The blurb sounds promising... The blurb lies.

The writing in this book is amateur at best and there's hardly any substance to make up for it.

The pacing is messed up. Someone is killed in the first chapter. The second chapter goes back in time and starts a lead up to the murder and then at some point prior to the murder, the time jumps to 3 weeks after the murder with no reaction to it (public or personal), and carries on from there. The murder itself is totally glossed over.

The plot is weak, directionless and with almost no conflict. After the murder in the first chapter, the next actual plot development doesn't happen until 77% into the book. Up until then, characters flit around from place to place without motive. Scenes that could be used to set up conflict and a purpose to the plot are wasted on copious explicit descriptions of cocks and precum and gay strippers grinding on each other. So much so, that the voodoo storyline seems like it's wedged in as an afterthought.

The insta-love between Kyle and Antoine is OTT, and the fact Kyle wants to commit suicide after Antoine's death even though they'd only been dating about a month prior is also stupid.

The worst thing about the book is the ridiculous amount of gratuitous sex that I can only imagine was written for the author's own sexual gratification because it does nothing to serve the plot.
It's a badly strung together compilation of cheesy sex scenes and pointless violence. The protagonist is a vile, abusive maniac but because he's hot, everyone goes weak at the knees and gets a hardon, even when he's in the process of physically beating them up.

Skin is not a thriller, it's basically 50 Shades of Gay but with more racial and homophobic slurs.

I messed up. I cannot rate this book. I accepted it by mistake. It is not the genre that my students read. I apologize for the mixup.

This book was a big letdown for me. I expected a creepy ghost story but there were no ghosts. Marc, who is mentioned to be haunted by a vicious spirit, only encounters something supernatural for maybe 3 times for not longer than the blink of an eye. And one has to get through half of the book before "the spirit" appears for the first time. Early into the book he is in a situation where he wakes up and thinks: "Have I blacked-out again?" and before or after that? His black-outs are never mentioned again. At first I thought, all right, there must be a soirit who is occupying his body at times, hence his blackouts. But as he never has blackouts and as there never is a ghost doing something, I just don't know where the books intention was when they wrote: "Marc, ... , is haunted by an eccentric spirit that shares his dreams,..." What dreams? When?

Skin is - excuse the language - full of sh*t. For the most part there is rape, sexual assault, abusive relationships and an overall hornyness of each and every character. Seriously. I like me some hot scenes but these dudes are completely out of control here. There isn't at least one situation where they don't get "hard ons". For about 70% of this book they are getting it on. And yeah, the language. This book is not for the faint of heart. You have to deal with a lot of derogatory and offending language.

So, expecting a ghost story and a broken lover who lost his companion seeking either revenge or salvation, I felt like being slapped in the face - with a boner I guess. Skin is a very rough, sometimes gross story about a lot of sex that somehow turns into a Voodoo-Thing at the end. While I could have liked the voodoo part it was too little, too late. I actually don't know why I bothered finishing this book as I mostly rolled my eyes and got angry by the constant abuse, blood and semen everywhere. I think I was just hoping that the story would at one point turn from gross to creepy and bring on the actual story.

The pure awesomeness of this story, the OMG I can't stop turning the pages, deserves 5+ stars. I totally wanted to 5 star this from A-V. Then V-Z sailed over my head and I was lost.

I still have no clue what happened. Thinking I must have had a brain fart, I read the ending twice, I still don't get it. The story went all voodoo paranormal, spirits, dead dogs, or were they? and while I love me some paranormal/otherworldly happenings, I need to be able to follow along. That didn't happen in this instance, and dammit that fact guts me.

I urge readers, with no aversion to darker content (non-con messed up shit) to pick this story up, and my fellow book junkies, feel free to explain the ending to this poor simpleton.

This book reminded me of the great southern horror writer, Poppy Z. Brite, in fact it seems like it would be perfect for fans of her writing, of which I am myself. I love the setting of New Orleans and having horror set there seems so apt, Mr. Baines has done a great job bringing the story to life, I look forward to reading more of his work