Review: Could've Been Better
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2014
I was provided a copy of this book as part of the M/M Romance Group's DBML program on GoodReads in exchange for an honest review.I have found that there is always a delicate balancing act you have to perform when writing m/m/m type stories. Especially when you want it to come out as a balanced relationship, and not just a couple that is having a fling with another man (not that that is bad...I'm all for a little hot and heavy three-way action). I do think that the way this was written, in regards to the relationship developing, was done very well. It wasn't love (or even lust) at first sight, but something that grew between Chad and Jeremy (seeing as Chad and Dion clearly have the lust portion of the event covered, before Chad and Jeremy had even met).However I never really felt the heat between any of the characters. I never really felt anything, to be honest. Not anger, or lust, or desire. They felt way to clinical for me to get a good grasp on what they were really feeling and what they say they were feeling. It didn't help that the dialogue felt like the script to an after-school-special. It was saying all the 'right things' but it constantly fell flat of reality. Chad is a low-income, undereducated, druggy/alcoholic from England (somewhere)...but he reads as just another cookie-cutter abused kid with parental issues. And aside from a few slang terms, and few mentions of the schooling system over there, it never really felt like it was unique to England in any way. Everyone talks in such flat, clinical, monotones, that you never get a feel for any of the characters or any of the settings. Which is sad, since they could really be interesting.And for the love of all that is holy, if a dude basically blacks-out after being beat half to death, on your porch, you do not just give him a quick wash and a bandaid. You drag his a** to A&E--if; only because him dying of an internal hemorrhage on your guest room bed, is going to really put a crimp in your interior decorating scheme. Jeremy is a cook, not a doctor--if Chad had fallen at his feet because he needed a souffle made, then Jeremy would be his guy. Not so much if Chad needed to find out if ribs were broken enough to turn his lungs into a bagpipe.I love m/m/m stories, and I do like the idea of Dion's cheating leading to a relationship between all three of the guys, because that is a complicated mess I would enjoy watching unfold, but this story never really moved past the surface and I didn't really get why they were attracted to each other.