CR Guiliano

Three's a Charm was written for the M/M Romance Group's Love Has No Boundaries picture prompt event. It's told in third person through the eyes of two of the MCs, Yuu and Akira.



Yuu, Akira and Joji have been friends for a long time. Eventually they grow into a loving relationship and after graduating school move into together. Things go well until one of the bullies from their past comes back to haunt one of them and then misunderstandings threaten the three's relationship.

I liked the idea behind this story but I was confused as whether this happened in Japan or the United States. For one there's the three Japanese but the bully they went to school with was named 'Corrigan.' If that is a Japanese name it's news to me. So I wasn't sure where this story is supposed to be set.

The other thing I disliked was the tremendous amount of telling rather than showing. It made me want to skim read the story but I stuck it out because it was only a short story.

I give this 2.5 Stars because I liked the relationship between the three MCs. But because there is too much telling and the location was confusing so that I was thinking about it throughout the whole story, I can only give this 2 Stars

… (meer)

True love means cooperation and compromise, not just saying "I love you" over and over.

When Graham Hamlin and Jeremy Jarrelle meet at Graham's nephew's Little League game, they immediately feel a bond. But Graham also realizes that Jeremy hasn't come out yet and after having one disastrous relationship with a closeted man, he doesn't particularly want to pursue another one.

However, when Jeremy asks Graham to go out for coffee after the next baseball game, Graham decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. So begins their three-year relationship.

The story jumps from vignette to vignette in the past until finally ending in the present and future. Along the way, readers will become annoyed at how two seemingly adult men can ignore the obvious in order to wallow in their self-pity, self-righteousness and self-doubt for a year before one of them capitulates and does what the other demands.

Graham gets so sick of being Jeremy's little secret that he eventually moves out of the house they rent together. Instead of treating Graham as a good buddy when they're together in public, Jeremy shuns him, pretending he doesn't even know Graham because Jeremy thinks he will break down and inadvertently show affection for his lover. Instead of working together for a solution so they can be happy and stay together, they are too busy airing their own sides of the argument.

Readers will immediately recognize that this is a situation that calls for cooperation and compromise, and maybe just a little counseling, too

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews: http://glbt.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=13548… (meer)