Mexican Heat (Crimes&Cocktails Series) [Paperback]

Laura Baumbach (Author), Josh Lanyon (Co-editor)

Book Description

Series: Crimes&Cocktails Series | Publication Date: September 10, 2008

A new romantic crime series from the combined, finely blended talents of popular award winning authors Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon. Tough, street-smart SFPD Detective Gabriel Sandalini is willing to do whatever it takes to bring down West Coast crime boss Ricco Botelli - including a dangerous, deep undercover gig as one of Botelli's hired guns. But Gabriel's best laid plans may come crashing down around him when he falls hard for the sexy, suave lieutenant of a rival Mexican drug lord. Turns out his new love interest may have a few secrets of his own: secrets that could destroy both men and the fragile bond between them.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: MLR Press (September 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934531057
• ISBN-13: 978-1934531051
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 7.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,032,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Supenseful Gay Romance (A- Grade), December 6, 2008

By 

K. Garrabrant "Katiebabs" (Bloomfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mexican Heat (Crimes&Cocktails Series) (Paperback)

Ever since I read Dark Horse earlier this year, I have become a big fan of Josh Lanyon's writing. He is as author who writes incredible and realistic stories, with a romance thrown in between two strong men who seem to live on the edges of society. So is the case with his latest, Mexican Heat. Josh co-wrote Mexican heat with author Laura Baumbach, owner of the on-line publisher Man Love Romance Press. These two are a great writing duo and I can't wait to see what else they have in store. If their future books are anything like Mexican Heat, I will be there to read it.

Gabriel Sandalini is the self tortured hero of this story. He is an undercover SFPD Detective who has infiltrated the West Coast crime syndicate as a gunman. One night, while he is at a gay club, he catches the eye of one of the club goers. Gabriel doesn't think much of it, even though the stranger is quite the looker. Gabriel has other things on his mind such as helping take down the boss of the Mexican Mafia. As Gabriel makes his way around the club, he finds an empty office where he needs a moment of quiet, and is caught. The stranger who catches him, bends him over the office desk, and even though Gabriel tries to escape, he can't because the stranger has incapacitated him. One thing leads to another, and Gabriel is forced to have some hot and sweaty sex with the stranger. (Some may think this is a forced seduction scene. But we do see, that Gabriel could at any point stop everything that is happening to him. The stranger may hold him down and have his wicked way with Gabriel, but Gabriel has the strength and power to stop this man. The stranger even asks if Gabriel wants it, and Gabriel is very vocal in his answer, which is a very loud, yes.) This is one hot, HOT sex scene, especially because Gabriel doesn't know what this guy, who basically ravishes him, looks like. It is the best sex Gabriel ever has, because he likes to be dominated, and his one-night stand lover does that very well.

Gabriel is in for quite a shock when he comes face to face with this stranger again. Miguel Ortega is the second in command to a Mexican drug lord. He also still has a very deep interest in Gabriel, but Gabriel tries his hardest to stay away from Ortega because they don't have any chance of a future with one another. But since both of the crime families they work for will become business associates, Gabriel has no choice but to be around Ortega.

Ortega must go down to Mexico to meet some drug runners and Gabriel goes with him. These two have such incredible sexual tension between them, that they know that this business trip will end up with both of them in bed together. And when they arrive in Mexico, and Gabriel is almost blown up, Ortega is there to protect him. Gabriel can't help but give into Ortega's seductive techniques, and they spend a passionate night together in bed. This is another wonderful, hot sex scene between these two men. Alcohol is used in a playful way. Ortega has a way with his hands and mouth, and wants everything from Gabriel. He may want his body, but most importantly he wants his love. The reason Ortega is so protective over Gabriel is a bit twist to this story that I had no clue was coming till more than half way through reading.

Gabriel can't see how special he has become to Ortega. He denies his feelings for Ortega because he thinks that Ortega is his enemy. These two are surrounded by the possibility of death wherever they go and the fact that they may not have a future with one another, makes their relationship very poignant and emotional. You will be on the edge of your seat wondering if Gabriel and Ortega will be safe and happy. Something does happen to Gabriel, that I think went a bit too far, as if to cement what Gabriel and Ortega have between each other is very real. Other than that, I really could find no other complaints.

Mexican Heat is an excellent and suspenseful action pack story, as well as a romance that singes the pages with its heat. The attraction both Gabriel and Ortega have for one another is smoking hot, and one of the best romances I have read this year.

Katiebabs

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mexican Heat--More than a National Drink, April 17, 2009

By 

Toni V. Sweeney "writer" (Mission Viejo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mexican Heat (Crimes&Cocktails Series) (Paperback)

This novel written by Laura Baumback and John Lanyon is the first entry in the Crimes and Cocktails Series from MLR Press.

SFPD Detective Gabriel Sandalini is undercover, posing as smart-mouth wiseguy, Gio Contadino, hired muscle for West Coast cocaine distributor Ricco Botelli. One enchanted evening, he sees a stranger across a crowded room, their eyes meet, the stranger smirks and moves on. A little later, Gabriel and that same stranger are engaged in violent, thoroughly-satisfying sex in an empty upstairs office. They part, thinking never to meet again but Gabriel can't get the man out of his mind...he feels...something...but isn't certain exactly what. Imagine his shock when, at the engagement party of his boss' sister to Don Jesus Sanchez, a Mexican drug lord, his one-night stand appears, introduced as Sanchez' second-in-command, Miguel Ortega, aka Antonio Lorenzo. Trying to play it cool, Gabriel is alternately attracted and angered by Ortega's collected, teasing, and too knowing attitude...and it begins to get in the way of his real mission--to help bring down Botelli and Ortega's boss. How can he concentrate on gathering information for the SFPD when all he can think about is a tall, dark Spaniard with a smug smile, depthless black eyes, and the power to satisfy him sexually?

Answer: He can't.

Gabriel is revealed as a hyperkinetic loner, shying away from intimacy like the plague. He doesn't want a soul-connection, just explosive sex with no strings attached, rationalizing it as all someone in his specific position needs or deserves. Ortega, seen mostly through Gabriel's eyes in Part One, is presenting a little more obscurely with no background or antecedents. Though there's no mention of either's exact age, he appears about ten years older than Gabriel, more mature in emotion and perhaps a little sadder or wiser for that. He also seems more careful in his selection of partners, and probably has occasionally actually known love, if the way he responds to Gabriel's jibes and taunts is any indication.

On a trip to Mexico to finalize setting up shipments from a new supplier, Ortega saves Gabriel from a bomb blast, then tells him that he's somehow gotten on Sanchez' wrong side. Now the question arises: Did Ortega know about the bomb beforehand and let his own attraction to Gabriel make him act at the last minute, or was it simply instinct? The night of passion that follows their near-destruction shakes both men to the core, and causes Gabriel to lower his guard and tell Ortega things about himself he's never shared before. Though he tries to maintain his wise-cracking, filthy-mouthed I-don't-give-a-damn persona, he finds himself weakening, regretting that when the SFPD brings down Sanchez, Ortega will fall with him because he's seen traits in this man--tenderness, sensitivity, concern--that a drug dealer generally shouldn't possess, and in spite of all his rationalizing, he doesn't want Ortega harmed.

When the cocaine is delivered, Gabriel's cover is blown and it's all over but the shooting; though the FBI burst in, he's caught in the cross-fire, inundated with bullets and exploding bags of cocaine. Only Ortega's quick action saves him from instant death, but his days in undercover work--as well as his over-all health--are gone forever.

Part Two of the story is told from Ortega's point of view and there are a couple of little twists at this point which I won't give away (though I will admit that--jaded old reader of crime novels that I am--I had the important one figured out before the big shoot-out in the warehouse). Now, it's up to Ortega to make Gabriel want to keep on living while his love is put to the test as he becomes the wounded policeman's caregiver. He has to force himself to stand back and allow the convalescing cop to struggle to recover his self-esteem and independence when what he'd really like to do is smother the younger man with tender loving care. His ability to remain calm in the face of the injured man's self-pity and anger, fending away with gentle words the sarcasm and rudeness that reflects Gabriel's fear and insecurity while allowing Gabriel to push both of them to the limits teaches Ortega a lesson also as he learns that to love someone, you sometimes have to let them fall and get up without help. Slowly, he breaks down Gabriel's defenses, proves that he isn't going to cut and run when things go from bad to worse, and that he's true to his word when he says those three fateful ones, "I love you."

Mexican Heat (the title comes from the local name given pulque) may be a love story between two men but it's also a high-powered crime drama with plenty of action and well-written dialogue and scenes. There's sex involved, of course, but it doesn't get in the way of the story, is more a natural, integral progression of it--in fact, there are only about three actual physical scenes in the entire book. It's the first novel of its genre that I've ever read and I wasn't certain what to expect but I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself wishing the story had been longer. Antonio and Gabriel are both likable characters, carrying on a masquerade on several levels: as men with integrity masquerading as men with no scruples whatsoever, gays in a machismo-drenched criminal society, managing to keep secrets from their bosses as well as themselves. They are two men who are both searching for that intangible substance known as love, and when they find it, are put to the test of whether to choose love over duty or vice versa. This novel is the first in a series and while I was certain the ones to follow would be about other characters, I was hoping that some time a second book would follow that tells the rest of Antonio and Gabriel's story. I felt there's a lot more about these two that needs to be said, and I, for one, would be eager to read it. Checking around, I discovered that the entire series centers around them, so enough said! Read the first, buy the rest! I'm going to.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mexican Heat- A Joyfully Recommended Title, March 25, 2009

By 

M. Nix - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mexican Heat (Crimes&Cocktails Series) (Paperback)

Gabriel Sandalini is an undercover vice cop working for crime lord Ricco Botelli. Imagine Gabriel's surprise when the anonymous and amazing guy he had a one night stand with the night before turns out to be Miguel Ortega, powerful drug lord Don Jesus Sanchez's right hand man. Botelli is marrying his sister Gina to Sanchez. Now Gabriel will have to work with Ortega and pretend the sex between them never happened, which is hard to do when it was the best sex of his life. Gabriel doesn't do emotion, so it should be no problem. His undercover position demands that he stay focused. Problem is, Gabriel is too focused on Ortega and Ortega is taking full advantage. Everything is not what it seems in this world of crime he has entangled himself in. Gabriel may need the help of his enemy to survive.

Mexican Heat's heart-pounding action becomes heart-warming emotion by the end. Its two parts blend perfectly to make one outstanding story. Gabriel is very guarded and yet Ortega sees right through him. He sees what Gabriel wants and maybe more importantly, what he needs. He pushes Gabriel, which is how, in part two, he won my heart. His unwavering loyalty and love for Gabriel is awe-inspiring. Mexican Heat is action-packed, thrilling, and full of twists and turns. It has very hot sex, intense emotion, and an angst-filled romance. Josh Lanyon and Laura Baumbach have penned a story that is impossible to put down until its dramatic ending. Once done, it's impossible to stop thinking about. I'm looking forward to more from this dynamic duo.

Nannette
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed