Hot Head

By: Damon Suede

Narrated by: Charlie David

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.... Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, Dante Anastagio. Unfortunately, Dante is strictly a ladies’ man, and the FDNY isn’t exactly gay-friendly. For ten years, Griff has hidden his heart in a half-life of public heroics and private anguish. Griff’s caution and Dante’s cockiness make them an unbeatable team. To protect his buddy, there’s nothing Griff wouldn’t do…until a nearly bankrupt Dante proposes the worst possible solution: HotHead.com, a gay porn website where uniformed hunks get down and dirty. And Dante wants them to appear there - together. Griff may have to guard his heart and live out his darkest fantasies on camera. Can he rescue the man he loves without wrecking their careers, their families, or their friendship?

©2011 Damon Suede (P)2011 Damon Suede

Funny and sweet.

Also really really dirty. Just be warned.....
It's well written and read, so if you like this type of book it's a good option. Had me smiling and aw-ing while doing my housework. A real treat.

Hot sex, decent love story.

The sex scenes were rally hot!!! Sweet love story, too. Don't know what took them so long, though.

liked it but....

enjoyed this alot except for the music that played at each new chapter found that a bit annoying.

A flawed, but beautiful friends to lovers romance

3.5 stars rounded down.

Ah, this book. Clearly I love it because I keep re-listening. (Even though I detest this narrator in every other book he's narrated because he is unable to pronounce the easiest of words correctly.) And it is a gorgeous friends to lovers story that is crazy sexy.

But it is problematic in a lot of ways. This is partially because it is one of the first MM romances that a lot of us read, this book is eight years old after all, and things that are noticeable now probably weren't then. As an example, there is a scene where a person gets bashed, and it's horrible and painful and sad, but the secondary character is a "chubby" girl in a bee costume. This character is the only female in ninety-nine percent of the scene, this character is the only character dressed as a bee, this character is a good samaritan, or at least she is the only person that alerts Grif to what is happening. She is mentioned eight times in all, seven of those times she is referred to as "chubby", the other time her legs are referred to as "sturdy". Now I'll grant that Suede has never met an adjective that he won't reuse ad nauseam, but there are many ways he could have referenced her, including just using "she", that didn't have to call out her weight. It's not exactly fat shaming, but it definitely skirts the edge. Another example is that even though Dante and Grif have been with woman the rest of their lives, including Dante's apparent "banging" "most of Brooklyn" and the fact that Grif was married they don't consider or even mention the possibility of being bi. There are some great female secondary characters, but a lot are not the best. The editing could be overhauled as well, really adjectives are varied and plenty, look into them.

Having said that, and knowing there is more that I could say, I still love them and their story. This is a very moving story, and it's also a love story about New York and the FDNY, so it's easy to overlook a lot, but the further I get from my initial read the more things pop out.

I will always love Grif and Dante, and the love they find in their best friend. Dante's wonderful, nutty family is nothing to overlook either. The weaknesses don't overshadow that.

Audio: David does his best work here, but PLEASE editors, call out narrators when they destroy words, isn't that why you exist? He does bring Grif ,and Dante, and NYC to life so I forgive most of it in this book, but I can not with him in any other audio.

So Sweet...

I love this story so much that I've read it MULTIPLE times... They're the couple that should have a SERIES built off them! It ends&I'm like NOOO, don't end! Don't EVER end! They're just too precious, the BOTH of them. Both their personalities are great! I wanna listen to them get engaged, married, have kids...
I EVEN would LOVE to hear TOMMY'S story&his future story, that would be AMAZING! So much GREATNESS could be built from this great book...
I THOROUGHLY enjoy this story. Absolutely.
-Nikki 📚

Cute, Romantic, and Sexy

Great book! My first gay romance, and looking forward to more. I would recommend to a friend.

HOT!

Hot firefighters with UST up the wazoo, sweet romance, hot ginger in a kilt, frustrating misunderstandings and a deeper message of acceptance and tolerance that made me tear up near the end.

Griff has endured a lot in his life including a negligent father, 9/11 trauma, and divorce. But the one shining ray through it all had been his best bud Dante, a handsome Italian playboy. When Dante is strapped for cash he considers turning to the gay porn industry and he wants Griff there with him. Griff is overwhelmed between years of want and common sense. He doesn't want to ruin his friendship with Dante but how can he hold back when said man of his dreams volunteers to suck him off? Even if it is for a paycheck. The author put in a LOT of detail and thought into the lifes of firefighters living in Brooklyn and realistic to the dangers of hate crimes and homophobia. The characters were well thought out and polished. The scenes were SUPER HOT!!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥 I do reccomend! Great read and I strangely love that I read it right before 9/11.

I soooo hope this continues as a series and that Tony the paramedic will get a HEA.❤❤

Narrator so good!

I loved this narrator. It’s often hard to find someone who’s voice you want to listen to for the 7-8 odd hours of a full book and I’m terribly picky about it. Charlie David was perfect. Damon Suede’s characters came alive in Charlie’s voice and the story was sweet and poignant and absolutely irresistible. So good!!!!

One of the best romances I've ever read

Where does Hot Head rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Hot Head ranks at the very top!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Hot Head?

BEST QUOTE/SCENE EVER:
His fingers roamed over Dante, marking his skin with handprints, memorizing it. “This belongs to me. Only me. No one else can have it. Not even you. It’s mine. You’re mine.” <-- Can you just IMAGINE? If that quote doesn’t move you to go get this book, I don’t know what will.

What does Charlie David bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He has a wonderful voice. He brings the story to life with the multiple accents and personalities in the book. Flawless execution.

If you could take any character from Hot Head out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Griff ALL THE WAY! I love him. I understood him. I want to befriend him.

Any additional comments?

ONE. OF. THE. BEST. ROMANCE. NOVELS. EVER.

I can't say enough about this book. I know some people out there are intimidated by M/M romance novels, and that's a true shame because this book is utterly phenomenal.

Enter Griff who is a muscle bound, red-haired, fair skinned, firefighter who happens to be in love with his best friend, and fellow firefighter, Dante. They've been best friends forever, yet on 9/11, after searching for him during that horrendous nightmare, Griff realized that he had immense feelings for Dante. But Griff is tortured. Imagine loving your best friend, but being unable to tell him. Imagine that ache, that longing, that fear. Well, Damon Suede has created two amazingly complex characters and allows us readers to see, feel, and become a part of that world. I want to thank him for creating a book focused on an every-day situation, and brought life, heart, raw, and honest feelings that you can relate to. Suede is a highly clever writer who uses words, and imagery to set the scene for even the most unimaginative reader. I can’t say enough about this book. I really can’t. I read it in 24 hours, and had no problem for-going sleep to finish it.

Slow start but great story evolved

Initially, the story was slow and it seemed to take a long time to get to the heart of it. Once it got going, though, the emotions really shined from the characters. I liked how Griff and Dante were polar opposites but ended up being complimentary to each other.

I consider it a well written story when the gender preference is secondary to the love each character has for the other. It's about love and support and willingness to sacrifice for the other.

This is not to say the sex scenes weren't steamy because they were!! I really liked how the author incorporated seriously steamy, hot with the emotional connection between Dante and Griff.

I liked the author's writing and hope more is to come. Just speed up a little on the unraveling of the story.