Review: Not my favorite from this author but a nice read.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2014
**Copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review**A nice read but not my favorite by this author, I'm afraid.After my explosion of enthusiasm for Anyta Sunday's, Taboo For You, I think I was expecting a bit too much out of this one. Superficially, the two books have some similarities: Both are friends-to-lovers, GFY/OFY, a slow burn romances. I am a huge sucker for a slow burn romance AND GFY so I thought this one would be an automatic winner, right? Not quite.What makes a GFY book so appealing to me? A lot of it has to do with sexual tension, the build-up, the anticipation. Another portion is the paradigm shift in the MC's previous assumptions about their sexuality. I love that realization, the weight of that enormous change. The combination the two often lead to M/M gold for me. Mix all of that with some virginity and I'm in heaven.So why didn't this book satisfy? Well, for starters, the MC, Liam is an odd character. I tend to like socially inept MCs and the combination of GFY and social awkwardness is one that I particularly enjoy (see Blame It On The Mistletoe, Valentine Shower). However, my main issue with this book was Liam's coldness. He was clinical to the point of isolating me, even at the end of the story when he had his most "mushy" moments. I didn't like the way he treated Quinn callously and with little regard for his emotions. Yes, you might argue that Liam's manner was decidedly unemotional and so he may not have realized what he was doing to Quinn, but I found him to be observant enough that he should have know better (for the most part). Regardless, I personally didn't like Liam so that affected my enjoyment of the story as a whole.In terms of the GFY part, Liam, being the clinical and blunt person that he was, took same-sex sexual attraction in stride. There was no tension, no grand realizations, which deflated my sweet GFY balloon like a pin prick. If you are reading this for the GFY, you are barking up the wrong tree. I actually think people who don't like GFY would be pleasantly surprised by this story.My favorite parts of this book were the secondary characters. I loved Hunter, Quinn, and Shannon. I really got them as people. There aren't nearly enough disabled characters in M/M and I could have read an entire book about Hunter I loved him so much. I thought Quinn was adorable and vulnerable in all the right ways, though I didn't quite get his attraction to Liam.The mystery in this book is particularly weak. I didn't mind, because I'm not a mystery lover, but some people might. It was easy to solve, even for a gullible reader like myself.All in all, this book was a nice, easy read but it didn't give me that warm, mushy feeling like most Anyta Sunday's books.