Hot Head

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 📚