Hamburger Mary’s, a chain of GLBTQ -friendly restaurants in the US, is the setting for ‘Mary’s Boys’ – a new series set in Denver that looks to be interesting, varied, and doesn’t shy away from some very difficult topics. Two dark-skinned characters are a rare sight in contemporary gay romance, as is a Muslim main character. Marlon is a gay black cop with a racist, homophobic partner, and Vahin is a Muslim-raised bartender of Indian descent (though he grew up in Connecticut). Both men have an intimate understanding of what it means to be "different", just based on the color of their skin, but still have some prejudice versus each other to deal with. It made the tension between them more realistic and interesting. I loved how they deal with their growing emotions and realizing that their frequent getting together goes way beyond the hookup they started with.

One of the central themes is the racial tension that cops face every day, as well as the issues between Marlon - who is black and gay, though not everyone knows that, and his work partner, Andrew - who is white, racist, and homophobic. Marlon has worked hard to get where he is, and Andrew is well-connected with a senator uncle and a cop grandfather. The tension between Marlon trying to keep the peace and stopping Andrew from being openly hateful on the job and Andrew wanting to bully every (to him) suspicious-looking dark-skinned person is one of the main threads throughout the story.

Marlon and Vahin hooking up and finding out there may be more between them than extremely hot sex is the second main part of the story. When Andrew figures out that Vahin is Marlon's boyfriend, he attempts to entrap him. The potential case against Vahin and Marlon's efforts to defuse it provide a lot of suspense. Then there is the change in behavior both men need to make, but the circumstances they find themselves in certainly don't make it easy. The humor around Marlon's handcuffs and Vahin "testing" him by exposing him to drag queens made parts of this romance a lot of fun to read.

Beyond these already pretty meaty topics, I was thrilled to see some of the characters from ‘Under a Sky of Ash’ again! ManDonna is in great shape and as fabulous as ever, and Zach is embracing his drag queen persona really well. The chief, Marlon's boss, is just the right mix of gruff and friendly. And though Andrew is perfectly evil and despicable it turns out that there are reasons for his behavior. Not that this redeems him, but it does make him more real.

If you like stories about difficult, topical issues like racial tension and religious-based prejudice, if you want to see two men go from unwilling to come out and commitment-phobic to being deeply in love, and if you’re looking for a novella that has enough depth for a novel, then you will probably like ‘Vodka and Handcuffs’ as much as I do. It is enthralling, I loved it from beginning to end, and I’m already curious what Brandon Witt will come up with in the next installment!


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )