Blow

Re-listen 6/11/19-6/12/19Something non-energy consuming, so I did bk. 1 in the series, which lead to this ... and so on. My review is unchanged. **************3.75***Apparently I went on a wee hours shopping spree and have a number of these. I don't regret it.Requirements for enjoying [a:Charity Parkerson 4506281 Charity Parkerson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1519415903p2/4506281.jpg]: willingness to believe in and enjoy insta lust/love, earth-shattering beauty, consciousness-stealing orgasms, long-lost soulmates and plots right out of night time soaps. I do (when the mood's right).Much like in her Ugly Eternity series, the Hard Hit is populated by a bunch of guys who are related to one another via life long friendships and work. In the prior series it was being in the rock band Ugly Eternity, and the people around that line of work. In this series some of the guys are hockey players, but so far this is NOT A HOCKEY SERIES. Particularly not this installment. These are all novellas which is the perfect dose for the high emotional tone of the series. Here we get Ryker and Grady. Both were introduced in the previous book. It's Ms. Parkerson's M.O. and it works.Ryker is a 23 year old male model with some baggage his father is a notorious English gangster and apparently beat his son and a beauty so mesmerizing that we have Grady thinking this about him: “Somewhere in the world, there were marble statues of gods that didn't compare to Ryker's perfection.” or “There were countries in the world that would've executed Ryker years ago for his looks. The man was sinful.” Hyperbole gets a brand new definition in Ms. Parkeson's books but I choose to believe that she's just projecting the thoughts of a person in lust/love and who among us hasn't been stupid in love?Ryker is being semi stalked by Alex, an ex, who's a hockey player on the same team as Shayne from the first book. Alex is not a nice guy, ‘cause “reasons”. His relationship with Ryker is very reminiscent of Maddox and Hawke in the Ugly Eternity series, so he'll have to be redeemed in a future book. Into this fray comes Grady, a police officer who was serving an arrest warrant on Alex but instead, although heretofore heterosexual, falls head over dick in lust/love with Ryker. I'm happy to say that not much drama ensues. Grady, who has two gay besties, just kind of shrugs and jumps in with both feet into a relationship with Ryker and Ryker though initially skeptic finds acceptance in Grady. Someone who sees more than Ryker's outer beauty they share abusive childhoods and is a safe harbor for Ryker. Grady is ten years older than Ryker and D/s play is alluded to but it all happens off page, which is fine. In spite of references to people being in emotional pain and other stuff, to me, this was a “light” book about two guys hot for each other and finding their bliss. Nothing wrong with that. Did I take any of their drama seriously? Nope. But I did enjoy it. The sexy times are plenty and hot and I'll probably read/listen to couple more of these trifles.The audio is by [a:Hollie Jackson] and she's great. I've seen some people complain in outrage over a woman narrating an MM book but I have no problem with it at all. She does brilliant voices for each character. Plus let's be real: this is a genre written mostly by women, mostly for women readers. If it's a deal breaker you can skip the AB & just read with your peepers. ;)