What’s Next?

There is something different about being able to say this now:

Jesse is almost here.

In just three weeks, Tattoo Magic, Book One of my Men of Razorblade Kisses series, will officially be making its way into readers’ hands.

For those of you who have followed my writing before, some of these men may feel familiar. For those meeting them for the first time, welcome to Razorblade Kisses Tattoo Shop—a place where the ink is permanent, the opinions are unsolicited, the flirting is inappropriate, and somehow everybody who walks through the doors eventually becomes part of the conversation.

And Jesse Carrington is the man who started it all.

Meet Jesse

Jesse has built a life he understands.

He has his tattoo shop. He has his art. He has a business he has worked hard to make successful. And, most importantly, he has Jack—the five-year-old little boy who became the absolute love of his life after circumstances Jesse never would have chosen for himself.

What Jesse does not have is much of a dating history.

That is intentional.

Jesse has spent years comfortable with the control he has over his own life, and allowing another person into it has always felt a little too much like handing over some of that control. He doesn’t need someone to complete him. He isn’t waiting around hoping romance will suddenly make his life meaningful.

Then he meets Lakken.

And suddenly Jesse has to confront something entirely different from needing somebody:

wanting them.

Lakken is fighting battles of his own. He carries the damage of a traumatic past relationship while facing a future that seems to have already been decided for him. He has security available to him—but not necessarily the life he wants. Beneath all of that is an artist who dreams of being more than someone who creates beautiful glass as a hobby. He wants the chance to find out what happens when his art, his future, and his choices finally belong to him.

Neither Jesse nor Lakken exists to save the other.

What they give each other is something quieter and, I think, much more powerful:

space.

Space to change.

Space to choose.

Space to become something neither man could have become by having someone else make those choices for him.

That is the heart of Tattoo Magic.

Welcome to Razorblade Kisses

Of course, Jesse’s story also means readers finally get to walk through the doors of Razorblade Kisses Tattoo Shop.

And I hope that when you do, it feels like walking into a place rather than simply reading about a setting.

Razorblade Kisses has always been more than the location where these men happen to earn a paycheck. These are artists who genuinely love what they do. Their skill, their opinions about art, the consultations, the way they work with skin rather than simply placing an image on it, their willingness to stop a session when continuing would compromise the client or the tattoo—all of that matters to me.

So does the chaos.

The shop is full of people yelling across the room, commenting on things that were absolutely none of their business, teasing one another’s taste in men, discussing serious problems beneath completely unserious delivery, and pulling clients into conversations until an appointment can feel less like a transaction and more like spending a few hours with a very talented, deeply inappropriate family.

That family is what eventually connects the entire Men of Razorblade Kisses series.

Jesse gets to step forward first.

But he certainly isn’t the only man waiting.

More Men of Razorblade Kisses Are Coming

After Tattoo Magic, readers will eventually get the stories of the other men who make Razorblade Kisses what it is.

There is Canvas and Nicholas in Painted Love, a story about being seen without being pitied and about a plus-size man discovering that he does not have to change his body before he is worthy of being genuinely, enthusiastically desired.

There is Alex and Haden in Inking My Way to Your Heart, where two men with dramatically different histories force one another to reconsider what freedom, help, commitment, and choice actually mean. Haden has learned through poverty, abuse, and instability that almost everything comes with a price; Alex has spent years confusing the freedom to make his own decisions with freedom from having to consider how those decisions affect anyone else. Their relationship teaches Haden that he can be supported without becoming someone’s project and teaches Alex that choosing one person freely can be far more liberating than constantly proving no one can hold him.

Then there is Kane and Reese in Forever Ink, where accountability and redemption are allowed to exist in the same story. Reese has served years for the violent mistake he made and done the work to understand the anger that contributed to it, only to discover that finishing a prison sentence does not mean society stops punishing you. Kane, meanwhile, has his own grief, mistakes, and unhealthy attachment to the past to confront. Neither man gets to erase what came before, but both get the chance to prove that who they choose to be now matters.

And Monk and Jet in Pierce Me Open take the series into conversations about submission, control, praise, degradation, vulnerability, consent, boundaries, and aftercare. Their story refuses the idea that unconventional desire automatically means unhealthy desire. Instead, it asks what happens when two people become honest enough to trust one another with the parts of themselves most likely to be misunderstood.

Different men.

Different relationships.

Different struggles.

But the same shop waiting for them when they walk back through the door.

And Razorblade Kisses Isn’t the Only Place I’ve Been Spending My Time

Apparently my imagination does not understand the concept of working on one fictional universe at a time.

Alongside bringing the Men of Razorblade Kisses back to life, I’ve also been spending a lot of time on my Coaching Series.

Soccer, competitive men, ridiculous teammates who notice romantic developments approximately thirty seconds before the people actually experiencing them, and coaches who probably deserve hazard pay for dealing with all of them.

Readers can look forward to books including Coaching Kieran, Coaching Mason, Coaching Tyler,* and *Coaching Hawk—each with its own couple while maintaining that ensemble feeling I love writing so much.

And then there is Marshall’s Athletic Club.

That series has become an entire world of its own.

Marshall’s is filled with strength trainers, martial artists, climbers, soccer players, personal trainers, security staff, professional fighters, and one extremely enthusiastic owner who has never encountered a development he couldn’t somehow turn into either publicity or evidence that he is responsible for another relationship.

I’ve been working on romances throughout that world as well, including stories surrounding Dame & Severin, Hastings & Storrie, Rome & Soren, Asher & Callum, Jude & Gideon, Cross & Remy, and Chase & Micah.

The relationships are different, but the things that interest me as a writer remain recognizable: men discovering things about themselves they didn’t necessarily expect, relationships that require actual choices, complicated histories that are not magically cured by falling in love, physical attraction that is allowed to be physical, chosen family, ridiculous ensemble commentary, and people learning that healthy love does not have to mean sanitized love.

The Stories I Want to Keep Telling

The more I work on these books, the clearer my own philosophy toward romance becomes.

I want to write imperfect people as whole people.

People can have trauma.

They can have criminal histories.

They can struggle financially.

They can be plus-size.

They can be angry.

They can have complicated relationships with sex.

They can make terrible decisions and later understand them differently.

They can want things that do not fit neatly inside somebody else’s definition of normal.

And none of that automatically disqualifies them from being loved well.

But being worthy of love also does not excuse anyone from the responsibility of learning how to love someone else well.

That is the space my stories keep returning to.

Agency.

Consent.

Communication.

Boundaries.

Accountability.

Choice.

And the idea that sometimes one of the most profound things another person can give you is not rescue at all.

Sometimes it is simply enough room to become yourself.

But First… Jesse

There are a lot of books ahead.

A lot of men waiting for their turn.

A lot of places I cannot wait to invite readers into.

But right now?

This moment belongs to Jesse.

Three weeks until Tattoo Magic.

Three weeks until the doors of Razorblade Kisses Tattoo Shop officially open.

Three weeks until you get to meet the man who knows exactly how to leave a permanent mark on somebody else’s skin—and never expected another person to leave one on him.

I hope when you finish his story, you look at the other men standing around that tattoo shop and start wondering the question I want every reader asking:

Whose turn is next?

Tattoo Magic
Book One of the Men of Razorblade Kisses Series
Coming in 3 weeks

The ink lives on. So does the obsession.

— Jeski Adams