Series: Head #1
Author: Damon Suede
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Length: 320 pages/ 10 hours 34 minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (June 15th, 2011)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥5Hearts
Blurb: Where there’s smoke there’s fire. . .
Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181: Dante Anastagio. Unfortunately Dante is strictly a ladies’ man and the FDNY isn’t exactly gay-friendly. For 10 years, Griff has hidden his heart in a half-life of public heroics and private anguish.
Griff’s caution and Dante’s cockiness make them an unbeatable team. To protect his buddy, there’s nothing Griff wouldn’t do… until Dante is nearly bankrupt and proposes the worst possible solution: HotHead.com, a gay-porn website where uniformed hunks get down-n-dirty… Now Dante wants them to appear there— together.
Griff may have to guard his heart and live out his darkest fantasies on camera. Can he rescue the man he loves without wrecking their careers, their families, or their friendship?
Product Link: (eBook) http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=55_429&products_id=2393
(Audio book) http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3294
Reviewer: Tams
Review: This book was very appropriately named. It is H.O.double T. HOT!! Narrated by actor, director, writer, producer and gay activist; Charlie David.
Griffin Muir, Griff, is a divorced New York city Firefighter still living in his father’s basement. He is a 6’4, 240 pound, red-headed Irishman with the temperament of a gentle giant. A survivor of the World Trade center bombings, he buried a lot of his brother’s after that attack, and started to fall in love with one as well. His job is his life and he’d do anything for his fellow fire fighters, especially his best friend Dante.
Dante Anastagio is the typical Italian stallion! Nowhere near Griff’s height but still well-built with black hair and eyes and a large, loud Italian family. Dante is a perpetual bachelor, notorious ladies man, and straight. Faced with the very real prospect of losing his house due to a lack of funds he goes against Griff and does a shoot for a gay porn site. It’s just him and the camera, no sex, just Dante getting off for the World Wide Web. For now.
The money is good, but not good enough. Soon Dante convinces Griff to do a shoot with him because the payoff is higher, but so are the stakes. The shoot opens the door to feelings that have long been buried and hidden causing the lines of friendship to blur. Griff struggles to keep his all too real attraction for his best friend a secret, while Dante struggles with wanting more from Griff now than just friendship. But the FDNY is not exactly gay friendly. If their friends, family and fellow firefighters find out the truth, will they survive the aftermath?
This was the sexiest book I’ve listened to in a long time, and I listen to a lot of m/m books! Perhaps it was the well-written story of two brothers in arms, firefighters that have been friends forever and been to hell and back, that was expertly written by Suede. Add to that Charlie David’s rendition of the story as he narrated. David has a captivating voice that I loved since I first saw him on Dante’s Cove (A TV show on hereTV). He did a fantastic job separating the unique voices of the gentle giant Griff, the Italian stallion Dante and even nailed the bratty, New Yorker twang of Dante’s sister Loretta.
At the heart of this book was the slow burning love story of Griff and Dante. They deal with so much on a daily basis being firefighters but they’ve also had to deal with a failed marriage, a mother’s death, a friends apparent gay bashing and now their obvious feelings for each other. And when these two finally come together the sex is off the charts scorching hot! David outdid himself in that area of the narration as well. Perhaps it’s because he is a gay man and he actually knows the little sounds and innuendos that go along with the act of sex between two gay men. I thought my iPod was going to set fire the scenes between Griff and Dante were so HOT! Passionate, sexy, steamy and downright nasty!!
I highly recommend this book. I’m certain you’d get just as much out of the print or eBook version that I did out of the audio. But if you have the ability to listen, I’d suggest you do.
I loved the book, but you’re totally making me want to get the audio version, Tam.