Review: Three Wishes...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 21, 2014
I will start with the many things I really enjoyed about this story, beginning with the characters. Eli (Elijah) Gaither is a big, sexy bear, divorced father of three older children, the youngest a sophomore in high school. He runs a salvage company with his brothers where they recover and refurbish fixtures and materials from old homes. I absolutely loved Eli. He is just settling in living his life comfortably as an older gay man, though he had a pretty rocky road getting to this point. His two older kids are out on their own, but his youngest comes to live with him after a final blow-up with his mom, Eli’s ex. It was a nice aspect to this story watching these two reconnect and figure out their new life together.Oscar Hernandez is a hot Latino who crosses Eli’s path at the salvage shop while purchasing some items for his own job at a company that does designing and renovating. They are immediately attracted but take things rather slow, as they live about an hour apart from each other. They have some great chemistry but must tackle some issues, such as their age difference (Oscar is only a few years younger than Eli’s oldest), Eli’s youngest now living with him, etc. But their feelings win out, and they both realize they are in love.This is the second book in a spinoff from the Renovation series, but I read it as a stand alone story. I don’t think the others need to be read first, but I probably would have had a better feel for the characters and setting going into this one. There were a few times where I felt there was a lot of information being given that I didn’t care too much about, but this may have had something to do with not having any of the background from the previous stories.I only had a few other issues with this story. I often overlook a lot of editing issues, but it is worth a mention that they do exist throughout this story. The only other thing was more of a confusion on my part, and it is mostly with the epilogue which I assume is setting up the next story. I had hoped to see more about how things were going with Eli and Oscar, but that wasn’t the case with this one. It is about one of the other guys, which definitely got me interested in the next story. However, it introduces a sort of paranormal twist that I really didn’t see coming and just didn’t seem to fit the story. There was a previous incident that could be connected to this, but again, it felt thrown in out of the blue. It did pique my interest though, because I often enjoy paranormal stories. Knowing going into it that is the direction the series is taking, I definitely look forward to reading the next installment. But, for me, it felt a little off attached to this story.This was my first Matthew Ortiz book, and it definitely won’t be my last. I liked the writing style and really enjoyed the characters. There was a perfect amount of dialog, snark and sexiness, and I hope to see more of that in Mr. Ortiz’ other stories.