Book safety, tropes and tags down below.

I've read this book three times now (and I'll probably read it again), and I don't like it any less. About time I reviewed it.

I love books that have characters with gut-wrenching, tragic and sad backstories. This book is that and so much more. Hurt/comfort to the highest degree.

I love how most of the tragic stuff happens at the beginning, and we get to go on the journey of things getting better, instead of the usual where things start out okay, get worse, then awful shit happens, before things get better again.

In Defined by Deceit, the awful doesn't automatically stop after 'the main event' is over, but we get to watch Llewellyn and Shane fall in love, and it's pretty great in my humble opinion.

Llew is betrayed by his high school boyfriend in the worst way, and this book details that and all of the fallout that comes after. I cried buckets the first time I read it (I do cry at just about every book I read though, so do with that what you will).

Aiden Snow did a fantastic job with the Audiobook, as he usually does. That mans voice can tenderize meat (I don't actually know what I mean by that, but I do know he does things to my loins).

Book safety

Spoiler

Cheating: No
OM drama: No. Llew hooks up with someone from a club after he gets out of prison (tries to, atleast), long before he meets Shane.
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 3rd person, dual
Strict top/bottom or vers: Both characters are versatile. Llew bottoms for the first time with Shane.

TW/CW: suicidal ideation, false imprisonment, false rape accusations, physical assault, bullying, explicit sexual content, police violence, impotence (mental block)

Tropes & tags

Spoiler

hurt/comfort, small town, prison, boss/employee, size difference, touch starved MC, betrayal, found family