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Barred Desires

The Deepest Desires, Book 1

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Barred Desires

By: Ashley James
Narrated by: Eric Corbyn, Michael Gallagher
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Luca Gray Hart

I have everything I could ever want—a great family, awesome friends, a girlfriend, and I’m headed off to my dream college. But the past is always there, lurking like a shadow in the night....

Branson Joseph Adler

I love men. I love everything about them. Their feel. Their smell. Their taste. It’s no secret to my friends and family that I’m gay. But I do have one secret....

What happens when you give in to the temptation and your world turns upside down?

It’s forbidden.

But it’s ours.

Barred Desires is the first book in the Deepest Desires interconnected series. It is a forbidden MM stepbrother romance, and it is angsty, emotional, and steamy.

©2022 Ashley James (P)2023 Pink Flamingo Productions Contemporary Contemporary Romance Romance
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Really loved the story, the relationship between Bran and Luca is so sweet, supportive, loving but still raw and spicy! Their support of each others trauma is really great too. The narrator for Luca wasn’t my fave but got used to it quickly and didn’t bother me after a bit!

Delish Story!

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Great book but the narrator gasping at the end of every sentence was seriously off putting

Great book but the narrator gasping at the end of every sentence was seriously off putting

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Enjoyed the book, loved Luca and Bran. Not a fan of the breathy narrator or the degrading language.

Nice love story

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This is a step brothers college romance, featuring Luca and Branson and is the first interconnected standalone book of the Deepest Desires series.

Luca and Bran became step brothers when they were young. Luca is straight and dating his high school girlfriend and Bran is a year older than Luca so already in college and is openly gay.

Luca joins Bran at college and ends up living in his share house due to his own share house falling through.

They never really thought of each other in a non-platonic way until they both, at different times in the book, walk in on the other during some bedroom shenanigans and stick around and watch. It leads to them both thinking about the other non stop, and soon their mutual crush and attraction grows.

Luca eventually breaks up with his annoying girlfriend (do not like her one bit) and it doesn’t take long for Luca and Bran to act in their growing attraction and pounce on each other, cue lots of bow chicka wow wow.

There are some triggers in this book, so please check the author’s TW, past trauma, loss and abuse are mentioned. Overall this book is a great read and the audiobook is performed well, I am pretty much loving anything I read from Ashley James.

Tropes include:
Stepbrothers, YAY!
MM romance
Bi awakening
Super steamy
Supportive parents & friends
Both fall fast, swoon
HEA

Story of Lucas and Branson

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Enjoyed the story, hated the narration for Luca, the breathing of the narrator is shockingly off putting., very unfortunate as it’s a lovely story.

Enjoyed the story

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