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kaz_mish's review against another edition
5.0
Another fantastic book from Amy Lane! This is one I will definitely read again. Love this series. "Holy fucking merciful Christ giving Peter a blow job" Loved this line so much! Could not stop laughing and repeating it for hours! This book had me laughing and crying my eyes out! Everyone should read this and the other two in this series! ❤️
drez80's review against another edition
3.0
I loved Ethan in the other books, but this one sadly disappointed me. Nothing really happened in this book other than the things that already happened in Chase and Dex, except that we got Ethan's back story, which while horrible, could have moved along more quickly. And I just didn't feel any chemistry between Ethan and Jonah. Jonah seemed to force the relationship on Ethan, but I wasn't really feeling any attraction between them at all.
teresab78's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 Stars I liked this the best of the three. Poor Evan's childhood broke my heart as did Jonah's sister Melly. I loved the distinction between needs and friendships and love and how a person defines each. I also appreciated the discussion of how Porn Sex was not real sex.
meganharnett's review against another edition
4.0
Ethan is a good guy that just wants one simple thing to be touched. When he was young something happened to cause his mother to be frightened and she never touched him again. She kept all his sisters close to home and was afraid of anything happening so much so that it stopped his and his sisters lives from progressing. Ethan starts working at Johnnies so he is able to get what he needs. When one of his ex coworkers finds a new job at the local pets store he meets the cute, irresistible, virgin Jonah. He and Jonah hit it off and Jonah starts to have a major crush on him. They hangout as friends but Ethan doesn't want it to go further because he knows he has problems and doesn't want to hurt the impressionable Jonah and make a mess of things. Jonah has problems of his own and is persistent in making Ethan see that they are right for each other.
This is one of those series you have to read in order or else it won't make any sense. It tells Ethan's, Chase's, and Dex's story all at the same time so you need the back story for it to make sense with this story. I like Ethan and Jonah but the problems they face our heartbreaking. I actually cried at the end of this story with everything that happens. I don't know if this series is finished or not but I really like all the characters and how they all react to each other.
This is one of those series you have to read in order or else it won't make any sense. It tells Ethan's, Chase's, and Dex's story all at the same time so you need the back story for it to make sense with this story. I like Ethan and Jonah but the problems they face our heartbreaking. I actually cried at the end of this story with everything that happens. I don't know if this series is finished or not but I really like all the characters and how they all react to each other.
papercranestitches's review
5.0
I loved this book! I loved this whole series, but Ethan in Gold was hands-down the best of the bunch. I cried big, fat, ugly tears throughout most of this book and wanted to rage at the world more than once, but I still loved this book. Jonah was sweet and strong - everything a big brother and good boyfriend should be - and Ethan was one of the most interesting characters I have ever come across. Ever. Amy Lane's descriptions of his "skin hunger" were so heartbreaking I just wanted every character in a book to hug him all of the time.
Ugh, I could gush for ages...
To everyone who recommended this book and/or this series to me: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Ugh, I could gush for ages...
To everyone who recommended this book and/or this series to me: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
merny88's review against another edition
2.0
These MC's were bipolar af. Wonky motivations everywhere!
ezichinny's review against another edition
4.0
The timeline for this book matches with Dex's book, right after Chase gets in the hospital.
What I always remembered about Ethan/Evan was that he needed "touch" so I was excited to jump into the book of the guy who needed lots of hugs & touches.
Ethan's family life was as crappy as Chase & Dex's life. Another reason that Johnnies because his make-shift family. Ethan was the "smart one", the one who did well in school and was supposed to go to college. But right now, he is making movies.
I found his story to be so sad especially with the tattoos he used to label himself and keep people at bay. This whole time he craved physical touch, but he needed emotional touch just as much.
Jonah Stevens was a great match for him because Jonah was observant. His sister Millie's illness had made them very aware of non-verbal communication and Jonah was able to see past Ethan's aloofness.
I am glad that one of the Johnnies boys fell in love with a guy from a family who accepted their child's boyfriend. Jonah's family was really cool and I really enjoyed the love that they lavished on people. It will help Jonah and Ethan continue to grow and develop as they chart their lives together.
I must say that my tears this time had nothing to do with the two guys but was for the sister. Very touching and I was so sad for her. But the story was well written and another enjoyable installment in the series. I am anticipating the next book.
What I always remembered about Ethan/Evan was that he needed "touch" so I was excited to jump into the book of the guy who needed lots of hugs & touches.
Ethan's family life was as crappy as Chase & Dex's life. Another reason that Johnnies because his make-shift family. Ethan was the "smart one", the one who did well in school and was supposed to go to college. But right now, he is making movies.
I found his story to be so sad especially with the tattoos he used to label himself and keep people at bay. This whole time he craved physical touch, but he needed emotional touch just as much.
Jonah Stevens was a great match for him because Jonah was observant. His sister Millie's illness had made them very aware of non-verbal communication and Jonah was able to see past Ethan's aloofness.
I am glad that one of the Johnnies boys fell in love with a guy from a family who accepted their child's boyfriend. Jonah's family was really cool and I really enjoyed the love that they lavished on people. It will help Jonah and Ethan continue to grow and develop as they chart their lives together.
I must say that my tears this time had nothing to do with the two guys but was for the sister. Very touching and I was so sad for her. But the story was well written and another enjoyable installment in the series. I am anticipating the next book.
regencyfan93's review
fast-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
I enjoyed this book as much as the others in the Johnnies series, though I don't know that I will go back to it as I have Chase in Shadow or Dex in Blue. When I finished Chase in Shadow, I had to re-read it right away in order to grasp it. I felt that so much happened which I didn't catch at the time. Dex in Blue is a comfort read, I like Dex and Kane and while ugly things happen to them, they hang onto each other and things are good.
I was glad to get Ethan's back story. In Dex in Blue, we hear that Ethan is courting someone who works at Tommy's PetSmart. Now we get to meet that person.
The scene that makes me both cry and admire Ethan so much is when he sings "The Boxer".
ETA: I moved this rating from 3.0 to 4.0. I have re-read this book primarily because of the scene with "The Boxer". Some of the plot points are here because Ethan was on a scene in an earlier book, so in his own book ha has to be there.
I was glad to get Ethan's back story. In Dex in Blue, we hear that Ethan is courting someone who works at Tommy's PetSmart. Now we get to meet that person.
The scene that makes me both cry and admire Ethan so much is when he sings "The Boxer".
ETA: I moved this rating from 3.0 to 4.0. I have re-read this book primarily because of the scene with "The Boxer". Some of the plot points are here because Ethan was on a scene in an earlier book, so in his own book ha has to be there.
kaje_harper's review
4.0
This is the third book in the "Johnnies" series, and the least able to stand alone. I strongly recommend you start with [b:Chase in Shadow|13423284|Chase in Shadow (Johnnies, #1)|Amy Lane|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348129361s/13423284.jpg|18870311], because what happens with Chase is an emotional echo through the subsequent books (and it's also my rip-your-heart-out favorite.)
This is Ethan's book. He has a crazy mother, who took a traumatic event that marred the perfection of family life when Ethan was five, as a reason to turn her childrens' lives into micromanaged and isolated coldness. Ethan got no further physical affection, and as a result he is so needy for touch that he will do anything to get it. He's known for a while that he is gay. Signing up for porn was a way to get touched and held, and because he joined Johnnies, he also got Dex and Tommy and other co-workers who care about each other as friends. For 2 years, he's felt like that was enough. When he meets Jonah, a young man coping with family stress of his own, Ethan is instantly attracted. But he feels as though he already sacrificed his chance at an ordinary relationship, by choosing the porn as a source of touch, and in any case he's not ready to give up the security of that known resource for a maybe relationship with an inexperienced, too-good-for-a-pornstar guy.
Jonah is a sweet, out, gay guy who would have done more with his life already if he didn't have a divorced mother struggling to take care of his teen sister with Cystic Fibrosis. CF isn't the death sentence it once was, but it is a boatload of chronic care, and little setbacks, and bigger crises, and costs and strain. Jonah is doing his best to help out. But he wants a life too, and he thinks with Ethan he can maybe finally have a boyfriend. If only he can get Ethan to agree that there's something between them. And to maybe share a little bit of the palpable obstacles that Ethan is never willing to discuss.
This is another angsty entry in this series, especially with regard to Ethan's family. He had a childhood trauma, which shouldn't have overshadowed his life. But his mother's pathological reaction to it has been a life-long pall over him, and her crazies spilled onto his sisters lives, until Ethan ended up completely isolated. You have to sympathize with his neediness, and his unwillingness to let that stuff touch someone he really cares for, or to give up his security blanket of the porn.
There were emotional moments for Ethan, and for Jonah, in this book that resonate with me. The time frame overlaps the other two books, which means that we see familiar events from yet a third (and more distant) viewpoint. Those didn't have the intensity that they carried in the previous books. This felt less sweet than Dex, less angsty than Chase, but still a strong story of two men who belonged together finding the long way there. Now I look forward to John's story (which I believe is book 4), and to seeing all these characters move forward, since any romance for John clearly has to be out ahead in time from the first three stories.
This is Ethan's book. He has a crazy mother, who took a traumatic event that marred the perfection of family life when Ethan was five, as a reason to turn her childrens' lives into micromanaged and isolated coldness. Ethan got no further physical affection, and as a result he is so needy for touch that he will do anything to get it. He's known for a while that he is gay. Signing up for porn was a way to get touched and held, and because he joined Johnnies, he also got Dex and Tommy and other co-workers who care about each other as friends. For 2 years, he's felt like that was enough. When he meets Jonah, a young man coping with family stress of his own, Ethan is instantly attracted. But he feels as though he already sacrificed his chance at an ordinary relationship, by choosing the porn as a source of touch, and in any case he's not ready to give up the security of that known resource for a maybe relationship with an inexperienced, too-good-for-a-pornstar guy.
Jonah is a sweet, out, gay guy who would have done more with his life already if he didn't have a divorced mother struggling to take care of his teen sister with Cystic Fibrosis. CF isn't the death sentence it once was, but it is a boatload of chronic care, and little setbacks, and bigger crises, and costs and strain. Jonah is doing his best to help out. But he wants a life too, and he thinks with Ethan he can maybe finally have a boyfriend. If only he can get Ethan to agree that there's something between them. And to maybe share a little bit of the palpable obstacles that Ethan is never willing to discuss.
This is another angsty entry in this series, especially with regard to Ethan's family. He had a childhood trauma, which shouldn't have overshadowed his life. But his mother's pathological reaction to it has been a life-long pall over him, and her crazies spilled onto his sisters lives, until Ethan ended up completely isolated. You have to sympathize with his neediness, and his unwillingness to let that stuff touch someone he really cares for, or to give up his security blanket of the porn.
There were emotional moments for Ethan, and for Jonah, in this book that resonate with me. The time frame overlaps the other two books, which means that we see familiar events from yet a third (and more distant) viewpoint. Those didn't have the intensity that they carried in the previous books. This felt less sweet than Dex, less angsty than Chase, but still a strong story of two men who belonged together finding the long way there. Now I look forward to John's story (which I believe is book 4), and to seeing all these characters move forward, since any romance for John clearly has to be out ahead in time from the first three stories.
the_novel_approach's review
5.0
Ethan in Gold is quintessential Amy Lane: it is an emotionally tactile story of pain and redemption, of losing and gaining so much more in return, a story of forgiveness and absolution and of loving someone so hard, even when he doesn’t believe he’s loveable, that he can’t help but finally understand it’s not about how much he is worth but about how much he is worthy of that gift.
Fans of this series should move this one to the top of the TBR pile.
You can find the full review at The Novel Approach
Fans of this series should move this one to the top of the TBR pile.
You can find the full review at The Novel Approach