The hum of a tattoo machine was Brian “Berzerker” Anderson’s favorite sound in the world. He’d won a coveted spot at Twirled World Ink with a legend in the business, Gib Phelps. Creating beauty with his large, scarred hands was his happy place—the place where he fit in the world. Although, nothing could remain perfect forever, his boyfriend of over a year decided to move on and up without him in tow. He had two choices, return to living with his friends and co-workers or take an offer too tempting to pass up.
Landon Phelps grew up in an unconventional home as the only child to Legendary Tattoo Artist Gib Phelps and mother, Peaches. He always felt a bit out of place when he became a boring accountant instead of following in his parents’ footsteps. Boundaries were in place early on; he didn’t date the employees of Twirled World Ink. Sometimes rules were meant to be broken. Bezerker was his idea of perfection, large, husky and tattooed; the thick, grab-worthy beard was a bonus. So when the boyfriend became the ex, Landon decided it was time to get his man.
With the help of the matchmaking Twirled Crew, can Landon finally get Berzerker to see him as more than a friend and the employer’s son?
Author's Note: Although this is the first book in a series each book is a standalone and every book deals with a separate couple.
The blurb caught my eye with the description of Zerk from the get go. His description is basically my character crack so there was no way I wasn’t going to be reading this one. And I liked it, it was a good low angst story with appealing characters and a positive set up for the series.
On the upside, the theme is like brain candy; a tattoo parlor full of misfits, one of whom is a delicious toppy bear who’s been unlucky in love, his complete opposite who has been in love with him forever and a shared kink for rough possessive boneage. SOLD! I appreciated the fact that the story was low on the angst and high on the fluffy love. Turns out Zerk and Landon had been crushing on one another for years and all the pining is finally paying off. Zerk has been dumped by his douche of a BF and Landon is conveniently single too so the two enter into a roommate deal and the friendship escalates to teasing and flirting and it was really just sweet as hell.
The supporting characters are truly supportive, not just accessories to the tale of Zerk and Landon. There’s enough info on the rest of the crew to set up further books without distracting the reader away from the MC’s.
It fell into a couple of traps though that took me out of the story now and again. The use of the word “man” just kills me sometimes. And this is a personal niggle of mine, but it makes the speaker’s voice sound too diva in my head and I just long for a name or a more prolific descriptor to give actual spice to the scene, not
“ . . . Landon’s claim on the big, gruff man.”
“ . . . Landon couldn’t help laughing at the man’s sulk.”
“In this case, the pretty man bent over the nearest surface . . .”
They’re men, I got it, give me something else.
I didn’t really ding for the editing, because I try not to let that get me too much and usually it doesn’t, but I also know it can really dig at some readers so I have to mention it as it did effect my enjoyment of the story. When a question is being asked, I need a question mark and too many pronouns and the overuse of “man” instead of a name had me rereading conversations to get the correct tone and to figure out who the hell said what 4 lines later. No major changes are needed, but some thorough editing would raise this story up a notch.
All that being said, it’s the start of a fun series and I’ve already bought the second one because I do like the world the author has built and I know enough about the secondary characters to know I want to read their HEA’s too.
**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**
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