Joyless

Alabaster Penitentiary, Book 2

By: Nyla K

Narrated by: Sebastian Grove, Silas Hart, Melisandre Verte

Correctional officers get a bad rep. But in our case, it's fully justified. We're not good people. We're guard dogs. As twisted as the inmates we patrol, courtesy of the monster who created us. Prisoners ourselves on an island of manipulation, we've spent years drowning in vices to dull reality. If these walls could talk, I'm telling you, they'd scream.

They call me Velle, but that's Officer Chevelle to you. Hands dirtier than my mind, I have no qualms with staying ruthless to keep these creatures in line. And I'm not alone... Joy Jameson is my partner in crime, and my ex. Together we rule Alabaster Isle like Bonnie and Clyde, only prettier and far more dangerous. It's the two of us against this wicked, secluded world. Until he shows up...

Although we need him, the rookie is a problem. Flipping me upside down, using my own hidden desires to tempt me. Rook... with his green eyes and country boy smile... He has no business luring me into something that will get everyone hurt. Let it be known, denying myself while dominating this role is my default setting. But with him in the picture, I'm struggling to keep it intact. The mask is slipping, control I can't lose wavering as we welcome our newest psycho to the roster. Let's hope, for all our sakes, Inmate #101 doesn't do anything stupid.

**Joyless is the second book in the Alabaster Penitentiary series. It is a dark M/M/F romance, with HEA. Each book in this series is technically a standalone, though they are interconnected, so it will be recommended to enjoy in order. Joyless is intended for mature audiences and open-minded listeners. Detailed list of CW's can be found here: authornylak.com/joyless-content-warning

©2021 Nyla K (P)2023 Nyla K

Velle, Rook and Cherry

"𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨..." 𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙤𝙣𝙚. "𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙩. 𝙆𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡."

Alabaster Penitentiary is a wild and twisted place where the unexpected happens at every turn and no one, not even the guards, are unaffected by its craziness.

John Chevelle, aka Velle, can not believe when his almost one-night stand, Harley "Rook", shows up on the isle as the new prison guard. Joy can tell something is going on between Velle and Rook and as she works her magic to get them together she gets pulled into their orbit.

WOW!!!! It has taken me a while to finally get the words together to write this review. I am blown away again by this place. I went through every emotion listening to this book including shedding tears. After the first book, I couldn't give you two cents for Velle but he was redeemed completely. The chemistry and imagination Velle, Rook and Cherry have together is unreal. I can not wait for more from Alabaster Pen.

Sebastian Grove, Silas Hart and Melisandre Verte are all brand new narrators for me and I loved all three of them. All of them did an amazing job of bringing the characters and story to life while perfectly conveying all the emotions of the story.

Get ready for... mmf, dark, workplace, first times, interracial, law enforcement, BDSM, told in the first-person multiple points of view.

Content... see the author's website for a complete list.

5 Maple Leafs / 5 Flames / 4 Tears / 2023 Top Read

Absolutely wonderful

I absolutely love this series. I love the mystery of the island and the people that unravels with each book. I absolutely love it when someone that has been presented as bad is shown to have good traits after all . The romance is wonderful and the sexy scenes are very well written. I wish I could find more authors like Nyla K, ones who know how to write an interesting story and keep me coming back for more. Truly wonderful series. It is going to be maddening waiting for the rest in the series. I will have to break down and try to find time to read them before audio comes out because I can stand the wait. Narrators were perfect, I felt like they were the actual characters. I highly recommend the series be read in order as suggested. You won’t regret using credits on these books.

Out of the park

Another great book from Nyla k. I can’t wait to start the next book in this series.

Nyla K👏

Book two and we get some ansewrs to situations that were left hanging in book one. Holy hot sex scenes. This prison is CrAzY!! I'd rather be a guard than an inmate. I can't wait to see what book three brings us. 👏🔥❤ Narration is outstanding!

Loving This Series!!

I desperately needed something different, which is what led me to MM romance and then to Nyla K. This is only book 2 and I'm on pins and needles for the rest of them. Nyla K is an expert at blending hot, dirty smut with three dimensional characters. Her books give me all the feelings. DO NOT listen to this without reading or listening to Distorted; it just will not be as good.

I was unsure if I wanted a book from the guards perspective after reading Distorted, but I trusted this author, and that trust paid off. There's so much more to Velle, Rook, and Joy. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about each of them and what brought them to AP, and when I say they are hot together, I mean they are🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
There's something lacking amongst poly relationships in many books, but not this one. If you loved Distorted, you'll love this one too. That being said, I hope there are more twists to come in this series like there was in Distorted. I can't wait to read every book to come, while at the same time savoring them.

Triggering

I will say that I walked into this book without realizing the triggering content that it had. I had issues with this book because of my triggers. The storyline was done well and lined up well with the other books. The relationship feels realistic and strong. I will say that while this is a re-edit of my review I did enjoy this book. I rated it really low the first time because I got triggered multiple times. now that I've had time to rethink my review I will say the book was well done if you aren't triggered by the dark content.

I love this series!!

The one reason I've been keeping my Audible subscription has been for Nyla K! I absolutely love this series (currently reading Fragments). I think the best part of these audiobooks is Nyla K picks the perfect narrators for her books. These narrators truly bring these characters to life. I can't wait for Brainwashed to be out of audiobook!

So refreshing and eye opening

5/5⭐️ 5/5🌶️ 5/5🎧
Audiobook review: I could not stop listening to Joyless. It was so cool to be on the flip side of Alabaster Pen , seeing everything from the guards’ povs. I don’t want to give any spoilers but I’ll just say that everything is not as it seems in Distorted. There is a whole web of secrets. And seeing things from the other side was absolutely eye opening.

The spice. Off the charts. Nobody does it like Nyla. All the spicy chili peppers.

The relationships and takeaway…beautiful.

As to not give spoilers, that’s all I can say for now. But I definitely enjoyed this book and recommend 100%!

Favorite Quotes:
“You beg so good, Officer.”

Remember that whole thing I said about how being in love makes you stupid? Well, color us all the perfect shade of moron.

“You’re my greatest weakness…” he tells me with wonder in his tone. “But I think I want it. Knowing you’ll catch me makes me want to fall.”

My Throuple Dreams Come True

Like the first book in this series, this one delivers some very hard MM and MFM content. I enjoyed it immensely. Not for the faint of heart.

Good part 2 of Alabaster Pen

It was interesting to learn about the prison from the guards perspective with this intriguing story. I loved the characters and was happy with the narrators as well. Good pace throughout this book with some heat fairly soon into it which I appreciated (especially as the other Nyla K books I’ve read keep you waiting much longer). I love the amount of dialogue during the love scenes and the description of how things feel to the characters.