Down and Dirty

Hello Guilty Indulgence readers, my family survived the first week of school and we are starting to fall back into our normal routines. It doesn't take the kids long to fall out of the routine but getting them back in can be harder than pulling teeth it feels like some mornings. Things are quite here for about another month and then we go into fall baseball and right after that is basketball season, so I took some time this week and got caught up on a few series that I was behind on which was nice because it kind of feels like reconnecting with old friends. Of course none of my friends are actual vampires or demons, at least not that I know of, but you get what I mean. I also got to read a new book buy an author that I love to read, and who was the inspiration for this weeks theme.

When I finished this book I knew it had to be my next blog because of how much I was affected while reading it. G.A. Hauser writes damn good stories! I really don't know any other way to put it. And the anal retentive person in mean LOVES that she has a guide book that shows how all of her character's connect and overlap. This weeks theme may not be for everyone but I have found with my ever expanding TBR list to never say I would never read a book like that because I would have missed out on some really fabulous stories. If this theme does make you a little nervous that's OK check out some of our other posts because I promise you will find something that will interest you. And remember Safe, Sane and Consensual.


Down and Dirty, G.A. Hauser, August 2011

UCLA art history professor Jean DuLac enjoyed his life. He was happy with his career and traveling the world searching for masterpieces to photograph first hand for his students.
When Jean decides to use one of his own art designs for a tattoo, he meets tattoo shop owner, Harry Callahan. Jean finds out the shop is called, Down and Dirty Harry's Tattoos for a reason.
Harry Callahan loves his work. His reputation for being the best tattoo artist in LA is well earned. Harry and his older brother 'Clyde' have a lot in common. Clyde is an erotic dancer by night, firefighter by day, but he and Clyde share the same taste in men...as well as the men themselves.
The night Jean decides to get his skin inked, he meets Harry and can't help but be smitten with a man as big, brawny, and handsome as 'Dirty' Harry. Jean has no idea the dark delights he is in for Friday night after class.
What Jean discovers is how intense being the object of two men's desires can be and how pleasure with the Callahan brothers, means getting Down and Dirty.

When I finished this book I felt emotionally drained. When an author can pull you so far into a story that in just a few hundred pages you feel like you have lived and felt everything that the characters have, you know it's good.

When we first meet Harry he comes across as this bad-ass tattoo guy full of confidence and completely secure. He owns three successful shops he is drop dead gorgeous who would ever guess that he has cut himself off emotionally for so long that he doesn't know how to connect past a sexual relationship. He learned at an early age that he couldn't trust people to stay in his life. Everyone that is except Clyde.

When Jean walks into the tattoo shop Harry can't deny his instant attraction to the man and neither can Jean judging by the bulge behind his fly. After a totally inappropriate but scorching hot scene behind the tattoo curtain both men want to take their attraction a little farther. In the back room after Harry has tied Jean to the bed Clyde walks in and joins the fun. Jean has very mixed emotions about what happens but cannot deny he enjoyed it.

After agreeing to go out to a club for the night with the guys and that turning into a weekend of the hottest sex of his life Jean isn't sure he can walk away from the pleasure that Harry and Clyde have introduced him to. He also isn't sure he can do just sex and that seems to be all they are offering.

The character's in this story and their emotions are so real. Everyone can understand Harry's feelings once we know his back story. And while Clyde's may be harder for us to understand I felt that it started from a good place and in the end we really can't help who we fall in love with. Jean's journey was more one of self acceptance and once he was able to do that he could better understand the dynamics between Harry and Clyde.

This story pulled at my heartstrings and made it necessary for me to take several cold showers and any time an author can do that I think they have a winner. This book pushes several buttons but it is so well written that you forget about that and just accept the story for what it is, and that is a story about finding and accepting love. I hope Ms. Hauser revisits these characters because I would love to see Sam staring in his own book. I give Down and Dirty 5 chocolate dipped strawberries!