Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: The Mary’s Boys Collection (1-4)
SERIES: (Mary’s Boys 1-4)
AUTHOR: Brandon Witt
NARRATOR: Gerrod Larkyn
PUBLISHER: Wings of Ink Publications, LLC
LENGTH: 14 hrs and 20 mins
RELEASE DATE: December 11 2020
BLURB:
The complete collection of the first four Hamburger Mary’s novellas.
Nachos & Hash
Darwin Michaels is living his dreams in the Mile High City but is losing hope he’ll find love – until he sets eyes on the adorable waiter at Hamburger Mary’s. Cody has just accomplished his life’s goal: get the hell out of Kansas. A fun job was just the cherry on top. All that’s missing is someone special.
But when Darwin shows interest, Cody is sure it’s too good to be true. After all, what can Darwin possibly see in the high school dropout serving him nachos?
Vodka & Handcuffs
Vahin Arora, Hamburger Mary’s sexy bartender, plays the flirtatious role so well even his closest friends don’t realize he hasn’t had a hookup in months. Then, the tall, dark, and handsome police officer steps through the door, and Vahin’s passion races back to life.
Being a Black cop on the Denver police force is no easy job – Marlon Barton can’t imagine adding being out and proud to the equation. Could Vahin be worth the risk of finding out?
Mascara & Bandages
Ariel Merman is a new drag queen who finds a family at Hamburger Mary’s. After a performance as Ariel, Zachary Cooper walks home in his makeup and is physically assaulted by homophobes.
Dr. Teegan Chau is a little lost after divorcing his wife and coming out of the closet, but he can’t deny his attraction to the young man he patches up. When Zachary takes the initiative and asks Teegan out, romance turns out to be the easy part of their blossoming relationship.
Deeds & Confetti
Steven Conley loves owning his own Hamburger Mary’s restaurant, and never regretted abandoning the corporate grind until his father’s harsh deathbed words leaves him doubting himself.
When party planner Ryan Fuller bumps into Steven – his best friend’s uncle and the older man Ryan has secretly crushed on since he was a teen – the attraction explodes into a night of passionate abandon for both men. Things might work out for the men, if Steven can accept who Ryan really is.
REVIEW:
🎵🎵🎵
Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
🎵🎵🎵
Don’t you love the comfortable appeal of your neighborhood pub? In this group of tales that place is Hamburger Mary’s and the denizens aren’t necessarily locals but the patrons of this restaurant/bar and the family of friends that they’ve formed there. BTW… Hamburger Mary’s is a real franchise restaurant with about 15 gay-friendly locations across the USA including the Denver one featured in these tales. I’ve only been to the now closed Tampa (Ybor City), Florida location so I can’t attest to the hunkiness of the wait-staff first hand but they ARE friendly folks.
The first tale, Nachos & Hash, involves Cody and Darwin, both small-town midwestern boys who’ve relocated the the “big city” of Denver, but one as blue-collar as the other is white collar. Can they overcome the difference in the size of their dreams? This story is pretty timeless as there will always be drama around country guys coming to “the big city” to be freer than they were allowed to be in their small-minded small towns.
The second tale. Vodka & Handcuffs is particularly timely given the recent increase in police violence and bigotry in the USA and the increased attention to the Black Lives Matter movement. Here we have a black semi-closeted cop saddled with a bigoted and small-minded partner, falling for a man of Indian heritage. I kept wondering while hearing this what the current governor of Colorado (an openly gay Jewish man) would think.
The third tale, Mascara & Bandages should carry a trigger warning as it centers on a gay bashing incident that’s described in some detail. When the young drag queen who was the target of the attack gets involved with the ER doctor of Asian heritage we have yet another sweetly romantic tale and get to live yet another kind of relationship a bit vicariously.
The fourth and final tale, Deeds & Confetti is centered on the owner/manager of the bar and a much younger guy that is finally able to act on an attraction he’s fostered for quite some time. Again, likable guys and a sappy sweet romance (even if under kinda weird circumstances)
Gerrod Larkin does a generally great job as the narrator and, despite the mostly midwestern setting, brings a few regional accents to the various boys we meet. However, he needs to work on his women’s voices. The mother’s voice in Vodka & Handcuffs was one of the most annoying examples of what NOT to do to that I’ve encountered. Fortunately women’s voices are very infrequent in these tales. And that was the only one that was truly jarring. More importantly, his voice acting and narration was good overall and particularly so when voicing the younger male characters (of which there are several) and the speeding inner monologue of Ryan was charming.
RATING: 
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