Review: His Hearth by Mary Calmes
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 25, 2010
This is was quite a "fast" story, meaning that the reader is plunged in the middle of it with little preparation and sometime I add the feeling to having lost the thread. But sincerely I think that was the purpose of the author, and my feeling is also that this is, in the author's mind, only a first story in a series and so probably the loose ends where nothing else that the starting point of following stories.Julian is an apparently average and old fashioned guy; he doesn't like to sleep around, and so, even if he has a six weeks long relationship with a colleague, they have never had sex yet. For a reason or the other, his boyfriend is not so happy, and he decides to cheat on Julian right the day Julian has got a promotion and is invited by the big boss to an important dinner with his partner. Suddenly Julian becomes the hottest guy around, from not having neither a boyfriend to take to dinner, he has: the said boyfriend praying forgiveness, an hot former model and tv entertainer wanting absolutely to take him home, an very wealthy businessman who would like to take him away from his dinner and finally an hot stranger in a bar crusing him without shame. Moreover, Julian's last boyfriend, the one before the cheating one, comes back asking for a second chance.I was really wondering if Julian hadn't taken a love potion that makes him irresistible, but apparently that was not the reason; I spent a lot of time trying to link the above men with the following story, but aside for Ryan, that is the fomer model and future boyfriend, there is no further connection with the men... is the author thinking to use them for another situation? If not some of them, like the businessmen or the stranger in the bar, are worthy of a story, their characters come out in only few sentences.Almost half the book is spent in one night, like an old movie: the night seems to last forever, before dinner, during dinner, after dinner, at home, during the night... a lot of events will happen and all in one night. And during this night there is something else that let me a bit perplexed: why the author described Julian like a very old fashioned man, absolutely no sex with stranger, and even safe one night stand is not his thing, and then, even if Ryan has not exactly a stellar reputation, he has unprotected sex with him? True, Ryan told him he is tested every 6 months, and last test was 2 weeks before, but Julian has not seen Ryan's test, and in any case, it didn't sound right to me that he accepted to do that first night they are together.This was an all right story, but I think it will be best read with a sequel, to help the reader the close the loose ends.