Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Nick Esposito and Charlie Tanner grew up in the same town and went to school together. Despite this, they never really hung out with each other, until a chance meeting at a graduation party and makes them realize that they probably would have ended up friends if they had given each other a chance.
Years later, Charlie is raising his twin ten-year-old sons after the loss of his wife to breast cancer five years ago. As the town veterinarian, he works long hours and relies on hired help to be home most afternoons with his boys. Meanwhile, his boys are pushing him to date. Charlie isn’t sure he’s ready to date again, especially since he still thinks about his college roommate and their special relationship they had with one another.
Nick is a divorced father of two children. When his wife took off, Nick became the primary caretaker for his fifteen-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son. As a teenager, he battled with his attraction to other boys, but when a clingy high school girlfriend announced she was pregnant, Nick’s life took a drastic turn from where he wanted to go. Today, as a divorced father of two, Nick finds himself still struggling with that attraction.
When a chance meeting occurs between the two men after their sons bond with one another at summer camp, Nick and Charlie find themselves battling their attraction to one another. Are Nick and Charlie ready to follow their hearts, or will they continue to try to suppress those feelings?
In this out for you novel, two high school acquaintances meet again after their children become best-friends. Both unattached, they find themselves compatible both in and out of the bedroom. Yet, Nick isn’t ready to admit that he may be gay. Struggling with his sexuality, Nick finds himself sitting in a gay bar.
Enter Ethan… Ethan is a younger man who plays the role of a sex therapist when it comes to Nick and Charlie. While some readers may be put off with the fact that at points, both of these guys have sexual encounters with Ethan, there isn’t actual “cheating” going on since the two main characters aren’t in any committed relationship with one another – though these encounters help them realize that what they really want is to be in a committed relationship with one another.
The other main characters in this book are the children. Ordinarily, I am not a fan of children taking a leading role in stories, but in this case, I made an exception. I really liked how the kids in this story actually were more aware of what these two guys felt for one another than either of these two guys knew! I also liked how these children were so accepting of their parents’ relationship.
The sex scenes in the book are well written and spicy! Readers will also appreciate that the sex scenes between Charlie and Nick are more romantic in nature than the “memories” Charlie has of his encounters with his college roommate or the individual sexual encounters these guys have with Ethan.
Readers should be warned that there is some gay-bashing that occurs in this story. Without ruining the storyline for anyone, there is an “incident” that occurs between some gay-bashers and one of the main characters. In my opinion, though, there wasn’t a whole lot of detail given to readers from the point of “it’s going to happen” to one of the character waking up in the hospital.
My one complaint about this book is that it seemed almost too short and felt rushed. We go from Nick and Charlie re-acquainting with one another to them engaging in a sexual encounter in less time than it takes a NASCAR driver to complete a lap….then we have the time out between these two…then bada-bing, bada-boom, the two of them are back together! For me, as a reader, I like to have a long-slow build up between the main characters, and it doesn’t really happen in this book. I also felt as if readers were cheated out of details, especially when it came to the “incident” and the immediate aftermath of what happened.
Overall, this was another prime example of a great self-published novel! I like that it didn’t follow the traditional cookie-cutter formula of MM romance by adding in this third character who helps the two of them deal with their sexuality issues. If you are looking for something without a whole lot of drama, this may be the book for you!
