First of all, I really enjoy this series! (Especially since Joel Leslie started narrating) I love how many important and relevant topics TM Smith manages to get into the stories along w/ very sexy scenes and potent romance. I love that the variety of reasons bringing the characters into adult video and the impact this has on them and those who matter to them is explored so well. These stories are also about Inclusiveness and made family. And here is where I run into a glitch: Isaiah/Izzy.
I was disappointed we never got Gabe and Gio’s story and upset w/ how it ended. But to have the only other black love interest in the series not only killed off before we meet him, but a drug addict as well, really doesn’t sit well w/ me. I like that TM Smith’s guys are comfortable w/ interracial relationships, but why aren’t they allowed to work out?
Why couldn’t Beau the restaurateur and LGBTQIA youth center owner be of Haitian Creole descent and Izzy the addict and AIDS fatality be white Cajun? Give him nice long braids/dreads and goatee instead of long hair and beard… I think William/Connor would have loved him either way. 2 stars for (hopefully) unintentional profiling, 6 stars for rest of story: 4 stars for story
Glitch2: Joel Leslie has an amazing repertoire of character voices in great American/British/Australian accents! Sadly his Cajun/Haitian/NOLA accents are awkward at best. Ok for a minor character but for a main character, it kept pulling me out of the story. Part of it may have been how TM Smith wrote dialect, but either way it pulled the performance down to 3 starts for me.
Without these glitches its 4 or 5 stars all the way, so worth a credit!