Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Ripped

SERIES: Mars Fitness (Book 1)

AUTHOR: Linden Bell

PUBLISHER: Self published

LENGTH: 248 pages

RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2023

BLURB:

Sometimes heartache is a blessing in disguise.

I thought my life was perfect, and then I walked in on my boyfriend sleeping with my best friend.

The only person I can turn to now is Donnie, the silver-fox spin instructor who lets me crash at his place. Donnie’s a lot older and he’s still grieving his late husband. My dreams of being a filmmaker have disintegrated along with my relationship.

The worst of life has brought us together. Do we dare create something beautiful out of it?

Ripped is an age gap, nerd/jock, hurt/comfort MM romance between roommates who cuddle while watching classic movies. Expect low angst steamy shower rooms, teary confessions, disapproving family, and brand new beginnings. It is the first book in the Mars Fitness series and can be read as a standalone. 

CW: grief and loss of a spouse, description of fatal car accident, description of homophobic family, cheating secondary characters. Happily ever after guaranteed.

REVIEW:

This is a wonderful debut book by a talent author. She wove a story so believable that you felt like you became friends with Donnie and Connor and wanted them to succeed.

Connor just finished his spin class at the gym his boyfriend convinced him to join with him and then stopped coming. After ordering their dinner to be delivered he heads to their apartment. What he finds changes his entire life forever. His live-in boyfriend and his best friend are cheating on him and it looks like it’s not the first time. Devastated he runs down the three flights of stairs, injuring himself in the process, and wanders aimlessly in a daze until he winds back up at Mars Fitness and collapses in the lobby. Donnie catches the young man that just wandered back in to their gym. He recognizes him from his spin class and realizes this beautiful young man is deeply hurting. It’s a hurt he completely understands and, without thinking, offers him a place to heal. What he doesn’t realize is that Connor may just be the salve to finally start his long overdue healing also.

I loved that this wasn’t one of those angst-filled books of two hurting men grieving for different kinds of loss finding solace in one another but never talking. With Donnie’s maturity and life experience and Connor’s need for comfort and belonging these two immediately built trust and friendship. Yes this is insta-love but it worked. Through the hurt and comfort they built trust and understanding. And they truly were well matched. Almost like Roger had had enough of Donnie secluding himself away from living life and just going through the motions required and plopped Connor literally in his lap. Donnie knew what true heartache was and, through helping Connor overcome his shock and hurt, he learned to start healing his own. They were very much opposites attract but their strengths and weaknesses complimented each other wonderfully. And they were believable.

I did love that Connor eventually saw that Miles and Wyatt cheating on him lead to him actually meeting and falling in love with his perfect mate. While I hate how they did it it did lead to Connor and Donnie’s HEA. What hurt was that these two men, that supposedly cared about Connor, decided to cheat on him behind his back instead of sitting him down and explaining how they had evoked and discovered that they needed to be together. It would have hurt but it would have been the honorable thing to do. Those two went about this the least honorable way a friend could act. I actually wonder if that was why Miles convinced Connor to join the gym…so he and Wyatt could get guaranteed uninterrupted  alone time. They just were horrible but Connor’s life was better off without that superficial friendship.

You know how much I love when I discover brand-new authors and they totally impress me from the start. This debut author did such a fantastic job with her first book and I can’t wait for the rest of the series. I know Sawyer and his roommate Preston are up next. I would also love to get Sebastian and Christian’s backstory of how the two of them wound up together…possible a quick novella of the two and how they wound up working porn??? I’m so thankful I took a chance on this new author and can’t wait for more from her!

RATING:

BUY LINK:

Amazon