Bestselling authors Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy return with their first Male / Male romance in 3 years.LobsterShorts, 21. Jock. Secretly a science geek. Hot AF. LobsterShorts: So. Here goes. For her birthday, my girlfriend wants…a threesome. SinnerThree: Then you’ve come to the right hookup app. LobsterShorts: Have you done this sort of thing before? With another guy? SinnerThree: All the … With another guy?
SinnerThree: All the time. I’m an equal opportunity player. You?
LobsterShorts: [crickets!]
SinnerThree, 21. Finance major. Secretly a male dancer. Hot AF.
SinnerThree: Well, I’m down if you are. My life is kind of a mess right now. School, work, family stress. Oh, and I live next door to the most annoying dude in the world. I need the distraction. Are you sure you want this?
LobsterShorts: I might want it a little more than I’m willing to admit.
SinnerThree: Hey, nothing wrong with pushing your boundaries…
LobsterShorts: Tell that to my control-freak father. Anyway. What if this threesome is awkward?
SinnerThree: Then it’s awkward. It’s not like we’ll ever have to see each other again. Right? Just promise you won’t fall in love with me.
LobsterShorts: Now wouldn’t that be life-changing…
Q&A about Top Secret:
Q: Have we met these characters before in another book?
A: No! These guys are brand new, and we can’t wait for you to meet them.
Q: Is this story MM? Or is it a MMF / MFM / menage?
A: This book is MM.
Q: Is this a love triangle story?
A: Not really. You’ll see.
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Keaton is a frat boy and jock from a wealthy family. He’s been in a relationship with the same woman since high school. Luke, in the same fraternity, works as a male stripper and struggles for everything he has. His family exploits him yet he tries to maintain his integrity at all costs. Keaton is more or less in the closet. Luke is openly bi.
Their attraction happens across enemy lines (they start out as enemies in the beginning). Their banter is perfect and their relationship sizzles. I loved this book and didn’t want it to end.
I listened to the audiobook of Top Secret as soon as it was released a few weeks ago and haven’t stopped thinking about it since then. This was the first M/M book I had ever read and I loved it and now I’m hooked! I was expecting it to be a bit more rom-com-y and it definitely has those elements and it is very entertaining, but there’s real conflict in a way that’s not too angsty and just the right amount of dramatic, and Luke’s character broke my heart. He’s sexy AF but he’s poor and hungry and proud and hard-working and he has terrible relatives and I just wanted to let him live in my guest room and buy his text books to make life a little easier for him.
Luke and Keaton’s romance starts out in such an unlikely way but it develops into a real relationship that changes both of them. I love them. In real life I have never given a second thought to frat boys, and don’t usually care to read about them, but I wanted to make dinner for these two.
The audiobook is perfect, and really everything about this book is just perfect. The plotting is perfect. The character development is perfect. The tone is perfect. The ending is perfect. Did I mention it’s perfect? I bought the e-book after listening to it because I just had to stare at the words, and I may or may not have gone back and listened to parts of the audio again and again just to check in with these guys to make sure they’re still okay.
I will definitely be listening to Him soon, and probably everything this duo has written.
I really enjoyed this book. It wasn’t earth-shattering or life-changing, but it put a smile on my face and it tugged at my heart. It brought two different views of the college experience, each with difficulties….money doesn’t solve all your problems. I love the way the gay/bi-sexual exploration was written. Overall very enjoyable reading with drama, love, and humor.
Audible Review
Overall 5 out of 5 stars
Performance 5 out of 5 stars
Story 5 out of 5 stars
Enemies to lovers perfection!
Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy strike again! Is there anything that this dynamic duo can’t do?!? When it comes to the m/m genre, I don’t think there is. Top Secret was a truly fantastic take on the enemies-to-lovers trope and I couldn’t get enough of LobsterShorts and SinnerThree. Talk about opposites attract. And oh my, the tension and stress of waiting for the big reveal!
I’m so glad I held off and waited for the audiobook because it was perfect!
Christian and Teddy made this such an awesome listen, they are another dynamic duo! I’m so used to hearing Teddy narrate characters that are more on the sweet, vulnerable side. so I was loving hearing him portray a “tougher”/dirtier type of character in Luke- it was all kinds of swoony. And of course when he needed to show Luke’s softer side, he was fantastic. Teddy really has a way of losing himself in his characters and making them feel so real. He made me want to go to war for Luke. He had such a chip on his shoulder for the hand life had dealt him, but he never let that hold him back and I loved that side of him. And I loved seeing him open up with Keaton.
Christian was perfect as Keaton- the rich, buttoned-up jock who turned out to be much more than meets the eye! He did such a terrific job of bringing Keaton’s character to life- showing us there was more depth to him than what appeared from the surface. Keaton was a darling of a character, so sweet and caring, and not afraid to explore his new found desires!
I really enjoyed this audio so much. I could listen to Teddy and Christian all day! They really made me fall hard for both Luke and Keaton. I was on pins and needles through much of the story and I really didn’t want it to ever end.
Steamy, sultry, and laugh-out-loud funny!
Top Secret is a charmingly spicy, enemies-to-more romance featuring the fun-loving, jock Keaton who’s decided to make all his girlfriend’s birthday wishes come true, and the sexy, secretive Luke who may just be the perfect man for the job.
The characters are witty, adventurous, and amusing. The writing is bold, whimsical and uses a delightful mixture of snappy dialogue, text messages, and narration. And the plot is a delicious blend of tension, humour, sexual innuendoes, sizzling chemistry, flirty banter, familial drama, friendship, competition, tricky situations, awkward moments, and college life.
Overall, Top Secret is another humorous, provocative, tantalizing novel by Bowen and Kennedy that once again proves that when these two brilliant authors get together, the end result is always dynamite.
A fantastic M/M read. I love both these authors, especially when they write together in this genre. Loved the storyline, especially the banter and chemistry between Keaton and Luke. A definite must read.
The audiobook/narration is equally fantastic!! A must listen!
I don’t think my review will even come close to expressing my love for this book, these authors and this narration duo. First and foremost, hats off to Sarina and Elle for bringing another well written, smart, funny, emotional, sexy AF book. Us and Him are two of my hands down favorite listens and you can add Top Secret to that list. Teddy and Christian are absolutely fantastic. They brought Luke and Keaton to life and I loved it every minute of it. I seriously can’t wait to re-listen.
Standalone Story.
Keaton Hayworth III is a good boyfriend, so when his girlfriend asks for a threesome for her birthday, he signs up for “Kink”, an online hookup app, to find a third partner. Luke Bailey is browsing Kink and finds a couple looking for a threesome. He decides this is exactly what he needs and responds to LobsterShorts. After talking for weeks, the day is finally coming. However, it truly is a small world. Who would’ve known that the amazing chemistry they had online was the opposite of what they felt in real life?
If you’ve been waiting for this super-powered author team-up to repeat, the wait is over! Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy are BACK.
Audio Review:
Christian Fox and Teddy Hamilton can do no wrong. They have the chemistry to make Keaton and Luke’s unlikely attraction work, and they make you believe in the love Sarina and Elle have created.
“I’m just a guy, standing on a beach in nothing but his favorite pair of lobster shorts, waiting for the right man to love me.”
I absolutely love when these two write together…there is always such a beautiful symmetry to their style and never anything but smooth transitions from character to character…never jarring. Luke and Keaton — yeah I never saw THAT coming at all…not really at first. There is way too much hostility, too much animosity between them. But what we come to learn is that they both are not exactly what they seem. I loved loved loved the app chats because that is where the magic happened. Will they really be able to make it work? With parents, friends, frat bothers and their own less that perfect self awareness? Watching everyone in this story…(well most everyone…there are some that are just well…despicable) grow and learn made it truly a heartwarming experience. And I have to say I adored the wonderful animal facts.
Luke made my mouth water. (He also made me recall all those stagettes that were held in the same type of strip club referred to in this story. ) And Keaton was such an adorable, and adoring character. His stories about animal mating rituals had me howling with laughter. Highly recommended!
I’ve been a huge fan of Sarina Bowen’s for some years now. Her “Understatement of the Year” is among my favorite books of all time and I also love “Him” and “Us” which were co-written with Elle Kennedy. Sarina and Elle are back with their first m/m romance in three years with “Top Secret.”
They’ve written an extremely satisfying enemies to lovers romance that sizzles but also has some extremely sweet parts as well.
Keaton’s a college junior from a privileged family whose been with his girlfriend since high school. For her birthday, she announces that she wants a threesome. After brief thought Keaton agrees. He lives in a frat house where one of his frat brothers is Luke. Luke basically keeps to himself barely gets along with anyone in the house. Luke’s a townie, going to school on an academic scholarship and as a despicable mom and older brother who only want to take advantage of him. He lives in the frat because it’s cheaper than a dorm and he’s running for president because that means free room.
Keaton looks to an app to help find the right guy for this birthday present. He signs in as LobsterShorts and soon ends up talking to SinnerThree. Once SinnerThree finds out it’s Keaton’s first three way, he wants to make sure Keaton would be cool with him in the mix and to start considering what the rules would be. SinnerThree even gives sexy homework. This gets Keaton thinking because he’s buried his feelings about guys for a long time. Of course, SinnerThree is Luke, who lives right across the hall.
What makes this book work so extraordinarily well is the two sides of Luke and Keaton we see between their public personas and their chats on the app. Luke wants to escape the town and the life he’s known growing up. He strives to excel in school so he can get the high-paying job and never be reliant on anybody again. Meanwhile, Keaton knows he’s got all the privilege but he also chafes at the expectations that his family and friends put on him and he keeps all that to himself because it’s what he’s supposed to do.
When they’re chatting as SinnerThree and LobsterShorts the conversation occasionally drifts from figuring out what Keaton’s boundaries actually are to discussing their realities and what they want out of life. Their emotional shields fall away. The way Sarina and Elle transition from sexy to sweet and back again is perfect.
Of course, the night finally comes and Keaton and Luke find out they’ve been talking for weeks. The night doesn’t go as planned, but they don’t stop exploring their sexual feelings or sharing closely guarded secrets. Both guys have great growth as Keaton comes into his own, embracing his true sexuality and the career he wants after college. I’m particularly happy this wasn’t a gay-for-you story but rather about a young man figuring out who he is.
The battle for Luke is about his sexuality at all–he’s proudly bisexual. He can’t fathom that anyone could love him because of his terrible family. He’s been so battered by them, that he’s hesitant to accept help from anyone because it would surely come with strings. Thankfully, even though Keaton bungles quite a few things with Luke, he also works to make it right.
It’s a credit to Sarina and Elle that they have created such fully fleshed out characters who evolve so much through the story. I was invested in so much more than the romance because I wanted these guys to find their way too.
The motley crew of frat brothers also brought some great depth to the story as they were a mix of those who were genuinely kind and others were douchey. The parents were also an interesting contrast between Luke’s trailer trash and Keaton’s very well-to-do. Keaton’s father and mother are far more than meets the eye too. I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, but I have to call out them out too. It’s an example of Sarina and Elle creating multi-dimensional characters.
Another extraordinary part of the story for me was how the black moment played out. A lot of stuff goes down and there were plenty of opportunities to cheapen the story. The way the last twenty percent of the book played was perfect even while it provided me with quite a few moments of stress.
I loved this book!!!!
Oh my goodness, this writing duo is amazing. Their stories pull you in and don’t let you go. Luke and Keaton were the perfect couple and their dynamic had me swooning, giggling and sighing all within the same chapter. My love for this book is forever. All the stars to this book!
4.5 Stars
I have devoured all the books that Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy have co-written. They have a way of creating characters that are unique and that you can’t help but care about. I felt that way with Keaton and Luke.
Keaton has been in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend since high school. For her birthday, she asks Keaton to have a threesome. Using an app, Keaton stumbles upon Luke, and they begin messaging each other. And they hit it off right away. But both of them have obstacles to overcome- family issues, financial issues, how friends will react, as well discovering things about themselves.
I loved how Keaton grew as the book went on. He started out as a typical frat-jock, but you got to know his inner science geek. I loved that Luke knew how toxic his family was and he became stronger as the story evolved. I also loved how accepting Keaton’s family was.
I’d love for there to be a sequel to Top Secret, and get to see these two after they graduate! (although I very much loved the bonus epilogue!)
While m/m is not a go-to genre for me, Bowen and Kennedy do a fabulous job, and I find myself always wanting to read their books!
They get me every time! Every. Single. Time. Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy always craft characters that you want to cheer for, cry for, laugh with and find a little piece of yourself in. This story was no different!
The moment I heard the dynamic duo, Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy, were releasing a brand new M/M romance I couldn’t add this story to my TBR list and one-click it on release day fast enough! These ladies are incredible authors on their own merit, but when they team up together they are an unstoppable force and their storytelling ability is dynamite!
TOP SECRET was a sexy, sweet, hilarious and emotionally captivating college romance that had me falling head over heels in love with every moment of Keaton and Luke’s story or should I say Lobsterpants and SinnerThree. I didn’t think that it was possible to fall even more in love with a book couple after finishing their story, but as the days pass I find myself thinking back to these two and discovering even more reasons as to why I loved them so much! Their story just made me smile so much and I was laughing so hard that tears were running down my face at times. The chemistry between them was so freaking hot and dreamy that I had to fan myself time and time again because of all the angst!
It might have taken two years to get a new M/M romance out of this dynamic duo, but holy moly it was worth it! Let’s just hope that they don’t make us wait too long for more because now that I have had a taste of this again, there is no freaking way I can wait another two years! Do yourself a favor and one-click this story RIGHT NOW!
Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy’s latest new adult male/male romance, ‘Top Secret’, was such a delight! While it was an emotional coming of age story about discovering and accepting yourself, it was also a really fun and entertaining read. All I can say is that these ladies just have their romance recipe down pat!
Keaton and Luke’s characters were so quirky, relatable, and endearing! I adored Keaton with his geeky passion for biology and vast knowledge of lobster and sea slug sex and loved his confidence and acceptance. I also couldn’t help but feel for Luke’s broken character, but I admired his drive and determination to work hard towards a successful career that would allow him to break free from his family’s toxic ways.
Keaton and Luke’s story was engaging, sweet, and very well written! I loved how Keaton and Luke’s relationship started via the ‘Kink’ app, and their easy-going conversations just felt so natural. However, they were a very unlikely pair – especially with their ‘real life’ animosity towards each other!
Whether they’re writing independently or as a duo, I have just loved all of Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy’s books that I’ve gotten my hands on! It was refreshing that there wasn’t a ton of over the top drama, and while it was emotional, there were a lot of unique touches that Bowen and Kennedy added to keep it a fun and light-hearted read!
I feel like the guy from the Dos Equis beer commercials – I don’t read M/M stories often, but when I do…I make sure they are written by the dynamic duo of Bowen and Kennedy. Funny, sweet, sexy. A great story I couldn’t put down and didn’t want to end.
Love both of these authors and do love a good M/M love story. You never know where you’ll find love. Lobstershorts and sinnerthree or Keaton and Luke. Frat brothers only, Not buddies or even friends. Dislikes each other or so they thought until the Kink app. Loved, loved, loved this story and totally swoon worthy.
4.5 Stars I loved this book!
I highly recommend!
When I saw that Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen were teaming up again for another m/m romance I was immediately super eager for it to come out! I preordered (of course) and kept watching for it to drop into my Kindle. I was in the middle of another book that I had to set aside as soon as I saw it. It did not disappoint! I love the world they built and I loved getting to see Luke and Keaton from their on POVs and also from each other’s POVs. They had a lot to overcome to find their way to each other. And I believed and loved every bit of it. Their online flirting was hot, witty, and sweet. Their real life interactions were all those things too! Love, love, loved it!!