Review: Random and meandering
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 3, 2014
2.5 out of 5 stars***This book was provided free by the author in exchange for an honest review, through the Goodreads “Don't Buy My Love” program***I am a typically a huge fan of realism when I'm reading contemporary MM (or anything, for that matter).  I can suspend my disbelief sometimes when the characters are exceptionally well drawn and I connect to them emotionally, or I can forgive a few out there plot twists as long as the rest of the story is well paced and persuasive.  This book fell short on both counts.There are 3 MCs – Ty is the runaway, arriving in Heartland City after being horrifically beaten by his father, who is suggested to be mentally ill in addition to being extremely homophobic.  Dani is a young musician who has come to the city to make it big, with only a suitcase in tow.  Kaeden is already on the scene, a flamboyant young man who left his traditional Asian home because he did not feel accepted.  They are loosely connected through Tommy, a hustler who picks up boys at the bus stop and introduces them to Miss Sally, who is a madam of sorts.Ty's story was the most compelling to me, at least initially.  His father is a former policeman with extensive contacts in the town and a reputation as an upright citizen, his mother is subservient and never stands up to him even though she has a good idea of what is going on, so I was able to buy Ty's decision to run away rather than report the abuse.  Shortly after arriving at the city he is picked up by Abe, an ICU nurse with a soft spot for beautiful, vulnerable boys.  But from the point that Ty left Abe's apartment, I couldn't connect with him at all.  I couldn't reconcile the extreme partying in penthouse suites and fancy clubs with the boy who was sleeping under a bush and begging for food.I started out feeling respect for Dani, who was unwilling to become a prostitute and seemed quite pragmatic about life.  But he met Nigel, and despite being essentially raped in front of a room full of people, he can think of nothing more than having sex with him.  Which they do.  Hourly.  And apparently he is capable of producing buckets of precum.  It was insta-love with copious sex and constantly dripping cocks – maybe hot the first time or two, but it got to the point that I was skipping all the sex scenes.  I saw no particular reason for them to even like each other, much less love each other.Kaeden is a much more minor character than the other two.  He seems fairly complacent about being a prostitute, and by the end of the book I felt I knew quite a lot about his hair and makeup, but very little about him.I short, I felt that the plot meandered, and was quite random.  I found the situations mostly contrived and unrealistic.  I was unable to emotionally connect with the MCs.  Several potentially interesting side characters were introduced, then dropped.  The point at which the book ended also felt more like the author met a certain quota of pages, rather than a logical wrapping up point.  This is yet another book that shows a lot of promise, but was ruined from lack of focus and good editing.  I'm not interested enough in the characters to continue the series