King (The King Series) Paperback – Unabridged, June 17, 2015

What a beguiling way to end a drought!!! I was completely delighted to once again lose myself in a well written romance novel that took me to the gulf coast of Florida. T. M. Frazier is a new author to me and it is one of life’s great pleasures to find a romance author that checks all the boxes and writes so well. I have had to eschew reading and reviewing the entire month of October 2018…certainly not willingly. King is a magnetic, brooding, bad boy hero with all the enticing desirable and even not so desirable Alpha traits that make a girl go Mmm…a great hero with which to break my fast.The story itself begins with King having just been released from prison trying to adjust to his freedom and his new reality. We also meet our heroine, Doe, as she is a homeless waif living on the street who has lost all memory of who she is and where she belongs. The two collide at the rough and tumble, anything goes party for King’s return to freedom with a local MC club in attendance. Doe and her companion, Nicki, a street hooker and drug addict who has taken Doe under her protection, which is really not much protection, having decided to crash the party.Driven by the need for food and shelter, Doe is desperate enough to offer her body to any one of the male attendees of this party. As she wanders through the party house, she encounters King in a liaison that is best left behind a closed door. King is entranced straight off with Doe’s eyes and finds his satisfaction only because of looking in them.As the story progresses Brantley King has a love/hate feeling toward Doe. He pulls her close and pushes her away. He needs her near him and yet he will not touch her. He is deeply troubled man with a tragic past and a desire for a different life away from the criminality which consumes his present circumstances.The reader struggles along with Doe. As indiscernible as King is to the reader, Doe is an easy character to with whom to relate. We understand her, her confusion and the decisions she makes. Her pain becomes our pain and her joys become our joys.There is a pressure cooker level of sexual tension which builds from the beginning of the read. It is crazy AF hot!!! Oh, and just before the lid blows off, the author adds a little kicker that drives the reader crazy…it just adds a little extra “pow” to the eventuality. When you read it, you’ll know exactly what I mean.As the story moves forward, King as a character begins to take on new dimensions. His inner world opens up to us more and more. His decisions are surprising in the face of his burgeoning feelings. Of course, this only serves to add more sexiness to the already swoon worthy picture of the man. The supporting characters add depth and color to the entire presentation as well.I did notice that while at times the read is violent and gritty befitting the murky world of drug dealers, it is juxtaposed against some quirky, sweet and sentimental writing. That illegal marijuana is employed for a loved one’s end stage cancer pain or the idea of “granny growers” seems almost an indictment against keeping marijuana illegal? Just my observation.I’m certain you can tell by my review that it is thumbs up all the way from me for King Your heart will flutter. You may swoon. Hopefully, you will find the story as compelling and irresistible as I did and read on to the next book, Tyrant.Quotes:“Her taste, her tongue, the pull I’d felt toward her when she was first in my bed had exploded into something I couldn’t reign in. I lost myself in her for a good minute before I came to my senses. Stopping was the hardest thing I’d ever done even though the idea of taking my revenge out on her body made every part of me turn rock hard.” - King“I [loved] her until we were one person, and in a way we were, because I’d lost myself along the way, and I found myself again in the most unlikely place. I’d found myself again in the haunted eyes of a girl who was just as lost as I was. Or maybe, we didn’t find each other at all. Maybe, we just decided to be lost together.” - King“I gently scooped her up in my arms, and she weighed practically nothing. Even though she was visibly hurting and I was hurting for her, I remember that first feeling of holding her. Before she was even born, she became the most important thing in the world to me, but holding her sealed the deal. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. Nothing. I would hurt anyone and everyone who ever made my baby cry like that again. I would burn down cities for her. I fell to the ground with my back against the wall and rocked her until she calmed. I told her about all the things I was going to buy for her. I told her that daddy was here, that she was safe.” – King

The King series book 1. I've had this book in my TBR forever. I loved it. A fascinating story to read. And can totally be a movie. King and Doe. Made for each other on every level. King is a total badass alphahole and lives by his own rules. Due to some crazy ish Doe has no memory but she is stronger than she knows and her bad assert shows up in so many different ways. They literally have what the other needs and is scared of by it. There is Preppy and Bear that i just love so much. So much depth of characters. So twisty. Extra WTF craziness. High drama. Angsty on level10. Now add some crazy evil people and secrets that kill. You get this fanfreakingtastic book. Onto the next book.

Dottie (Reviewer here) recently read and reviewed King here at the blog. While I was editing her review I was intrigued and I knew it was a book I would need to put on my TBR list. The second I finished editing her review and making the post I pulled out my kindle and bought King. I dove in the minute I finished the book I was currently reading. Through going to book events this year and talking to other book readers I have felt that a lot of what I read is in the same box. So lately I have been making a conscious effort to step outside that box and let me tell you I’ve been loving it.King is a ‘life-of-crime’ suspenseful romance novel. It is the type of dark (if you will) romance I have been looking for. Often times when I get book recommendations for dark romances they are just not for me. They usually end up being a DNF for me or after reading I just feel spent from the depths of the darkness. I believe King can be considered dark romance but it’s done in a way that doesn’t leave you feeling like you just got hit by a bus afterwards. T.M. Frazier mixes in light when appropriate and doesn’t take the dark to an uncomfortable level. King lives a life surrounded by members of an MC even though he is not a member himself. The women that surround them aren’t your ‘girls next store’ types. King and his best friend Preppy don’t follow standard rules of society and have made sure they would make a name for themselves in their Florida community. King does what he pleases and doesn’t let anyone mess with him or Preppy.Doe doesn’t know whom she is, where she came from, or anything about her past. She’s looking for a way to survive that will work for who she has to be right now and not betray who she once may have been. When Doe meets King she fears him except her body betrays those feelings with a wild attraction. There is no wooing or courting from the proclaimed King of the Causeway. Yet despite their non-traditional and frankly not even positive meeting you can feel the chemistry between these two while reading.“I think you are the most stubborn, overbearing, anger inducing, obnoxious, complicated, and beautiful man that has ever lived.”I think the above quote sums up King and the way Doe feels toward him pretty well. I enjoyed seeing the evolution of a dark man realizing this girl is different for him. He makes mistakes and fumbles with his feelings. Sometimes he has an odd way of demonstrating he cares but it was entertaining to read the confusion from Doe’s POV and endearing to read the intentions from King’s POV. Preppy helps King along the way in giving him a hard shove in Doe’s direction. He’s been King’s best friend since they were children and he knows a heart to heart about this sort of thing won’t work with King’s stubbornness and Preppy has to get things done by poking the bear (no pun intended here, not the actual character Bear from this story lol). So we the readers get to enjoy the ribbing as entertainment on the journey.But there are secrets… yes BIG secrets and it seems King may hold many of the answers. Also a dangerous life of crime brings it’s own threats to the couple and the story. Life in this story land is not rainbows and butterflies but drugs and guns…whores and parties…MC’s and rivals… and that’s just from King’s side. We have no idea what awaits us if and when we hear from Doe’s side. King is labeled as a mystery/suspense and while reading I was thinking ‘well this isn’t too mysterious…there’s not that much hidden away except for Doe’s identity’. Then it’s like a bomb drops and man were my thoughts WRONG. T.M. Frazier got me good! I didn’t see any of it coming. I was up on the lookout towers painting my nails or staring into the sun or something because I didn’t see it coming until it was over. After I finished I immediately went to my kindle book store to see how long I was going to have to wait for Tyrant (Book 2) and luckily it’s not too long of a wait. Still though… I’m waiting on pins and needles here!King was a great venture out of my reading comfort zone. It mixed in everything I could ask for in a book from this genre. Doe is waiting to see if King is a bad boy but a good man and I am doing the same patiently (yah, sure…we’ll go with patiently) waiting for Tyrant. But let’s face it he’ll always have that bad boy edge and I’m perfectly okay with that, great actually. I can’t wait to find out what’s next, figure out what the hell is going on with Doe, and find out if these two get a HEA (fingers crossed)! If dark isn’t something you have ventured into in the romance world I believe King is a great book to get your toes wet with. It helped me consider trying it more often. Besides the dark element though there is so much more to this story, it’s beautifully written, the characters are original and lovable, and I’m telling you the secrets are jaw droppingly juicy.