Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Tommy Newsome is nineteen, newly out of his small Georgia town, and already in over his head.
Athens was supposed to mean freedom—college, independence, a life that didn’t smell like hay and judgment. But standing inside his first gay bar, heart pounding and palms slick, Tommy realizes escaping home didn’t magically give him confidence. The music’s too loud. The men are too gorgeous. And he’s one wrong move away from bolting back to his truck.

Then the bartender looks up.

Mike Scott smiles like he knows exactly what Tommy’s thinking—and exactly what he wants.

Mike has poured drinks for every kind of man imaginable. As Scott Masters, he’s spent twenty years being watched, desired, and consumed. He knows confidence when he sees it… and he knows raw, shaking need when it walks up to his bar and can barely get out the words, “Uh. Coke. Please.”

Tommy doesn’t mean to stare. Or blush. Or confess, after one too many encouraging smiles, that this is his first time in a place like this. But Mike’s voice is warm, teasing without being cruel, and when he leans in close to be heard over the music, Tommy’s brain goes deliciously blank.

Mike shouldn’t flirt. The age gap is dangerous. The innocence is tempting in all the wrong ways. And Mike has sworn—repeatedly—that he’s done picking men who remind him how badly he can want something that won’t last. But when Tommy admits, cheeks burning, that he’s never been with a man… never even kissed one… Mike realizes this isn’t just another night behind the bar.

This is a moment. A choice. And maybe the kind of risk that changes everything.

Because Tommy didn’t come to Woofs looking for a hookup.

He came looking for himself.

And Mike might finally be ready to stop performing and start living.

Some temptations don’t just make you burn—they make you brave enough to reach.

 

First edition published at Dreamspinner Press, September 2015.

 

Book Review

"Yeah, acknowledging he was gay was one thing—doing anything with that knowledge was something else entirely. And Tommy wasn’t ready to go down that road just yet. In fact, not for a long while yet."

Do you know that feeling when a very favorite author releases a new book? It's practically incendiary, and that's how I felt when KC Wells premiered 'First'. The blurb pulled me right in and, well, let's face it people, the cover isn't half-bad. Actually the cover is gorgeous, and it even prompted me to buy a paperback at GRL2015 for KC to sign. Not only is the model gorgeous, rumor has it he's the sweetest, nicest, and most talented man you could ever meet.

I fell in love with Tommy from the first moment. He’s a shy, quiet guy from a tiny little town in Georgia, means that everything in Atlanta causes massive culture shock. It broke my heart when he came out to his parents at Christmas. Tommy was sure that they loved him enough to accept him being gay. Unfortunately, Tommy dealt with the hardcore reality that too many kids deal with, and he was disowned and banished from the house.

"For a man who’d lost count of how many times he’d made a guy come, there had been something so new about the whole experience. For the first time, Mike had seen the act through someone else’s eyes, and it had been almost… humbling."

Tommy is the best thing to happen to Mike, he just doesn't know it at the time. Mike has been in the porn industry for twenty years, and he's lost out on many relationships because of it. Mike isn't ashamed of what he does, he has strict standards, and the new bareback porn he's staying far away from. Unfortunately there's a lot of new stuff coming down the pipes, i.e. gay-for-pay actors who are horrible to work with, that's making Mike wonder whether it isn't time to be done.

Tommy brings such joy and zest into Mike's world, awakening it in a way he hasn't experienced in a long time. He is so very different from the majority of guys Mike has ever known. He's very afraid that will change if Tommy knows about the porn. Tommy may have rejected his family’s beliefs about homosexuality, but his small-town upbringing is very evident in his thoughts about relationships and trying to see where one might go with Mike. It's a time of getting to know one another, and it warmed my heart and soul many times.

"He was in love with a guy who he’d just discovered made his living from having sex with guys for thousands of other people to watch. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. There were the feelings of betrayal that twisted Tommy’s guts into an ugly mess. Because Mike had just taken something that was theirs and stomped all over it."

I have to give a gigantic amount of kudos to the author. This could have been a wonderful, yet predictable, book. Instead, KC really delved deeply into the emotions of both characters, and didn't shrug off the issues. There was no insta-cure, and I'm more in awe of her talent than I was before. This is a magnificent story that I loved more and more with each page.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. The first edition of this book was purchased by the reviewer.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 374 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	02-April-2026
Price	$5.99 ebook, $15.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GTX6Y722