Book Review: In the Ring by James Lear

Reviewed by Emilie

Title: In the Ring
Author: James Lear
Series: Dan Stagg Mystery #3
Heroes: Dan Stagg
Genre: MM Erotica
Length: 296 Pages
Publisher: Cleis Press
Release Date: May 8, 2018
Available at:  Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  In this latest Dan Stagg novel, we find that Dan Stagg is dead . . . at least as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

In the Ring brings Dan Stagg to James Bond territory in an exciting story of concealed identities, beautiful double agents, corruption, power, and passion.

Review: Unfortunately, I didn’t like this one as much as the previous in the series. I still love Dan and the author’s writing style is still really fun, but the plot was seriously lacking in this one. Sure, you don’t really read James Lear for the plot, but still, this one stretched reality a bit too far for me. Killed to be hired by the CIA to work for MI6 so he can fuck his way into a crime organization. That’s the premise. I’ll leave you to discover where that leads.

That being said, I’m not sure a lot of people go into James Lear for his plot. It’s erotic fiction after all, everything is a way to lead the characters to sex, the plot is just the extra bonus. But, in previous books in the series, the plot did make sense which made me want to keep turning pages to know what would happen next.

The erotic part of the book though? Well… let’s just say you shouldn’t read this in public folks because James Lear can write sex like nobody’s business. It’s hot, filthy, sometimes borderline but it works. Every. Single. Time.

It is a really fun book, and if you’ve loved the previous ones in the series, I highly recommend it if only because of Dan. And the writing style. I wouldn’t recommend reading this without the previous books though, because a lot happened in books 1 and 2 that shaped the character now. Dan isn’t the guy we met at the beginning of book 1.

Overall Impression: I really liked it!

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*