The third book in Lynn Burke's Sinful Natures series, Unholy Desires is an age gap romance... with a couple of interesting twists. All the novels in this series have a very different flavor, and each can be read as a standalone.
As with the other titles in this series, the characters are members of the Simply Grace Church. The congregation (as well as the clergy) is filled with bigots and small minded folks. We first meet Aaron sitting in the pews alongside Zeke in Unholy Yearning, and I'm glad to see him breaking away from the Simply Grace crew early on.
Unholy Desires isn't centered as much around Faith (with a capital F) the way the previous two books are, rather, this story focuses on relationships. Aaron and his dad, Ezra and his best friend, Ezra and his deceased wife, and Aaron and Ezra. While the characters’ faith does come into play as they’re processing their emotions and actions, it is more personal and less the religious indoctrination they’ve been fed their whole lives.
I’m loving what Lynn Burke is doing with these stories. Combining the influences of the teachings of the Simply Grace brand of religion, forcing the characters to confront their beliefs, and come clean both to themselves and the folks in their community, makes for a fascinating story.
Because the men have been close since Aaron was a young boy, Lynn Burke cleverly weaves this aspect into the storyline. It’s more than exploring the romance between Aaron and Ezra, it’s also about the way their emotional bond from their past impacts their physical and emotional bond of the present.
Ten stars to Ezra, who is literally the hottest forty-nine year old guy on the planet. The way he gradually comes to accept his attraction to a man, especially with the fact it is the young man he knew as a child, is beautifully done. And his journey of coming to terms with life beyond his church, accepting the death of his wife, and building a reconciliation with Phillip simply left me breathless. Bravo!