Protection [Kindle Edition]

T. Baggins (Author)

Book Description

"Read this with your heart. S.A. Reid has made me open mine, grabbing me and never letting go." --Tom Webb, A Bear on Books.

***

"... the book is well-written and absorbing." -- Erastes, Speak Its Name

***

When Gabriel MacKenna enters Wentworth Prison in 1931, he promises himself two things: never to be buggered and never to turn prison queer. Tough, smart, and ruthless in a fight, he quickly makes a name for himself inside. But Gabriel, saved from the noose by a social crusader, is serving two life sentences. And life is a very long time to endure Wentworth with no comforts but prison food, card games and cigarettes. To survive endless days without the touch of another human being...

Five years after Gabriel's incarceration, Joey Cooper arrives at Wentworth. Every convict claims imprisonment through a miscarriage of justice, but Joey is truly blameless. Trained at Oxford as a physician, the young doctor is innocent of prison culture and too handsome for his own good. Facing eighteen years behind Wentworth's towering gates, Joey cannot hope to survive without protection. And protection is just what Gabriel MacKenna offers. At a price... 

Warning: this book is an erotic romance. It contains adult situations and graphic sex.

Author's Note: This second edition also includes the bonus short story, CODA.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... the book is well-written and absorbing." -- Erastes, Speak Its Name

From the Author

The author would like to thank the wonderful and talented Kate Aaron, a fellow m/m romance author who resides in the UK, for assisting with this second edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 289 KB
• Print Length: 161 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1481151630
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Lyonnesse Books (December 8, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006JXBED4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,032 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine and painful relevation December 31, 2011

By Tom W

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Gabriel MacKenna is a hard man. Sentenced to life in prison for a double murder, he is determined to be nobody's boy. He will do whatever is necessary to protect himself; no man will force him into a homosexual act, and he will yield to no one. In 1931 England, prison is a hard reality. And Gabriel will be the hardest man there.

Dr. Joseph Cooper enters Wentworth Prison sentenced for a mistake. A God awful mistake. Killing a woman and her unborn baby. He walks into prison with his head held high, innocent, not knowing the danger all around him. Young, handsome, and very vulnerable.

When Gabriel sees Joey, he decides he needs punishing, and as had man at Wentworth, he is just the man to do it. So when Joey enters the showers, Gabriel follows and takes what he wants, leaving Joey a broken, bloody, raped mess. And then adds insult to injury and becomes his cellmate.

Joey would rather die than face rape again. And tells Gabriel so. And then tells him his story. What got him in prison, what destroyed his life. All men in prison are innocent - it is the oldest story in the book. But something...touches Gabriel and changes his mind. He desires Joey, like he has never desired anything in his life. But he will not take it. He will protect him, but not force. Not again.

As time passes, the two forge a truce of sorts. But will Joey ever forgive Gabriel? hat drove Gabriel to commit the murders that have him in prison? And what kind of future is there for these two men in the life in which they are trapped?

This book, this stunning, harsh, broken heart of a book, took me to places I did not want to go, showed me things I did not want to see, but then Then it taunted me with hope and love and redemption and pain and heartbreak. And damn it, I wanted it. I wanted these two men to have a future, against the odds and the circumstances and the realities. I wanted like they wanted.

"But because in this place where he'd lost so much, when nearly every comfort had been taken away, he alone had the power to forgive Gabriel. And with the realization of his power came the sweet temptation to use it."

Power where least expected. Love and romance where most dangerous. Where can it all lead? Somewhere bittersweet, somewhere fine, somewhere terrible.

Read this with your heart. S.A. Reid has made me open mine, grabbing me and never letting go.

Tom

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done shades of grey. December 10, 2011

By C Green

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this story on the strength of the 1st story I read by this author Something Different This story has the same depth of characters. What I really like is how well the shades of grey are done. There is no black and white. No one in the story is completely innocent. Either by action or inaction they have caused harm. The start between our characters is very rocky and there are mixed emotions and pragmatism to begin that gradually builds to respect and love. The setting has a lot of danger to it. So you don't know what will happen when the intelligent main character loses some control and tells a guard some uncomfortable truths about himself. You end up caring about these faulty characters. Plus unlike many other stories in the m/m genre this is better written, longer and cheaper. Recommended.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly fantastic historical and erotic experience December 13, 2011

By Alernun

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

One of the things I really admire about Reid's writing is her ability to make the reader feel feral love for fallible people. In Protection, she earned my undying love of Gabriel, Joey, Lonnie, and even McGrory by sucking me in from the get-go with clean-as-a-whistle prose and a captivating point of view in the form of McKenna, a man who starts with negative respect points and grows into a man I wept for. As a love story between men, Protection is almost flawless, the chemistry between Michael and Joey resonating as authentic to these queer eyes; not too flowery, not to sentimental, but real, sometimes painful, and always charged. Finally, the book stands up to its test of time and place; Reid tells her story with painstaking attention to historical detail and finds a way for the characters and the circumstances to mesh into her desired conclusion that is perfectly crafted, but not in the Ian McEwan, contrived sort of way.

All in all, a roaring good read, and one of my all-time favorite novels. This one's an author to watch!