Every election cycle, the headlines run on a loop. A high-profile champion of traditional values, a politician who built a career preaching about the sanctity of the nuclear family, gets caught in a streetlight, a text thread, or a DC hotel room. The mask slips, the resignation is filed, and the internet moves on to the next downfall.
But if you want to see the real data behind the hypocrisy, you don’t look at the cable news tickers. You look at the digital grid.
It is an open secret among tech observers and journalists alike that whenever a massive, conservative political or religious gathering rolls into a city, the local Grindr grid immediately grinds to an absolute halt under the weight of thousands of new, localized, anonymous users. The hypocrisy isn’t just an anomaly—it’s an entire ecosystem powered by a massive, multi-million dollar corporate machine.
And that exact pressure cooker is the backdrop for my brand-new contemporary MM romance thriller, Original Sins, releasing June 18.
The Inspiration: Turning Up the Heat with I’ve Had It
People often ask me what sparks a new book project. For Original Sins, the lightning bolt hit me while doing something I do every single day: listening to Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan on the wildly popular I’ve Had It podcast.
If you listen to the show, you know Jenn and Pumps have absolutely, officially had it with the systemic absurdity, the control tactics, and the relentless hypocrisy of the modern political right wing. They dismantle the performance with the kind of razor-sharp, progressive, mid-southern wit that makes you want to cheer.
While listening to them dissect the utter theater of these focus-grouped political machines, a question started knocking around in my head: What happens to the human being trapped inside that performance?
What happens when the pristine, anointed prince of a billion dollar conservative empire—a man built by his family to be a king in the light—steps into a dark hotel room on the twelfth floor just to find an hour of peace with another man? And what happens when the anonymous stranger holding him in the dark turns out to be a fiercely independent investigative journalist paid to tear his entire world down to the studs?
That is the high-friction, high-heat dynamic between Pastor Harrison Cole and investigative reporter Alec Friedman. It’s an alpha/alpha, enemies-to-lovers romance about the terrifying, liberating cost of radical honesty.
🌶️ The Tropes
If you are looking for your next mm romance obsession, Original Sins delivers maximum stakes and intense emotional payoffs. It is the perfect addition to your shelf if you love:
- Forbidden Institutional Romance: A megachurch pastor and a cynical political reporter crossing lines that could destroy them both.
- The Adhesion Dynamic: Two dominant men who know they are a catastrophic danger to each other, but whose gravitational pull collapses them right back into bed every time they try to walk away.
- High-Heat & High-Stakes: The physical chemistry is explosive, raw, and deeply psychological—used as a battlefield where the public armor gets violently stripped away.
- A Hard-Earned HEA: No tragic endings here. A powerful, authentic, and completely free Happily Ever After.
🚀 Pre-Order Information & Wide Availability
As part of my commitment to reaching readers everywhere, Original Sins is releasing Wide across all digital platforms. You don’t have to be exclusive to one store to read my books—you can secure your copy right now at your favorite digital storefront before the June 18 release date. Added bonus- The preorder price for the ebook is only 2.99. The price goes up on release day so preorder now and save a buck!
Ian O. Lewis and Luke Jameson 