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Mark Wills ~ Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews

I'm an avid reader and reviewer of m/m fiction. I also love historical novels and crime / thrillers.

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Out of the Past
Jeffrey Ballam
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Arthur Conan Doyle
Covet Thy Neighbor - L.A. Witt The church and sexuality; a potentially explosive combination and boy did this book start with a bang. Wham bam thank you ma'am to be exact!

Seth - is a tattoo artist who was thrown out of and cut off from his family as a young man after telling them he is gay. This this was too much for his family being ultra-conservative Christians and couldn't reconcile their beliefs with Seth's revelation about his sexuality. He was left to fend for himself from a very early age and subsequently loses all faith in religion.

Darren - is a minister and has suffered the narrow mindedness of people too in his own life, but he never gave up his beliefs or faith. However, at least Darren's family could reconcile their differences eventually loving him and supporting him as a family should.

You couldn't get two characters who are more apart on ideals and beliefs if you tried and yet when Darren moves into the apartment next to Seth's both their worlds collide and they are thrown for a loop. After Darren arrives, Seth takes Darren out for an evening to show him around town. The chemistry is there and the evening ends up with them having sizzling sex. The traditional one-night stand with all the recriminations the morning after. Despite all this Seth can't get Darren out of his mind and they still can't keep their hands off each other.

"If there was anything worse than an awkward morning after, it was two awkward mornings after in a row."

I found this was great writing from the author, you could feel the MCs awkwardness and yet their longing for each other. At the beginning the first couple of times both sides try to ignore what is so obvious, just having stress relieving gratifying sex, but no commitment or strings. Yeah, right!

As the plot unfolds you can feel Seth's internal struggle is heart is split in two. On the one hand he finds Darren the best thing that has happened to him in ages, on the other he can't accept what he had experienced as a child, the church represents everything that went wrong with his life. So there's no way he could fall for a minister.

I loved the character of Darren, patient and non-demanding on Seth. A minister who smokes pot gets a tattoo done and has no problems about his sexuality. Wow - not your stereotypical minister, quite the opposite in fact.

"I wasn't sure what to make of a gay minister who smoked pot, had the occasional one-night stand, and now had a tattoo"

However, you are never left in any doubt about the conviction in Darren's faith.

These two guys play a merry dance around each other until Seth finds out that Darren is responsible for a hostel which shelters and looks after LGBT teenagers who have been thrown out of their families due to their sexuality. He goes one evening and meets a young girl who is a loner and always sits to one side. As she tells her story, Seth can totally relate to his own history and gains the trust of the youngster. This was such a beautiful part of the story. Sadly this also happens all too often in real life too.

However, even though Darren realises he is in love, it's the one thing that Seth is still defensive about. After the subject is broached Seth goes on the defensive and shuns Darren away and ends up making himself totally miserable. His excuse being that after what happened to him he couldn't possibly have a relationship with a minister. The real truth being he doesn't want to take the risk of being hurt like that again should things not work out. After being miserable for quite a while he plucks up the courage to speak to Darren and then one of the most beautiful kiss and make-up stories I have ever read transpires.

OK, it can be argued that the plot of this story is very simplistic, however for me the plot was not the defining fact here. I loved the way the author got real feeling and emotion into her writing. You could feel the internal anguish Seth was going through, Darren confident in everything, these two constantly going around in circles until they find the common understanding that they need to accept each other and give the relationship a go.

When I first thought about reading this book my main apprehension was the religious theme. Again all too dangerous for any author to fall into the stereotypical trope of Church (bad guys) and outcast son (guy to be pitied upon). This was not the case. Once again L.A. Witt deals with this theme superbly. Giving a non-discriminatory view by presenting both sides of the coin. Seth had suffered as a young man due to his family being super religious, but Darren is a mirrored opposite who despite himself having experienced rejection even within the church itself, has never given up on his faith. This was handled by the author absolutely beautifully and it is this, the opposing views that find their common ground in the end is the substance for me that rocks this book!

While I was reading this book I thought it was quite fitting to hear the latest news headline about what Pope Francis had said, "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

Then L.A. Witt writes in her book, "But I realised who I was, and God wouldn't reject me for that."

Another great buddy read with Tina, Bev and Gina

~ A copy of this book was provided by Riptide Publishing for a fair and honest review ~
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