Ethan Stone

Recruited: 1 Star. A police officer is recruited to join an “elite” agency (at which, apparently, new agents are recruited by having sex with them) (if it sounds like a bad porno, well, you got it in one). “Recruited” reads like the first chapter of a novel, not a short story, and is riddled with typographical and/or grammatical errors.
The Last Easy Day: 3 stars. Navy Seals in training, in service, and in love. Sweet. Much better researched than the final story, “Training Buds” (which is also about BUD/S training but very vague on the details).
Love Undercover: 3 Stars. DUC cop whose biker gang finds a patrolman snooping on their property.
Hand to Hand: 2 Stars. Not much to this readable but forgettable H/C romance between an officer and his subordinate.
One More Time: 1 Star. Gay-for-you romance, only tangentially related to law enforcement, about small-town cop who can’t possibly be gay, even though he lusts after a (barely legal) neighbor. We’re back with the bad grammar.
Training Buds: 1 Star. Two gay sailors in BUD/S training (spelled BUDs in this story). Very vague on the details of the training (compared to “The Last Easy Day”).… (mais)

Original rating: 4 stars
Re-read rating: 3 stars

Slight spoilers ahead~

I got stuck at 54% in the re-read and I was dreading going back to the book, so I gave it up.
I'm not sure exactly why I rated it so highly the first time around. All I can say is that right now, for me, this book has nothing going on to keep my attention.


Lot's of soap opera-ish reactions form various characters in the book, lots of bad porn flick moments. And LOTS of inconsistencies.

The MC Christian Flesh is supposed to be a hot-shot detective, very young for the position, yet at every step he shows us it's a wonder he's still alive.

He's supposed to be brutally honest, but he comes off as creepy, immature, and inappropriate.

He's charged for murder, yet all he thinks about is where he'll stick Flesh Jr. next.

He's supposed to be badly traumatized, hurt enough that he limits himself to meaningless sexual encounters, and self-imposes rules about said encounters (no kissing, no sleepovers, no relationships etc) to guarantee he won't get anything resembling an emotional connection. Yet he breaks several of the rules after knowing the other MC for a few days and sleeping with him once.

The more I read the more I was irked by the story. So I'm just gonna quit now. I'm lowering the rating to 3 stars and not 2 because I didn't finish re-reading it, so I'm potentially missing out on some redeeming qualities I just don't have the patience to find out about.… (mais)