Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Notorious
SERIES: IOU, Book 5
AUTHOR: Leslie McAdam
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 378 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 6, 2024
BLURB:
Picking up your favorite adult film star at a bar in Vegas is a bad idea—especially when you wake up the next morning married to him. Ask me how I know.
Before I met Velvet the Cowboy, the public knew me as an innocuous guy who was running for office.
Now I’ve gone from boring to notorious in twenty-four hours.
The hot stranger’s ring on my finger puts a damper on my political ambitions, since his day job isn’t voter-friendly. An annulment is a no-go, and a quickie divorce would make me look unreliable.
In any case, when I find out Velvet’s dark plans, I know I can’t let him out of my sight. Which means I’m taking a gorgeous, 6’6”, slow-talking cowboy home with me to protect him from himself.
REVIEW:
Leslie McAdam continues her M/M romance series, IOU, with a highly personal, unusual story of a retired porn star and an idealistic man running for office in Notorious. This series, apropos of its title IOU, explores the various ways people feel like they owe something to others. In this story, we see Kurt struggling with his need to help support civil rights while also supporting his mother, the lieutenant governor of California and a presidential hopeful in the next election. He’s sacrificed himself for others before, including his fake dating of Sam Stone back in the first series book, Ambiguous. Johnny has struggled his whole life to support his family and his ailing mother, even becoming a porn star-turned legend. Yet he only feels guilt for not doing better for her, for not solving her health issues, for not making everything perfect for her and his sister. He’s sacrificed himself for his family and when some horrific events befall him, it’s too much for his psyche to handle.
Notorious is not a light-hearted story – read the triggers and the very enlightening author’s note. McAdam tackles the topics of suicide and mental illness with sensitivity and insight. Despite the heavy topics, she still manages to keep the story from feeling too weighed down and coaxes a sweet romance from this story with two extremely likeable characters who work well together.
McAdam excels with her character development for the majority of the story. I adored Johnny and everyone needs a Kurt in their life. But perplexingly, things go off the rails towards the end of the story. After effectively exploring many impactful topics including codependency and the importance of recognizing when the need to care for someone you love goes too far, McAdam includes a plot twist involving one of the main characters that is completely out of character for him, and the events contradict the very point she just solidly established through the narrative that came before. It’s resolved hastily and unsatisfactorily and felt very out of place.
Overall, this is a meaningful story with two adorable men who accidentally fall in love, but isn’t my favorite of the series. If you’ve been reading this series and the triggers aren’t an issue for you, you may still want to give it a read.
RATING: 
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