Whatever It Takes
Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Short Story
Eric has a few weeks off before he reports for SEAL training. It’s not easy being on the other side of the country from his family and he’s excited to return home. He didn’t realize that his younger brother, Liam, is on a college break and the house is filled with Liam’s friends. One friend, Scott, has had a crush on Eric for years, and even though Scott has reinvented himself and looks amazing, Eric is instead captivated by Shaw.
Shaw is working on his Ph.D and agreed to help Liam with a project. He didn’t expect to spend the week making memories with Eric.
This is a short story that moves fast and introduces us to Eric and Shaw and a cast of supporting characters. Eric has only a short time before he goes off to SEAL training and, although it’s exactly what he wants, he knows that the commitment will be intense. Eric has a great relationship with his brother, Liam, and has to shift gears a bit when he realizes the house is fuller than he thought. But Shaw is there and Eric is captivated not only by how the guy looks, but how he feels when they are together getting to know each other.
The story starts off with Eric not sure what to do about his brother’s best friend, Scott. Scott has been crushing on Eric for years and now with a recent makeover, Scott is exactly the type of guy that will turn Eric’s head. But, he’s still not the one for Eric. For a shorter book, there was a lot of time focused on Scott for him not being a main character and it came across like Eric was more attracted to Scott than he was to Shaw. The chemistry was then a little off for me with Eric and Shaw.
The guys do spend the week together and a lot of promises are made and there is a sweetness and some heat to them. There is another side story added in regarding what Shaw’s first name is, as he goes by his last name, and I felt it was another layer added in that didn’t have the intended impact for a shorter story. We are also told that Eric and Shaw spend the entire week together and there is then no further mention of the project Shaw and Liam were supposed to be working on.
The book ends with promises from both Eric and Shaw as the men fall in love quickly and it was enough to get me to read on to see where they go next.
Everything You Want
Rating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novella
Shaw and Eric agreed to “pine” for each other while Shaw finishes graduate school and Eric is at Navy SEAL training. But, Shaw doesn’t much care for the time apart so early in their relationship. With Eric on leave for the holidays, the men are looking forward to spending time together and figuring out the future of their relationship. But with the holidays come family obligations and friends to see and while the men look forward to it all, their future is anything but certain.
This book picks up directly where Whatever it Takes leaves off. Eric is at BUD/S training and Shaw is finishing graduate school. When the book opens, we are with Shaw and his friends and we see how he is doing with Eric being away so early in their relationship. As with the first book, there are a lot of secondary characters here that get a lot of page time for a shorter story. We meet Shaw’s friends, one who is on a tattoo reality show, and their stories are a large part of the overall books so far.
Eric and Shaw had only known each other for ten days when Eric left again for training. Their relationship has moved fast and they don’t know each other all that well. However, they are figuring out forever, so you have to go with that. They do work well together and I liked them as a couple. Yet, I would have liked more of them in each book, as some scenes were off page and there wasn’t enough time for me of them together.
The story overall went in a few too many directions for me, as there is a lot of set up for a lot of characters here. While I did need a little more from Eric and Shaw’s story, I am interested in all of the other characters and will look for their stories if they are released.
