Penny’s Rating: A+
Please Be Advised: This review contains Mature Content.
My safe word will forever be Violet, and it is all Heidi Cullinan’s fault. Oh. My. GOD. Oh my freaking GOD! I can honestly say that I have loved everything I have ever read by Heidi Cullinan, but this book, oh my GOD. This is the hottest book I have read so far in 2012. I absolutely LOVED it! I read Special Delivery back in May, immediately followed by: Double Blind (Special Delivery, #2), which is equally awesome and hot, and a perfect companion to the story from SD #1. Anyway, I knew I needed to do a review for Special Delivery so I could rave about how freaking amazing, awesome, and sexy I think this book is. I also apologize for the number of times I am going to say “Oh my God.” in this review. It will probably get old by the end of it, but you can just deal.
Here’s the description from Dreamspinner Press: Sam Keller knows he’ll never find the excitement he craves in Middleton, Iowa–not while he’s busting his ass in nursing school and paying rent by slaving away in a pharmacy stockroom. But before his mother died, he promised her he’d grow up to be a good man, so he needs a stable career and a good husband, not a dead-end job and empty sex. Then Sam meets Mitch Tedsoe, an independent trucker who makes a delivery to a shop across the alley. Innocent flirting quickly leads to an affair, and when Mitch offers to take Sam on a road trip west, Sam jumps at the chance for adventure with his fantasy man… but Mitch also comes with a past. A threesome with the other man in Mitch’s life would have been just another kinky ride, but somewhere between the Mississippi River and the Colorado Rockies, Sam falls in love. But can a relationship born out of escape and indulgence become something that lasts? Will a fantasy man be willing to settle down into reality, or is the adventure and excitement Sam finds with Mitch just another stop on a delivery man’s journey? For better or for worse, eventually Sam is going to discover the answer, because no matter how far away he travels, eventually all roads lead home.
Okay, back to my review. The Characters: I love Sam Keller (aka Peaches, aka Sunshine). He is quite possibly the most adorable imaginary gay man on the planet. I want to keep him. He is absolutely the perfect match for rugged trucker Mitch Tedsoe. Together they have some of the hottest sex that I have ever read in a novel. Even Mitch’s past lover, Randy, is impossible to hate, even though you really want to kick his ass when Sam and Mitch ride into town, (a little over halfway through the book), and everyone is forced to deal with Mitch and Randy’s past history.
The SEX: (I realize I am repeating myself, but…) Oh my God, OMG the SEX! I’m having palpitations just thinking about it. The sexual adventures in this book contain what, for me anyway, was the perfect amount of kink. With a capital K. For the purposed of this review, I’m calling it: Goldilocks kink. I’m calling it that because even the scenes that get a bit intense, (i.e. tied-up, cum-spattered-everywhere, vibrating-plug-up-thoroughly-spanked-ass intense) are filled with love and passion. Every encounter is fully consensual, and everyone feels safe, which for me personally is a big deal. There are incidences of spanking, tying up, and use of several toys. There are also multiple scenes that include menage, which to be honest, isn’t always something that works for me, but WOW. All I can say is there are some very hot scenes, and that even the stuff that I was a little f#$ked up for me was mind-blowingly hot. P.S.- The storyline surrounding the menage stuff works too. Beautifully. Those of you who have read other stories with menage scenes know how contrived, trite, gratuitous, and poorly written they can often be. This is not one of those. This is poetry. Poetry with Goldilocks kink.
I think one of the reasons I found this book to be so freaking hot, is that I fell head over heels in love with the characters, and was cheering for them every step of the way. Heidi writes them as real people, and I got completely wrapped up in the world she created. It is a beautifully told story about people finding each other, finding themselves, and falling in love, all wrapped up with a Goldilocks kink bow. With whipped cream. And Peaches.
I am not telling you anything else that happens in the story. Go get it already! This is a must read for all M/M romance fans. What are you waiting for? Also, thank you to rock-star Heidi Cullinan for writing such a freaking epic sexy novel.
ISBN13: 2940043319852
edition language: English
original title: Special Delivery (Special Delivery, #1)
url: http://www.heidicullinan.com/books/special-delivery
literary awards: Rainbow Awards for Best Gay Erotic Contemporary & Best Writing Style (2010)