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15th out of 581 books
—
1,203 voters
Dex in Blue (Johnnies #2)
by
Amy Lane (Goodreads Author)
Ten years ago David Worral had plans to go to college and the potential for a beautiful future in front of him. One tragic accident later, he fled to California and reinvented himself as Dex, top porn model of Johnnies.
Dex’s life is a tangled mess now, but the guys he works with only see the man who makes them believe even porn stars can lead normal lives. When Kane, one o...more
Dex’s life is a tangled mess now, but the guys he works with only see the man who makes them believe even porn stars can lead normal lives. When Kane, one o...more
ebook, 350 pages
Published
October 1st 2012
by Dreamspinner Press
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And we went back to Johnnie's and it was good. I feel my praise of Amy Lane is probably ad nauseum but I feel she so greatly deserves all the praise I and others shower her with...and this story is further proof of that. I've NEVER been disappointed by one of her books. This one is one that I feel is going to stick with me. The original Dex is only in the first few pages of the book but damn if I didn't cry for him (really Amy? Making me cry before the close of the first chapter?! My poor heart)...more
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Opening Line: “It was okay right?”
I absolutely adored Chase in Shadow, so how happy was I that Amy Lanes latest book brought us back into that same world. Yup, we re-enter “Johnnies” gay-for-pay porn with David ”Dex” Worral, who makes this book a true companion piece by going through parts of Chase’s heartbreaking story all over again from his own POV. Thankfully Dex’s story isn’t as emotionally exhausting or angst filled as Chase’s, I mean it has its moments (this is Amy Lane after all) but I d...more
I absolutely adored Chase in Shadow, so how happy was I that Amy Lanes latest book brought us back into that same world. Yup, we re-enter “Johnnies” gay-for-pay porn with David ”Dex” Worral, who makes this book a true companion piece by going through parts of Chase’s heartbreaking story all over again from his own POV. Thankfully Dex’s story isn’t as emotionally exhausting or angst filled as Chase’s, I mean it has its moments (this is Amy Lane after all) but I d...more
6 likes · like · see review
Another excellent addition to this series. I am glad that this one didn't have AS much angst going on, but there was still a ton of emotions going around. Dex and Kane fit very well together and I love how well they complimented each other (altering who was the rock in the relationship when need be). We got to see some of the other Johnnies characters (Chase and Tommy included) and I can't wait for Ethan to get his book!
I thought everything went well with Kane's sister and niece. I wish we had...more
I thought everything went well with Kane's sister and niece. I wish we had...more
5 likes · like · see review
In a lot of ways, I liked this one more than Chase in Shadow. It has way less angst and is more of a "traditional" romance. (As traditional as two porn stars falling in love can be anyway.) As the MCs already know each other and have had sex, the story became more about the emotional connection between the two of them than physical attraction or lust. As someone who likes to read about the process of two people falling in love, I loved seeing them go from friends-with-benefits to something deepe...more
3 likes · like · see review
3.5 Stars
Loved the first half, getting to know Dex and Kane: their pasts, the problems in their current lives, but mostly just how they came together and how their lives blended together so seamlessly. Then midway through the book there appeared to be a realisation that there wasn't the usual amount of drama and we ended up with unending accumulation of it (view spoiler)...more
Loved the first half, getting to know Dex and Kane: their pasts, the problems in their current lives, but mostly just how they came together and how their lives blended together so seamlessly. Then midway through the book there appeared to be a realisation that there wasn't the usual amount of drama and we ended up with unending accumulation of it (view spoiler)...more
Bought it at 1pm and parked up at daughter's school at 2pm. She got into the car at 3.10 to find me in floods of tears and unwilling to put down my iPad to drive to pick up daughter no.2. I reluctantly put the book down and finished school run then right back to it. I even absentmindedly gave up dinner so I could keep reading. Finished it at 5 and instantly wanted to read it again. Kane is my absolute fav. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Chase and Tommy, but Kane and Dex were just - I can't...more
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I wanted to like it. I really did.
The interesting - and weird - thing about this book is that it's a true companion piece. However, since the first book was so amazingly detailed and complete in itself, I think it actually works.
There were many parts, though, that seemed like weird parallels of the first one, like the author didn't quite know how to develop Kane/Dex's relationship within its own right.
I get that it's possible for these people to have a lot of the similar feelings, but sometimes...more
The interesting - and weird - thing about this book is that it's a true companion piece. However, since the first book was so amazingly detailed and complete in itself, I think it actually works.
There were many parts, though, that seemed like weird parallels of the first one, like the author didn't quite know how to develop Kane/Dex's relationship within its own right.
I get that it's possible for these people to have a lot of the similar feelings, but sometimes...more
2 likes · like · see review
Dex and Kane are both absolute sweethearts. The story is about the things which happen to them. I'm so thankful that it wasn't Idiot A misunderstands what Idiot B says/means/intends and it takes forever for them to work their differences out. In this one, they actually understand each other really well and any miscommunication that happens is very short-lived. It's about them relying on each other to get them through some painful moments, not the least of which are the events from Chase in Shado...more
Review Summary: This would have been one of my favorite Amy Lane stories if I hadn't felt emotionally manipulated at the beginning and end.
Review: Not only did I love Dex in Blue for itself, but it retroactively made me like Chase in Shadow more. That was one of my least favorite Amy Lane books, as I had real difficulty with Chase cheating on a wonderful woman like Mercy. Dex in Blue also had guys who cheated on their girlfriends with other guys, but here it disturbed me less, and the different...more
Review: Not only did I love Dex in Blue for itself, but it retroactively made me like Chase in Shadow more. That was one of my least favorite Amy Lane books, as I had real difficulty with Chase cheating on a wonderful woman like Mercy. Dex in Blue also had guys who cheated on their girlfriends with other guys, but here it disturbed me less, and the different...more
1 like · like · see review
Must-read, if ever anything was.
I loved Chase in Shadow... *happy grin*
edit:
Oh, Amy, amy, Amy... pleasepleaseplease write more from Johnnies, because I really need more of this series. Perhaps write the story of Johnny himself, hmm?
While I didn't think this quite as perfect as Chase in Shadow, it was a damned good try. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 this time.
As in so many Amy Lane books, I loved the depth of characterisation here. Amy manages not only to get me interested in the lives of the young p...more
I loved Chase in Shadow... *happy grin*
edit:
Oh, Amy, amy, Amy... pleasepleaseplease write more from Johnnies, because I really need more of this series. Perhaps write the story of Johnny himself, hmm?
While I didn't think this quite as perfect as Chase in Shadow, it was a damned good try. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 this time.
As in so many Amy Lane books, I loved the depth of characterisation here. Amy manages not only to get me interested in the lives of the young p...more
If Chase in Shadow is an all out, rip your heart out and stitch it back in with fishing line and a darning needle in the kitchen type of story...this is more subtle. It's a razor of pain sliding under your skin and peeling it off layer by layer until just that one last sensitive layer protects your raw nerve endings from the world at large.
Then, Amy Lane cleans your wounds with alcohol, sprays on neosporin and slaps a HEA band aid on it. Like you fell and skinned your knee or something instead...more
Then, Amy Lane cleans your wounds with alcohol, sprays on neosporin and slaps a HEA band aid on it. Like you fell and skinned your knee or something instead...more
6 likes · like · see review
I read Dex in Blue just after I finished Chase in Shadow, and I must say I liked this one just as much as I did the first one.
In Dex in Blue we have two third person POV:s - Dex and Kanes, and the story is told in past tense - my preferred POV and tense all in one. The two changing POV:s give a little more room to understand what is going on than Chase one and only POV did in his book (although the singel POV there has it's very legitimate reasons).
I love the angst, although it's not as heavy a...more
In Dex in Blue we have two third person POV:s - Dex and Kanes, and the story is told in past tense - my preferred POV and tense all in one. The two changing POV:s give a little more room to understand what is going on than Chase one and only POV did in his book (although the singel POV there has it's very legitimate reasons).
I love the angst, although it's not as heavy a...more
All right, I'm sure you all know the synopsis by now so I'll spare you.
I had a hard time rating this book a three. There are moments of brilliance, and I think Ms Lane has such a talent with developing a character arc and giving us a great story. But this just meanders all over the place. There's so much that needed to be tightened up and just cut. Also, the real/porn names got a little confusing, I read and re-read, trying to figure out who was who. It could also have used better proofing, the...more
I had a hard time rating this book a three. There are moments of brilliance, and I think Ms Lane has such a talent with developing a character arc and giving us a great story. But this just meanders all over the place. There's so much that needed to be tightened up and just cut. Also, the real/porn names got a little confusing, I read and re-read, trying to figure out who was who. It could also have used better proofing, the...more
Contemporary M/M romance with a gay porno theme with lots of crazy domestic violence and dysfunctional family relationships. Dex's story is in two different lifetimes, the first is his childhood in Montana with a religiously conservative family and neighborhood best friend, Dex Williams who ends that lifetime with a violently sudden car accident where Dex dies after becoming lovers with David. So David Calvin Worral runs away to Sacramento to go to college and start a new life far away from all...more
Whatever story is going on in the background, the heart and soul of this lovely book will always be Dex and Kane. When they are together its magic and emotive and pure. If two people were meant to be together it's these two beautiful men - and I don't just mean beautiful in looks! The whole story is pitched just right, enough conflict to satisfy the 'angst' lovers amongst us, gentle snark and humour ( Kane's naivety and Dexs' on going relationship with Tomas the snake, make for some funny moment...more
I loved this so much more then Chase In Shadow. Chases' story was told from only his perspective and the story was sorta confusing with its jumping (no matter how briefly) to the future or past. I loved Tommy and Chase, but wasn't a huge fan of the way the story was told.
Dex (David) and Kane (Carlos) have a different story, it isn't total angst. Most of it is the same timeline as Chase in Shadow. We get to see an outside perspective to that love story which is interesting.
Dex and Kane each hav...more
Let me tell you what I liked in this book:
You know how in every book that has any sort of relationship (especially a book based on a romance, which this book really only partial), you get about 75% (sorry, thinking in Kindle here) in and you have the really screwed up BIG MISUNDERSTANDING and then you go another 10% and one of the MCs makes the STUPID MISTAKE (in M/F books, for some reason it’s almost always the heroine), and a few pages comes the inevitable BIG BREAKUP and then you spend the ne...more
You know how in every book that has any sort of relationship (especially a book based on a romance, which this book really only partial), you get about 75% (sorry, thinking in Kindle here) in and you have the really screwed up BIG MISUNDERSTANDING and then you go another 10% and one of the MCs makes the STUPID MISTAKE (in M/F books, for some reason it’s almost always the heroine), and a few pages comes the inevitable BIG BREAKUP and then you spend the ne...more
This book told an interesting story that delved into how two guys, Dex and Kane, learned to cope with what their lives have thrown at them. I enjoyed reading of their long round about paths to happiness.
Dex's solution was unique and led to an interesting twist for many years in his life. It is the story of a guy headed along the road to a business degree after the death of his best friend who is sidetracked into a life as a porn star. Events transpire to make him take stock of things and finally...more
Dex's solution was unique and led to an interesting twist for many years in his life. It is the story of a guy headed along the road to a business degree after the death of his best friend who is sidetracked into a life as a porn star. Events transpire to make him take stock of things and finally...more
Ms. Lane is a lovely writer, and this is another excellent addition to her impressive backlist. You can't go wrong reading anything she's written. (spoilers ahead)
Personally, I love the knitting series. The realistic situations and MC are stronger for me. In this series, writing porn stars against the backdrop of their work lives--it's so far removed from my everyday life, it's difficult not to read it with a grain of salt. You could say, even porn stars have a life, and this is what it looks li...more
Personally, I love the knitting series. The realistic situations and MC are stronger for me. In this series, writing porn stars against the backdrop of their work lives--it's so far removed from my everyday life, it's difficult not to read it with a grain of salt. You could say, even porn stars have a life, and this is what it looks li...more
I like Amy Lane’s work and Dex in Blue is very much more of the same. I think it’s slightly too similar to previous books though and so I had trouble connecting to the characters. Dex in Blue is a companion piece to Chase in Shadows and the same events happen in both books, although from different perspectives. I think it’s almost better not reading CiS first because the repetitive events and changing characters. However that said, DiB has the same feel but is definitely lighter. There is not th...more
1 like · like · see review
Nov 27, 2012
SueM
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
m-f,
sex-industry,
series,
disowned-by-family,
age-difference,
bingo-challenge,
ipad-stanza
(4.5 stars)
This novel is the second in the Johnnies series, and overlaps some of the events that took place in the first novel Chase in Shadow.
Both men in this novel, Dex/David and Kane/Carlos, have major problems with their families; Dex survives his by keeping distant, both in time and geographically, while Kane turns to Dex for place to crash when his sister kicks him out (the twist on this is very sad). It is when Kane crashes for the second time at Dex's house, that things start to develo...more
This novel is the second in the Johnnies series, and overlaps some of the events that took place in the first novel Chase in Shadow.
Both men in this novel, Dex/David and Kane/Carlos, have major problems with their families; Dex survives his by keeping distant, both in time and geographically, while Kane turns to Dex for place to crash when his sister kicks him out (the twist on this is very sad). It is when Kane crashes for the second time at Dex's house, that things start to develo...more
4.5 stars
Chase in Shadow introduced us to the employees who worked at Johnnies, a successful “gay for pay” video company where the models each had a story and a name that the public isn’t privy to. Chance and Tango (stage names for Chase and Tommy) were the key players in that haunting and painful glimpse of the world behind the curtain revealed to us by master story teller Amy Lane. Dex in Blue pulls aside the curtain a bit more to reveal the lives of Dex and Kane (David and Carlos), two very d...more
Chase in Shadow introduced us to the employees who worked at Johnnies, a successful “gay for pay” video company where the models each had a story and a name that the public isn’t privy to. Chance and Tango (stage names for Chase and Tommy) were the key players in that haunting and painful glimpse of the world behind the curtain revealed to us by master story teller Amy Lane. Dex in Blue pulls aside the curtain a bit more to reveal the lives of Dex and Kane (David and Carlos), two very d...more
Nov 14, 2012
Elisa Ramblings
added it
In the same series of Chase in Shadown, Dex in Blue follows the life of two other Johnnies (a gay-for-pay porn movie company), factotum Dex (and I mean “totum”, in front and behind the camera) and stud Kane. As many of the other Johnnies, both Dex and Kane arrived to the company posing/believing as straight men who needed easy money; the only difference with many other porn company, is that Johnnies accept candidates only if they are comfortable with being gay-for-pay, i.e. they have to be very...more
I liked Kane and Dex, but Tommy and Chase are still my faves. This one just didn't have the OMG moment that I loved in Chase in Shadow. I guess I have to admit that I love the drama in my books because Kane and Dex just didn't have the same drama... I don't know how to explain it because I get that they love each other, but it's like a completely different kind of love than Tommy and Chase's. One of the characters in Marie Sexton's Coda books talks about the different kinds of love that he sees...more
3 likes · like · see review
I'm not sure which of these books I preferred. Reading 'Chase in Shadow' was like being put through an emotional wringer (as my review says), and at times, a little overpowering. This book, on the other hand, sometimes seemed to go to sleep in the middle, and I was afraid that I wasn't going to finish it. However, once the trip to Montana started, I knew that I'd finish the book, wishing I could slap David's fathers face (and a few other things!) for him, and give Travis a big hug!
All the guys m...more
All the guys m...more
Dec 22, 2012
Heather K (dentist in my spare time)
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
free,
great-chemistry,
loved-it,
m-m,
romance,
sex-sex-and-more-sex,
hot-hot-hot,
favorites-2012,
auto-buy-authors
**4.5 stars**
"Dex in Blue" was an awesome and totally engrossing read. When I began the book I actually wasn't sure I was going to like it. I wasn't too keen on the idea of two jaded porn actors getting together. It seemed... not very romantic. However, as the story progressed, I completely changed my tune.
I'm not sure when I began to love the book but at some point I became enamored with the characters. I think the emotional content really tipped it over the edge for me. Sure the book was a v...more
"Dex in Blue" was an awesome and totally engrossing read. When I began the book I actually wasn't sure I was going to like it. I wasn't too keen on the idea of two jaded porn actors getting together. It seemed... not very romantic. However, as the story progressed, I completely changed my tune.
I'm not sure when I began to love the book but at some point I became enamored with the characters. I think the emotional content really tipped it over the edge for me. Sure the book was a v...more
I didn't think I would find another book that I loved as much as Special Delivery but I found it here in Dex in Blue. Chase in Shadows was good, but this was fantastic. Not as much emotional angst and turmoil as found in Chase in Shadows but still plenty of realistic concerns and drama. I adore Dex and Kane. I was laughing, crying and anxiously hoping it would never end the whole time I was reading it. There were several moments in the book where it reached a climactic point and you sort of tho...more
4 likes · like · see review
I started reading "Dex in Blue" sometime in January, and didn't get past the first three pages. Luckily, I had nothing to read this week and decided to give the book a second chance. I've swept through it in two days. The novel is sweet and hot at the same time. It made me laugh, it made me get teary eyed, it made me chew on my lip with worry and it's left that feeling of emptiness in my chest I only get when I read a really good book.
I'm not even sure how to explain, but Dex and Kane just hook...more
I'm not even sure how to explain, but Dex and Kane just hook...more
Most of this book I enjoyed.
The porn industry is idealised into a big caring family. Although I do wonder at how a ‘gay-for-pay’ business can be so non-exploitive, because to me that concept is questionable even before you look at the characters.
The main characters are cute, I love them getting to know each other and all the pets. Kane is a simplistic naïve character and Dex protective, though I did feel Dex lost this, as the book progresses he seems less capable and more reliant on Kane. (view...more
The porn industry is idealised into a big caring family. Although I do wonder at how a ‘gay-for-pay’ business can be so non-exploitive, because to me that concept is questionable even before you look at the characters.
The main characters are cute, I love them getting to know each other and all the pets. Kane is a simplistic naïve character and Dex protective, though I did feel Dex lost this, as the book progresses he seems less capable and more reliant on Kane. (view...more
4.5 stars rounded up
Simply put, you can not go wrong with Amy Lane. She'll have you chained to the book, compulsively reading to find out what happens next until the end. She'll have you laughing out loud in one moment and crying the next. No one does angst like her, and her characters are the best of the best. Several reviews outline the plot well enough, so I will leave a few simple thoughts.
Dex is one of my favorite characters in this series (Johnnies) and his back story did not disappoint. I...more
Simply put, you can not go wrong with Amy Lane. She'll have you chained to the book, compulsively reading to find out what happens next until the end. She'll have you laughing out loud in one moment and crying the next. No one does angst like her, and her characters are the best of the best. Several reviews outline the plot well enough, so I will leave a few simple thoughts.
Dex is one of my favorite characters in this series (Johnnies) and his back story did not disappoint. I...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Dreamspinner Press: Dex in Blue by Amy Lane | 23 | 53 | Oct 04, 2012 02:31pm |
Amy Lane dodges an EDJ, mothers four children, and writes the occasional book. She, her brood, and her beloved mate, Mack, live in a crumbling mortgage in Citrus Heights, California, which is riddled with spiders, cats, and more than its share of fancy and weirdness. Feel free to visit her at www.greenshill.com orwww.writerslane.blogspot.com, where she will ride the buzz of receiving your e-mail u...more
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“That smile, right there?”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve known you my entire life. You only smile like that for me.”
—
6 people liked it
“Yeah?”
“I’ve known you my entire life. You only smile like that for me.”
“I know. But maybe that’s what growing up gets you. You get better. You stop waiting for the bad stuff to happen and maybe enjoy the good, you know?”
—
4 people liked it
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