Review: Way, way too much sex
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 30, 2014
Derrick Chance, a quiet handy man hasn’t had an easy go of it. Losing his parents when he was a kid, he lives with his grandparents until they die when he’s 21 where he spends three years caring for both of them as they suffer from Alzheimer’s and cancer. But that’s not all. His older brother dies serving his country and his long time girlfriend breaks up with him. The strain of caring for his grandparents 24/7 with very little help and the other losses take their toll. Free now of the responsibility he pulls back and heals carving out a simple life as a handy man with a couple close friends.Derrick has spent 10 years out of the relationship game when he meets Gavin Hayes to build Gavin some shelves. Gavin flirts with Derrick and for the first time Derrick feels something in return. Gavin has his own issues. Recently out of an emotionally abusive relationship and afraid he’s contracted HIV, he flirts with Derrick to prove he can, that he’s not damaged goods.I fear I will be one of the decenters as I had a ton of problems with this story.The flirting turns into a date and shortly after they go to bed and from there it turns into one the biggest sex-fests I’ve read after a while. I was stunned by the amount of sex in this story. You could cut out a hundred pages of sex and still have it dominate the story. I’m not against sex, I love it and there were parts of it that moved the story - Derrick’s first time with a partner in 10 years, them learning how to work under the weight of Gavin’s possible infection, and them switching at power plays in the bedroom. But the rest had no purpose and I skipped page after page after page trying to find some real story.Derrick I truly loved. He’s been though so much and I could relate to everything he did and felt. He tries desperately to make the relationship work with tools he never had with a man rebounding from abuse. I think Derrick did a great job.Gavin I couldn’t warm up to. He’s such a contradiction and though we learn about his demons early without his POV I couldn’t figure out what made him tick. I had hoped to have more time in his head but when that happened, I was disappointed which moves to another problem with this book - the POV. It’s all Derrick until the third volume where it switches to Gavin so suddenly I’m five pages in before I realize we’ve had a POV change. And the little time we are in Gavin’s head he’s basically only thinking about his ex, the man who manipulated him and may have infected him. While I understand he can’t forget what happened, his obsession with his ex despite everyone telling him to leave it alone was ridiculous. On top of that he does dumb things like meet with his ex alone with no one there to help or back him up if the ex gets abusive. It sets up the big “gotcha” at the end but those were the times I really felt Derrick could do better.This book does get extra points for three excellent female characters, friends of Derrick and Gavin who know them well and treat them appropriately giving sound advice even if it doesn’t push the two men’s relationship. I haven’t seen such well written women in quite a while.Included were some side stories that added some interest but really this book could have been trimmed down to a single solid volume. The three volumes here were unnecessary and filled with an eye rolling amount of sex. I can’t recommend it.I received a copy of this story free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.