Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Andrew Wellman was supposed to get married, but when he caught his fiancé in bed with his best friend, Andrew suffered the worst betrayal. Andrew decides to go on his honeymoon solo, and heads to the exclusive resort, Bliss. The resort is familiar to Andrew and, as an interior designer, he had spent a lot of time decorating the resort. It now becomes his sanctuary.

Cord Fabien is a rock star that everyone knows—well, everyone except Andrew. Cord’s band recently broke up and he ended his decade-long relationship. Cord owes his label a solo album, but inspiration is scarce until he sees Andrew. Buttoned up Andrew isn’t Cord’s type, but the men have an instant attraction and a pull towards each other that cannot be denied.

A romance blossoms in paradise, but it’s just a matter of time before the real world will try and intrude. But the resort’s owner, Adrien Blissand, has a way of making dreams come true and Andrew and Cord may have found their forever.

Honeymoon Refrain starts a new series by Harley Grace, and it looks to be the debut book from the author. Andrew and Cord are both in difficult places and find a spark when they see each other. The men are different in that Andrew is more reserved and blames himself for his fiancé’s cheating, where Cord is a famous rock star, but of course, Andrew has never heard of him.

The men get together quickly and fall hard easily, despite the turbulence they are both dealing with. The story is insular, as most of it takes place on an island resort, which adds a nice atmosphere to the story and we are introduced to several men from the island, including the resort owner, the somewhat mysterious billionaire, Adrien Blissand.

Once Andrew learns who Cord is, he takes it all in stride. Maybe it was because he didn’t know who Cord was, but there is never a great sense of how famous Cord is for most of the book due somewhat to the setting. This is also a familiar story, but it was the style that didn’t draw me in as much. The men would often have one line of spoken conversation and then paragraphs and paragraphs of internal dialogue and it really stalled out the story for me. There are side characters introduced for other books and some were worked in subtly and others not so subtly and that also broke the flow of the story for me, at times. The ending, while it wrapped up Andrew and Cord’s story, read as abrupt to me as well.

This was a standard story of two men finding a new path. While the execution of this one wasn’t the best fit for me, the island setting was enjoyable and may lead me to give the next book in the series a try.