A Flophouse Story One bootstrap act of integrity cost Henry Worrall everything–military career, family, and the secret boyfriend who kept Henry trapped for eleven years. Desperate, Henry shows up on his brother’s doorstep and is offered a place to live and a job as a handyman in a flophouse for young porn stars. Lance Luna’s past gave him reasons for being in porn, but as he continues his … but as he continues his residency at a local hospital, they now feel more like excuses. He’s got the money to move out of the flophouse and live his own life–but who needs privacy when you’re taking care of a bunch of young men who think working penises make them adults?
Lance worries Henry won’t fit in, but Henry’s got a soft spot for lost young men and a way of helping them. Just as Lance and Henry find a rhythm as den mothers, a murder and the ghosts of Henry’s abusive past intrude. Lance knows Henry’s not capable of murder, but is he capable of caring for Lance’s heart?
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Henry Worrall was introduced in one of my favorite Amy Lane books, Dex in Blue. When Dex and Kane went to visit Dex’s family, Henry was the brother they immediately realized was having an affair with his and Dex’s sister’s husband. Henry definitely came off as a bad guy in that situation.
Now, Henry is starting life over. He’s lost his Army career, his family, and his self-respect. He’s come to Sacramento to seek Dex’s help with starting over. This is the start to Henry finding friends, love, and the kind of life he never believed he could have.
I love Henry. I also love Lance, the porn model-slash-doctor who teaches Henry what a healthy relationship can be. These two take such great care of each other! And the way they both take care of the “porn kids” they live with is full of tear jerking moments. I can’t wait to see some of them find the happiness they so desperately need.
There are also wonderful friends (from the Fish Out of Water series) who help Henry find direction and hope for his professional future. And Henry’s relationship with his brother, my beloved Dex, is so good. Henry does have a family member who completely supports him, even if Henry did not offer that same support to Dex in the past. I love seeing them grow closer.
This is a wonderful story, with a couple who deserve all the best things in life. I am looking forward to seeing how they continue to grow together as they also support the porn models in the flophouse. I see lots of laughter and tears in their future, and I want to be there for all of it!
Oh the angst… My heart went out to Henry big time along with Lance & all the other boys from the Flop House. Hard life’s they had & broke my heart. I’m so glad Dex got Henry a job at the house & for him to meet Lance & the boys. Lance got to Henry & I’m glad they found each other & could be a role model for the boys. It was great to catch up with other characters in previous books. Now if the boys can get their HEA’s they deserve like Henry & Lance, it’ll be fantastic.
This is a spin off of the Johnnie’s series and I was excited to see who would show up. It turned out amazing. A nice blend of Johnnie’s and Fish characters and some story line crossover. Do be up to date on your reading of the two series though I am behind on the Fish series and I was still able to follow the story with no problem. Its good to see Lance and Henry get their HEA. Outside angst, good communication. Few side characters I’d like at see in a story. Overall, great start to a new series with all wonderful things that make an Amy Lane book.
I would rate this 3.75 stars.
Do yourself a favor and don’t read this unless you have read the following series by Amy Lane first: Johnnies, Racing For The Sun, and Fish Out of Water. You could read this first, or out of order, and enjoy the romance between the main characters Henry and Lance, but the main events of the novel come at you sideways via the fifth book in the Fish Out of Water series; you would have to keep track of two different names for a plethora of characters from the Johnnies series, since each has their real name and their porn star name. The true emotional payoff will come for the faithful fans who will enjoy all the series being woven together and already know all the side characters in this.
Henry is finally at rock bottom when he goes to visit his brother Davy (aka Dex), a former porn model, in Sacramento with his husband Carlos (Kane). After nine years in the Army he flounders with what to do now that he has been discharged. His brother sets him up at a flophouse used by a stable of young guys who work for Johnnies. His tragic story is layered into the book as he tries to avoid thinking or talking about it unless he has to. He acts as a “den mother” for Cotton, Randy, Zeppelin, Fisher, Billy, and Curtis along with Lance. As a resident finishing his internship at the hospital, Lance still does the occasional porn scene to pay off his student loans. As the oldest in the house, and the same age as Henry, it’s inevitable they are drawn together. Right when I started to get everyone straight, and Lance and Henry are forming a bond, there’s a murder, which drags the P.I. Jackson Rivers and lawyer Ellery Cramer, among others, from the Fish Out Of Water series into it.
Maybe the absolute worst time for a relationship, might be the best time. As Henry navigates his abusive relationship from the past eleven years or so, he doesn’t even know how broken he is. This makes his journey from internalized homophobic abuse victim to over the top hero at the end, without any counseling, a bit unbelievable for me. Lance is the stable presence here, not because he doesn’t have issues of his own, but because he knows what they are and seeks treatment both for himself and to inspire the other Johnnies in the house. To me, Lance is the real hero. Then, there is what I wanted to happen versus what I could realistically expect to happen based on the story so far; having something be emotionally satisfying doesn’t make it a realistic conclusion. What saves this for me are the genuine moments of intimacy and connection Amy Lane is known for invoking in her writing. I will probably read everything again, catch up on the few books I missed, and read this last.
What I Think: This tale is not going to be an easy one. Meeting Henry then his brother made me go check if there is a sequel to this book and thank the goddess, this is book one because already, I want his brother’s backstory. But I’ll be patient and see if we are given more dets. Coming from the kind of home they were raised, it would be surprising that either of these boys can ever be happy but I want happiness for Henry even though we’re just meeting. Especially as I had to change my view on certain things while reading this tale. First, I need to admit that I could never stand porn until I was in my late 20s when I realized it had a lot to do with me being in the closet and not watching the right kind or just being naturally super-monogamous. I was in my 30s before I could see porn stars as people (Super prude here before bestie handed me my first gay romance, then I stumbled across yaoi and my innocence was transformed) so reading this tale was a re-education that I knew would still be hard to swallow which is why I signed up for the review. You can never have too much of eroding your prejudices. Enough about me, and back to the tale. Henry is handling things so well that I’m proud of him. Without realizing it, I had taken him under my wing ’cause that’s how fast he got under my skin. His struggle with himself gives way to such a caring interior that I want to go back to his house and pound his parents into pulp. When I begin to see the Floppers (my term for the flophouse tenants) through his eyes, I want to visit their different homes and mete out justice. The fact that even though this is fiction, but also happens in real life made my heart ache. How can anyone go through what Henry has been through and still have a heart? People like these usually become abusive, to themselves and others. Yet, Henry doesn’t even know how amazing he is but I see him, as clearly as Lance does. It is Lance though that teaches me the ropes, answers the whys and hows of why even the porn industry is necessary, as it is way better than a million other ways these terrified, barely legal kids could choose. For a man who thinks so little of himself, Henry fell into den mother mode so easily. I guess scars do bind people together and can bring out the best of us if we choose to let it. The vulnerability of these young men just gets under my skin so much. Who made their homes impossible for them to return to? Their families are monsters that could learn from animals. There could be no better title than Shades of Henry because that is really what we get a chance to see. All the shades of him, both what he knew and what he doesn’t know and all the nuances in between that make him Henry. But then, I began to worry about Lance because I don’t know how long it will take Henry to sort himself out and I don’t know if Lance can take the not knowing much longer, not after regretting so many opportunities that he didn’t follow through and ended up watching them move into more settled relationships, while he, the most mentally and professionally settled of them all, had no one. I don’t want him to hurt, not now that I know his secret and what it’s costing him. Then, on top of all this, Henry finally discovers what he wants to do with his life and Lance is not going to like it but unfortunately, I understand it completely. Henry drags me along on his journey to self-acceptance and as he comes to the realization about porn, so did I and it was humbling. This does not mean bad stuff like sex slavery and the usual filth humans know how to perpetuate doesn’t still happen but I gained respect for it as an art form too, which was easy to do as these 2 men fall apart and began the process of piecing themselves together again, all for the hope of tomorrow. It’s wonderful to watch him bloom, from the inside out as he struggles with the different aspects of adulting but most importantly, as he begins to shine with purpose and direction. The song I had playing in my mind throughout was Phil Collins’ I see your true colors shining through because each and every shade of Henry is so beautiful which made one particular issue raised in this tale hit me even harder. Reading this tale, I couldn’t ignore the double standards society has. Men in the beauty and porn industry go through the same hell their female colleagues go through, from eating disorders to trying to stay young to working under bastards and being taking advantage of or sexually harassed and abused. We hear so little about it that it’s almost invisible all because of society’s toxic masculinity. It renewed my desire to change my idea of an NGO from focusing on just women to taking care of any person that needs it. Why? Because gender doesn’t matter. We’re all just people trying to find their way in the end.Yet, through the pain in this tale, pain enough for me to need a few pauses to get rid of the waterworks, there’s so much hope, renewal, purging and re-birth, romance, erotica, love, and kindness. Enough to balance out the pain so the heart aches, but doesn’t break, not even when the monster in the closet came calling.
Verdict? If you thought love isn’t the start of magical cures for the soul, well, think again. As she said, who knew the end was only a beginning?
I didn’t even read the blurb before I began this story. But I did when I recognized my favorite people in the background. This may be the first in the series but parts of it are connected to other books in different series like Johnnies and Fish Out of Water. It became obvious when Henry is accused of a crime and most of it happened off-page. It threw me for a moment but also motivates me to start Fish Out of Water series. The was a lovely slow burn and Henry surprised me. The secondary characters were filled with past MCs and possibly future ones. They really kept the story light and stop it from drowning in an angst spiral.
Overall, I do enjoy a good redemption story. I would recommend this one.
Nothing comes easy for Henry and Lance, but they are adorable together. Henry shows up at the flophouse convinced he’s at the end of the road. Lance is stuck in limbo. He’s a doctor and porn star still living like a college student because he doesn’t know what he’s looking for. They begin an uneasy truce to take care of the porn “kids” that leads to hope of something more. But first they have to beat a murder rap, a vindictive depilatory full body mask, and an entire handful of bulimia disorders.
I love Amy Lane and this crossover that bridges her Fish and Johnnies books to create a new Flophouse series is just fantastic!
Oh Henry…. so nice to see him get his redemption story!
Henry first appears in Dex’s story, in the Johnnies series, and he’s a not really a good guy. We find out he’s been having sex with his sister’s husband. Yuck. So he needed his own story, and we needed to understand what the heck he thought he was doing.
Then he appeared randomly in the last Fish book, showing up on Dex and Kane’s door, looking for help. Dex sticks him with the porn models at the flophouse, he ends up as a suspect in a murder, and hooks up with Jackson and Ellery. First as a client, then as an assistant.
Now he has his own story! Which is really the other side of the Fish story, just with more background and details. And a love story….
And we finally see Lance get his HEA as well! Lance has kind of hung out in the background of a couple of Johnnies books, he’s there, but doesn’t really contribute much. I’ve been curious about him, and I was very happy to see he was going to be Henry’s love interest. I loved how his character unfolds in this book, so much of this story seems focused on Henry and his personal drama, but we see that Lance has some issues of his own. He seems like he’s this perfect guy, but underneath his prettiness, is some real pain. Lance and Henry help each other work through their issues, along with assistance from other characters from Johnnies world and the Fish world.
Overall I liked this book bunches! I can’t say that there was really anything new in it since we’ve seen this story in the last Fish book, but this was all about character development. Why did Henry do what he did? How did he get in that situation? Why is he here now? Who is Lance and why does he have issues? Who are the other guys in the flophouse and why are they there? All of those questions are answered, and we see glimpses of other characters we are familiar with. It was a nice link between the Johnnies books and the Fish books. And felt like a good chance to catch up with what has been happening in this corner of Amy’s world.
As usual, Amy Lane kept me involved in the story and intrigued by the characters, both new and old.
I am a fan and will remain so, I’m just here for the books!
It took longer than it probably should have to realize that Henry was the younger brother from Dex in Blue but I was overjoyed when I realized the connection. This was the story that had been unfinished in my mind ever since reading Dex in Blue-wondering about the younger brother who was unwise enough to be carrying on an affair with his best friend/brother-in-law. The description of that affair through Dex’s eyes did not scratch the surface of what Henry was going through during that affair, which is detailed in Shades of Henry.
I admit that I did not have a very good opinion of Henry once I remembered who he was and how he behaved towards his brother in Dex in Blue and he did little to change that during the first chapter or so of the book. But Amy Lane has a great way of taking a character that shouldn’t be redeemable or a character that maybe doesn’t behave the greatest and making the reader not only change their minds about how they feel about this character but also make you cheer them on to find their own happiness. And she definitely did that with Henry in this book.
It was nice to see Henry go from a bitter man that hated himself for being gay to the point of not even being able to admit to himself that he was gay, to befriending the other tenants of “The Flophouse” to the point of caring for and defending those same men, to being able to accept that he is gay and in a relationship with another man. This book goes through the complexities of repairing his relationship with his brother, forming friendships with men that he used to look down on, to having to face his past. Lance was dealing with his own demons while he was helping Henry work through his problems, and it was nice to see a relationship that formed in spite of the MCs issues instead of the plot forcing their relationship to supposedly solve all of the main characters problems.
Also, I have to make a confession-I’ve never read any of the Fish Out of Water books so I didn’t know who those characters were when they were introduced later in the book. I don’t feel like that detracted from enjoying that part of the plot, though I’m sure I would have liked it even more had I read the series (especially book five, which I gathered from the book’s description mentioned Henry and his legal issues in more depth). 4.5 stars
This book is proof that Amy Lane is a genius! Although I freely admit that I am a long time fan, all bias aside, this book amazed me! It brings a character, Henry, from villain to hero so completely that I could only marvel at the journey. Characters first introduced in the Johnnie’s and Fish Out of Water series’ are joined together to begin what I suspect may be my favorite new series, Flophouse. The inner turmoil that Henry struggled with softened the edges of a character that was impossible to even like, making him someone loving and caring and perhaps one of my favorites. He and Lance are the “House parents” of the boys from Johnnie’s and their shared interest in watching over them draws them closer together. Seeing Henry reach a place where he can start fresh with the man he loves is rewarding. I can’t wait to follow him in his new job with my all time favorite Amy Lane character, Jackson Rivers from Fish Out of Water! You could read this without reading the other two series but by all means you won’t regret it if you read those as well! Great start to a new series!
This is the first book in The Flophouse series, which is a spinoff of both the Fish Out of Water and the Johnnies series. This was a wonderful story and so not what I expected when I began it. The characters are so lovable and flawed, that it is hard not to root for them to get their happy ending. The pace is great, the book is really hard to put down. Even though it is a spinoff of two previous series, I feel it can be read as a stand alone book. Can’t wait for the next installment.
I really loved Shades of Henry. It does have ties to other series (Fish Out of Water series and the Johnnies series), but can most definitely be read as a standalone without any confusion. It is more that you will be interested in the other characters and want to read their stories. Henry himself was a great character who really had to grow a lot in this story. He had gone through something pretty serious that forever changed the course of his life and while dealing with that change, he struggled to accept himself and enlarge his worldview past what his father had raised him to believe. I loved watching Henry break out of the mental box he had been raised in almost as much as I enjoyed watching him grow to find his place in the world the person for his heart.