Review - Afflicted

Hunter is blind, but fiercely independent. The quickest and easiest way to piss him off is to treat him with any kind of pity. He has escaped the clutches of an over-protective mother, built a life and a business of his own, and he’s not going back. The only thing missing from his life is someone to share it with. In the gay world, which puts such a high emphasis on bodily perfection, Hunter’s disability is a major barrier.

Dillon has been on his own since he was 16, tossed out of his home by his fundamentalist parents who disowned him as soon as they found out he was gay. He ended up hustling to live, and is now a high-priced, very successful, escort. The thing is, thanks to an inheritance from one of his old clients, he doesn’t really need to continue working, but he doesn’t really know anything else. There’s an emptiness to his life, and he doesn’t know if he can ever find anyone to fill it, who will accept him and his past.

One day the two men meet, and the sparks fly. Although it starts out as a chance encounter, the first time Dillon has actually hustled someone on the street in years, there’s more to it than that in both men’s minds. But each of them have substantial fortifications around their hearts. Are the feelings they’re developing strong enough to break down the barriers and find something together?

Smart and sexy is a very powerful combination, and sadly a very rare thing to find in one book. “Afflicted” does very well on both counts. The prose draws you in and builds a powerful image of the setting, and especially of the world as Hunter perceives it. And then comes the sex. Very powerful sex. Hunter and Dillon are drawn to each other through a strong sexual attraction. Now, there seem to be some people who think sexual attraction has little or nothing to do with love, but love is a bond, and nothing binds you tighter to someone else than the closeness of sex. Hunter and Dillon might as well be super-glued together.

However, they do have a lot to overcome, and the ending still leaves a lot of ground for the promised sequel to cover. There’s Dillon’s past and Hunter’s mother’s new love life to deal with. Curiously, the two issues overlap, and hopefully we’ll get some more outrageously funny scenes as well. I really did laugh out loud at one point in the book. Smart, sexy and funny is an almost unheard of combination, so I’m really looking forward to reading more.

You can find out more about Brandon Shire at his web site.

“Afflicted” may be purchased from Amazon, Smashwords, or Diesel.