Their worlds collided. Everything changed.
Cam and Jude had been college roommates for two years, fitting into each other's lives with ease.
That is, until Cam walked in on Jude getting off alone in their shared dorm bathroom.
Everything shifted between the two of them, awakening feelings Cam hadn't felt for anyone in a long time. Feelings Cam believed had shriveled up after surviving a near fatal car accident to then suffer a disastrous breakup with his first love.
Since then, Cam kept his heart sealed tight in a fortress, keeping himself busy with a lot of mindless hookups and a steadfast refusal to ever commit.
Cam's life had been predictable. He knew what he wanted.
Until that impromptu mutual orgasm with Jude.
Cam didn't want a boyfriend, and he certainly didn't need a relationship.
But he knew one thing he did crave and that was more of Jude Ellison.
Will Cam be able to work through his painful past if Jude offered him a chance at more?
***Give Me a Hand is the first book in the Beyond Desire series, but is a standalone novel. Each book in the series will feature a different couple, but the couples will show up throughout the series. It is approximately 55,000 words and a New Adult Friends-to-Lovers romance between two men with explicit language and graphic sex intended for Adults Only.***
Book 1
Buy Links
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Au ~ Amazon Ca
~ Also Available with KindleUnlimited ~
Cam and Jude had been college roommates for two years, fitting into each other's lives with ease.
That is, until Cam walked in on Jude getting off alone in their shared dorm bathroom.
Everything shifted between the two of them, awakening feelings Cam hadn't felt for anyone in a long time. Feelings Cam believed had shriveled up after surviving a near fatal car accident to then suffer a disastrous breakup with his first love.
Since then, Cam kept his heart sealed tight in a fortress, keeping himself busy with a lot of mindless hookups and a steadfast refusal to ever commit.
Cam's life had been predictable. He knew what he wanted.
Until that impromptu mutual orgasm with Jude.
Cam didn't want a boyfriend, and he certainly didn't need a relationship.
But he knew one thing he did crave and that was more of Jude Ellison.
Will Cam be able to work through his painful past if Jude offered him a chance at more?
***Give Me a Hand is the first book in the Beyond Desire series, but is a standalone novel. Each book in the series will feature a different couple, but the couples will show up throughout the series. It is approximately 55,000 words and a New Adult Friends-to-Lovers romance between two men with explicit language and graphic sex intended for Adults Only.***
Book 1
Buy Links
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Au ~ Amazon Ca
~ Also Available with KindleUnlimited ~
When you find your roommate jerking off in front of a mirror, the solution, Cam discovered, was to avoid all social contact with said person until the day you die.
Which worked out pretty well for Cam because it meant he had taken up all the time they would spend drinking beer and watching bullshit television going to the library and studying instead. Cam extended his walks through the campus, enjoyed hanging out with his best friend Claudia, and took weekend trips home to see his parents in St Pete.
Even the hellish drive on I-4 back to Orlando was more comforting than running into Jude. What could Cam say? “Hey, uh, I really enjoyed seeing you naked and jerking off. Maybe we could try that again sometime?”
It was absolutely stupid.
Which Cam repeated to himself as he made toast before he had to rush off to his finance class. He knew Jude’s schedule, knew that he was routinely up before the sun rises to hit the gym and then go to classes until early afternoon. Cam also knew that twice a week Jude worked at the Publix nearby for a couple of shifts to make extra spending cash.
So, Cam took the chance to continue with his early afternoon breakfast routine. He had stated on multiple occasions that anything that happened in the AM was morally offensive, taking a personal vow to take classes only in the afternoons. He genuinely didn’t know how Jude did it. Usually he never ran into Jude when Cam was scrambling to get something into his mouth on his way to class.
Cam’s thoughts traveled to Jude again. It had been an ever-present issue for him as of late, no matter how many times he tried to distract himself. He thought about how wet Jude’s hair looked from the shower, how the ends were still dripping with water, creating small rivulets down his back. How his hand went faster the longer Cam stood there, the way his back arched, exposing the long column of his throat when he came.
And shit, Cam was getting hard again. Fuck his brain so much.
He stared at the toaster as if it’d done something offensive to him, pulling out the burnt bread and frowning at the display. He decided after an internal deliberation to continue adding butter when Jude said, “So, you’re obviously avoiding me.”
Cam jumped, burning his finger on the heated edge. He grudgingly lifted the angry digit to his mouth, lips turning down in a frown. He hadn’t even heard Jude walk into the kitchen.
“Jesus, dude, you could’ve made your presence a little louder.”
“And risk missing you jump like that? Nah.”
Cam glared over his shoulder, hoping to snipe back about manners. What he got was a full view of Jude leaning against the cinder block wall of their small dorm kitchen, his basketball shorts low on his hips. Jude crossed his arms over his bare chest and Cam bit down on his cheek to stave off the heat expanding in his stomach as he wondered what Jude's chest would feel like under his fingertips.
“I’m not,” Cam said weakly. “Avoiding you,” he added when the moment stretched too long.
Jude hummed. “Gonna need to work harder on that lie.”
Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
3.5 stars
This is an incredibly steamy new adult read. It is the story of Cam and Jude, two college roommates who start hooking up after Cam walks in on Jude having a wank. More erotica than romance, the boys are sexy and there is just enough story to keep readers engaged.
This is a sexy, uncomplicated story. The characters are likeable, and the college setting is familiar. Cam’s fear of intimacy is explored in some depth but overall, the characters and relationships are fairly loosely sketched. There’s a bit of angst and drama at the end, but mostly, this is a story about two college kids getting each other off in increasingly inventive ways. The book is a relatively well written, quick read.
Angie – ☆☆☆
This blurb had my attention and I couldn't wait to read this book. I have to say I was a little let down. With how things started off with Cam and Jude I was expecting things to get hot and heavy and just keep getting better but that wasn't the case. I felt things kind of fizzled a little bit midway. Cam and Jude are good together, we get Cam’s point of view, wish we had some of Jude’s. Then there was some drama that happened, but it was quickly wrapped up. I hope this series gets better and hotter.
Ruthie – ☆☆☆
This is the first book in a new series. It will be interesting to see where future installments take us.
We get the story from Cam's point of view – and at times I really wished that we got hear from Jude, as we can only infer his feelings for most of the book. The story itself is quite simple, but wow, the heat quotient is so high it blew off the head of the thermometer (amongst other things 😉 ). If you want to find out just how creative two people can be at finding times and places to be intimate, then these two will give you plenty of inspiration.
Overall, I enjoyed the read, but sometimes felt that it could have been tighter, and found that I was impatient to get the whole story sooner. But the heat... that cannot really be faulted!
Gwen Martin lives in Florida where the sun is always shining, the humidity is always high, and Disney is just a hop skip away. When she’s not trying to write one of her million story ideas, she’s usually hanging out with her husband and four cats.
Gwen first started writing at a young age, coming up with stories in class instead of paying attention to the math lesson. Since then she has been exploring her love of writing in various fan communities where she has learned how to cultivate character development and romantic interactions.
She has a strong love affair with cold brew coffee, black cats, and nerding out in various fandoms. When she’s not writing, she’s reading everything she can get her hands on, listening to a lot of lo-fi and making playlists, chilling with her four gatos and obsessing about Pusheen. Because it’s always about Pusheen.
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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Give Me a Hand (Beyond Desire #1) by Gwen Martin to read and review for this tour.
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