Title: 911
Author: Chris Owen
Publisher: torquerebooks.com
Genre: Contemporary M/M/M
Length: Novel (print 226 pages)
Rating: 5+ stars out of 5 (DIK)
THE BLURB
Drew is a fireman who loves the rush and is looking for a roommate to share costs. Scott is a doctor looking for somewhere to live that isn’t with his now ex-lover. The match seems more than perfect when Scott moves in and it’s more than just costs that they share.
So what happens when along comes EMT Eric with his blond good looks and boyish smile? Will this twosome be able to become a threesome or does it spell disaster for all?
THE REVIEW
Drew loves his job as a fireman but he needs a roommate to help with expenses for his 3 bedroom house. He finds him in the Emergency Department of his local hospital, of all places, while recovering from smoke inhalation. Dr. Scott Campbell is a Resident at the hospital and he gives Drew a ride home when he’s discharged since the hospital is only 5 minutes away. One good deed deserves another and Drew invites him in for a drink; Scott leaves a few minutes later with the keys to the house.
Right after they started living together both Scott and Drew knew that they were attracted to each other but Scott had this one flaw – he never makes the first move for fear of rejection. However Drew had no such inhibitions and soon they were having the best ride of their lives. Could things get any better? They fell deeply in love, their parents were OK about their relationship (well, most of the time) and they were in a groove, although Scott’s killer schedule is a bit of a problem because Drew gets lonely but he could deal with it.
Enter side left, hot, blonde, hunky EMT Eric who Scott thinks is lickable and to die for gorgeous. Drew thinks he’s off the scale hot as well. When Eric indicates that he needs a place to live, both Scott and Drew are quick to offer him one of the two extra bedrooms in the house. What could go wrong? For starters, Eric had been attracted to both guys even before he knew for sure they were gay and he doesn’t want to come between them although he’s longing to join them. Before long he’s hopelessly in love with Drew and Scott and he realizes that he would have to move because he’s hurting so much. But Scott and Drew have too much invested in Eric to let him leave and they pull out all the stops to show him that there’s more than enough love for three.
9-1-1 was a joy to read, over and over. I first read this story as an ebook in 2005 and bought the print copy as soon as it was released a year later. I can’t count the number of times I have read and loved it more each time. The love, the chemistry between the guys, the laughter, the well crafted, vivid characters who made sex and loving fun and exciting all combine to make this a wonderful, memorable book. Chris Owen is truly a gifted writer and she has given us great protagonists in all her stories but Drew, Eric and Scott are, in my opinion, her best so far. The characterizations were marvelous and incredibly realistic and I don’t know which of them was the most memorable – they were all three dimensional and well crafted and so vivid it was as if they were alive and could walk into a room. They made kinky sex between three men so exciting the author must have had a lot of fun writing their sex scenes.
This book is erotic writing at its best. The characters were rich and fully developed, the story was well plotted, the pacing was just right, and the excitement is off the scale as the readers are thrust into the trauma of the guys’ everyday work life when they try to save lives and have to cope emotionally when they can’t.
If you don’t read another Chris Owen book you must get 9-1-1. This book takes love to a whole new level and when things go bad your heart breaks. I won’t say any more about the plot because I think that every reader needs to experience parts of this story for the first time as it unfolds. As you may have guessed, this is one of my all-time favourite books so my comments are probably not as analytical as I would have liked but this is one of the times when reviewing takes second place to the reader.
There are some books I read and forget almost immediately after, because they are forgettable; then there are the ‘keepers’ and 9-1-1 is definitely a desert island keeper (DIK). 9-1-1 rocks!
I totally agree with you, this is an AWESOME book. I love Chris’ stories and this one is definitely a DIK.
Lily 😀
Best Chris Owen book ever. Yummmmm. I need to re-read this.
Hi Guys
So glad you agree. I think I’ve worn this poor book out – maybe I’ll get another copy now that there’s a new cover. *g*
Well, I just read this book this week because Wave’s been raving about it and it appears that if she says read it I do. 🙂 I agree, it was amazing and I loved it. I loved the characters. So thanks Wave for steering me in the right direction yet again.
Tam
I’m really glad you liked it – you probably would never have believed my reviews ever again if 9-1-1 turned out to be a stinker.:) I loved those guys – wow.
Some fans can’t deal with threesomes and are very vocal about their feelings. I wonder why people buy books when it’s clear what the topics are, if it’s something they have a conscientious objection to. Guess we’ll never know.
Wave,
Great post! As u know I’m a newbie, so I think with 911 Im going to have take tentative steps (you know you got to crawl before I walk) Not that I think menage is too much on the contrary I find it very fascinating and it sounds hot to boot. Im still getting used to the hot scenes of the stories Im reading now..lol. But do u think that 911 is a good introductory book to read to get into the world of menage?
Ozakie
It’s the best introduction to a threesome. The characterizations are flawless, the story is funny in parts, and the sex is so hot you wouldn’t be able to read it in one sitting! You will fall for Drew, Scott and Eric.
To date there’s no one that I have recommended this book to who didn’t love it. I have read lots of M/M/M books and this is one of the best, if not the best.
Ozakie
There’s post on the blog about another menage that you might want to try; it’s called How it Should Be. You might want to try that too – it’s interracial as well as M/M/M.
Wave,
Thank u so much for the recommendations I have to check them out!
Ozakie
Good luck 🙂
I just finished this about 5 minutes ago (Chris was kind enough to give it to me as my prize :)) and totally agree. This was a terrific read and I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in reading M/M/M for the first time. I definitely think it is one of the best of this type that I’ve read.
Hi Kris
I’m really happy you loved the book. As I said to Tam earlier, I would have been totally destroyed if you had hated it 🙂 Some readers can’t deal with the menage aspect of the story but I think the three guys together is what makes it work so well.
What impressed me about this book is that it’s one of her first published stories (next to Bareback). The writing is terrific and the characters extremely well crafted. I’m going to re-read Gemini now. *g* Happy New Year.
Well, its pretty clear that the book is m/m/m so if that’s not your thing I don’t know why people would read it and then complain about it. LOL Weird. I just think there is room in the world for all kinds of relationships. What I found about 911 and Gemini, is that while the sex is hot for sure, the relationships are about so much more, about the emotional aspect of loving each other. It’s not just pure erotica of 3 guys getting together for nothing but sex, seems the sex is made hotter because of their love for each other.
Tam
As you said – it’s all about the loving which make the sex even hotter in these books. That’s what I like about Chris Owen’s stories, they focus on the emotional aspects of the relationships and the sex, while great, is just part of the whole relationship.
Oh wow…hadn’t seen that cover for the book before. But then, I got it when it first came out a few years back. I also like Dancing Cheek to Cheek, which is the sort of paralell story to 9-1-1.
I didn’t get the trauma and drama of the addiction part, but that just might be me looking at things from a medical standpoint. Do you know how much and for how long someone would have to take pain pills to get addicted to them? I mean, 95% of most pain pills is Tylenol, with only 5% being a narcotic. You’d die of liver failure before you get addicted.
Hi Emmy
I tried not to give away too much of the story in the review so didn’t discuss this part of it. However, not having a medical background I have no idea of the time element that would be involved for serious addiction.
I recall a similar discussion we had with one Josh Lanyon about some medical information (or misinformation?) in one of his books – we won’t say which one. *g* You might want to consider offering your services (at a substantial fee of course) 🙂 to authors who include medical related conditions in their books :DDD
In any event I don’t think that this takes away from a wonderful story which is still, for me, perhaps Chris’s best one that I have read to date (even including Bareback). The cover is brand new so I thought I would use it – hot isn’t it?
Emmy: I thought while they were Tylenol bottles they were mostly percocet and some other prescription pain killers. He was just putting them in the bottles. Isn’t percocet more addictive? I’m clueless so it worked for me. LOL And hey, we needed to have some drama there but a consulting gig would be fun. 🙂
Hi all!
Stopping in WAY late to say a fast thank you. I’m delighted that you all enjoyed the book and it’s really, really nice to see the older stories having some staying power!
(And yes, the addiction was to narcotics and heavy duty pain pills, not to Tylenol. Percs are addictive, and Drew was taking a lot of them for months. That said, I’m not an expert by any means, but I did research and talk to a lot of people who’ve been there, done that.)
Hi Chris
Thank you for stopping by. We all enjoy your stories so much and wish you would write faster. I’m looking forward to your promised new story about the three guys, plus a cowboy story.
I have no idea about addiction to pain pills so I hoped you would clear this up and you did. ‘nuf said.
*Sigh* I never get tired of that book. It’s a joy to re-read every time. Before I read it, I never thought anyone could write an all-male threesome and make it work so realistically in the real world. And I never thought a book with so much sex could both have a plot and show real feelings :).
Isn’t it the most incredible book? I love the characters, the plot, the sex, the pacing – in fact I could just eat it up. And it doesn’t get ‘old’. :)*sigh* Chris said that she might write something about the boys for Valentine’s and I’m going to hold her to it.
Chris said that she might write something about the boys for Valentine’s and I’m going to hold her to it.
*g* So will I. :-DD This book holds the 2nd place on my all-time favorite M/M books 😀
What’s your #1 favourite? I hope it’s not a “gay for you” book *g*
Lol. Sorry, but 1st place still belongs to The Assignment, the ultimate “gay for you” story 😀 What can I say? It might not be the best in terms of writing, but it’s the first M/M I ever read and I’m crazy about those two characters (and I love cops in general). Those hot sex scenes they have while supposedly being straight…off-the-charts hot!!!There is no other M/M story I’ve ever re-read as often as this one. And it’s the M/M book I’ve slept with the most often. :-p Plus, did I say how much I liked the print cover??? LOL.
Mary
What am I going to do with you? I knew exactly what you were going to say and it is one of my favourite M/M books. Have you read Snowed In or How It Should Be as yet?
Lol. The surprising thing would have been if you HADN’T known what I was going to say :-DDDDD It’s not like I haven’t claimed everywhere how much I loved the Assigment. And when you mentionned gay for you, I smiled and thought, ‘yep, she knows’ :-DDD And I know you like it too – I read your post on favorite books. I just didn’t have time to comment before I left work and when I got home, my Calendar Boys books were waiting for me…so, no more internet last night ;D
I got Snowed In last week, but haven’t read it yet. I’ve been busing cleaning the house and cataloguing my books so I took a short reading break. But I’ll be on it pretty soon. I swear.
Happy Reading my dear. Please let Vivien and Pepper know how much you enjoy the free books when you finish them. *g* I hope that we can do the same giveaway this Christmas. Have a good day.