Review: You Can Leave Your Hat On by Lena Matthews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2009
You Can Leave Your Hat On is what the title promised, a naughty little novella on a stripper and his lover. The starting point of the story is one I already see in the past, a young and handsome College TA, Harlan, who has the hots for his even more handsome, a slightly older, College professor, Sawyer. The book respects the rules of a May / December romance plus the College setting with an Office Affairs theme... the shorten the thing, this is the classical romance by the rule, with the twist of being a gay romance. So I would say that it can appeal both to the old fan of the gay romance than to a newbie who wants to try her hand on the genre.Being Sawyer older and also Harlan's superior, he has all the trouble of the case: he can't take advantage of his position, he doesn't want to be involved with a younger man who can have everyone he wants, and plus there is also a little problem of appropriateness... Harlan to make the ends meet has a side job as a stripper in the local gay club, and Sawyer saw him at his workplace. So the point if Sawyer is gay is no more a question, but now there is the biggest problem that, even if Sawyer manages to move on the fact to have a relationship with a student, the fact that said student is a stripper is a big NO for the career of a college professor.And so Sawyer didn't make a move on Harlan, stopped to go to that club, and forced himself to have a strictly professional relationship with the boy. Only that Harlan is not of the same idea, and as soon as he reaches his graduation day, he is also ready, willing and naked for the professor to take. Harlan has all the cockiness of his young age, he is really convinced that Sawyer is avoiding him only since they have a professional relationship to preserve, and he thinks that, as soon as that problem is over, Sawyer will be all his to take. In a way I like how daring and careless Harlan is, but this only proves that he is really young.Being Harlan one of his students, it's not the only problem for Sawyer; there is also the question of his side job, as a stripper, that is not exactly a good visiting card to prove his willingness to commit and being exclusive; and then even if Harlan wants a real relationship, it's not said that Sawyer wants the same thing: he is arrived at an age where or you start to think seriously to commit, or you run at the minimum hint that there is a chance to be shackled... There is quite a controversy inside Sawyer, he is jealous of Harlan, mainly due to his job, but he is also skittish when it's time to commit and give something real to Harlan. Where Harlan is open and maybe careless, at least he has his mind clear and he knows what he wants... for all the years Sawyer has more than Harlan, he has not yet reached that level of maturity.Anyway this is a novella, mostly and erotic novella, with a lot of sex scenes, hot and nice, and all in all it spans only two days in the life of our characters, so there is not enough time to develop a lot, but I have the idea that the author has something more in mind, since she introduced some supporting characters (Harlan's brother, Rhys, and Sawyer's friend, Macon) that have too much deepness to be only a passing spectator.