Monday 26 December 2016

Bullet (Blue Boy Studio #1) - Garrett Leigh



 Author: Garrett Leigh

Cover Design: Black Jazz Design

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Blurb

Levi Ramone entered the gay porn market for one reason, and one reason only: he needed the cash to pay his momma's spiraling gambling debts.

Seven years later, he's a veteran with a reputation as one of Blue Boy Studio's most ruthless tops, and when his boss suggests it's time for a change, he finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Figuratively speaking, at least.

Enter Sonny Valentine, a go-go dancer at Blue's sister club, Silver's. Levi has secretly admired Sonny from afar for years, but there's a problem. He can't stand Sonny and the feeling is entirely mutual. When Levi learns Sonny is to play the third part in a scene he already considers his worst nightmare, he figures things can't get any worse.

But when preparations for the scene from hell collide with tragic events in his personal life, he finds his fast-growing, red-hot attraction to Sonny just might be the only thing left between him and a bullet.

My Review

I have this thing about Garrett Leigh books. I love them, the style of writing works perfectly for me and without fail I connect with her characters. But that’s where it gets complicated, because I connect almost too well with them. These characters get under my skin, claw their way into my heart and demand that I understand their issues, feel their pain…and I do.

Levi Ramone in Bullet worked his way into my consciousness slowly but surely. At first he appeared to be a tough and somewhat selfish guy. While his reasons for working in the porn business were selfless and went, as far as I was concerned, well beyond what anyone could expect of him, his approach to the scenes he shot came across as single minded with very little room for consideration for his scene partners. But then, as I got to know Levi better, I discovered his attitude is nothing more (or less) than his unconscious method of protecting himself and his feelings. If he doesn’t let people in, they can’t hurt or betray him. His tough outer shell served to protect his fragile core and it works like a charm until, that is, Sonny.

The interactions between Sonny and Levi took the story from raw and at times brutal to touching and beautiful. Despite Levi’s resistance, Sonny manages to slowly break through his defenses and open him up to the possibility that all he has been avoiding and fighting for years might be not only something worth exploring but also something he needs in his life. If I did have an issue with this story it is that I would have loved to spend at least a little time inside Sonny’s head. As much as Levi’s story captivated me and as thrilled as I was to get to know him better and understand his motivations, I never really understood why Sonny wanted to help him even while Levi was almost hostile towards him. Having said that, not getting Sonny’s motives didn’t stop me from loving every single encounter between him Levi.

As for those encounters; they were hot. Few things are as erotically charged as a man pushing his boundaries and discovering that he loves what he has been fearing and rejecting for as long as he can remember. Levi’s voyage of discovery as he gets his head and body used to the idea of bottoming was powerful, both on a mental and a physical level, and kept me mesmerized.

I read book two and book three in this series some time ago and loved them, which makes it all the more surprising it took me so long to get around to reading Bullet, but I’m delighted I got there eventually. I’m even happier to discover that there’s a fourth book in this series to come in the not too distant future. I’ll have to find the time to re-read book two and three before Brave releases.

If you’re curious what I thought about the two sequels have a look at: Bones and Bold.


Author Bio

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer, currently working for Dreamspinner Press, Loose Id, Riptide Publishing, and Fox Love Press.

Garrett's debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits is a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.

Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com and co-owns the specialist stock photography company 
M O O N Stock Photography.




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