How One Amazing Book Turned Me Into a "Hot Head"!

Greetings Frothy Friends! As Britney Spears once said, "It's been awhile, I know I shouldn't have kept you waiting!" I'm practically frothing at the mouth to extol the virtues of the amazing novel Hot Head by Damon Suede.

The book came up awhile ago as a recommendation from a friend. Only recently I got around to purchasing it and it totally blew me away! Suede creates a rich world for his main characters Griff and Dante, and I was mesmerized. Here is the official plot blurb:

Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, Dante Anastagio. Unfortunately, Dante is strictly a ladies’ man, and the FDNY isn’t exactly gay-friendly. For ten years, Griff has hidden his heart in a half-life of public heroics and private anguish.

Griff’s caution and Dante’s cockiness make them an unbeatable team. To protect his buddy, there’s nothing Griff wouldn’t do… until a nearly bankrupt Dante proposes the worst possible solution: HotHead.com, a gay porn website where uniformed hunks get down and dirty. And Dante wants them to appear there—together. Griff may have to guard his heart and live out his darkest fantasies on camera. Can he rescue the man he loves without wrecking their careers, their families, or their friendship?

I adored the characters in the novel, and Suede has a velvet touch when it comes to instilling passion into their respective journeys. I even cried during one of the later scenes in the book where some of the major plot points start coming together. Overall, the novel brings to life a vivid, heartfelt bond between Griff and Dante that really resonates.

I also give credit for the author's ability to capture that very intangible sense of when attraction and affection radiate between people with the smallest of indicators. It's a difficult feeling to translate, but as captured through Head, it's an electric jolt of yearning and desire weighed against potentially disastrous misunderstandings.

While some readers may scoff about the porn aspects of the book, the world of Griff and Dante is so fully realized that it flows pretty naturally with the story. It's also...er...handled in a way that scorches through the pages with heat! (The porn plot also made me wonder how raunchy it sounds to say that I loved plowing through the book and couldn't wait to finish it off...)

So what are you waiting for? Buy the book! If you're still not convinced, check out Damon Suede's page for reviews and an excerpt. You can purchase it through online retailers like Amazon or all e-book dealers. Here are a few links:

Kobo Books

Amazon (Canada)

Dreamspinner Press

There's also an amazing interview Suede did with Romancing The Book that illustrates how much research, time and effort were made to get the story right. (There are spoilers, so I recommend reading the interview after the book.)

What really surprised me is how much the book touched me, and brought out repressed waves of emotion regarding my own romantic misadventures. Hot Head is the first piece of art to move me this way in a very long time, and I'm very appreciative for that! Head even reKindled my interest in working on my own writing again. It's funny that a a novel about firefighters ended up sparking a flame inside of me that I thought had petered out!