagers under…difficult circumstances, forged an indestructible friendship and followed their path of seeking retribution into the CIA. Unfortunately escaping the past isn’t that easy. Loch and Tar are estranged because Loch can’t acknowledge that his feelings for Tar go beyond hot, sexy encounters sharing guys but never each other, misplaced grieving over a dead lover and his Olympic efforts to lick the bottom of as many bottles of Scotch as possible. Until Travis Smith comes into their lives. A grifter/rent boy caught up with the Russian mob. Easy job for Loch, deliver Travis back into the hands of the FBI…except that there’s something…special about Travis. Something that harkens back to Loch and Tar’s past and the circumstances that brought them into the CIA.

From here Sinners becomes sort of a sexy combination of “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Minds of Billy Milligan”. Travis is more than he seems, and he leads Loch and Tar back to the man who started all their troubles: Jabez Snow: CIA operative, brilliant scientist, fucked up sadist. Loch and Tar realize Travis needs to be protected, and they must put aside their differences and join professional forces again.

Except that Travis (sort of) …and the hunt to put Snow down once and for all, serves as the catalyst to help Loch and Tar heal old wounds and finally come together as the couple they were always meant to be. Which is to say a threesome. With Creed. Which trust me is not coming out of left field and which everyone will be really happy about.

I enjoyed the hell out of this story. It was a little farfetched, but so fun (maybe interesting would be a better word) and fastly paced, and the characters were complex and likable (except for Loch. I didn’t dislike him, but brooding alcoholics apparently aren’t my thing – but even that isn’t entirely what it seems) and the chemistry was decent and the sex was hot…so who cares if Sinners played fast and loose with plausibility. It was a rocking good time!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I nearly have whiplash from this book.....

(Sort-of) CIA operatives Tar(quin) and Loch(len) engineer the capture of grifter Travis after he escapes the take-down of a Russian mobster involved in human trafficking. Travis has information that Tar and Loch desperately need to locate and eliminate a psychopathic former operative, but Travis will need to be persuaded to cooperate, and there’s more to Travis than either Tar or Loch had bargained for. However, as the search intensifies, old fears and vulnerabilities haunt all three men, who must learn to trust each other....and themselves.

After a slow and rather confusing start where you’re still having to work at figuring out who everyone is, and what’s happening, the story settles into its plot: Travis is the key that Tar and Loch will use to find the arch-villain...but only after lots of sex marathons between and among the main characters. As events unfold, the gaps in the past get filled in (it would have been nice to know all this stuff at the beginning), and you’re on track as their search for their nemesis really gets going. Only to stall out again as all the Feelings come into play.

Then there’s the climactic scene when Everything Gets Revealed....which is so confusing I mostly skipped over it. It was like that skit ‘Who’s on First’.

So 3 stars....’cause it’s better than ‘Just OK.’

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A damn good book. A little darker than I anticipated but I couldn’t put the book down.

Few spoilers in this paragraph: Snow is a wicked man who does ungodly and appalling things to young children. Many of these kids have DID’s or dissociative identity disorder. Many of them are trained assassins, potentially programmed by Snow or one of Snow’s men.

Initially I thought, “oh this book is about the development of the relationship between Tar, Loch, and Creed. And how these 3 men overcome their horrific pasts together.” AND the book is about this, but towards the end of the book the plot thickens. I’m like, “holy hell I did not see that coming.” I knew something was off about one of the characters, but couldn’t put my finger on it.

The first 2/3 of the book is full of lots of steamy sex and character development, the last 1/3 is more action packed.

I walked away from this book feeling a little unsatisfied because I didn’t think the author thoroughly explained where Loch, Tar, and Creed’s relationship was after that last big action packed event. I felt like she left us hanging.

Overall though, this is a really good book. I’d say this book is low on the angst but all the characters are truly messed up in some way or fashion. Totally worth a read.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant psychological premise. I’ve only read a few of her books, but I think this one is more hard hitting. Thankfully not much of the story gave harrowing depictions. We were left to imagine what tortures had been inflicted on people to turn them into cold blooded killers. It annoys the hell out of me where reviewers complain about it being too confusing or they didn’t understand what was happening. What good is reading a story that doesn’t challenge you and make you question everything when it’s not just a love story. Maybe it should have been touted as a romance thriller. I read romance in many genres. This book was not in the warm and fuzzy category. What makes this book is the fact that it grabs your attention, puts you through the ringer, and takes you on a helleva journey. I would have liked more of their relationship after the fact. The ending seemed far too rushed. Unfortunately I seem to be saying that last sentence far too much lately. Hopefully there will be an least an extended epilogue. Or even further adventures for our intrepid triad.

[BB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit balls... that was intense... who's got scotch? Because I need it.

I became slightly obsessed fell in love with S.E. Jakes with Catch a Ghost and I couldn't be happier she's back because this shit was fucking fire.

I'd never read a book with DID so I won't claim to be an expert on it but for me, the way it was written and how subtle the shift was, I was blown away.

The heartbreak between these three men was palpable from page one. There was so much wreckage in this one it was hard to keep sane throughout it and I didn't mind that one bit. Because the characters were fantastic, their relationship was fantastic, and the sex was mother fucking fantastic. S.E. outside herself with this one.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

After several days I'm still not sure how to rate or write a review about this book. I really felt like this book just dropped me into the middle of a story instead of the beginning. It took me a really long time to figure out what was going on and I felt like I missed key parts of the characters. I wish there had been a book about Tar and Loch's story before this one took place. I miss the build up of emotions and background between the two before Creed was added to the mix. I also spent too much time trying to figure out who Snow was and what he was doing. Still there were times toward the middle and end the story drew me in. There were also a lot of creative twists and turns to this story that I did enjoy.

[Mak · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I'm so glad this book had the disclaimer that it was not part of a series and had a HEA, because otherwise I would have never picked it up given S.E. Jakes' well earned reputation for leaving her readers hanging, and I had a lot of fun reading it. I wish we had more details about the HEA, but I did not feel dissatisfied at the end. The psychological "twist" was not one I encountered in a book before and I found the way the author executed it engaging. S.E. Jakes is a good writer and I hope she does more stand-alone books. Otherwise, I'll just have to wait for her to complete a series before picking it up.

[Viki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this one was definitely different from others like it - for several reasons.

But it (mostly) worked for me and I am not even going to say what was so special because that would ruin the surprise but to sum it up: if you like dangerous, smart guys that can take care of the bad guys and are also gay but you mostly want it for the relationship and want the other stuff to be kind of background that spices it all up - that this book is for you.

They had an unusual (in the best way) dynamics and it was intense and "weird" (but also in a good way, for me, at least) and because of how much I enjoyed it and how special it was, I am going with four stars. And recommend it.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fucking hell that was hot.
And TWISTY!

And Oh! the Mindfucks.

And that brilliant plot! Without the plot and the twists, and the psychology, this would just be a hot erotic MMM book.
But, there *is* a plot and lots of twists and mental WTF's and I devoured the book.
And I can't seem to stop dropping the f-bombs.

All that being said (In my incoherent way), there are definitely many things that could be triggering... mental, emotional, and physical (including sexual) abuse. Violence. I'm sure somewhere there's a more comprehensive list of warnings.

[John Altman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sinner!

Rating Review Rollout:
(1) Attention Keeper: 2.5
(2) Digging deep in Character Development: 3
(3) Feeling the Words: 2.5
(4) Give me more please factor: 3
(5) Going with the Flow of the Story: 2
(6) It's all about the Chemistry, baby: 3
(7) Love connection: 3
(8) Plot Worthy: 3
(9) Show me Entertainment: 3
(10) The Writing speaks for itself: 2.5

Total Rating: 2.75 out of 5 👍