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Book Review of Ethan in Gold (Johnnies, Bk 3)

Ethan in Gold (Johnnies, Bk 3)
Ethan in Gold (Johnnies, Bk 3)
Author: Amy Lane
Genres: Romance, LGBTQ+ Books
Book Type: Paperback
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Evan Costa disclosed to his mother at 5 years old that he'd been molested and while his mother got him the therapy he needed, she was forever changed. Their traditional Italian family became a frigid no-touching zone and Ethan's damage became the entire family's damage. At eighteen, away at college, and driven by his overwhelming need for human contact, Evan becomes Ethan, a porn star with Johnnies, where he can get the human contact he needs... though the "forbidden" nature of the business causes him shame, perhaps adding to the residue from his earlier experience.

Two years into his "career", when Ethan meets Jonah Stevens the two are drawn together. Yet how can Ethan confess to, or expect Jonah to accept, what he does for a living? Adding to this drama are Jonah's own problems with separated parents and a sister with a terminal illness.

Yes, everyone has their problems and Amy Lane's characters more than most and yet for the most part this is a story of good people managing through trying times. This is the third in the series so it should be no surprise by now that for the most part, all parties get their happy endings. As the third part of the series, there are no real surprises but we do get to discover some details that weren't apparent before, gain some additional perspectives, and we get to spend time with the friends we made in earlier books.

As with the earlier two audio-books, this installment is narrated by Sean Crisden who does his usual commendable job of differentiating the large cast of male voices and manages to portray women's voices without the teeth-grating sweetness that some narrators use. At 10 hours and 46 minutes this is currently one of the longest audio-books in my library but is consistently interesting and will probably be re-read at least annually over the next few years.