reviews_and_ramblings | Under My Skin 1 & 2 by M.L. Rhodes

Under My Skin by M.L. Rhodes

Sebastian is an up-tight librarian. He owns a bookstore specialized in travel guide and his average customers are old couple who travel after their retirement. He has a profitable business but he strives to close the month cause fifteen months before his former lover stole all his money and put his business in danger.

So when in the next door shop opens a new tattoo shop, who draws all type of not so encouraging face, and above all he has to suffer the loud music he can clearly listen from his shop, Sebastian can only present his complaints to the owner, Dylan. But the problem is that Dylan is a very sexy man who turns Sebastian.

Sebastian doesn't think himself able to have a right judgement on the man, cause his body is distracted by the other man's body, and so his mind is not called in for the decision. But still he has some proofs that Dylan could be a different man, not like his former lover, and someone to build something beautiful together.

All the story spans only few days in Sebastian and Dylan's life, but it's sweet and romantic, and also pretty sexy. In a so short period, truth be told, the two make more sex than chat, but still the story is more romantic than erotic. I like Dylan better than Sebastian, well I have always had a soft spot for bad guy, but really Dylan is not a bad boy: he has the looks, bike, boots and tattoo, but he is really a simple guy, with a comfortable house and a cat as roommate. All in all he has his life addressed to the right path, and he is ready to move on on a steady relationship to fulfill all the side of his life.

Sebastian instead has some issue to overcome; he regrets to be judge by his looks and not by his real be. He appears like a good guy, a geek, and maybe he is like that, but he was always drawn by the bad boy type, maybe cause deep inside him he desires to be like them. So for some twisting game, Dylan has the looks of a bad boy and instead is a steady guy, while Sebastian has the looks of the All American boy and instead he is still wandering to find his real being.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/UnderMySkin.html

Amazon Kindle: Under My Skin
Publisher: Amber Quill Press, LLC (November 28, 2008)

Under My Skin 2 by M.L. Rhodes

Sebastian and Dylan are lovers since two months, but Sebastian is still unsure. He is not over his past bad experience, who left him with the idea that he is not enough for his man. Dylan is so perfect, handsome and gentle, and Sebastian can't possible imagine why he is so taken by him.

And now Dylan has to go visit his mother and he will be away for ten long days. During this period Sebastian has the time to understand that by now he is in love with Dylan, even if he didn't want to fall in love. But even if Dylan is always tender and caring with him, he never once said he loved him. And then he is still suffering for his former boyfriend's betrayal, and maybe he needs to learn to live alone again before deciding to share his life with another man.

Even if this one is longer than the previous book, the story is more centered on the feelings between Sebastian and Dylan than on the setting. Actually, the social distance between the two, so clear in the previous book since Dylan is the owner of a tattoo shop and Sebastian a bookseller, here is almost non existent, since Dylan's work make no appearance here.

The story is not very long, less than 100 pages but it's good. I like both Sebastian than Dylan's characters. They are quite "normal" guy, with a good thing between them, but with the normal fears of a new couple that it's not just full conscious of its strenght.

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/UnderMySkin2.html

Amazon Kindle: Under My Skin II
Publisher: Amber Quill Press, LLC (December 30, 2008)