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kbranfield's review
4.0
Mercy Celeste’s Beyond Complicated is an extremely hot and highly emotional story that ventures into taboo territory. To read my review in its entirety, please visit http://www.bookreviewsandmorebykathy.com/2012/06/06/beyond-complicated/
geofroggatt's review
3.0
After reading Going Home by Max Vos and loving it, I fell in love with gay taboo romance and erotica, and I decided to pick this up. For former porn star Liam McGuire, life is pretty tame, except that his twenty-one year old son is now dating the love of Liam’s life. At the ripe old age of thirty-eight, Liam’s entire world is collapsing around him, his past catching up with him, his secrets and his lies are coming back to bite him. All because Kel had to go and fall in love with Seth. The writing was fine, but there were many random and consistent spelling errors, and I noticed that many words were missing an “L” and spelled incorrectly throughout the book. Despite this, it did not ruin my ability to follow along with the story. I was surprised by how fleshed out the characters were. I love romance and erotica that don’t have characters that feel like caricatures, and I love storylines that have more weight than just a thin plot connecting various sex scenes. I loved Liam as a protagonist, he was very lovable and his backstory felt authentic and real. I liked that the darker parts of the story were given serious thought and fairly represented within the story. I liked the slow burn and slow buildup to three way relationship between the characters. The sex scenes were hot and the author does a great job at depicting these scenes without using words and terms that take the reader out of the moment and the story. I loved how the author deepened the story, characters and plot in the final 25% of the book, it made these characters feel like real people with real, complicated lives. I thought the ending was sudden, but interesting. I recommend this book for fans of gay romance books.
enayqueerbooklover's review against another edition
5.0
Honestly, I read this because I saw a review elsewhere that said they stopped reading it because there was too much sex. I didn’t expect an angsty, twisting & turning, original storyline that kept surprising me & that I couldn’t put down. The heat was off the Richter yes, but the story was never predictable and the characters were vivid & interesting too. Loved it. I like being surprised sometimes.
crtsjffrsn's review against another edition
2.0
The writing is not bad. The character development is not bad. And even the theme of the story is not bad. But the way it settles with the characters did not sit well with me at all. Kind of wish there was a better warning on the story itself but it would spoil a MAJOR plot point...
bgrrrl's review against another edition
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
zelda75's review against another edition
5.0
Omg! I really loved everything of this book! A Hot, sexy, kinky and full of love book! The best MMM book i've read so far!
colleen_m's review against another edition
4.0
Title: Beyond Complicated
Author: Mary Calmes
Series: N/A
Genre: M/M/M Romance
Main Characters:
Liam McGuire is a former porn star turned boring CPA. After a horrific misunderstanding break-up with the love of his life, and porn partner, Seth, he has been living half a life in Miami, just treading water.
Seth Vincent fell in love with Liam doing porn. They were together for six years, Seth thought they would be together the rest of their lives, until Liam leaves out of the blue, without understanding why.
Kelton has been dealing with having too many father figures his entire life, without actually understanding who his REAL father is. He knows he loves Liam, as a friend more than a father. So it’s better to just avoid him when the friend feelings start to shift.
Plot/Conflict:
So obviously the love triangle is a huge “beyond complicated” plot conflict. The base of the traingle is obviously Seth and Liam, they loved each other, they were together for six years. Seth never understood why Liam left, and it killed him to think that they were only ever together for the money their videos brought in. Meanwhile, Liam left for almost the same reason, with a background twist of course. Years later, Liam still can’t be with anyone.
The next leg of the triangle is Seth and Kel. They meet through a modeling contract, and quickly became enamored with each other. Dealing with a budding relationship, Kel decides to take Seth to meet Liam.
In all the Seth-is-back drama, it brings to light the repressed feelings that Kel and Liam have for each other. Obviously if you read other spoilers are reviews, it’s obvious as this is not labeled an incest book, you can infer from that what you will. Sharing Seth in common between them is enough to spark those feelings into being undeniable.
Loves:
God, the sex scenes made me feel positively pervy, but whatever, I rolled with it. I loved all the angst drama, more so the huge miscommunication between Seth and Liam rather than the Liam-loves-Kel and whose-the-baby-daddy drama.
Likes:
There was no magical solution to the three of them being together and it being fine with the world, their friends, their families, etc. This was a beyond complicated relationship and it was always going to be contentious with other people outside their relationship. Celeste didn’t wave a magic wand and make it acceptable.
Peeves:
If I was going back and writing it myself, I guess the perv factor would have been way less if. But really, I got over it easier than I thought. There was also a lot of back and forth drama from Liam I could have done without. He jumped between Seth and Kel a bit too much in the beginning before they all came together. It broached a cheating place for me.
Favorite Quote:
Author: Mary Calmes
Series: N/A
Genre: M/M/M Romance
Main Characters:
Liam McGuire is a former porn star turned boring CPA. After a horrific misunderstanding break-up with the love of his life, and porn partner, Seth, he has been living half a life in Miami, just treading water.
Seth Vincent fell in love with Liam doing porn. They were together for six years, Seth thought they would be together the rest of their lives, until Liam leaves out of the blue, without understanding why.
Kelton has been dealing with having too many father figures his entire life, without actually understanding who his REAL father is. He knows he loves Liam, as a friend more than a father. So it’s better to just avoid him when the friend feelings start to shift.
Plot/Conflict:
So obviously the love triangle is a huge “beyond complicated” plot conflict. The base of the traingle is obviously Seth and Liam, they loved each other, they were together for six years. Seth never understood why Liam left, and it killed him to think that they were only ever together for the money their videos brought in. Meanwhile, Liam left for almost the same reason, with a background twist of course
Spoiler
which is that the final video they did together was supposed to be a scripted gang rape of Liam, which in fact was a real gang rapeThe next leg of the triangle is Seth and Kel. They meet through a modeling contract, and quickly became enamored with each other. Dealing with a budding relationship, Kel decides to take Seth to meet Liam.
In all the Seth-is-back drama, it brings to light the repressed feelings that Kel and Liam have for each other. Obviously if you read other spoilers are reviews, it’s obvious as this is not labeled an incest book, you can infer from that what you will. Sharing Seth in common between them is enough to spark those feelings into being undeniable.
Loves:
God, the sex scenes made me feel positively pervy, but whatever, I rolled with it. I loved all the angst drama, more so the huge miscommunication between Seth and Liam rather than the Liam-loves-Kel and whose-the-baby-daddy drama.
Likes:
There was no magical solution to the three of them being together and it being fine with the world, their friends, their families, etc. This was a beyond complicated relationship and it was always going to be contentious with other people outside their relationship. Celeste didn’t wave a magic wand and make it acceptable.
Peeves:
If I was going back and writing it myself, I guess the perv factor would have been way less if
Spoiler
Liam has known all along that he wasn’t Kel’s father, rather than just slightly suspected itFavorite Quote:
“Payback is a bitch with puppies”.
jerseygirl2912's review against another edition
5.0
Beyond complicated: the title describes this book perfectly.
I loved this book: the drama, the twists and turns, the sex (very hot!), the main characters, the writing, Liam's POV perspective, the angst.
The story really worked for me.
The pseudo incest part of the story didn't bother me that much because it's very well written and described why it happenend and they didn't took it lightly. I felt so bad for each of them. For me it was part of the story, part of the drama.
Plenty of drama. There where times I really couldn't take the book down because of the dramatic twists. It was a roller coaster ride that never slowed down.... til the end.
I loved this book: the drama, the twists and turns, the sex (very hot!), the main characters, the writing, Liam's POV perspective, the angst.
The story really worked for me.
The pseudo incest part of the story didn't bother me that much because it's very well written and described why it happenend and they didn't took it lightly. I felt so bad for each of them. For me it was part of the story, part of the drama.
Plenty of drama. There where times I really couldn't take the book down because of the dramatic twists. It was a roller coaster ride that never slowed down.... til the end.
shazov's review against another edition
4.0
I've been debating what to rate this one. It's still floating between a 4 and a 5 star for me.
It's a super-hot, very well written story. I love all the characters. The pseudo-incest doesn't bother me (what does that say about me though lol), but I am still wondering if it's a correct label... The building of the relationships between the 3 MC's was fantastic. And the angst level overall was just right for me.
But at times I had a WTH moment. I can't say what would pull me out of the book, it was never anything specific. That is really what is stopping this being an absolute 5 star read for me.
It's a super-hot, very well written story. I love all the characters. The pseudo-incest doesn't bother me (what does that say about me though lol), but I am still wondering if it's a correct label... The building of the relationships between the 3 MC's was fantastic. And the angst level overall was just right for me.
But at times I had a WTH moment. I can't say what would pull me out of the book, it was never anything specific. That is really what is stopping this being an absolute 5 star read for me.