Whiskey and Wry: Sinners, Book 2

But this one did it quite acceptably. I started it with trepidation, but after reading it through a couple times, I see a lot of strengths and only a few weaknesses. For one thing, it carries on the original characters in their original world and continues their story which was so wonderful. After reading book one I often wondered if Miki and Damien would ever meet again, and what would Damien be like... Well, he's a real star. His love of music and his brotherly love of Miki were his reasons to struggle and live on. He had that charisma and amazing artistic skill a star needs. ;) You gotta love a hot guy in a cowboy hat that plays rock, blues and classical guitar. It was so interesting to hear about his life as a poor street musician barely making ends meet. I loved the scene of him in his little garret attic at night, very romantic.His new-found lover in this book is the Irish-born Sionn, (shoon) and I thought Sionn's character could have used a little development. His care for the damaged Damien shows he will be a good partner but he lacks definition perhaps. He was an ex-bodyguard who constantly thinks about opening a brewery. He had a trauma in his past job and although financially stable he was searching for his path in life. It made him seem a little weak, but perhaps he finds his life's meaning in Damien. He certainly redeems all in the end. I can't say how without revealing spoilers.The bad guy was pretty extreme. It verged on gratuitous violence, and we, the reader had to spend a lot of time with him but never really learned about his psychological motivations. In book one in the series the bad guy had a perfectly obvious reason to be screwed up mentally, so it made it more understandable and less random.However the romance between the main characters seemed strong, and the reunion between Miki and Damien was beautiful. I love how their friendship, which some called brotherhood, was able to stay strong even though they both had romantic others. By the absorption of the remains of the 'family' of the Sinner's Gin band into the large and traditional family of the Morgan's the book showed that different types of families don't necessarily have to be born together to be strong ones. If you like this book you might like the manga, Demian Syndrome by Oki Mamiya. Oh, and I was glad to have the doorbell issue clarified. :PQUOTES: "Sounds... I can't escape them. It blends in together. It's like little bites of music everywhere, from the bass of you coming up the stairs to the sound of the bottles clinking. If you listen carefully, you can pick out entire songs." "Everyone's got a song in how they live, in the noises they make."P.S. Rhys Ford has some books coming, I see from her website. "Fish And Ghosts" November 2013, "Clockwork Tangerine" March-ish, 2014. Authors really think ahead. ;)Update: October 11, I have re-read this book many times now, especially in conjunction with SG, and while one may have quibbles with certain aspects of it, (I always skip over the murder bits), I really love the character of Damien. For him, I changed my rating up to five stars. Oh, I want to buy this book in paper-form as well, please. Ooh, or as a professionally produced audiobook... Oh, and I think I understand Sionn better now, after a greater exposure to him. Also, I watched this tv show about San Francisco, and Rhys Ford really got it about the city. The fog, the suicide bridge... ;)  Alcatraz  Pretty.

This is one of the best gay romance series I've ever read, and written by probably the best author I've ever read! Rhys Ford writes so well, but, after I finished the Sinners Series I began reading another series by another of my favorite authors and though still good, it was evident and disappointing at how lacking in ability the writing was compared to that of Rhys Ford.Each book of the Sinners Series were suspenseful page turners keeping me reading and rarely boring. Each book were novel's in their own right and the fictional characters, and the world Rhys Ford has crafted and created becomes mesmerizingly real. I became addicted to this series, it was simply fantastic.Unlike most authors of gay romance, whether Sci Fi, Fantasy or normal fiction, who sometimes write extremely graphic chapters and going on and on and on depicting sex acts between characters, Rhys Ford's description of the sex scenes are written completely from the perspective of love between the characters and is not described like the chapters of pornography that so many other authors spew.I originally had gotten several books from this series as Mass Market published versions because they were cheaper. Well, I guess you get what you pay for, and it's probably been many years since I've gotten a standard size bookstore book, because they were so small, and the font of the text so small, that I had problems reading them even with my reading glasses. So, I returned them and purchased the larger and more expensive 15 dollar versions, so i could enjoy reading the larger book with larger text. Although, the 6th and last book in the series was the larger size version, but the font size seemed almost half the size of the other books in the series. Perhaps it was because if the font had been larger, the book would have been so many more pages that it would have been cost prohibitive or something.There was a negative about this author however. I was so excited by this author's writing ability, that after finishing the Sinners Series, I immediately purchased Rhys Ford's Kai Gracen Series, as I'm a huge fan of SciFi/Supernatural. Unfortunately, not only was the writing not the same quality I expected, and in fact seemed written by a different author, there was little if any gay romance at all, at least in the first book of the series. In any case, I disappointingly, returned all three books. However, in their place I bought the 3 books of the 415 Ink series instead, as the story takes place in the same world written for the Sinners series. Alas, unfortunately not supernatural in any way.

I was introduced to Kane Morgan thru Mary Calmes’ marshals book. Loved the characters and was curious whether she had written about them elsewhere. Imagine my surprise to find a whole series of books by Rhys. I was really disappointed with the first book. Kane in Marshals came across as smart and able. In these books he appears to do no police work and when he does it’s inadequate. How did the police miss so many clues. This book is only slightly better but I persevered in the hopes that it would get better.I think the book needs an edit. The disjointed/odd way of catching up is tedious without providing resolution and the Morgan’s with the exception of the dad appear to be foul mouthed and somewhat neanderthal.I’m going to give book 3 a try but I fear it was Mary Calmes’ writing that made me love these characters and not this author.

I loved loved Sinner's Gin the first book in this series and I was excited to read this one after the way Sinner's Gin ended. Was I disappointed was I heck. I just love Rhys Ford writing style how she weaves the suspense all through the book and then sprinkles in a little romance with hot sex and then keeps us wanting more by the end of the book. Yep Rhys Ford has got my hook line and sinker with this series.I just loved Damien even when he doubted who he was as he was told he was someone else he fought it. And his one saving grace the one person who he knew was real his Sinjun (Miki) was the one thought he held on to.Damien finds his way back to San Francisco and his memory isn't good but things come back to him and the one place he remembers where Miki and him hangout is Finnegans so he ends up busking outside. He meets Sionn the owner of Finnegan's and they strike up a friendship which does turn into something stronger. I wasn't sure about Sionn to begin with I don't think we get enough background to warm to him straight away but by the end of the book I liked him more.Once again loved the Morgan family they are so close and so accepting of bringing others into their family. And Donal well I wish I had a dad like him as he there for his family 100% and listens to them and lets them know if their happy he's happy.The suspense again is amazing in this book and it all comes down to money and family in this story and I have to say Parker is Mental he should have been in Skywood not Damien. It keeps you on the edge of your seat you have to keep turning those pages to know what happens next and if I didn't have to sleep I would off read it in one sitting.And then OMG that ending bring on Conner's story as I can't wait to see him fall in love.

This book was even better than the first. Damien has escaped the sanatorium, but is bring chased by an assassin, hired by his uncle to kill him. He manages to reach SF and is busking outside an Irish pub trying to earn enough to live on. Sionn the owner ends up feeling sorry for him and is knocked sideways by his looks, and gives him hot drinks and food. The two form a friendship both wanting the other, but one day while the two are chatting outside the pub, someone takes a pot shot at Damien, thankfully missing him. Damien runs off and Sionn is going out of his mind trying to find him. When he does, Damien takes a chance and tells him the truth about who he is and that he's trying to find his best friend. Damien and Sionn become close and Sionn decides to talk to his uncle Donal, who ofcourse is Kane's dad. Sionn has never heard of the group Sinners Gin, so has no idea that Miki is the one Damien is looking for. This book has some gruesome bits, that made me cringe, but what a story, can't wait to continue with it.

I originally listened to this, but also purchased a hard copy. **AUDIO REVIEW**oh, much better than Sinners Gin!not a brilliant reviw, but I did enjoy in much more than book one. Irish and cowboy really are made for each other. and the fact that we knew who was doing it all right up front was a little different. much more violent than book one, filing on over 18 shelf too.as for the narrator, i found him much easier to listen to second time aorund and i think i preferred him in this one.I need book 3, which is not yet available in audio, i will wait though. i dont want to spoil my enjoyment of this series by switching to reading from listening.

First book: Slender musician type is abused horribly as a child and is helped through trauma by big stropping Irish cop type ...Second book: Slender musician type is abused horribly as a child and is helped through current trauma by another big stropping Irish cop type ...I think you can see my immediate problem with this book. It had exactly the same formula, plot and characters.. In fact you could have swapped all four characters around and it would have been the same. Add in that its slow. Very slow. I got about three quarters of the way through and just couldn't go on with it.I gave it an extra star for some good ideas but this needed to have much better characterisation, and much tighter writing. Sorry.