Review: Fast read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 10, 2014
I was given the book 'Measured Doses' by the author through the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s 'Don’t Buy My Love' program for an honest review. This story is told in third person through the eyes of Jeremy and Chad.Where do I begin? I liked this story, but it read almost like a YA or New Adult story with sex. Chad seemed like a young boy instead of someone who was turning twenty in a few months. Here’s the first inconsistency, at the end of the book, his age is eighteen. We don’t know if he’s really eighteen or almost twenty. The way he acts, I’d say he’s younger. Chad also drinks too much and takes drugs. He does this because he is continually beaten by his father.  Because of the beatings and the insults from his father, Chad has very low self-esteem and is constantly apologizing. He is also a young man that has had so little love in his life that all he wants is to be loved and to have someone of his own. He thinks he could have it with Dion a teacher, until his teacher breaks it off with him. Then Chad’s life goes further downhill.I do wonder about the beatings Chad received. I don’t know what happens in the UK, but in the state I live in, if it’s an underage child that a teacher believes is getting beaten, and even if the child denies it, the teacher is required to report it. It sounds like Chad was getting beaten while he was under age, soon after his mother died, when he was eleven. This means that no teacher reported Chad’s beaten condition. Is that the law in the UK? Don’t tell the authorities if the child denies it? If that isn’t correct, then this story has a massive hole in it or the author is implying that teachers are pretty dense about reporting children in abusive situations.Dion is Chad’s ex-teacher that Chad had a one-time encounter with. Wracked with guilt, Dion told his boyfriend Jeremy and their relationship has been severely strained since then.  We don’t get to see this story through Dion’s pov, unfortunately. Since he seems to have a major part in this, I would’ve liked to hear his thoughts.Chad is beaten very badly by his father one night and the only person he thinks can help him is Dion, even though they broke up. He goes to Dion’s house and Jeremy, Dion’s boyfriend, answers the door, catching the collapsing Chad in his arms. Despite knowing who Chad is Jeremy takes care of him. Chad’s showing up at Dion’s place is the catalyst that starts a change for all three of the men, but there are a lot of events that happen before the resolution.I liked the pace of the story and the idea of the ménage suggested by Jeremy’s mother when she read about it in a book. However, I do have some issues with the story also. The author liked to used words and phrases such as, ‘clearly, obviously, could tell, Jeremy knew, Chad knew, etc.’ I felt like I was getting constantly poked by the author saying, ‘hey, look at this, pay attention, to this, it’s important.’ It comes across as implying the readers are too stupid to notice what’s going on in the story, and it was annoying. The writing would have been tighter if those words had been struck from the story.Some more overused words were spoken by Jeremy that Chad was ‘sweet, kind, and caring.’ Those words were also used by Chad to describe Jeremy, and rationalized by both characters as to why each of them thought that the other deserved to be with Dion. Again, it felt like the author was trying to make sure I absolutely, positively understood what the characters were like.Another thing I didn’t like was how the subject of infidelity is constantly brought up by Chad, who feels it’s his fault, especially after he meets Jeremy and realizes that Jeremy is a very nice guy. Also by Dion who’s feeling guilty for having cheated, and for having left Chad when Chad needed him. And finally by Jeremy who keeps repeating how Dion cheated on him, and how Jeremy had every right to be angry, but then thinks maybe he shouldn’t be angry, but then thinks again Dion did cheat on him. It keeps going around and around in an infinite loop. At one point near the end of the story, Jeremy again brings up the fact of Dion cheating on him, and that’s why he’s been angry and treating Dion badly the last four months. But then, when he wants Dion to consider his idea, of Jeremy, Chad and Dion having a threesome he says to Dion:“I’ve been such a wanker lately. Maybe I wouldn’ve been justified if you were continuously cheating on me, but I know you’re not like that, Dion. You’re not a cheater. You’re faithful. But then you met someone special, someone who has grown to mean as much to you as I do, and you couldn’t just let it go. I understand that now.”Excuse me, but say what? Knock me over with a feather, but my definition of cheater is sneaking behind your partner’s back and having sex with someone when your partner hasn’t agreed that you can do that. And then Jeremy says, well it was only one time so he really shouldn’t have gotten angry? What? Then a few pages later the author has Jeremy think:"Of course Jeremy had been angry; he’d been ‘cheated’ on."Now the readers are being told again by Jeremy that he was cheated on. Could we please have some consistency?As to the relationship between the men, I wonder how much of Chad’s attraction to Jeremy is because Jeremy is kind to him. Chad hasn’t had much kindness in his life so he’s like a puppy that responds to anyone who’s nice. Jeremy is a caretaker/protector personality, so how much is his attraction to Chad because Chad needs help and protecting? Also Jeremy and Dion haven’t had any physical contact in four months. Chad’s available and he’s willing. I did however like the fact that it wasn’t an easy road for these guys to settle into, what I think, is at the moment a HFN ending. The author could write a sequel if she/he wanted.'Measured Doses' is a fast, read. Even though it has quite a few issues that need to be corrected, it was still entertaining. I give it 3 Stars