Between Sinners and Saints

Over the last twelve months I got to know two guys online. One was abused as a young child and one has been scarred by his upbringing in the Mormon religion.

Marie has woven these two types of backgrounds skilfully together into a believable romance.

I just wish the men I met had a similar successful outcome. Unfortunately in both their cases, they're still having problems dealing with the aftermath decades later.

Marie particularly captured that feeling of shame, victims of sexual abuse have to live with. It's so unjustified but it happens. This paragraph sums it up beautifully:

Of course, wrapping his hand around Levi's hard cock made something in his mind revolt. The fear had already wormed its way through the pleasure, and now the shame

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surfaced as well. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to hear the grunts and feel the warm stickiness on his hand. And yet at the same time, he did. He wanted to give Levi pleasure. He liked the way Levi moaned as he stroked him. He liked the way he arched against him. He wanted to erase those times with his uncle from his mind. He wanted to drown out the voice in his head saying he shouldn't be holding Levi's cock, he shouldn't be stroking him, he shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't. But he wanted to. Or did he?

Tragically, cases like this are not uncommon for both males and females. The problem is that the perpetrators have no idea of the damage they are inflicting.

All kudos to Marie for tackling the difficult subjects and doing it so well.

My only niggle. Dolly went with them when they visited Levi's family, but we never "see" her there. show less

An interesting discourse on the conflict between doctrine and desire, and the true meaning of redemption. It is repeated a few times in the book that forgiveness is through works not grace, and both of the main characters struggle with the demands of forgiveness. Levi's struggle to find his own redemption through the salvation of another is deep and moving, and Jaime's inability to forgive his childhood abuser completely fails to be tied up with a trite little bow as it could have been. The family drama was particularly well done, as strong opinions in matters of faith and religion do not easily come to a clean resolution as they are so often portrayed in light fiction. The process of coming out and finding acceptance is a hard road show more that sometimes lasts a lifetime, and often never ends. Ms. Sexton did not fall into the trap of making this an easy or a simple process, on the part of either the main or secondary characters, for which I commend her. I also liked how the sensuality in the story was tied to different concepts and stages of the main characters' relationship rather than just to the reader's expectations and gratification. All in all, it was a surprisingly satisfying read for a Sunday afternoon, and I quite enjoyed it. Bravo.Respects,Arshad Ahsanuddin show less

3.5*

This was well-written, well-edited, with a very credible rendition of sexual abuse as a child for one of the MCs. I liked that there was no case of magically healing cock in this here.

However, this novel was a fair bit too Christian-inspirational for my taste. I can follow characters when they struggle with their religion, but I usually have a major problem when I get the feeling that a story begins to preach to me, the reader! And this one did at the end, with a 2 by 4 actually. I also felt the resolution and ending was way too pat.

It was a bit like 50% at 5* and 25% at 3* and 25% at 1*, which ends up at the 3.5* I mention above. Or in other words, I loved the first half, cringed my way through the next quarter and downright show more disliked the last quarter of it.

Still, a personal take and people more tolerant of religion may like it better. show less

Sometimes you read a book and think, 'this just couldn't have been better'. This is one of those books.

I loved every minute of my time spent with this book. I loved the change and acceptance that permeated every angle of the story. I loved the courage of the main characters in their overall search for improvement in their lives. I loved the growth that was shown not just by the MCs but also the minor characters. And I learnt things about the Mormon religion I would never have been exposed to otherwise. It was wickedly funny in parts, heart-wrenching in others...

For me, this book was a wonderful journey that resonated in multiple areas even though I have never been exposed to any of these situations.

Reread 2 April 2019
Just wonderful. I show more enjoyed this all over again. The religious aspect, whilst depicting an extremely devoted family that I have never experienced (nor can I really understand), was not as heavy as I remembered. Its a gentle and beautiful romance for two very deserving souls.

Narrated by John Solo - 5 stars. show less

Originally posted at Romance Around the Corner

Marie Sexton is one of my favorite writers. She was one of the first m/m authors I discovered and is a huge part of why I love the genre so much. Every time I talk about her I say this but I really think that if you are new to m/m you should start by reading her book Promises.

I admit that when I first heard about this book I was a bit skeptical because based on the cover and the blurb it seemed like it would be a bit of a drunken sex-fest on the beach. I mean, the book was about a bartender and a massage therapist living in Miami, so what was I supposed to think? Of course I was wrong and I should be ashamed because I have read all of her books and she doesn’t write anything superficial. show more Not only this book wasn’t superficial but I think it was one of the deepest and darkest books she has written. It deals with a lot of serious issues but in a way that leaves you feeling positive instead of depressed.


Our leading guys are Levi and Jaime. Levi is a wild boy; he works as a bartender in one of Miami’s hottest gay clubs and literally has sex with a different guy every night. He comes from a loving Mormon family that doesn’t accept his lifestyle and his homosexuality but loves him and cares deeply about him. Lately he has been suffering from back pains and his brother-in-law who happens to be a doctor tells him that he should see a massage therapist. The closest therapist he finds is Jaime. Levi feels an immediate attraction to him but when he tries to seduce him Jaime not only rejects him but seems really afraid of him. Jaime is a recluse, he lives afraid of the world and when you find the reason why your heart will break. Levi decides to become Jaime’s friend because he realizes that he likes him a lot, and I mean as a person, obviously there is a huge sexual attraction between the two, but at first is all about the friendship and the companionship. The whole book deals with the development of their relationship.

I think Jaime and Levi were two of the most likeable and lovable characters I have read in a while. They were as different from each other as day and night, but they were both endearing. Jaime was the most scarred of the two of them and the most vulnerable. I don’t normally like characters that are so full of incapacitating issues but in this case I was just desperately wanting for him to get his HEA. Levi, on the other hand, seemed quite shallow at first but he was the opposite. Throughout the book he experiences some ups and downs and it takes him some time to grow, but I think he was the perfect example of a character with a good heart that does the wrong things and is on a path to self-destruction. I think Levi and Jaime were perfect for each other and most important they deserved each other.

The romance aspect of the book is also a bit of a journey and this means that it doesn’t come early on the book, you have to wait and suffer first, and I say suffer because there is a lot of sexual tension which was driving me insane. I think that was the idea, to make the reader experience some of the frustration the characters were going through, but I think it was a little too much, at one point I was ready to yell at them to just do it already.

The secondary character of the book is Levi’s family. As I mentioned before they are Mormon. I really didn’t know anything about this religion except for all of the stereotypes. I think the way Marie portrays the religion was much more realistic and sincere, maybe this is because she has personal knowledge since part of her extended family is Mormon, but I really liked the way they were described. I think she made them justice but kept them real. They loved Levi but didn’t understand him. They were also worried about him not because he was gay but because he was living a dangerous life and I think any family would be worried about that regardless of their beliefs. The family also had a journey to make and I liked that by the end of the book they still were against homosexuality, they get to a sort of compromise with Levi, but they stayed true to their religion. I really liked that, because I hate stories were by the end everyone completely accepts and understand each other and they celebrate and it ends up looking like an United Nations love fest, life is not like that!. I think you can love and live with someone even if you don’t understand or accept some of the choices they make.

There is a lot of graphic sex in the book, it wasn’t anything over the top, this is not an erotic romance by any means -or at least it isn’t to me- but there are some descriptions of violence and abuse that not everyone will like. So be warned about it because as I said this book deals with a lot of serious issues and it isn’t a light read. It isn’t melodramatic but it has some parts that are very sad and I cried a lot while reading it.

The book wasn’t perfect but I loved it, it had a great combination of angst and lightness, I cried a lot but I also laughed, Jaime had a great sense of humor that balanced his not so light side. I’m giving this book a 5 because by the end of the book I was sad to be saying goodbye to these two incredible characters and to this amazing book. show less

I have to say this is one of the best and most complex books I've read in a while. The character development was amazing. The author handled the issues of religion and sexual abuse with perfect pitch. Both these men were broken, for very different reasons but when they found each other they began to heal. There were no quick fixes or easy solutions to the issues the men struggled with, and I would've been disappointed if everything was resolved easily. Despite dealing with some very emotionally damaged characters the author managed to keep the tone of the book up beat and hopeful. This couple is now one of my all time favorites because of the journey and growth they went through to build their happily ever after.

This was a re-read but first time listening to the narration - and Jon Solo did very good!
I loved going back to Levi and Jaime, but this time I was mostly in love with the way Levi's family showed such growth and love throughout the story.