Narrated by Gomez Pugh
Trashed is the second book in Mia Hopkins’ Eastside Brewery series. I recently had the pleasure of listening to Thirsty, the first book, and immediately dove into this one.
Eduardo Rosas is recently out of jail and on parole. He’s a member of ESHB, a gang from his East LA neighbourhood. Eddie, aka “Trouble”, was locked up, along with his older brother, Sal, for grand theft auto and carjacking. They both serve five years in separate correctional facilities in California. Now he’s out and he’s trying to stay that way.
Eddie is the middle Rosas brother. He’s always been a reckless and impulsive, more likely than his elder brother to react without thinking. Still, after five long years in jail, he’s looking to make changes. Unfortunately, one doesn’t just leave ESHB. The gang has largely left him alone since he got out but he knows that’s not going to a last.
After his release from prison, Eddie crashes with a friend in his trailer located in a community garden. Eddie spots a beautiful young woman crying in the garden. One thing leads to another and they end up have a hot hook up. Eddie has been without sex apart from his own hand for half a decade but nonetheless, this experience is the hottest of his life. But the mystery woman who won’t tell him her name disappears and he has no way of locating her.
Some months later, Eddie is sent for a job at a fancy LA restaurant washing dishes. To his surprise and delight, his mystery woman is Carmen Centeno, the sous chef at Giacomo’s.
Carmen is irresistibly attracted to Eddie and Eddie feels pretty much the same about her. Carmen is a “good girl” but Eddie brings out her latent wildness. To be honest some of Carmen’s behaviours are a little hard to understand. Sure Eddie is hot but sex on a cool room floor when anyone could walk in just sounds incredibly reckless to me and fraught with danger.
The story is told entirely from Eddie’s first person POV and so Carmen is a little opaque – some of the things Eddie doesn’t understand entirely about her remain mysteries even at the end of the book.
Eddie believed his father had been killed – “green-lit”– by ESHB for betraying them –
There is a section where Eddie is doing a bit of travel to find his father which dragged a bit; nothing much was happening and bus journeys aren’t that interesting, but the rest of the book is very engaging and fast-paced.
Eddie doesn’t make excuses for his mistakes and he takes responsibility for his actions. He wants to go straight but finds it difficult to extricate himself from the clutches of ESHB. His quest for answers about his dad doesn’t lead to the fairy tale he might have wished but he does end up with answers enough to move on and a new determination to not repeat the mistakes of his past.
Through all this, there is Carmen. Eddie knows she is too good for him. But if she’ll have him, he will do all he can to be the man worthy of her. I am a sucker for a hero in pursuit and when it’s combined with one who is totally gone over his lady and who is also all about consent and respect, I’m a very happy listener.
The sex is Steamy McSteamerson. Let’s just say that Eddie likes to do a lot more than talk with that mouth of his – far more than just his words are smooth and slick. Just saying.
I loved the close-knit sense of community and the Mexican-American culture which is highlighted in the both this book and the earlier one as well. It had a fabulous sense of place.
Gomez Pugh narrates and his authentic Latinx-American accent was a bonus I appreciated. Mr. Pugh’s female character voices were pretty good too and his mid-western American tones were no slouch either. Perhaps more importantly, Mr. Pugh conveys Eddie’s frustration, desperation and despair when things are looking bleak, as well as his hope for redemption, his passion for Carmen and his love for his brothers.
It takes a special kind of skill to narrate explicit sex and make it sound dirty sexy good and not cheesy or over-the-top purple. Part of the that is the writing definitely – it certainly helps that the sex is very well written – but it’s important also that the performance isn’t overdone. Mr. Pugh delivers some husky growly goodness but also underpins it with emotion which conveys that what it between Eddie and Carmen is more than just physical.
Both Sal and Eddie were criminals. They were guilty and went to jail and served their time. These books are not about men who were unjustly convicted. They’re not your typical romance heroes. Their stories are nevertheless compelling and romantic and interesting and worthy.
I enjoyed Thirsty a little more than Trashed. But both books are very good and I highly recommend both.
Kaetrin
Buy Trashed by Mia Hopkins on Amazon
