The Final Stroke by Daniel May (Taste of Ink #3)

Title: ⟫ The Final Stroke (The Taste of Ink Part 3)
Author: ⟫ Daniel May
Blurb: ⟫ “I’m not a people person, but I’m also not an idiot. I know what it looks like when someone is trying their best to sabotage a good thing.”

Trinket’s affair is coming to a close. After living with boyfriend Zee and side piece Mini under one roof for weeks, his ability to play the game has finally hit a wall. It isn’t just guilt, and it isn’t just the impracticality of cheating on Zee right under his nose. It’s the fact that Zee and Mini actually seem to <i>like</i> each other.

Zee’s patience seems like it can hold out forever, his care for Trinket expanding to cover the abrasive tattoo artist. As Mini settles in as house-guest, he gets cozy with more than Zee’s credit card. The two of them talk art, kink, and baggage. Opening up comes alongside new opportunities in the bedroom, and the inevitable question of ‘What’s next?’

When the time comes, Trinket isn’t the only one finally forced to make a choice.

Review: ⟫ I didn’t think this series could get any hotter but I was so, so wrong! How Trinket didn’t explode with having Mini and Zee under the same roof, I really don’t know! The relationship between Zee and Mini is incredible – it was like two lions circling each other and I was on the edge of my seat, wondering when/if they were going to attack each other!

I really didn’t know how this whole situation was going to be resolved – I couldn’t see how there could be a happy ever after with how things had started and I was fascinated to see just where it was going to go.

Daniel May handled this whole thing masterfully – Trinket, Mini and Zee felt real; their reactions, emotions, actions – it all felt real and I was immersed from the first page to the last. I wasn’t sure if there was any way in which I could be satisfied with how this trilogy ended but I completely am. There are too many ways in which I could spoil things and I am trying to be as vague as possible. All I can say is if you can get past the cheating angle, this series is a hot, intense read and I cannot recommend it enough.

5/5 from me and I may re-read once I’ve managed to get my brain cells together after reading all three of these books in one weekend.

I received an ARC from GRR. 

The Taste of Ink by Daniel May (Taste of Ink #1)

Title: ⟫ The Taste of Ink 

Author: ⟫ Daniel May 

Blurb: ⟫ "If he gives you everything you need, then why are you here?" 

 Trinket has everything he wants, and it’s not enough. 

Perfect boyfriend, Siebold AKA ‘Zee,’ adores him. It took years of mutual pining to confess their feelings, and Trinket should be elated to finally have what he wanted — but the night of their confession went horribly wrong. 

Two years later their relationship has yet to recover. 

Zee has the love, the money, the unending patience, but it isn’t enough. Trinket is still insecure in bed — even afraid. Despite his best efforts, Zee can do no right. 

Tattoo artist Mini can do no wrong. 

From the minute he and Trinket met — when Trinket tried in vain to mend his relationship with a two-year anniversary tattoo — no taboo has been off the table. 

Trinket didn’t mean to cheat. 

But he also doesn’t mean to stop, or to leave his boyfriend. For the first time in his life, he plans to get everything he needs, or lose it all trying. Everything will change — not just for himself, but for the two men he can't possibly choose between. 

The Taste of Ink is book one in a high heat, slow burn MMM trilogy with a happy ending. This trilogy was originally published as a series of seven books: A Taste of Ink, Lost in the Linework, A Guilty Canvas, A Stanza on Skin, A Darker Palette, The Color of Need, and a Final Stroke. The Taste of Ink contains content from the first three books. It has been lightly revised, with a few small changes and an extended ending in the third book. 

Review: ⟫ First of all, if cheating is a trigger for you, then don’t even think about picking up this book – the storyline is all about the cheating and the effects on the main relationship and there is no way to avoid it. 

With that out of the way, holy moly, Daniel May has done it again! 

This book is so hot, it’s practically steaming. 

As a person who has more than their fair share of tattoos, I completely agreed with what Mini said: once you’ve had one, you’re already planning the second on and so on. However, I have never had the reaction that Trinket has, and I’ve certainly never had that interaction with any of my tattoo artists (shame!) 

Trinket is fascinating – he seems so completely unaware of himself, of his feelings and watching as Mini peels back the layers of his character whilst tattooing him is completely fascinating. 

And his relationship with Zee is a bit like car-crash TV. You almost read the story between your fingers, waiting for disaster to strike with how completely Trinket is stumbling through this situation. 

The story is about Trinket figuring himself out as a person apart from Zee, learning his power and also what makes him tick. 

It is also incredibly hot and steamy, with some sections that literally made me feel hot and bothered in the extreme. I cannot wait for the next in the series as I found myself desperate to find out what happens between Mini and Trinket when Trinket doesn’t have to go home to his lover. 

I’ve never ready anything like this and completely loved it. 5/5 from me. 

I received an ARC from GRR.

The Guilty Canvas by Daniel May (The Taste of Ink Part 2)

Title: ⟫ The Guilty Canvas (The Taste of Ink Part 2) 

  Author: ⟫ Daniel May 

Blurb: ⟫ “If he gives you everything you need, then why are you here?”   

Trinket has everything he wants, and it’s not enough.   Perfect boyfriend, architect Siebold AKA ‘Zee,’ adores him. Originally best friends, it took them a long time to confess their feelings, and Trinket should be elated to finally have what he always wanted.   

But the night of their confession went horribly wrong. Two years later, their relationship has yet to recover. Zee has the love, the money, the unending patience, but it isn’t enough. Trinket is still insecure in bed — even afraid. Despite his best efforts, Zee can do no right.   

Tattoo artist Mini can do no wrong. From the minute he and Trinket met — when Trinket tries in vain to mend his relationship with a two-year anniversary tattoo — no taboo has been off the table.   

Trinket didn’t mean to cheat.   

But he also doesn’t mean to stop, or to leave his boyfriend. For the first time in his life, he plans to get everything he needs… or lose it all trying.   

  The Guilty Canvas is the second book in the revised Taste of Ink trilogy. It was originally published as the fourth through sixth books (A Stanza on Skin, A Darker Palette, and The Color of Need). The books contain one continuous plot-line, share the same characters, and cannot be read as standalone.   

The trilogy is an extremely high heat, slow burn MMM with a happy ending. 

  Review: ⟫ I’ll admit, I half thought that as this was part two of the trilogy that it might be a kind of ‘holding’ book but I was completely and utterly wrong. With Zee away, Trinket goes to stay with Mini to fully experience what they can be together, even though he has absolutely no intentions of leaving Zee. 

 And oh boy, does Mini deliver on the new experiences. I absolutely loved how well Mini seemed to understand Trinket – how he reins him in whilst allowing him to learn more about himself and what he desires. I also really enjoyed the way in which Trinket began to come into his power – he was beginning to really get the effect he had on Mini as well as Zee – and appreciate that he wasn’t just a cipher, there for other people’s desires. Trinket is really coming into his own. 

 The situation with Zee – how Trinket is taking what he learns from Mini and incorporating it into his relationship with Zee – was fascinating, and we get more of an insight into their whole thing. There is more detail on how they got together, that infamous night, and just how much Zee is under Trinket’s spell. 

 Zee became more of a real person in this instalment, which was fascinating since the premise of the book was ostensibly to show Trinket and Mini having uninterrupted time together. 

 Again, this was an extremely hot read, with Mini teaching Trinket some of the intricacies of BDSM – heavy on the sane, safe and consensual. This felt much less like a car-crash waiting to happen and more like a window into people’s lives, and an absolutely fascinating view it was too. I don’t know just how this is going to turn into a HEA but I cannot wait to find out! 

 Another 5/5 from me – insightful, sexy, fascinating, well-written and absolutely intriguing story. 

 I received an ARC from GRR.