RELEASE BLITZ
Title: Clouded Hell
Author: JR Gray
Genre: M/M Romance
Release Date: March 23, 2016
BLURB
I
survive on avoidance. Physical pain to avoid the mental. Disposable flesh to
avoid relationships. Work to avoid attachment.
My
club became my empire of avoidance. Inside the ring millions are won and lost.
The fight is confined to breaths, actions and reactions, fists and pain. Rules
don’t exist. Only my opponent exists.
I’d
been avoiding my needs for far too long when Remi stumbles into the Inferno and
I’m hungry. The promise of a submissive with no attachment is far too tempting.
I can’t resist him.
He
was only supposed to be a distraction, but I know I'll never get over him.
There isn't a chance in this clouded hell.
PURCHASE LINKS
EXCERPTS
Excerpt 1
If
I hadn't seen the video of the fight, I wouldn't have believed it. I clicked
the button on my laptop to rewind it, to see the way his body moved. I gripped
myself through my shorts and glanced over at Kai. He was busy inking a full
back piece, and I doubted he'd even take a break for another hour. He couldn't
see me from where I sat. It would be so easy.
I
trailed my fingers over the places Dante had left marks. I could almost taste
them, even if the bruises had faded. I'd looked at them in the mirror over my
bed and fucked my hand every night since I'd left. I groaned as I slipped my
hand into my shorts.
I
squeezed my shaft, digging my nails into the sensitive skin. I had to bite back
a hiss of pain. Kai could easily walk out and see me. The rooms in the shop
were three-quarter walls to divide the space with wide open doorways. Maybe I
wanted to be caught. I kicked my feet out, watching a bead of sweat drip down
Dante's neck. When he threw a punch his muscles tightened, and it took me back
to him swinging his belt. The sound of his fist hitting flesh was close, so
close, to the way the leather sounded against mine.
I
shouldn't be imagining him touching me, but it was impossible not to. I wanted
his hands on me. I wanted him to mark me with them. I was hit with the sudden
realization he'd been acting when he was in the ring with me. He hadn't even
gone at half speed. He was a monster when he fought. It took every ounce of
self-control I had to keep from getting up and into my Jeep to drive to the
airport.
I
used my free hand to unbutton my shorts and slide down my zipper, freeing my
cock.
Excerpt 2
“It's
fucking hell being with you. Has anyone ever told you that?"
His
grin broadened. "The whole world is hell, doll. At least with me you get a
reprieve from the sun."
"So
this is hell at night?"
"I
like to think of it as Clouded Hell. One of the rare cool days you've got to
hold on to when everything else won't quit."
He
lifted his hand again, and instead of smacking me like I expected, he cupped my
cheek and brought his forehead to mine. I fucking melted, right there in his
inner circle of hell, and I wouldn't have changed it.
AUTHOR BIO
When not staying up all night writing, J.R. Gray
can be found at the gym where it's half assumed he is a permanent resident to
fulfill his self-inflicted masochism. A dominant and a pilot, Gray finds it
hard to be in the passenger seat of any car. He frequently interrupts real
life, including normal sleep patterns and conversations, to jot down notes or
plot bunnies. Commas are the bane of his existence even though it's been fully
acknowledged they are necessary, they continue to baffle and bewilder. If Gray
wasn't writing…well, that's not possible. The buildup of untold stories would
haunt Gray into an early grave, insanity or both. The idea of haunting has
always appealed to him. J.R. Gray is genderqueer and prefers he/him pronouns.
AUTHOR LINKS
My thoughts
“I like to think of it as Clouded Hell. One of
the rare cool days you’ve got to hold on to when everything else won’t quit.” - Dante
This is a story
about two tortured souls coming together and almost tearing each other and
themselves apart in the process. In fact, it is not overstating the situation
when I say that while these two men are torturing each other, they’re putting
the reader through the wringer as well. From the moment they meet it is clear
that Remi and Dante are perfect for each other. They give and take, demand and
grant, order and obey in a brutal yet glorious dance that somehow fails to
bring them closer together despite their obvious need for each other.
Dante has lost what
he thought was the love of his life and knows, with absolute certainty, that
not only will he never get over his loss, he’ll also never love again. He fills
his days with the fight club he runs, fighting because he needs the release,
and alcohol.
Remi has hidden who
and what he is all his life and has managed to lose himself in the process.
Being all things to everybody leaves very little room for taking care of
himself and by the time Remi meets Dante he is far closer to his breaking point
than he’s willing or able to acknowledge.
“I’ve settled my entire fucking life. I’ve settled for what
everyone else told me was best for me, and I really started to believe my own
lies. I started to believe there wasn’t love, or a connection, there was only
mutually beneficial ‘okay’. I didn’t think there was a happily ever after in my
cards. That true love was bullshit.”
- Remi
When Remi and Dante
meet the pull between them is instant, overwhelming and irresistible. These two
men were made for each other, even if neither of them is willing to recognise
or accept the fact. Past issues cloud both their perspectives and may be an
obstacle too vast for them to overcome.
As Remi and Dante
come together only to pull apart again time and again, I wanted to knock their
heads together in the hope of making them see sense, but, as characters are
bound to do, they took their own sweet time. When push came to shove though,
and everything was on the line, denying feelings was no longer an option and
both men came through; for each other and for themselves. But until they got
there they shredded my heart to pieces in the best possible way.
I have to be honest
and say that there were moments these two men sounded too similar and I had to
check the chapter heading to work out whose mind I was in. Not that this is
necessarily a bad thing because I firmly believe that it is because they are so
very much alike that they can’t walk away from each other, but it did throw me
once or twice. For example, the following thought could just as easily have
been Remi’s.
“I felt like I was holding my world together with my bare
hands as life tore it to shreds.” Dante
At one point in the
story I thought: THIS. This is how it’s all going to come apart. And I was
right. With Remi and Dante being the men they are, I would have expected the
same thought to have occurred to either if not both of them, but it didn’t. I
apologize for being vague, but it is quite possible that years of reading
thrillers has me conditioned to pick up on moments like the one I refer to, and
if that’s the case I don’t want this to be a spoiler for anybody else reading
the book. Especially since while it was something I noticed it wasn’t something
that made me love either the characters or the story any less.
I’m sure I’m not
the only reader who is never able to catch up with all the authors they want to
read. J.R. Gray has been on my ‘must read asap’ list ever since Legally Bound was published. Or maybe it
happened even earlier—when I first started following @TheOriginalGray on
Twitter. And yet, here I am, having to shamefully admit that Clouded Hell is the first book by this
author I’ve actually read. It is safe to say it won’t be my last and also that
I won’t allow as much time to pass before I pick up the next one. After all, at
least a few J.R. Gray titles have been patiently waiting on my Kindle for me to
get my reading act together. J
I need to read this. Great review, Helena.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend.
Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did, Kai.
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