Reviewed by True

TITLE: Trusting Tennyson

SERIES: Out in Austin #3

AUTHOR: KD Ellis

PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing

LENGTH: 345 pages

RELEASE DATE: August 9, 2022

BLURB:

Tennyson thought this would be just another undercover assignment. Catching feelings for two traumatized men wasn’t part of the plan.

When FBI Agent Liam Tennyson was embedded in the La Familia cartel, he didn’t expect to meet not one but two young men whose terrified eyes haunt his dreams—and stir up feelings he thought long buried.

Asher Downs left his homophobic family behind the day he earned his high school diploma. With little more than a bus ticket to his name, he moves to Austin to meet his online boyfriend, Devon. Unfortunately for Asher, life doesn’t always go according to plan.

Misha might have been born as Dimitri, but now he answers to whatever name Master gives him. Snaring another innocent young man into this life is the last thing Misha desires. But Master gets what Master wants—and Master wants a matching set of toys to play with.

When a mole in the justice department compromises Tennyson’s identity—and jeopardizes his plan to rescue Misha and Asher—Tennyson is left with no choice but to go on the lamb. Can the two traumatized boys learn to trust him to keep them safe?

REVIEW:

Misha is the property of his cruel Master, given away by an uncle when he was only ten. He got nothing else in his miserable life than to serve his sinister Master ánd his friends.
And now Master wants another plaything.

Through an online game platform, Misha/Devon has to romance Asher and convince him to come to Austin.

Asher left home as he was supposed to do after earning his diploma from high school. His awful parents despised him since they’d understood Asher was gay. Not allowed to talk to his younger brother anymore in case he’ll infect him with his gayness.
So, a bus ticket brought him to Austin, to meet his online boyfriend Davon.

Watching Master torture Misha was hard, unbearable, the cruelty, the hurt. GHB, strict diets, let other men use him for pleasure, unconsciousness, parties, the cages, basements, you get the drift? Yes, it was horrible.

Imagine what happened when Asher got there under pretenses. It’s worse than you can imagine.

After years, for Misha years longer than Asher’s, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s got a name: Special Agent Liam Tennyson.

So far, that’s only the first part of this story.
Now, Liam Tennyson has to gain the boys’ trust, an almost impossible job, after years of abuse, indoctrination, and isolation.
Liam is a Daddy in heart and soul. He’s traveling around with the two boys in a camper. Thin walls, vulnerable boys, slowly they start trusting him.

There are more events, too many to mention, happy ones and serious troubled ones.
The trauma they had been through stayed consistently palpable throughout the whole story, they weren’t healed by a miracle, it wasn’t something that disappeared into the background. I found that aspect very respectfully approached and convincingly done.

A story about human trafficking, undercover agents, and vulnerable boys, who rediscover themselves, trusting Liam and accepting a Daddy.
Alternating between now and then, and from different pov’s, among them is Ryder, Asher’s brother.

Asher, Misha, and Liam are three different layered characters and their dynamic felt true and honest.
It’s a widely and very entertainingly written story, it dragged me in and I couldn’t stop until I was finished. Every emotion was palpable! The time frame and pace were perfect, and the development ditto.
It was a long sit, for me, it could have done without Ryder and Mason’s parts ánd Riley’s one that was a bit confusing, maybe it’s an introduction to a next installment. The rest of the story was more than enough! The story has a comfortable flow, it was well constructed and developed, from heartbreaking and painful to more stable and loving, where there was plenty of room for laughs.
Overall a recommendation worthy!

RATING:

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