Marie Sexton

One Man's Trash - Marie Sexton - (Colorado)
The Heretic Doms Club Series - Book #1
Genera: M/M Romance/Heavy BDSM/Age Gap Romance
4.5★
Possible Triggers: A great deal of pain both physical, and especially mental; Drug addiction and the death of a friend.
A raw story, with characters that are broken and pained, but together they find the way to feel and be alive like never before.
I almost couldn't finish this after the first three or four chapters... but also found that it was impossible to show more stop reading. The story is very dark. If you are a fan of dark erotica...rejoice! Marie Sexton has completely outdone herself with this one, the first of four books in "The Heretic Doms Club" series. It contains a lot of angst, which I am NOT A FAN OF. Believe me when I say there is just about every trigger warning you can think of. It's powerful as well as heart-rendering. Maybe the most that I have ever read. But what an experience watching the drama unfold.

Marie Sexton filled the story with a plethora of taboo subjects. I don't know if she has any left for the other three books...but I am looking forward to finding out. These characters are all complex and interesting. Some you will cheer for, but a couple you just want to slap up beside the head, but they probably would enjoy that too much:) Most of them grow and change together throughout the story in incredibly moving ways. As the tension builds, the author does what she is so good at... continuing to build on the drama. It's dark; its erotic; and it's absolute perfection.

I have had no experience, and I hope no other reader has either, to understand the depths of Taylor’s anguish when he breaks down.... which is often. Warren, the Afghanistan war-veteran and Taylor's salvation, does so much throughout the story to not only help and stand by Taylor but a host of others...those of "societies throw-away peoples", also. As the story goes along, as Taylor loses his bitterness, hurt, and anger and opens his heart, we start to see light at the end of his tunnel. Helping Taylor and his "too damaged", friend Riley...Warren becomes so much more than "just a war hero".... he becomes Taylor's everything.

While the details of Taylor and Warren’s pasts are horrible to learn about and one of the reasons that I’m trying not to give away too much about the storyline, there are some intensely beautiful moments in this story. You'll learn about the analogy of Warren's mended vase. Warren’s friend Charlie tells Taylor, "It’s a Japanese thing. They think when an item’s broken, it doesn’t make it useless. It just adds interest. Becomes part of the item’s history. And the history is what makes it beautiful. Though it is broken it still has value" That vase is something that Warren cherishes...and Taylor learns to do so also. "One man’s trash, is another man's treasure" is the on-going theme throughout the story no matter if it's people or things.

Three more books in this series, one for each of the three remaining members of "The Heretic Dom’s Club". I've started on the second one...so I'll be back soon. Please pay attention to the trigger warnings. Some will have very real problems with this story. show less

This was a tough one emotionally but I really enjoyed it. Both MCs had full journeys to go through. There is a lot of heartache and baggage involved for both. But, it’s also very realistic. The author even shows the other side or reasoning the “villains” might have for the way they do things. That’s important especially with stories like this one. It’s important to remember everyone is human. We all make mistakes especially as confused scared kids. It in no way justifies a show more person’s bad actions and the author doesn’t even attempt to suggest it does. But sometimes pain can be easier to walk through if you understand it’s not really about you. You might be the target but it isn’t your fault.

I also really enjoyed the throwback to a time before google and cell phones. At first I was thrown bc I didn’t realise the timing of the story (I didn’t read the full blurb stating 1986) but I caught on quickly. Ahh, the good old days when an encyclopaedia was our main source for research information. And oh my goodness, they use a map, an honest to gosh map! And PAYPHONES!! I mean like most places don’t even have pay-phones anymore. But that frustration of actually having to time calls to when people were home and so that the ring wouldn’t bother others. I loved it. I might have gotten a serious kick out of the “call anytime... as long as it’s before 10” part.


Lastly AIDS. I valued this part of the story. Nearly any book that has any sexual contact and involves the lgbt community has at least a passing mention of hiv/aids and safety. BECAUSE IT MATTERS! actually it annoys me that straight books usually seem to pretend stds don’t exist but that’s a different issue. Anyway. This story not only takes note of the need to be careful, but it glimpses how scary it was at that time when so little was known, the stigma was HUGE, and the fear suffocating. The subject was very very well handled and honestly represented.

Lastly, the parental responses. I liked how each parent reacted in their own way and in ways that were honest to their personalities. It was well executed.

... side note. I also appreciated how they handled the affects of grief too.

Like I said, I liked this one a lot. show less

The story focuses on two men learning how to love and compromise, and most of all, recognize their own fallibilities so they can heal and find their happy ending. Cole Fenton is a character that it's hard to relate to in any meaningful way. His lifestyle is one most of us would only dream about...but honestly would never want. He’s independently wealthy...doesn’t hold a job; owns homes in Paris, Hawaii, Vail, the Hamptons, and Phoenix; has lots of "friends with benefits" conveniently show more living in each location. Mostly his time is spent traveling the world for months at a time whenever he wants, while indulging in his various interests and hobbies. It may sound adventurous but actually it's a life of extreme loneliness. He has only a few really "meaningful" friendships, and his only relative is his mother to whom he’s been estranged from for years. The absence of loving relationships growing up has left him damaged and he has adopted this flamboyant, "devil may care" lifestyle as a defense mechanism. Cole doesn’t really know anything about what real love is. Keeping everyone at arm’s length, he's never had a committed relationship. He says he’s too restless to ever settle in one place for very long and he becomes resentful of anyone who expects that of him. Somehow his "brokenness" is what made me love him so much once I started to understand him. Then we have Jonathon (Jon), Kechter who actually was not a great catch either. Cole and Jon are set up by one of Cole’s friends, and their first date is beyond disastrous. It’s fascinating to see Cole transform from a man cocooned in self-preservation, not permitting anyone to see his pain, to a partner who eventually allows his walls to crumble and lets his vulnerability show. Jon’s lesson to learn is that instead of trying to change Cole, he needs to set aside his stubborn pride and make the change within himself, and to bring happiness to Cole while making their new and fragile relationship successful. Although theirs is an unusual relationship, they both do work hard for their happily ever after, and what a delightful ending it is. show less

"It was easy to believe that the house was haunted. After acting for most of his life, Jason Walker's first thought upon seeing the house he had purchased virtually sight unseen was that it would have been a perfect place to have filmed an Amityville remake."

After that opening, and the fact that I needed the book as a part of a challenge, Ghost...Haunted house...I was in. I didn't even mind that it at some point it began to slide off into the "not quite what I expected" realm. Jason. a show more former child star hasn’t had much success since becoming an adult, but that doesn’t stop the reporters from still chasing him. He needed a break from his crazy life...so he buys a house... sight unseen, and in the remotest of the remote part of northern Idaho. He’s also trying to put distance between himself and his very, very best friend, Dylan, with whom he is secretly so very much in love. They have a "friends-with-benefits" arrangement but that’s no longer nearly enough for Jason. Of course, we don't have long to wait before things start to happen. Jason sees what looks like the face of a young man in the window of the apartment above his garage. He’s paranoid about those dreaded reporters, so he calls the police. they come, but they can find nothing. Eventually he encounters the ghost face to face, and immediately questions his own sanity. He begins to research all the mental illnesses that he can think of or find on the internet including psychosis, hallucinations, and delusions. None of the symptoms fit, so he finally convinces himself that either he is completely nuts or Ben...the ghost, is as real as it gets. Ben and Jason struggle to communicate but finally find a way that Jason can actually hear Ben speak. Ben tells him a fantastical, unbelievable story about how he lives in a little house in a snow globe, thanks to his sister with magical powers that put him in there to keep from him from enlisting in the Civil War. At some point he can't find his sister...so he can’t get out. Jason is becoming attached to Ben and carries the snow globe from room to room as Ben can only remain in the room the globe is in. Ben is learning about life in the 20th century and...and he likes TV and has a fondness for cheesy TV shows like "All My Children" and "The Guiding Light" from the eighties. Even worse is that Jason and Ben are falling in love. What can go wrong, you may ask but the question should be, what can go right? Oh...it's not done yet. Additional conflicts and interferences arise in the form of Dylan and the local police who believe that Jason is experiencing a psychotic break. Jason has to put all his acting skills to work to convince them otherwise. Marie Sexton has managed to create palpable sadness at the sheer impossibility of this entire situation. I wanted so badly for these two lonely men to find happiness, somehow... but I could never have guessed how the story would end. How could they be together corporeally forever...how could there be a happy ending, right? Of course, in books anything is possible, and it was everything I could hope for. It seems some Christmas wishes do can and do come true. The story wasn't exactly what I was expecting but it was still enchanting. show less