Review: Men of Smithfield: Mark and Tony by LB Gregg

Posted August 3, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Coming home from work to find my boyfriend banging our hairy, married landlord–in our bed–was bad enough. Discovering Jamie had also cleaned out my bank accounts made it officially the worst day of my life. I think I can be forgiven for wanting revenge, even if a few little laws (and possibly Jamie’s nose) got bent in the process.
Fortunately, the law is on my side in the form of my oldest friend, Tony Gervase. I’ve tried to deny my attraction to the sexy trooper for years. After all, he made it clear long ago that he wasn’t interested in me that way. But if the hot encounter in his kitchen is any indication, he is now. At least the day is ending a whole lot better than it began…
But the morning after, the Jamie situation goes from bad to seriously messed up. The jerk’s in more trouble than I could have imagined. And as it turns out, I don’t know Tony as well as I thought I did either..
Mark’s having a crappy ass day. Seriously. He came home early from work and found his boyfriend pounding the landlord’s ass. The nasty, hairy, supposedly heterosexual landlord. Ew. So Mark knocks the crap outta Jamie a little later in the day and then comes to find out that not only has Jamie been sleeping around on him (does the whole freaking town know?) but his boyfriend cleaned out his bank account as well. Did he know Jamie at all? Who is this man he’s been living with?
Mark’s longtime friend, and local cop, Tony, is there for him when he needs him – in so many different ways. Tony gives him a place to stay and oh, to stash some stuff he took from Jamie – not a good thing for a cops house – especially since Tony has no idea that the stuff is in his house. Tony ends up making his move on Mark and since they’ve been friends for so long, Mark responds – oh so happily. But Mark’s confused. He had made a move on Tony long ago and Tony had turned him down, why would Tony be making a move now? Does Tony really care about him? Mark moves on with his life in a comedy of errors and Tony’s always there for him, which is great, but where will the relationship go?
This book is a reedited version of Gregg’s Gobsmacked and it’s just as good as before. None of the wonderful charm, energy & Gregg humor has been removed from the story, and Tony and Mark are still there in their very distinct personalities. Tony in his gruff “I’m in charge” way and Mark in his “I’m not really this stupid I’m just having a bad life at the moment” kind of way. The pair of them together are great. I love the sort of abruptness of their initial sexual contact and though there’s not really a romance in the book, per se, the connection between the two from the years of friendship show an unmistakable bond. I’m almost happy Gregg didn’t try to shove a romance in there as the story would have been too short to do it justice.
Overall it was as great of a story as it was the first time and has a beautiful new cover. If you haven’t read this series yet it’s a wonderful time to start.
4.25 out of 5
Oh, and check out this new pic LB got when she participated in the NOH8 photo shoot.  You can read more about it here.

Awwwsommmme!


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3 responses to “Review: Men of Smithfield: Mark and Tony by LB Gregg

  1. Lovely review Tracy! This was the first ever LB Gregg book I ever read, and it definitely hasn't been the last 🙂

    And love LB's new pic!

  2. This WAS a good one, Orannia. I think there are those that didn't care for Mark all that much but he just seemed very real to me – doing what real people would do in that situation.

    Chris – SUCH a great opening scene! That grabbed me and I was hooked from then on. 🙂

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