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  • Unearthed

  • An Upending Tad Spinoff: Max and Sean (The Dungeon Black Duology, Book 1)
  • By: Kora Knight
  • Narrated by: Michael Dean
  • Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)

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Unearthed cover art

Unearthed

By: Kora Knight
Narrated by: Michael Dean
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Summary

Love. The most powerful force in existence, but also the most ruthless. Cunning and deceptive. Man’s greatest Achilles heel. Leaving all who embrace it weak and vulnerable. 

At least that’s how Dom-for-hire Max Kelley sees it, after the love of his life knocked him on his ass. A brutal blow that not only stole his breath, but decimated his ability to trust. Turning him cold and cynical. The TKO he never saw coming. 

Love. A mistake Max won’t ever make again. 

Meaning no more relationships—not exactly a hardship. Just the thought of dating makes him queasy, and one of the reasons he doms for a living. To sexually engage without the poison of intimacy. The other reason? To keep his demons sated. With whips and chains, and scandalous kink. A fiery mix that always hits the spot. 

That is, until a bright-eyed beauty walks into his life and refuses to leave. 

Sean Matthews. College senior and flirt extraordinaire. Max’s newest—and greenest—client sub. Man, is he delicious; able to push Max’s buttons, able to make him crave the things he knows he shouldn’t. Sound the alarm, this can only mean trouble. Unfortunately, deterring Sean proves virtually impossible, and now Max finds himself at a crossroads. 

Man up and kick his favorite sub to the curb…or succumb to his own caged desires.

Warning: This BDSM romance contains intensely explicit scenes both inside and out of the dungeon. It also as references sensitive matters involving teens and child abuse that some might find disturbing.

Note from the author: While this duology can be considered a stand alone, I highly recommend listeners visit the prior series (Upending Tad: A Journey of Erotic Discovery) first for two reasons: It was the chemistry of Tad and Scott that started it all and won these books such a devoted following. But also, the love interests in Unearthed (Max and Sean) were first featured in the previously mentioned series, giving the listener a unique first impression of them from Tad and Scott's POV. Most listeners would agree that Max definitely made his mark in a very striking way long before Unearthed ever came to be.

©2016 Kora Knight (P)2022 Kora Knight

What listeners say about Unearthed

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SUPERNOVA INTENSITY!

Having read the books I knew I'd be sad, mad and crazy turned on....
Michael Dean's voice made the words come alive, and boy how he brought Max to life (all growly) and Sean ( all happy and positive). When Max was all stern and cold his voice sent tingles down my spine.
But those scenes, omg, be warned ⚠️ they are pretty long and so detailed , I didn't know how Sean kept coming back for more.
Kora Knight's writing is simply sublime, those first 2 chapters will stay with me forever and knowing what book 2 will bring I'm kinda scared and excited to start.

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Absolutely stunning!!!

What can I say except strap yourself in, it's going to be a bumpy ride!
Max has so much baggage and it's completely screwing with his head because he might just lose the best man he's ever known, the most perfect, sweet sub, Sean.
Sean is willing to put up with a lot for the man he's falling in love with but if he can't sort through his issues, it will be the nail in the coffin of this fragile relationship.
Michael Dean did an amazing job narrating and bringing the story to life.

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Freaking amazing - I love Max and Sean

What an incredible audiobook! I have read Upending Tad, but I think you can read Unearthed as a standalone as well.
Kora Knight is an extremely talented author. She has a phenomenal way with words and I was able to empathize with Max and later Sean very quickly. The audiobook is not short at 15 hours, but I listened to it in just three days despite being at work. It kept me captivated and I was dying to know what happened next in the story.
Max has a past that broke my heart. All I'm saying is tissues . Sigh.
The story starts off slow, but in return Max has been given incredible depth. What he does, he does with all his heart. He is a sculptor and he teaches and in the evenings he is a Dom. But he doesn't let anyone get close to him and for good reason.
He meets Sean because Sean is a model for his class. He's incredibly cute, way too young in Max's eyes, very smart and incredibly curious.
I literally dove into this audiobook and followed the development that Max and Sean's relationship makes. Their first session. Wow, holy moly was that hot!

But this is a story you have to listen to instead of reading the book. Michael Dean is a terrific narrator, but here he outdid himself. He made the protagonists live, his voice for Max is incredibly sexy and fitting. You almost feel like you are right there in the sessions. I was absolutely blown away by Michael's performance in bringing this story to life. His performance makes this book an absolute pleasure to listen to.
My only criticism is the ending. Because that forces me to listen directly to the next volume.
Highly recommended - a great story, fascinating characters, a compelling plot!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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wonderful performance by MD

Story = 3.5 stars rounded up
Narration = 5 stars

Trigger warning:
Violence, homophobia, on page suicide and mourning, victim shaming, on page attempted rape, descriptions of child sexual abuse and medical play.

I'm conflicted in my rating. I absolutely loved Sean. I don't entirely care for Max. Though I do think they have great chemistry. I do love a good mutual hurt/comfort story and this is definitely that.

The overall storyline kept my interest the entire time and it had great world building. I'm definitely curious anout the roommate. This was my first time reading this author and although it is a spin off, I don't feel like I missed anything crucial, so it can be read alone.

The things i didn't care for were the snail pace slow burn and HFN ending and the fact that Max went beyond Dom to being a jerk at times. The guy needed counseling. How can a sub trust a Dom if they aren't giving the same honesty they demand. Not sure if I want toread book 2 right now. That was an up and down roller-coaster and I do think alot could have been cut and just had one book. By the end of this one I couldn't help but think get it together already.
In the end I still really enjoyed it, and boy is it steamy.

MD did a phenomenal job with the narration. He expressed all the emotions and gave the characters distinct voices that suited the characters and he brought the story to life.

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Erotic and addictive

BDSM…. The thing I didn’t think I was into but definitely am. This was hot, this was so involved and Sean and Max literally stole my heart. Great job by the narrator.

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Freaking amazing!

Kora Knight's writing + Michael Dean's narration=🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

It was beyond perfection! I loved every second of it. Now I'll be impatiently waiting for Revived.

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So very wonderful!

Unearthed By Kora Knight ..
Kora’s writing skills are phenomenal her words brought me into the lives of Max and Sean ….
Max - darkly menacing has a reason why he doesn’t date - his past is written in the first few chapters, broke my heart.
As a sculptor and a Dom he is committed 100% to both …
Sean, cute , very pretty with an mouth that he can’t keep spouting off extremely bold words ..
Subbing for Max is Sean’s dream come true but he knows he is addicted to Max ..
How their beginnings grew is written expressly their BDSM together is beautiful to read …
Then comes the audiobook narrated by Michael Dean … he absolutely brings the book to life !
I felt as if I was there listening to every word word spoken and breath taken by Max and Sean .
A sensational audiobook….

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    5 out of 5 stars
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I love Kora Knight

Man …. I don’t even know what to say - Kora Knight is doing book magic. An uncanny ability to write compelling stories with great characters, amazing story lines and hot as f…
The narration was also stellar - but it’s Michael Dean …. how could it not be….

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enjoyable but..

Although I enjoyed the overall story and the depth and emotions throughout I was left a bit disappointed with the ending I guess you could say its hfn.
The narration was outstanding apart from one mistake near the end when the mc called shaun Kevin,(obviously an overlooked error)
hope it's not too long to wait for the 2nd book so I can see what happens.

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Intense

I listened to this without knowing about the Tad books. So I hadn’t much backstory. I don’t think it was necessary. I didn’t think I missed something in the book to understand the full story. But I’m going to listen to that series before I continue on Max and Sean’s story.

This book was intense! All the way through! The story- and character building is so well made! From Max’s childhood, through a traumatic youth dealing (or rather not) with the anger. To the dom he becomes.

There were some moments that had me so sad and mad that I almost closed the book and gave up. I think I can summarize that with the imbalance in the dynamics between the experienced dom and close sub and how Max handles that… And that is also a part of the story. So I continued after a breather.

It’s a duology! No cliffhanger but not HEA either.

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