• Straight Up

  • By: James Lear
  • Narrated by: Todd Stevens
  • Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (126 ratings)

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Straight Up  By  cover art

Straight Up

By: James Lear
Narrated by: Todd Stevens
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Publisher's summary

Who is trying to kill the members of an elite special ops team that worked off the radar in Iraq in the '90s? It's up to Dan Stagg to track down the survivors - the men with whom he stormed an undefended surveillance station, killing everyone inside. And now, many years later, the team is being targeted in what seems like a series of unrelated attacks. Dan teams up with his old comrade Al Benson, once a rising star of the USMC, now a respectable married civilian with a few secrets to hide. As they dig deeper into the secrets of the past, Dan discovers that Benson's looking for more than just answers. An explosive affair threatens everyone's future, and connects Dan to a past he thought he'd left behind.

©2016 James Lear (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

What listeners say about Straight Up

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Don't start here to appreciate Lear

I agree with many reviewers that Dan was a disappointment in this second book of this series. His self centeredness overwhelmed the story, which itself was too long. Too much time was spent in Dan's head what-ifing. There was a bitterness in Dan that made no sense and his decision at the end didn't ring true for his character, at least for me. The way that he dismisses his real affection towards loved ones was disappointing and felt false. I hope Lear continues this story, however. Dan has some growing up to do. I'm still rooting for him.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Most despicable lead character ever...

This book is not erotic...it's merely sad, dreary and pathetic. The plot twists are utterly unbelievable. Trust me, the military Did NOT discharge someone for being homosexual and then send them a gilded invitation to rejoin when DADT was abolished...Good Grief!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Agh so that’s how to whore!

Great story don’t expect a happily ever after not your typical love story. The performance was awesome! Aiden and Austin Bates you need this guy to read your books. A cheater always thinks their lover is also a cheater. Overall great storyline

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Guilty pleasure

Any additional comments?

James Lear books are a guilty pleasure for me. So I new this book was not going to be a compelling book. The book is sixty percent sex and forty percent plot. The plot is good. The narrator did a great job.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stag

This was a very interesting story. The storyline was great and I was surprised that Dan turned out to be a dick. A hero with a lot of issues. I would really liked the story if it didn't have the heavy duty sex scenes.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Couldn't stand any of the characters

The plot and ending was an anticlimax and I didn't like any of the characters.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just Spectacular!

So. Freakin'. GOOD!

"Lust makes cowards of us all..."

Damn I wish this wasn't the end of the series! Such great mysteries, but - wow - Dan Stagg is incredible. I just want to know what happens to him... I'm not going to spoil it for anyone by commenting here, but I'd give anything to find out what the next 6-18 months of his life bring him.

And that ending gah, I'm going to go back and re-read the last two chapters because they were so heartbreaking and intense and wonderful and just so Dan.

An amazing series, 5 stars aren't enough.

Also - gotta say, both audio books were wonderful. I usually bear a grudge when they switch narrators during a series, but both Charles Carr who did The Hardest Thing and Todd Stevens who did this one were spectacular. They each brought something different to Dan's character and I loved them both.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story, but...

Sorry, Dan is an a**h***!!! Really!!! It's a good story, but definitely not what I expected.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good barely balances out the bad

This has some strong plusses, including an entertaining plot and lots of heat. The narrator was good. Now, I love a morally flawed, grey-area character maybe even more than the next person. Unfortunately, from the very first chapter, I found Dan Stagg despicable. Not because he likes to sleep with any man who'll have him, but because of what he did in the Marines.

He says he was kicked out for sleeping with a man, but the far worse transgression was that he was an officer and he slept with enlisted men. This is an egregious abuse of power and is, with good reason, against military code in all branches of armed services. The author is either completely uninformed about the military or chose to have his character not care. Dan repeatedly mentions having slept with a lot of enlisted men throughout the book and at the end is excited about doing it again.

The power differential between a Major and a Corporal is so huge, this is considered coercion or even rape. The fact that Dan is so blase about it is ironic, because the whole plot revolves around an officer who abused his rank his entire career. If you can ignore tall that, the rest is an interesting story, I suppose.

The narrator was good. He has a deep, masculine voice that fit well, although I often had trouble distinguishing Stagg's voice from Benson's. Unfortunately for Mr. Stevens, the bar has been set so high for audiobooks that a 5-star narrator now has to be a highly-skilled voice actor, and Todd Stevens didn't quite measure up. I hope he does in the future, as I'd love to hear him as he improves to five stars.

Overall, yes, I liked the book, but I sure didn't love it. Being a good writer is knowing enough about your subject to write believably. Although Mr. Lear may know a lot about being gay, he doesn't know much about the Marines. I'd heard a lot about him being a good writer of gay fiction, but this book certainly didn't convince me.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Recommended.

I Enjoyed it. The narration was amazing and the story and mystery solid. Recommended.

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