Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novella
Cole and Dane were best friends in high school. They both had feelings for each other, but they were young and nothing went as planned. They grew apart and it’s been ten years since they have seen each other. On the occasion of Cole’s brother’s wedding, the men are reunited and all the old feelings are still there.
The moment Dane sees Cole again, it all comes back to him, or maybe it never left as he has never forgotten Cole or gotten over the feelings he had for him. Cole feels his relationships have been bland and boring up until now, but Dane has walked on the kinkier side and with that being just what Cole wants and needs, Dane is all in to show him a good time. But once will never be enough.
This book was just okay and lackluster for me. Cole and Dane meet up again after ten years. They were said to be the closest of friends, but we don’t see any of that. We are also told that Dane has been pining after Cole, so much pining, but we don’t see any of that either. We also know that Dane is such good friends with Cole’s brother and fiancé that he’s an important part of their wedding. Cole is also close to his brother, yet Cole and Dane have no idea what the other has been doing for the past decade. The book is titled Reunion, but when the men first see each other again, they are both checking out the same guy they knew from high school, and the reunion aspect is downplayed too much.
This book is part of the Ace’s Wild series, where the characters in each book visit the sex store of the same name. Cole and Dane head there early in the book and that sets up their story. Dane has spent time in the kink world and Cole has not, but he wants to, and he wants to with Dane. The scenes between the men felt rushed, the kink was mild, something about it didn’t fit well for how the story progressed, and I never felt the chemistry between the men. There was a lot going on in this book and with the story being shorter in length, it felt like there was a rush to get everything in. There are many side characters we learn about, as well as both Cole and Dane’s exes, and there was too much going that detracted from the focus being on Cole and Dane.
A good portion of the relationship development is off page as the scenes jump forward in time. The epilogue highlighted one of the side characters and the future of Cole and Dane was narrowed down and we were only told about, not shown it, in a few sentences. The book was largely underwhelming and not overly satisfying for a story with many tropes I do like. However, the book was written is for a charitable cause and, “For the first 90 days of this title’s publication, all sales and page reads will be donated to the Just Us Program at the Oasis Center in Nashville and the Magic City Acceptance Center of Birmingham.”
