Laura Kaye

Two damaged men. One dangerous mission. One healing love. These are the men of Hard Ink. Hard Ink Tattoo owner Jeremy Rixey has taken on his brother's stateside fight against the enemies that nearly killed Nick and his Special Forces team a year ago. Now Jeremy's whole world has been turned upside down by the chaos—and by a brilliant, quiet blond man who tempts him to settle down for the first time ever. Recent kidnapping victim Charlie Merritt has always been better with computers than with people, so when he's drawn into the SF team's investigation of his army colonel father's corruption, he's surprised to find acceptance and friendship—especially since his father never accepted who he was. Even more surprising is the heated tension he feels with sexy, tattooed Jeremy, Charlie's opposite in almost every way. With tragedy and chaos all around them, temptation flashes hot, and Jeremy and Charlie can't help but wonder why they're trying so hard to be good …

A Hard Ink Novella

Hard to Be Good

Lynn Braden

Hard to Be Good brought together two characters from the Hard Ink series that had been circling each other for several books. Charlie and Jeremy finally get their story. Most of their story had already been played out in other books, but this one focused almost solely on the physical aspects of their relationship. It was smart to put those aspects into a separate book so those who are uncomfortable with nontraditional relationships wouldn't be put off. The story was actually very sweet and showed the personalities of each character as they had been portrayed throughout the series. However, this book actually showed how the two characters finally came together. I enjoyed their story as part of the entire series.

Laura Kaye is an author whose work I discovered I loved fairly recently. I’ve read all her Brazen books, but I hadn’t yet started the Hard Ink series when the opportunity for this tour presented itself. I hoped I would be able to fit in the other books before reading this one, but time got away from me and that didn’t happen. So, I did go into Hard to Be Good a bit blind to the overall story in the series. I was still able to thoroughly enjoy Jeremy and Charlie’s story. Some of the finer points of the series were a bit lost, but the love story between these two men still shined.

I’ve only read a handful of M/M books so far, but I admire any author who’s willing to go there. Laura did a great job bringing these guys to life. Without knowing the entire backstory, I was still able to easily connect with them and could see just how much chemistry they had. It leapt from the pages. Even knowing nothing about them previously, I was rooting for them to say to hell with everything else and give into their feelings. Things between them were definitely explosive and it came through in every interaction they had. Oh, and if you’re looking for HOT sexy times, you’ll find that too.

I really enjoyed this novella. I found myself wishing it was longer because I liked these characters so much. I also found myself wishing I’d read the other books in the series first so I would’ve experienced the build-up between these characters that those who had been with the series from the start did. The good news is I have the other books. I just need to make time to devour them, because I’m definitely hooked on these men and this world. Plus I have some time before the next book is released, so I sense a binge-read coming on…

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

Hard to Be Good A Hard Ink Novella

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