Reviewed by Danielle
Title: Stripped Bare
Author: Susan Mac Nicol
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group
Length: 290 pages
Blurb:
After two years, Matthew Langer is still getting over the death of a loved one. He’s steered clear of serious relationships, but when he meets the irascible, dirty mouthed and tempestuous Shane Templar that decision has never been harder.
Shane is sexy, warm and funny, and Matthew finds himself trying like hell not to care about him. Especially when Shane, with his quick wit and hacking skills, is quick to stand up for justice and avenge wrongs.
Then Shane strikes at the wrong target, and Matthew realises just how far gone he already is. At the threat of losing for good yet another man who’s broken through his armour, Matthew finds his heart stripped bare. He must face the demons of his soul or a future without love
REVIEW:
I picked this story for our Theme week “Love for Sale” as it qualified as a rentboy story, but i soon found out it doesnt really have anything to do with that.
Yes, it starts out with Shane being an exclusive rentboy, but as a reader you don’t really learn much about that. This story is focused on the developing relationship between Shane and Matthew.
Shane (Shay) is one of a kind. He’s sweet, funny, caring, spontanious and yes he makes mistakes, but throughout the complete story I felt that it was never intentional. There were times I wanted to shake Matthew to make him see the reason why 🙂
It is very nice to read the development of their relationship. Where it is pretty clear that Shane is immediately head over heals, Matthew needs the time and especially the acceptence of himself to see what’s there right in front of him.
The side characters are just as charming. I really liked David and also Marco when he joins in and I would like to read their story one day.
This story entales a lot of drama, a lot of heartache and a lot of sex to name a few things that try to keep the readers attention.
For me personally, there’s a bit too much of all of the above. I love an erotic story but even I need to see some balance which in this story was lacking combined with the over extensive word use of Lover. It started to put me of near the end of the story .
The way the guys battle with the “enemy” and the way their friendship with David stands strong. How they both struggle with their beliefs which can be very different these things are all really strong features in this book.
Also my heart broke when Shane got hurt in a devastating way but it also picked me up when I got to see what came out of that situation.
Author Susan Mac Nicol sure pulls all your heartstrings with this story.
If you like drama and a high level of erotica based over strong characters you should definitely pick this one up.
RATING: 
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