This woman knows how to write a MM romance, or at least the sex scenes. I wasn’t so sure after reading Hotline which suffered from over description and somewhat stilted (non-sex) dialogue, but between that first book and this one Anderson vastly improved in my opinion.
Action takes us back to Murmur, Inc., but instead of the phone sex operators, we’re now on the porn side of the business. The bad ass sassy Collette is still in charge and still demanding the most/best from her employees. We have Pete, an adorkable power bottom in the porn star closet who meets Kyle, a daring rising porn star, and when they meet on set fireworks ensue.
Honestly, the plot of the story is a throw away. It was solid and I liked it and the characters were great, but more importantly I appreciate how respectfully Anderson writes about sex work. She treats the workers as humans and individuals and more than just their job or their genitals. And the educational tidbits she drops in are perfectly balanced to not be overbearing.
“I meant it’s not hard for me to believe your friends stuck by you. People can be surprisingly tolerant, especially when faced with a real person. It’s one thing to judge faceless sex workers you’ll never meet, but when it’s someone you love, it’s different. Especially when that someone happens to be a smart, caring, funny, and totally gorgeous man named Pete.” (241)
Where Anderson really excelled, like really really excelled, in this book in particular was the sex scenes. The book opens with Pete in the middle of a scene and heats up from there. The last time I read a book that opened up with something like that was an actual biography of a porn star (My Undoing by Aiden Shaw). But where she really excelled was writing two different types of sex scene and subtly combining them as Pete and Kyle fell for each other.
Sure you had the mechanical porn shots that started the novel and you even have those between Pete and Kyle, but Anderson’s ability to ramp those up with whispers and subtle touches while reminding you this is happening on a set with a lot of individuals and cameras seriously increases the tension and release of each of the scenes. And making their first penetrative act NOT in front of the cameras was perfect—even if Collette called Pete and Kyle on it when it was allegedly their first time when filming.
“Sometimes, Pete envied people with a nine-to-five. If they met someone they liked, they went on a date. When Pete met someone he liked, he banged them for money while a director told him to mind his angles.” (58)
The other part I really appreciated in this book was Pete’s coming out about being a porn star. It wasn’t planned and his boss’s response at the coffee shop was hilarious. (The conversation was with Josh, his coworker who happens to be the protagonist of Cam Boy the next book, and Sana his boss.)
“Hey, I don’t care,” [Josh] whined. “I was just surprised is all. At least I found out by accident. What were you doing watching gay porn?”
“Oh, well clearly I was getting my nails done.” [Sana] arched a challenging brow at him. “What the fuck do you think I was doing?”
“But you’re not gay!”
“Go tell that to all the straight men who watch lesbian porn. And, for the record, you have no idea what I am.” (238)
Pete’s desire to hide his status as a porn star was the main crisis of the novel with Kyle being out, proud, and planning a full-fledged career in it. They figure it out and get their happily ever after, which is all we can ask for 🙂
I think Pete was introduced very briefly in Hotline when Zack was talking with his friend and Pete was a new employee. The next protagonist, Josh in Cam Boy plays more of a role in this book.
Recommendation: This was a vast improvement from Hotline. I don’t know if it’s because it had a different (better?) editor or if Anderson evolved as a writer, but the characters felt more developed and the sex scenes were very well written. The plot was great as a device, but that’s about it b/c this shifted more to character driven rather than plot driven which I am all about.
Other Titles in Murmur, Inc.
Opening Line: “Pete drew a shuddering breath and moaned.”
Closing Line: “A smile swept over Evan’s handsome face, and Pete thought that he’d never seen anything so beautiful. ‘It would be my pleasure, Pete Griflow.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
Additional Quotes from Action
“Like I would let you star in so many of my films if you weren’t attractive. You may not have the same appeal as Antoine the Chiseled, but lots of people are into the baby-faced, big-eyed twink thing you have going on. Plus, you’re tall.” (6)
“‘Somehow, you managed to make an impression already.’ Pete’s heart thudded in his chest. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘When he spoke to me just then, he expressed a desire to work with you.’ Pete frowned. ‘That sounds . . . bland.’ ‘His exact words were ‘I’d hit that at Mach five.'” (21)
“You look like you just tumbled out of bed and are dying for someone to drag you back. Would you like that?” (28)
“Had his brain conjured up Kyle? If only he’d spent the day thinking about piles of money.” (74)
“‘Do you know what I told Colette when I first met you?’ Evan’s voice was no more than a low vibration. Pete swallowed. ‘No.’ ‘I told her I wanted to fuck the thinking out of you. I meant it. I love the moment when you get so turned on, your whole brain shuts down.'” (89)
“They even got into a heated argument about whether or not the eagles from the Lord of the Rings could have flown the Fellowship to Mordor, which nearly ended in blood.” (99)
“‘For the rest of our lives.’ Pete’s entire system crashed. No signal. Motherboard fried. Please insert recovery disk.” (219)
2 thoughts on “Book 712: Action (Murmur Inc. #2) – Quinn Anderson”