Rating: 5 stars out of 5 ★★★★★
Sarge (F.I.S.T.S #1) – 5 stars
Sergeant Wilkes has had a long and prestigious military career. When he’s injured on the front, Murphy brings him in. Murphy is the opposite of Sarge… big, tattooed, and delightfully submissive. Can a couple space marines stationed on an alien planet where an endless war rages on find something special in each other?
Gritty, violent, somewhat gory short novella. Its kinky, smoking hot and romantic almost in spite of itself. This story made me bawl like a baby, and I loved it!
Sarge is an older, hardened officer Dom; Murphy a younger 6ft 8in quiet, muscular, tattooed, sweet enlisted sub. Murphy also has the ability to see psychic/emotional colors (auras?). The two come together when Sarge is injured fighting on the front line, and Murphy uses his special talent to help him. Right there on the battlefield, wounded and in pain, Sarge propositions Murphy:
“You’re a good boy, Murph,” he says softly to me. “You get me home, get me patched up, and you’ll see what good boys get.”
At first it’s just an interesting diversion for Sarge, but that changes as he comes to realize what he’s found in Murphy.
Murphy is intelligent, but he doesn’t talk much. And damn it, he doesn’t need to because the nuance of communication between him and Sarge is exquisite. When it comes to D/s, one thing that fascinates me is when the physically larger guy is the submissive/bottom. And my goodness isn’t Murphy an enticing one. But it’s more the two together that really gets me about this story. They’re perfect together. Such devotion. I was seriously holding my breath and biting my nails at the end.
Speaking of the ending, it felt a bit abrupt at first. But the more I thought on it, the more I realized that wasn’t the case–the ending is perfect. I would love to explain that specifically, but don’t want to spoil it. Just read this little gem. I highly recommend it and cannot wait for the next in this series to come out.
Murphy (F.I.S.T.S. #2) – 4.75 stars
Sometimes when it seems like it’s too late, the right person comes along and opens your eyes…
Murphy is the continuing story of the D/s relationship between two Space Marines who found each other in the midst of hopelessness and misfortune.
Sarge and his newly minted squad travel across the galaxy on a top-secret mission that could help win the war. However, to Murphy something about the mission stinks, and it’s not just the planet they’ve landed on.
After the events of book one ends with a semi-cliffie where we aren’t sure if one of the MC survives, I was very happy when this book came out! It shows us the guys have both survived and gotten off that godforsaken planet. Yes! Not only that, they’ve been promoted and are heroes of a sort.
I enjoyed getting Sarge’s point of view here–enjoyed watching the veteran soldier trying to keep his growing feelings for Murphy in check (and sometimes failing); enjoyed the chance to view Murphy from someone else’s perspective; and enjoyed that even though it’s Murphy who can see the colors of other people’s emotions, Sarge is so keyed in to Murphy that it’s nearly the same for him even without a special sense. I just love how neither of these guys really have to vocalize much because they are just so perfectly in tune to each other.
Must admit that getting to read from his own POV how the crusty old career solider goes all gooey and vulnerable over his big moose of a soldier boy was a delightful treat. And this about sums it up in Sarge’s own words:
“My career has always come first. Always. What the hell are you supposed to do when something else becomes more important?”
This short story serves up kinky, raunchy sex, hurt/comfort, sweet love, a bigger bottom/sub and a smaller top/Dom, and a dangerous mission gone wrong that offers up a good helping of plot and action.
The Missing Reel
A short scene from Sarge (F.I.S.T.S #1) which the author left out in order to keep the nature of their relationship somewhat ambiguous.
It takes place a week after the explosion that took Sarge’s eye and shows their first encounter after Sarge’s comment about seeing what “good boys get.” Perfect little scene that I’m glad the author decided to give us the opportunity to read the first time these guys interacted in this dynamic and felt it gave an insight that set the tone for the rest of the relationship. Since this is a deleted scene from the first story, I’m not going to rate it separately.
The cover on this anthology is pretty plain, meant to emulate a must used/stained field manual.
Sales Link: Amazon
Book Details:
143 pages
Published July 7th, 2015 by Bey Deckard
Kindle Edition
Published June 8th 2015 (first published June 1st 2015)
ASINB00ZA9T6WE
Edition LanguageEnglish
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 