Can't wait to start the next anthology (One Holiday Ever After) which is another collaboration between these three authors.
Just a Drive by Tere Michaels ★★★★★
While I wasn't sure about this one when I started reading it, it didn't take long for me to be totally hocked. The pages seemed to turn themselves as I found myself nearing the end of this novella and feeling my heart swell with the tender love of Wyatt and Benji.
This novella is told solely from Wyatt Walsh's POV (okay, except for the sweetest epilogue). From first and maybe a second and even a third glance he sound like quite the douche.. But he has his reasons to keep people at an arm's length. The only person he is truly close to is his best friend Raven, practically his sister. They have known each other since they were young unwanted kids and though he lives now in New York and she in a small town with her husband (and soon to be born twins) when she calls - he comes to her help no questions ask, even if he's not sure what kind of help he'll be able to give. That's how he finds himself accepting the help of his one-night-stand - Benji. Beggars can't be choosers.
When Wyatt first spotted Benji Trammell in their mutual place of work he knew he needed to spend a night with the guy. When he finds the chance to ask him out it all goes according to plan, until he gets the call from Raven just as he is about to steal away from Benji's house. As Wyatt has NO way of getting to Raven with no car or another option of driving to the small town she lives in hours away from New York Benji's offer to drive him is not something he can refuse even if he's not sure what Benji's "angle" is.
Benji keeps surprising Wyatt at every turn. He is SUCH a sweet guy. He cares for Wyatt even when Wyatt tries to act like he's got things figured out - he doesn't... But as they spend more and more time together in Raven's small town Wyatt is conflicted by can't have enough of Benji to being scared to death of the idea of getting attached.
There is much more to this novella. It was truly a sweet and tender read. Not at all what it felt like at first glance when all Wyatt was interested in was getting Benji into the nearest bed. But Benji, he sees things differently, he somehow sees a bigger picture and he is not just a sweet and caring guy, he also knows what he wants and needs and though he took a risk with Wyatt I think he actually knew what he was doing. Well, at least half of the time ;)
It's been a while since I've read anything by Tere. I missed her writing.
This novella is told solely from Wyatt Walsh's POV (okay, except for the sweetest epilogue). From first and maybe a second and even a third glance he sound like quite the douche.. But he has his reasons to keep people at an arm's length. The only person he is truly close to is his best friend Raven, practically his sister. They have known each other since they were young unwanted kids and though he lives now in New York and she in a small town with her husband (and soon to be born twins) when she calls - he comes to her help no questions ask, even if he's not sure what kind of help he'll be able to give. That's how he finds himself accepting the help of his one-night-stand - Benji. Beggars can't be choosers.
When Wyatt first spotted Benji Trammell in their mutual place of work he knew he needed to spend a night with the guy. When he finds the chance to ask him out it all goes according to plan, until he gets the call from Raven just as he is about to steal away from Benji's house. As Wyatt has NO way of getting to Raven with no car or another option of driving to the small town she lives in hours away from New York Benji's offer to drive him is not something he can refuse even if he's not sure what Benji's "angle" is.
Benji keeps surprising Wyatt at every turn. He is SUCH a sweet guy. He cares for Wyatt even when Wyatt tries to act like he's got things figured out - he doesn't... But as they spend more and more time together in Raven's small town Wyatt is conflicted by can't have enough of Benji to being scared to death of the idea of getting attached.
There is much more to this novella. It was truly a sweet and tender read. Not at all what it felt like at first glance when all Wyatt was interested in was getting Benji into the nearest bed. But Benji, he sees things differently, he somehow sees a bigger picture and he is not just a sweet and caring guy, he also knows what he wants and needs and though he took a risk with Wyatt I think he actually knew what he was doing. Well, at least half of the time ;)
It's been a while since I've read anything by Tere. I missed her writing.
Just a Stranger by Elle Brownlee ★★★★½
I'll start by saying - giving this novella a 4.5 stars review is me being a brat! It SO deserves 5 stars but more than that is deserves a FULL length novel. Elle did a wonderful job of giving us a story with a very genuine timeline, a relationship buildup of about a year, and yet because it's a novella we needed to accept too many things developing without us "experiencing" them and though it was done well, I still feel like giving Andrew and Michael more real page time would have been better on all aspects.
As this is a novella I don't want to give anything away.. and there is.. See, when Michael and Andrew met for the first time they were all about the fun. The night wasn't even over before Andrew disappeared from Michael's apartment and life.. Andrew was just visiting the big city and as he is a VERY private person, Michael didn't know ANYTHING about him so how could he even START to look for him..
It's been months and though Andrew's life has stayed the same, Michael's has changed. He moved from the big city to the small town he grew up in and so imagine his surprise finding Andrew currently lives there as well.. But there is more than one thing Andrew haven't disclosed on their one night together and Michael's first emotions are anger and a sense of betrayal. Hot tempered he confronted Andrew only to realize he COULDN'T have been more wrong in his assumptions.
From there Michael does his best to not only apologize but to court Andrew and show him he really wants something between them and even though Andrew keeps him at an arms' length, sweet sweet Michael makes the effort to get to know Andrew enough so he can understand him better so he can win him over - and that he does :)
There's a lot more to this one, but I can't say more without spoilering so I rather not. I loved both of them. Andrew had a difficult childhood, growing up in the system, dealing with a smaller sister who kept making the wrong choices. He grew up too quickly but he never learned to trust or find anyone other than family to rely on and so even though Michael is practically offering him THE WORLD, he doesn't know how to handle it and he is actually quite scared. From Michael's POV it's obvious that Andrew is everything he could have wished for if only Andrew trusted him enough for them to build something real together, but slowly slowly with a patient of a saint they get there.
I REALLY enjoyed this one. I've gotta try more by Elle !!!
James and Devin. Le sigh. I loved everything about these two. Their sweet banter, the impossible situation they found themselves in yet managed to handle it spontaneously, sweetly and quite originally.
Like with the previous one, as the synopsis doesn't say much, I REALLY don't want to spoiler anything so I'll do my best to say what I can without saying anything really hehe
In a way the start of this one is a bit similar in concept (only!) to the previous one. Devin in on the look for a hookup and James, well, not really, he isn't sure, but when Devin rescues him from his annoying ex it isn't a hardship to take him home to his apartment to enjoy a night together.
They don't expect the morning phone call and what it will entail. So instead of finishing their time together with a morning coffee or even a full breakfast they spend the rest of the day together but it's not anything they expected and not only because it snowed in and Devin was practically trapped with James in his apartment.
Neither of them were looking for a relationship but once their time together is up they realize it's exactly what they wish they have together, they just need to swap phone numbers first..
LOVED LOVED LOVED this one. I think it's my favorite of the three though all of them were great. Definitely need to add more books by Elizah.
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Rating:
★★★★★ |
E-Book
Edition |
254
pages
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Read on:
22-26 December 2019
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