Rating: 4.25 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Carlos is down on his luck. After losing his job, he lost his rental house and his girl. When his unemployment checks dry up, the friend whose couch he was sleeping on threatens to throw him out unless he comes up with some cash. Turning to a life of crime, Carlos climbs into a window seeking something to pawn.
Michael has given up on finding love. He’s been there, done that, and doesn’t care to repeat it. When Michael clocks the intruder coming in his second-story window, he is convinced that there is a reason Carlos entered his life. Paying it forward, Michael offers Carlos an opportunity to turn his life around, with a little meddling courtesy of himself.
As the two adjust to being roommates and friends, Carlos begins to want more from Michael than Michael is able to give. Can Carlos manage to convince Michael to give love another chance?
When Carlos decided to climb up to the second story, open window to find something to pawn in order to pay his friend for the privilege of sleeping on musty old couch, he never expected to find love. As a straight man, he’s spent years trying to please his father. Despite taking a “manly” job in construction, setting up house in a nice rental property, and nabbing the hottest girl he could find, Carolos could never seem to convince his father he was not gay. Now after meeting Michael, Carlos struggles with his sexuality.
Michael is out and proud gay. He spends his days blogging, and his nights are spent hanging out at the local gay bar with his friends. When he offered Carlos a place to stay, he wasn’t expecting Carlos to begin to integrate himself into his life. As they move from strangers to friends to lovers, Michael struggles with letting Carlos in.
The secondary characters here bring depth to this book without adding a lot of side stories. From the librarian to the shopkeepers along the route Michael takes Carlos looking for a job, each of these characters help bring the story to life without taking away from Carlos and Michael’s story.
The sex scenes were steamy. Two men living in a very small room, sharing the same bed, led to very intimate masturbation sessions between the two. Unfortunately, the intimacy didn’t follow through to the penetration zone, which at times seemed more like a script for a porn movie with all the right moves and words, but the feelings weren’t quite there.
This book is written from Carlos’ point of view, though readers do get some insight on Michael through his blog entries that Carlos reads. The only complaint I had with this book was that it is told with some flashbacks, which did cause a little bit of confusion at times because there was nothing to indicate it was a flashback until you were popped back into the present time. Once I got used to this style of writing, it was fine, but initially there was some confusion as to what was going on.
Overall, I thought this was a great book, once I got past the whole creep factor of someone breaking into one’s window in the middle of night while one was sleeping…and the cover, which doesn’t scream “romance” so much as it screams “creepy.” Don’t despair; there isn’t any creepiness in the book. I highly recommend it!
A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.
