Rating: 3.25 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

 

Wes’ music career is finally gaining some traction and he’s been playing on a tour across the country. He can’t wait to get back home, until he finds his two best friends in bed together. Wes didn’t know Judah was gay and Judah pushed off Wes’ advances a few years ago. Travis knows everything about Wes, including how he’s been in love with Judah for years, and the betrayal is more than Wes can take.

Judah had a difficult time accepting that he is gay. He didn’t know how to tell Wes that he was attracted to him and Judah longs for Wes all the time, as their parents are dating and they live in the same house. With Wes out of town, Judah and Travis became closer friends and Judah felt safe with Travis to finally be intimate with a man. But Wes is what holds them all together and it’s Judah that realizes they don’t have to choose because they work better together—all three of them. Now, he just as to get the rest of the guys to realize it as well.

When I first started reading A Different Kind of Love, it was exactly the book I was looking for. With Wes walking in on Travis and Judah, the scene set up a lot of their story. It was clear how much seeing Travis and Judah together devastated Wes and he shuts down and leaves again to try and sort things out and lick his wounds. Wes has been in love with Judah for years and he and Travis are the closest of friends and just never went there, but there has always been chemistry between them. Now, if Travis and Judah are together Wes has no idea where that leaves him and he’s hurt and devastated. But Wes doesn’t know the whole story.

The guys have to come to terms with how their relationships are changing with each other, but once Wes cools down, they all do talk to each other, the chemistry is intense, and they start figuring out how to make a relationship work between the three of them. This all happens in the earlier part of the book, so the rest of the story has to be filled with something.

However, the rest of the story is where this book went off track for me with several side plots that didn’t appeal to me at all. Wes’ mother and Judah’s father have been dating and they all live together. Wes’ mother is adamant that Wes and Judah are brothers. They moved in when they were in their later teens and Wes and Judah already knew each other and they never have and never will see each other as brothers. While Wes’ mother is completely accepting that Wes is gay, she is screeching about them being brothers and it was really ridiculous. Wes is afraid to come out, but his feelings on this didn’t really resonate that clearly, until suddenly he’s just not afraid anymore and there was a complete lack of development in this area. Travis has an alcoholic and abusive mother who read as a stereotypical caricature and Wes’ story is being seen with two men in the press and that whole scenario read as juvenile to me.

The relationship between Wes, Judah, and Travis and the time they spent together worked well, but there was too much outside drama that didn’t work for me that took away from their story. If you do like multiple storylines of outside drama for your characters, then you could try this one for three friends creating the relationship that fits them.