You never forget your first love. No matter how hard you try.After getting caught making out with a boy in his parent’s kitchen the day of his high school graduation, Benito Quintana left his best friend (and unrequited crush) Mikey behind when he stormed off in a righteous teenage rage and joined the Marines.
The whole Marines thing didn’t work out so well, but one dishonorable discharge and a few alcohol-soaked years later, things are looking up. He’s almost a year sober. He has a new job, in a new town where no one knows his history of failure, so he can start fresh. He’s totally got this.
Michael Washington had his life all planned out. But seeing Benny with his tongue down some guy’s throat short-circuited his brain, and everything he thought he knew about himself went right out the window. Benny left before Mikey could get his head straightened out, and Mikey never did get the chance to explain.
Mikey’s world crumbled again when the death of his wife forced him to drop out of law school to raise his infant daughter. Four years later and he’s just getting his feet under him. Mikey is ready to give in to his long-suppressed desires. What better place than the Pride Masquerade Party for an anonymous hookup?
It isn’t until the masks come off that Mikey realizes he’s screwed in more ways than one.
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Tams gives this one 4 Stars...
| You never forget your first love. No matter how hard you try. Benny and Mikey were best friends as teenagers, both uncertain of their sexuality, both believing the other straight and not interested. Boy were they wrong. When Mikey walks in on Benny kissing another guy, Benny flees, joins the Marines and effectively, cuts off all contact with his best friend. Over the years they are apart they each experience some of the worst life has to offer. Benny is discharged from the Marines, has PTSD which he's treated, until recently, with alcoholism. Mikey got married and became a father, then a widower. You have to love fate though, when two people are meant to be together, she always gets her way. I absolutely loved this story. The Authors attention to even the most finite details was amazing. Little things normally glossed over or described briefly with one or two sentences were fully explored. The struggles these two men go through are very realistic and believable... being in an interracial relationship, being two men in that relationship, Benny becoming a step father to Mikey's little girl. And let me tell you, this young lady nearly stole the show, so cute! I can see some readers feeling like this is somewhat of an insta-love story, but my thought is that it's far from that. You have to realize that these two men have known and loved each other since they were children. The time they spent apart may have been hell, but it also made them the men they are in the present within the story. Their younger selves probably weren't ready, they needed to live, to make mistakes and learn from them, to grow. So the passion and trust is there pretty much from the first day the walk back into each others lives. Just a couple things bothered me. I thought that Michael should have either been called Michael or Mike. Mikey is a childhood name and I just feel that a grown man and a father wanting to be an attorney should not be constantly called Mikey. There were a few typos and either miss-placed or miss-used words here and there. Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I didn't realize when I got it that it's book 4 in the series, but I didn't feel like I missed any part of the story. I plan on going back and starting at the beginning, I love Wasp's writing style and I LOVE these two men. I have to see where it all started. Definitely a must read in my opinion. 
After time spent raising children, earning several college degrees, focusing on professional and academic writing, and traveling the world with the U.S. State Department, she is returning to her first love writing.
She writes romance because it is the people we love and who love us that give our lives meaning. She writes erotica because sex is one of the many ways we as humans connect to each other. She writes fantasy and paranormal fiction because inviting myth and fantasy into our worlds allows us to experience life more fully.
She invites readers into her characters’ lives at a time when they are their most vulnerable, their most human. We connect with these characters and share their hopes and fears because they are ours, too.
Born on Long Island, NY, Amy has lived in Los Angeles, London, Bangkok, and currently in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she hopes to stay.
Website:
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http://aewasp.com
Twitter: @AmyWasp
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Your first love is always in your mind.
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