Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Black John
SERIES: Johnnies #4
AUTHOR: Amy Lane
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 280 pages
BLURB:
John Carey is just out of rehab and dying inside when he gets word that Tory, the guy who loved him and broke him, has removed himself from the world in the most bitter way possible—and left John to clean up his mess.
Forced back to his hometown in Florida, John’s craving a hit with every memory when he meets Tory’s neighbor. Spacey and judgmental, Galen Henderson has been rotting in his crappy apartment since a motorcycle accident robbed him of his mobility, his looks, and his boyfriend all in one mistake. Galen’s been hiding at the bottom of an oxy bottle, but when John shows up, he feels obligated to help wade through the wreckage of Tory’s life.
The last thing John needs is another relationship with an addict, and the last thing Galen wants is a conscience. Both of them are shocked when they find that their battered souls can learn from and heal one another. It doesn’t hurt that they’re both getting a crash course on how growing up and getting past your worst mistakes sure beats the alternative—and that true love is something to fight to keep if your lover is fighting to love you back.
REVIEW:
This was an interesting book for me to read…. John is the bad guy for a big part of the Johnnie’s books, I know he’s just misunderstood and a drug addict, but still, I didn’t really like him. But what I do like is a good redemption story. Give the asshole a chance to redeem himself and earn not only the love and forgiveness of those around him, but my love as well. And that is what happens in this story with John. He gets the chance to right past wrongs, a do-over if you will, and a big chance at redemption.
John has been in porn his entire life. As we learn through flashbacks, he and a friend, Tory, started playing with themselves, each other, and a camera at a very early age. Like young teenage. If you have an issue reading about teenage boys having sex and filming it, this might not be the book for you… So John and Tory fuck around with each other, learning what feels good, and how to make it look good on a camera. They hook up with another gay kid from their school Brant, when they come across Brant getting fucked in the woods by a very well endowed college student named Zion. Eventually Zion joins this bizarre little family. Speaking of family, while these boys are playing and learning and fucking, their home lives are being destroyed. Young gay teens are not wanted in these Florida families, and both boys find themselves living with John’s gold digging grandmother he calls Nana. She’s actually amazing, she and her live in lover Crosby, take John and Tory in, with Brant there quite often as well. But of course we need more drama, and that comes in the form of a nasty drug addiction for Tory. John and his friends start a small porn business, but most of the profit is used to support Tory’s drug habit, then to send him to rehab a few times, before John is done and walks away.
Years later, and on the other side of the country, John has Johnnies, a multimillion dollar porn company, that he just about manages to fuck up. If you have read the other Johnnies books, you know what he has done, mostly to himself in the form of a cocaine addiction, but to his employees and friends as well. The one good thing he did though, was make Dex (who he has been in love with for years) his partner. Dex hauls his ass off to rehab, and John and Johnnies may survive. Out of rehab, John gets a letter telling him that Tory has taken his own life, and John needs to come to Florida to deal with it. Off he goes, and he meets…..
Galen, a bad-ass lawyer, who was in a nasty motorcycle accident, lost his long-term boyfriend, his job, his beach house, and is now scarred, addicted to prescription pain meds, and living in a dumpy apartment next door to the seriously fucked up Tory. Just the perfect person for John to rescue, and be rescued by.
This is John’s book, we only see Galen through his eyes, and his vision of Galen changes constantly. He sees a man in pain, a drug addict, a lover, a fuck up, a saviour, a project, and ultimately his perfect match. They are both a mess, with issues all over the place. This could go so badly, and I thought several times it would. Amy is known for her angst, there were times that this could have been so much worse. But this isn’t as angsty as it could have been. I appreciated that. I am a huge Amy Lane fan, and love the burn of her angsty books, but this one didn’t need to be that way. It was about John and his chance at a do-over. The question is, does he do it right this time? You’ll have to read it and see.
I loved this book, I’ve loved all of the Johnnies books. Black John may not be for everyone, the underage sex didn’t bother me, but I can see that some people will have a problem with it. However, it’s a small part of the story, it’s not glorified or romanticized, and it fits in with John and Tory’s past. It had to be told. The same with the drugs, we know what happens to Tory, we see small glimpses, but since this is from John’s perspective and he wasn’t there for all of it, it’s not as brutal. We see the aftermath of all of it, and how John has to deal with it, but the story is not focused on the bad parts. Then there is the ending…. Amy brings us back to the other Johnnie’s boys and we see what they have been up to. The other three books have the whole cast very intertwined, but this one is mostly in Florida, so other than chatting with Dex, we don’t see the rest of the gang much. Until the end, then it’s all so damn sweet! I was wondering what they were all doing and we do get to see.
I almost think I shouldn’t review Amy’s books anymore (Yeah RIGHT!), as I am totally biased and love everything she writes. I don’t know how I wouldn’t love this book, or really anything she does. She uses humor and pain, sweetness and darkness, creativity, research, realism, and fantasy, all to give us incredible characters and stories. Amy Lane fans will probably love this book, if you aren’t a fan you need to be. If you haven’t read the other Johnnie’s books you need to before you read this one, it’s not really a stand alone. Go buy Chase in Shadow and be prepared, she’s not called the Queen of Angst for nothing! (although this one was lower on the angst-o-meter for me)
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: