Review - Stripped Bare by Susan Mac Nicol

My Review

My rating = An absolutely wonderful five stars!

The Blurb

Though two years past, Matthew Langer is still getting over the death of a loved one. He's steered clear of serious relationships, but when he meets the irascible, dirty mouthed and tempestuous Shane Templar that decision has never been harder. Shane is sexy, warm and funny, and Matthew finds himself trying like hell not to care about him. Especially when Shane, with his quick wit and hacking skills, is quick to stand up for justice and avenge wrongs. Then Shane strikes at the wrong target, and Matthew realises just how far gone he already is. At the threat of losing for good yet another man who’s broken through his armour, Matthew finds his heart stripped bare. He must face the demons of his soul or a future without love.

Shane continued whispering. “I would love to break that control. See you beg, hear you say my name as you beg me to fuck you. Watch you let loose and just be yourself. Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to swear. You can cane me later.”

“You are my lover, Shane,” he whispered, feeling a sense of release as he said the words. “My sexy, annoying, amazing man.” He kissed Shane passionately. “Mein Liebhaber,” he whispered.

“I’m here and I'm not going anywhere. I'm so sorry I wasn't there with you. I should

have been. I don't care what happened in the past. We were meant to be together, I know that. I'm just sorry it took something like this for me to be able to tell you that.”

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* ARC provided by the author in return for my honest review which is below

This was a beautiful and amazing read that had me spellbound from the first page. The characters were so well developed I was enraptured with their lives as if I was part of their story. The two MCs, Shane and Matthew, at first appeared to be total opposites but as their story unfolds it becomes clear they are two utterly gorgeous halves that are destined to be together as one. 

Matthew is a dutiful lawyer working for a man who he has no respect for whilst also coming out of a deep and dark period of his life after the devastating death of his husband, Sam. It is through another near tragedy after their friend David is beaten up, that he first meets Shane. To say it was an explosive meeting would be an understatement, both getting the wrong impression of who each other were and what they stood for but neither able to ignore the instant attraction. 

Shane is a man who has his own past demons that he won't allow to take precedence in his current life. He works as a legitimate hacker but also works as an escort for the high class agency where he has regular innocent ‘hook ups’ with David.

It was after an evening of one of these ‘hook ups’ that David went home and was beaten up by Ray who is the right hand man (read thug) of his father, Walter. Both men are total homophobes and Walter cannot come to terms that his son is gay, as is his employee Matthew. After Walter demands Matthew covers up the situation with David, Matthew resigns and Shane then sees him in a new light.  A sexy one at that!

I just loved Shane and Matthew (forever to be Shay and Matty to me) – with Matthew and his control issues and Shane with his potty mouth, they had the whole ‘opposites attract’ thing going on. Shay was just so darn lovable even with his impatience to know everything and Matty with his standoffishness and unwilling to let go with his feelings again. Both men were absolutely hot and the scenes between them kept the pages turning and sizzling with the passion!

The back story and how this intermingled with the current plotline was wonderfully pulled together. The secondary characters were extremely well executed and gave strength to the story – especially Timmy. Everyone needs a big Timmy to sit on them homophobes! 

I loved that Matty was German and how Shay thought the German spoken word was a turn on. I so wish I could be with them on that trip to Dresden – I can just imagine Shay melting when being spoken to by the locals!

On that note Ich verehrte dieses buch! (I hope that translates to I loved this book!) I certainly did. I was so surprised to find out this was Susan Mac Nicol’s first book in the m/m genre. It was so well researched and written. This was an absolute gem of a read and one of my new favourites this year if not ever. Brilliant!

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