From the Bookshelf of Q&A with Josh Lanyon…

Love Is a Stranger (More Heat Than the Sun #1)

John Wiltshire

Start date: August 1, 2021

Finish date: August 19, 2021

Discussion: Book of the Month Club

Why we're reading this: This will be our early August read!
[close] This will be our early August read!

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What Members Thought

Dec 23, 2014 Meep rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite, military, age-difference, promo-deals

Re-read, it's been awhile. The intensity is as I remember it. Nik we know is secretive and lies but Ben also makes for an unreliable narrator, capable of being coldly professional but not fully cognisant of his own emotions. Both men are damaged and seem to fit together. The book is in three parts and they work as separate if linked stories.
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Didn’t expect to like this as the blurb gave me doubts but it turned out to be the Christmas-Freebie that really grabbed me. Complicated, messed up char ...more

20 likes · Like · see review

Jul 26, 2014 Ije the Devourer of Books rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a great book and I really enjoyed it. It is a spook story about secret Govt operatives, men who operate in the shadows. But what happens when two of these shadowy men find love with each other?

The two men in this story become lovers but despite this intimacy they are still in many ways strangers to each other and as they work together and fall deeper and deeper in love the many shadowy layers begin to peel away and each of them finds that they have to know a new dimension both within the This is a great book and I really enjoyed it. It is a spook story about secret Govt operatives, men who operate in the shadows. But what happens when two of these shadowy men find love with each other?

The two men in this story become lovers but despite this intimacy they are still in many ways strangers to each other and as they work together and fall deeper and deeper in love the many shadowy layers begin to peel away and each of them finds that they have to know a new dimension both within themselves and of each other.

It was a fascinating story because apart from the two men with their many layered, secretive lies there is also the nature of their work and their clandestine activities and how they negotiate this. These men are ruthless and not afraid to kill or torture.

As the many layers of the men are revealed the ethical complexity and danger of their work is also revealed and the facades of their work and their lives evolve and change in the same way their personal life does.

I loved this story. I think fans of Marshall Thornton and Josh Lanyon will enjoy this. It has the same gritty, dusk feeling of men who operate at twilight and in the quiet hours before dawn. Men who exist on the edge. And that's the feel the story gives. It takes you to the edge with many twists and turns and pretty much holds you there until the end.

And it gave me a great satisfying and complete read which was thoroughly engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable.
The only thing I didn't like was the frequency of the sex scenes. I felt there were a few too many and towards the end of the story these dragged a bit for me and didn't add anything to the story, but they didn't detract from the story either.

As the story develops and the lives of the two men are revealed we are left wondering about their future. Will the men be able to make it together now they are beginning to realise the truths about themselves and about each other? Thankfully there is already a second book in the sequel and a third to come so this exciting and mysterious journey continues.

I hope Ben and Nikkolas will become permanent fixtures in my reading life and I welcome their edgy tales to my bookshelf.

Fab!
...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Dec 01, 2014 Lenore rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: m-m, rec-by-gr-friend, great-britain-my-love, buddy-read, blame-kate, money-matters, freebies, bdsm, military, mystery

2.5 stars rounded up.

5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2015 Deanna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, military, dark-violent-stark, mystery, steamy, want-more, m-m, series, graphic-sex-violence, assassins

Dark and complicated. Both good. Two men twisted by life but I love that about them. They are hot together, even if we do not know who or what they are.

Ben lost one lover to a fire and didn't know if another could even be called a lover. Maybe just a boss, not friend, with benefits.

Damn, but he wished he had a way to contact Nikolas outside his official department numbers. His phone buzzed. It was one a.m. He heaved it out of his pocket and saw a text had been received from an unrecognized num ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

May 10, 2016 Bellbomb Bellbomb rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: john-wiltshire

Discovering Nik and Ben's gorgeous yet maddening relationship through this book is a huge treat. A few pages in and I had to one-click the rest of the books in this series on Amazon. So many times I had to hold my breath while reading, went back to reread some of the passages, confirming that yes that was how I felt before moving on because this book is such a fast-paced emotional roller coaster full of twists and turns. John Wiltshire has a distinct style of writing that doesn't dwell much on t ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2015 Susana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 4.5 stars
Sir Nikolas Mikkelsen is Ben Rider’s extremely handsome, enigmatic boss in the branch of the secret service they are working for. He is also Ben’s occasional lover. Theirs is a relationship of stolen moments of angry and passionate sex. Ben is happy with the agreement, but he sometimes wishes he knew more about his secretive and distant lover… Soon he will realise you have to be very careful with what you wish for…
I’m reeling from the shock of this book; on trying to process my feelings ...more

1 like · Like · see review