UST, Action and HOTNESS

Any additional comments?

This is one of my favorite Mary Calmes books (oh, who am I kidding, almost all of her books are my “favorites”!) and I just love the relationship between Miro and Ian. It’s a bit of a slow burn – but the payoff for that is huge.

31 year old Deputy US Marshal Miro Jones, raised in an unloving, neglected foster home environment, he considers his four female college roommates and fellow Marshalls his family. 36 year old Deputy US Marshall Ian Doyle, a product of a broken home, currently (and reluctantly) re-establishing a relationship with his estranged father after the death of his mother and dating a beautiful, understanding woman named Emma. He also owns a giant, scary looking dog named Chickie Baby.

Miro and Ian have been partners on the Marshall’s team for three years and have grown incredibly close. They are the best of friends and have an excellent working relationship. The story is told from Miro’s POV so we see quite quickly and clearly that he is hopelessly, stupidly head-over-heels in love and lust with Ian. What we also see, that Miro seems NOT to see, is that Ian is ridiculously dependent on Miro’s company and comfort to get him through his own daily life. The subtle hints, glances and slow burn are FANTASTIC here and the build up to the first kiss just about KILLED me!

The dominance and submission, without it actually being D/s, is H.O.T.!! Miro takes charge of Ian and it’s unexpected, but beautiful.


He took a breath. “I think there’s a reason I’m shitty in bed.”
I felt myself frowning, unhappy with him running himself down. “Which is?”
“I think it’s ’cause I’ve never been in bed with you.”


And the action, of which there is a lot, is really fun to read (or listen to).

Narrator Tristan James is AWESOME. I would buy almost anything read by Tristan James because I love this man’s voice but what he does for Miro and Ian? Pure poetry.

This is one of those books that gets better every time I read or listen to it!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

17 people found this helpful

Law man yummy

This is a great listen from two of my favorites, Mary Calmes and Tristan James -- what a wonderful team. This is sort of a spin off of the Matter of Time series (one of my all time favorites) focusing on the relationship between two of Sam Kage's Deputy US Marshalls, Miro and Ian. They are both alpha males in this GFY romance. Miro is openly gay and Ian is his "straight" partner. Lots of angst and action to lead to a HEA and hopefully more books about this couple. Also, Sam has a role and Jory makes a cameo, which is just great b/c I miss them soooo much. Tristan James is just wonderful as usually. Worth a credit.

15 people found this helpful

Another Winner

Where does All Kinds of Tied Down rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is up there... I have so many to choose from, but Tristan James nailed it!

What was one of the most memorable moments of All Kinds of Tied Down?

When Ian comes back from his last special forces mission and describes how he feels

Which character – as performed by Tristan James – was your favorite?

Both Miro and Ian

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, in the car ride, I had read the book so I knew the ending..

Any additional comments?

Great Job, Great audio

7 people found this helpful

Just a super sexy story!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Oh hell yes! Well written and spoken, this is the kind of book us fans of audios crave.

What did you like best about this story?

The way the relationship between the ML played out.

Have you listened to any of Tristan James’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Several, in fact, and I think this might be his best work to date. He is so good at nailing subtle nuances, inflections in tone, passion and just giving Calmes words the perfect voice.

If you could rename All Kinds of Tied Down, what would you call it?

Please, Tie me down!

Any additional comments?

Miro Jones and Ian Doyle are just two of the men that work on an elite team of US Marshalls led by Sam Kage. Miro was in and out of foster homes as a child, got into a little trouble but he always looked up to the men in uniform. He could have gone in a completely different direction with his life, but instead of lashing out at the lot life dealt him, he wanted to be like the men that protected him.

Ian is a seasoned soldier first, and a US Marshall second. He spends almost as much time away and on top secret missions as he does at home. Over the past few years as partners they’ve built a unique partnership based on friendship, mutual admiration and the ability to trust each other with their lives. While Miro fell for Ian a long time ago, he knows that Ian is straight, so he locks away those feelings behind a door so thick that when Ian starts acting different toward him, Miro doesn’t even notice.

While Ian is away on a mission, Miro is injured while transporting a witness and Ian is less than pleased when he finally finds out about it. You see, while Ian could test the patience of a saint, Miro should buy stock in an insurance company, he gets injured on the job THAT much! When Miro heads out to transport their next witness, he’s a little surprised to find Ian waiting at the airport for him. What is completely unexpected is the way Ian looks at him and visibly shudders when Miro touches him.

From here these two pretty much hit the ground running, going from partners and best friends to lovers in the blink of an eye. The pompous ass with more money than common sense that also happens to be the homophobic father of their current witness’s lover threatens to get them both killed before the sweat that drenched them just a few hours ago even dries.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story from start to finish. Very nice to catch up with where Sam Kage is after the series of events in the Matter of Times books, but the main focus of this story is Miro and Ian. Miro has spent three years learning how to navigate his intense feelings for his partner. Convinced that Ian is straight and will never be his, he gets so good at ignoring his reaction to Ian that he misses Ian’s change in feelings toward him. Ian, lovingly referred to by their fellow Marshall’s as Captain America, doesn’t even try to avoid his feelings for Miro. What Ian struggles with is the urge to stake his claim on Miro, and how to express those feelings and that need out loud.

Narrated by Tristan James, his voice was the perfect compliment to the characters Calmes created for this story. There was a push and pull between them as partners that bleed over into their sexual relationship, but in a role reversal of sorts. While Ian is very protective and demanding at work, Miro takes the lead in the bedroom. Ian has to be on his game 24/7 at work and when he is on a mission, what he wants, no needs in his personal life is for someone else to take that control. And Miro gladly accepts the challenge.

This was a very sexy and steamy read, full of action and suspense and James did a splendid job of conveying all those emotions and circumstances, and then some. From the camaraderie between Miro and Ian in the beginning to the foreplay in the middle, and then finally the passion in the end. I highly recommend this audible to fans of Calmes writing and/or James narration. I am crossing my fingers that there will be another book for these guys, Calmes wrote in enough scenarios to comfortably give them a sequel, if not their own series.

6 people found this helpful

Need a sequel!!!

Love these alpha m/m stories! Especially the way Ms. Calmes pens them. Although Mr. James narration is good, I wish he would do different voices for the MC's so you knew who was talking,

4 people found this helpful

More like a fanfic I ended having to pay for

Calmes is better than this. Much better. This felt like Calmes decided to write a piece of fanfic about characters from a totally new tv series no ones ever heard of. We are thrust into the lives of two US Marshalls, Miro and Ian, at a point when the fanfic author has decided to make the unrequited love/lust mutual. Sort of like an NCIS Gibbs/Tony slash, except NCIS fans would already have the advantage of knowing the two men's history, their quirks and familiar fanfic tropes.

Not so in Calmes story. You'd think making her MCs US Marshalls would mean you can expect a suspense/action plot. It doesn't. It's just a profession she slapped on. They could have been a pair of insurance agents or used car dealers.

It's not a bad story. Just not up to Calmes standard, that's all. Throwing in a Sam Cage sighting doesn't cut it with me. I was pissed that one my favorite gay MCs was so cavalierly exploited.

3 people found this helpful

Really great friends to lovers

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed this book. I started off listening to the audiobook, but I actually ended up reading it instead. I think that Tristan James has a nice voice, but unfortunately there is a lot of back and forth dialogue in this book, and the voices he does for the two MCs just aren't different enough for me to distinguish who was talking and I found myself getting confused. Also, his voices for women are just terrible, maybe not the worst I've heard, but still pretty bad. I would recommend reading rather than listening.

3 people found this helpful

Why did I wait so long!?!?!?

This was so good I'm kicking myself for forgetting about this book! Beautifully narrated and wonderfully masculine, sexy and tantalizing - love this book love these characters - and had to get books 2 & 3 downloaded immediately! Ian and Miro are wonderful - from the word go. I can't believe they existed as platonic partners for so long! I couldn't quit listening, lost sleep over this! Will listen to again!

2 people found this helpful

Disappointing for this author

I was disappointed with this book because several years ago one of the first books I read in this genre was "A matter of time". I also read all the follow up books to that one and enjoyed all of them. What disappointed me here was that the two main characters once again are perfect hunks, guys who may have just stepped out of the GQ magazine. They are rough tough men's men types who all the girls would want and also the guys! They don't seem to have any imperfections and us there's no conflict in the story between them. The majority of the story is just banter between the two and they don't really get together for a love scene until about the 14th chapter. Since I've gotten into these kinds of books I have found authors who write characters who are real, not perfect with the flaws and problems common to everyone so you can identify with these characters. The perfect 6 foot males in this story just leave me feeling in adequate and lacking. She writes really well but I would hope she would start introducing some "real" characters and her future stories. As for the narrating, Tristan James is great as usual but sometimes I did wonder which of the main characters was talking since he didn't really do very different voices for the two of them. Overall though his voice is easy to listen to and his narrating is generally good. He was the only reason I was able to listen to this whole story actually.

2 people found this helpful

Yawns & Eye Rolls

I'm thinking fans of gay romance give very generous critiques--especially this one with a 4 1/2 star average rating at time of purchase. This one was a huge yawn for me, with lots of eye rolling thrown in. In this rainbows and sunshine feel good story, there's just not much story. In fact, it's really nothing more than a series of vignettes that presumably allow us to see how these two guys come to realize they love each other. I expected some over-arching story to hold the whole thing together, but it just wasn't there. Think of something like the corny TV series "Castle," where every week they're off on some adventure but over the course of resolving all those little adventures, they eventually realize they love each other. Now imagine that scenario with two really burly dudes who get along shockingly well doing a Marshall's job instead of detective work. The premise that U.S. Marshalls get shot every few weeks in completely unrelated assignments, and that apparently in this make believe world, every man these two guys know are either openly gay, privately gay, or completely non-homophobic even though they work in an industry that's known for it's homophobia is just completely laughable. I get that it's fantasy, but it was just too exaggerated for me, plus I'm miffed I didn't get the big action adventure story one would suspect from the cover and summary. On the positive side, the narrator did a very nice job, although more differentiation in the two lead characters' voices would have been appreciated. I'd certainly listen to this narrator again, but I definitely will not be purchasing another book from this author. Sadly, the only reason I finished the book was because I was stuck in my car all by myself in the middle of nowhere with no way to download something else.

2 people found this helpful