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Posted in My Likes and Dislikes

The Collateral Part 1

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Please remember that this story is set in a dystopian future where the illegal immigration problem was solved by reducing people to slavery. Is it dark? Yes, Is it against our current laws? Yes. Could it happen? One last time, I feel compelled to answer “Yes.” – Reluctant Retiree

“It’s just a formality.”: An Intense MM Dystopian Saga

This isn’t supposed to happen to guys like me. I’m not a criminal or an illegal alien. I’m a middle-class boy from a good family.

But my dad’s business hit a rough patch, and he needed a loan to save it. And he only had one asset left that the bank would accept as collateral.

Me.

Dad said that it wouldn’t be so bad. That it would only be for a few years, and I’d be a free man again as soon as he paid off the loan. He made it sound like I’d be waiting tables or mowing lawns. Hard work that would “build character,” he told me.

But Dad hadn’t thought about how things would change once I was in the collar.Or what other uses the bank might find for a blond eighteen-year-old slave.

Note: This is the start of an intense dystopian MM saga. While the series ends in an HEA, the first few books are a descent into the shadows. Expect high angst, psychological intensity, and a hero pushed to his limits.

The Reviews!

The Collateral — Part 1: “It’s just a formality.”: An Intense MM Dystopian Saga by Josh Hunter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a great start to the series!

Let me recap what we have learned about our main characters:
1. Dominic (the father) is a restaurant owner who has no idea how to change with the times. When the town was booming, he built a successful restaurant business. However, when things in the town went downhill, he either had no idea how to keep his business afloat, or was unwilling to make the necessary changes.
2. Doug (the older brother) apparently has been a bully all his life. Unfortunately as he has endeared himself to his father, he can do no wrong in his father’s eyes. Doug is the one who convinced his father to talk Wes into becoming a slave so Dominic can use Wes as collateral for a loan. Dominic apparently hasn’t researched anything about owning a slave but you can be sure that Doug has.
3. Wes (main character) is within mere weeks of turning 18 and becoming a citizen. Unfortunately the only way his father can get a loan to save the family restaurant is for Wes to be enslaved and used as collateral for the loan. Wes loves his little sister and doesn’t want to see her homeless. So he naively believes his father’s promises.

View all my reviews 
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars 
A great dystopian novel
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2025
Verified Purchase
The Collateral is a great dystopian novel masquerading as an mm dark romance/erotica. Set in an ordinary California town in a future not so far away (and startlingly realistic) where slavery is back as a way of solving the problem of rounding up undocumented workers en masse, it chronicles the slow and steady degradation of Wes, an ordinary middle-class blond, blue-eyed teenager who agrees to allow himself be enslaved for four years to solve his father’s money problems, as a way of getting his father to love him. He is so naïve, so innocent.
In the first volume, the outline of his likely future is laid out in some telling short episodes: as a slave, he is simply regarded as a sexual object. The power of the enslaver to abuse slaves sexually, to make them the object of sexual violence and humiliation, is at the heart of slavery (shades of Toni Morrison and any other number of Black theorists) in Hunter’s analysis: this is where the genre of gay erotica and dystopian novel overlap. Most of his father’s promises to him are quickly broken within the first few hours of his enslavement: this first installment only covers a few hours, with some backstory. It only gets worse. This series really got me by the throat, in part because it uses the violence that is now being made visible in our politics and takes it one step further. Is this our future?
Posted in Book Tours

Forrest House

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Forrest House
E.M. Hamill
Publication date: January 11th 2026
Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Ander Forrest renounced blood magic to become a nurse-healer in his rural hometown, far from the drama of wizardry and espionage his sister Kate craved. When Kate goes missing in action, Ander finds himself the legal guardian of her gifted twins and receives a cryptic warning from Kate’s husband to protect them before he, too, disappears.

Six months later, his former lover crash lands in the kids’ bedroom via a spell only Ander’s sister could have cast. Druid Cai Piper doesn’t remember how he got there, but he knows he never stopped loving Ander, and that he was sent to protect him and the twins. Cai is strangely drawn to Forrest House and the land it stands upon.

With the secrets of a clandestine wizards’ order hanging between them, Cai and Ander must remember how to trust each other as sinister forces move against the Forrest family—magical terrorists who want to exploit their rare sorcery and bring the world to its knees.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

Cai cleared his throat. “You said I’m in America?”

“Yeah.”

“And if I was sent by a bloodspell, does that mean Remy and Raven are here?”

“Well, of course.” Ander blinked as Cai closed his eyes and sighed. He wasn’t sure if it was relief or defeat. “You didn’t know,” he said.

“No. Edwyn kept it a secret, even from me.” His fingers touched the blood-matted knot at the back of his head in tentative exploration. “I must have been out. I would never have let him send me otherwise. He was bleeding badly.” His hand tapped an area high and to the outside on his left leg. “Shot in the thigh.”

Ander thought of all the major blood vessels there and breathed a plea to the Goddess that none were severed. “I didn’t think the Fellowship used bullets.”

“We don’t. We were on a joint mission with intelligence agents. Someone started lobbing spells at us and our allies turned and shot each other. He was hit in the crossfire.”

“A Judas spell?” Ander frowned.

“I think so.”

“Were you working with British intelligence?”

Cai opened his mouth to answer, then flinched and rubbed both sides of his head. “Some of my memories are missing. It’s painful to think about.”

“I think you might have a concussion.”

“Maybe. But this feels more like it was blocked by a spell.”

“By Edwyn?”

“I don’t think he would have had time. Not surrounded by guns and magic.” His breath became uneven again, and he sat unsteadily on the bed. “The harder I try to think about it, the more it hurts.”

“Don’t try right now.” Ander came closer and put his fingers under Cai’s jaw, forcing him to look up so he could peer into his eyes. Still no signs of a more serious head injury, but he wasn’t satisfied until he ran his fingers under Cai’s clotted hair to cradle the bruised lump beneath his palm, his senses open for new bleeding. He didn’t discover any.

Cai stared at him as he pulled away, his face inches from Ander’s. They both became aware at the same time of how close he was standing, his hands gentle on the back of Cai’s head as if he were going to draw him into a kiss. Ander slowly stepped back.

“I have to find a way to get back to…” Cai frowned. “To…damn it! They took that, too. I don’t know where we were.” He looked to Ander with a desolate gaze. “I don’t even know if Edwyn’s alive.”

“You can’t ask the Fellowship?”

He stiffened. “No, I can’t.”

“I’d feel better if I could get you to a hospital.”

“I’ll be fine. I think it’s clear I’m meant to protect you and the twins.”

“Protect us from what?” He sat on the bed next to him. “What’s going on, Cai? Why wouldn’t Ed tell you where the kids were?”

He didn’t answer, his gaze slipping sideways.

Ander had not missed this infuriating silence. Kate had pushed Ander away with it, Edwyn maintained it, and Cai had used it to shut down questions when they were together.

He’d left Wales and come home because the people he loved most in the world could barely talk to him unless he was inducted into the Fellowship.

Fury rose in scarlet floods with Cai’s refusal to speak. Ander let it crest. “That’s fantastic. Of course you can’t say anything. Then tell me how to protect them and get the fuck out.”

“You don’t—”

“They’re all I have left of Kate! I need to know how to protect them!”

“If you’re going to shout at me, then I will take that paracetamol now.” His voice was soft, defeated. A crease furrowed the skin between his brows, and the tight lines of his body spoke of more pain than a headache. Ander didn’t have to imagine the grief of not knowing if his brother was dead or alive. He knew only too well.

“I’m sorry.” Ander exhaled, forcing himself to calm. “We aren’t done,” he said in a less strident tone. “You will tell me what’s going on. Fuck the Fellowship and your code of secrecy! Those kids are my priority now. They’ve already lost their mother, and now maybe their father. No more.”

To his surprise, Cai nodded. “I promise I will tell you what I know.”

Disconcerted by his unexpected victory, Ander reluctantly let his anger drain away.

“Are you hungry? I’m making dinner.”

“Starving. I can’t recall when I last ate anything.”

“It’ll be ready in half an hour. Make sure you drink the rest of that water.” He turned to go.

“Ander.” Cai’s expression was gentle as Ander looked back over his shoulder. “It’s good to see you.”


Author Bio:

E.M. (Elisabeth) Hamill writes adult science fiction and fantasy somewhere in the wilds of eastern suburban Kansas. A nurse by day, wordsmith by night, she is happy to give her geeky imagination free rein and has sworn never to grow up and get boring.

She lives with her family, where they fend off flying monkey attacks and prep for the zombie apocalypse.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Newsletter


GIVEAWAY!

Forrest House Blitz

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Posted in #Classics

Tom Clancy Defense Protocol (Jack Ryan Book 25)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

The stakes are sky-high when a power-mad Chinese president threatens Taiwan in the #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Ryan series.
 
For decades, Taiwan has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese government. An independent nation to the rest of the world, it is considered a rogue province by the PRC. Previous governments have tried to conquer the island using economic force and diplomatic pressure, but new Chinese President Li Jian Jun is done fooling around. He’s devised a secret military operation to take the island. Only one man knows how to stop Li’s mad and bloody plan for reunification and that’s Minister of Defense Qin Haiyu. Fearing for his life and the safety of his family, Qin covertly makes contact with the CIA in Beijing and signals his desire to defect to the West.
 
To get Qin out, John Clark creates an international task force reminiscent of Rainbow Six and goes undercover in mainland China. Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Katie Ryan is deployed to the tip of the spear on the destroyer USS Jason Dunham to defend Taiwan. Threatened by an encircling Chinese armada, she’s under pressure to find a flaw in the invaders’ plan for her father to exploit.
 
For his part, President Jack Ryan may have the power of the entire US military at his disposal, but what he really needs are Li’s secret plans from Defense Minister Qin so he can stave off a war. Because America’s Defense Protocol could lead to a game of mutual destruction that could cost the lives of thousands of young soldiers, sailors, special operators as well as his daughter.

Posted in #Romance

A Tiger’s Tale (Arrowtown Book 1) 

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Seth Carmichael never did anything wrong, but instead of working at the local library, he was running for his life. His herd was hunting him and with few resources, Seth’s options were fading fast. Until, that is, he heard the rumble of a motorcycle. Peeking through the tree he was hiding in, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Had salvation come in the form of a badass biker?

Ra (no last name and proud of it) was a tiger on a mission. He’d scented his mate and then the little rabbit ran away before his teeth could engage. Ra heard the gossip around Arrowtown; he knew his mate was a hunted man. But if the sweet man was on the run, he needed someone to look after him; Ra figured he was the right man for the job.

A meeting, a mating and yet another meeting. What should have been a straight forward relationship turned into so much more on their very first outing as a mated couple. Now Ra has to count on the strength of his mate and the help of his friends, if he and Seth are ever to have the HEA they’d planned for. And what was with all these Fae turning up out of the blue?

Warning: Contains a tiger who keeps putting his foot in it; a tiny lop-eared rabbit who is stronger than he looks and a bunch of friends who’ll hide a body, no questions asked.

Posted in #Classics

Tom Clancy Act of Defiance (Jack Ryan Book 24)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A rogue nuclear Russian submarine is steaming toward the East Coast of the United States. For President Jack Ryan, memories of past events may seem stunningly vivid, but the dangers are terrifyingly real in the latest entry in this #1 New York Times bestselling series.

US intelligence is reporting turmoil in the Russian navy. Their deadliest submarine, the Belgorod, has unexpectedly launched, and taken along with it a long list of questions. Who authorized the departure? What mission is it on? And, most disturbing of all, what weapons do the giant doors on the sub’s bow hide?

It’s been four decades since a similar incident with the Soviet sub, Red October, ended happily, thanks to a young CIA analyst named Jack Ryan.

Now, President Jack Ryan finds himself with fleets of ships, squadrons of jets, and teams of SEALs at his command, but what he doesn’t have is insight into the plans of the Belgorod’s commander. It falls to a younger generation of Ryans to do the dangerous work that will reveal that information.

But there’s always a price to be paid. When the final moments tick away, will Jack Ryan have to choose between the safety of his country and the safety of his child?