crazy little thing cold love coverRating: 3.75 stars
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Length: Novel

 

Jude came back from combat injured and having to rethink his future now that his plan of lifelong military service is impossible. Jude is also haunted by nightmares that leave him waking near nightly, sweating and terrified. He tries to cover his anxieties and uncertain future by being the life of the party, always making jokes and hiding his fears, even with his best friend, Ben. But when he sees Ben and his new partner together, Jude can’t help but feel a little jealous. So he somewhat reluctantly lets Ben talk him into going on a holiday through a kink dating app. He also agrees to choose a trip that focuses on Daddy/boy kink, something he has never really considered, but Ben thinks might be a good fit.

Kaspar works as an art therapist and is still paying off school loans, so a vacation shouldn’t be in the cards. But when his friend enters him into a contest for a free vacation, Kaspar is thrilled when he wins a trip to Austria. He isn’t sure he is going to find the man of his dreams, but a chance to spend a week with a hot Daddy would be more than worth it.

Jude and Kaspar end up meeting the first night of the trip and sparks fly, so much so that they end up spending all their time together. The trip is magical, particularly as Jude explores being a Daddy for the first time. The men realize that they want more than just a week together, however. Now they must figure out if there is a way to turn their vacation romance into something lasting.

Crazy Little Thing Cold Love is part of the second season of the Destination Daddies collection. The books are standalones written by a variety of authors and feature kinky vacations organized through an app. This book stands alone fine, though fans of Davison’s work might enjoy seeing Jayden and Ben from His Boy to Cherish, who appear a few times as side characters.

This story divides in two parts, with the first focused on the vacation itself and the men meeting and falling for each other, and then the second on the aftermath of the trip as they try to turn their fling into a relationship. I think it works well in that the trip is only a week, and while the men are already in love by the end of the trip (a little too quickly in my opinion), they are realistically needing more time together to really develop things further. So it is nice to see that time where the men figure out if they can fit together back in their everyday lives. I think the story did suffer a little from the lack of any real conflict, however, and things got somewhat slowed down for me during the second part of the book. While Jude’s uncertainty about being a Daddy is set up to be an issue early on, it is never actually a hurdle and he settles into the role quickly. So the guys fall for each other on the trip, then we see them dating and moving forward together, and it is all such smooth sailing that I felt like things did drag a little at points. That said, Jude and Kaspar are sweet together and I found them an appealing couple.

One of the issues the men do work through is Jude’s PTSD. He is haunted by nightmares of the attack that left him injured and out of military duty, which means he isn’t comfortable sharing a bed for fear of harming his partner. Past guys have not reacted well to the separate beds, nor to Jude’s occasional flashbacks that leave him off kilter, so it is nice to see how easily Kaspar accepts this part of Jude and is there to support him. I also like that Kaspar encourages Jude toward therapy to help him work through the nightmares and PTSD and find some helpful coping strategies.

Another aspect I found particularly interesting is Kaspar’s synesthesia, specifically a variety that causes him to see colors when he hears sounds (chromesthesia). I enjoyed hearing about how he perceives sound as color and the way different voices show up in his vision as different colors. It is a rare condition and one most people don’t know much about, so it was fun to see it included here. Also, I have a form of synesthesia myself, in my case spatial sequence synesthesia. I have it most strongly for calendar, but also for number and alphabet (and a tiny bit of color association as well). So my version of synesthesia is different from Kaspar’s, but it was fun to see it portrayed in the story.

Overall, I found this one a sweet and heartwarming Daddy/boy story. I liked that we see the men both in the excitement of their vacation, as well as back in real life. I do think the story was slowed down a little by not having much going on other than the men happily dating one another for most of the story, however. That said, this is a nice easy read, especially if you enjoy a vacation romance with a Daddy/boy twist.

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