Author Livia Ellis has hooked me into her Memoirs of a Gigolo series, but I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions that this story would be for me, based on her other writing. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying Sport of Kings just as much, if not more, than the Memoirs installments.

Sport of Kings is an erotic, but also very romantic story, about the troubled relationship between Alejandro and Marcus. I think this is one of the things I greatly enjoyed about this one. I already knew that Ellis has strength in writing erotic moments into her books, but I had no experience with the romantic side of things before, from her. While I was reading, I couldn’t help but notice the sensual passion that these two characters shared. It was beautiful at times.

Another thing that surprised me about this story was that the relationship is between two men and I didn’t think that it would be something I’d be able to get into easily, or even connect with deep enough. I was wrong, very wrong. The sexual orientation of the sexual situations in this book were not an issue for me. I feel this is because of how well Ellis can write a number of different types of scenes no matter the characters involved.

I think the fact that characters from the Memoirs of a Gigolo series were in Sport of Kings was a big plus. Like the Halloween special short story that goes along with Memoirs this story gives readers another look into familiar characters, from a different set of eyes. There are sections of this book told from Marcus’ POV and others from Alejandro’s. It’s this change that I feel aids the understanding of the relationship they share, as well as Marcus’ role in the world that Oliver (the main narrator and MC of Memoir) inhabits.

If Ellis plans on writing more about Marcus/Alejandro, or any other side characters from Memoirs of a Gigolo, I will happily read them all. ( )