I was given this book through House on Fire blog for an honest review, thank you.



Summary:

Professor Robert McKinnon is a Scotsman who moved to the United States with his family when he was sixteen. His life is pretty mundane. It consists of teaching classes, grading papers, coming home to his cat, reading his beloved books and occasional evenings out drinking with his friend Adam. Robert’s life in other words, is lack-luster. Every day is like every other day, until a forward young man by the name of Chris Ford, pushes into Robert’s world. Chris leaves Robert off-kilter. What could this young musician covered in tattoos and sporting a Mohawk find interesting about Robert?


Review:

First, I’d like to start with a comment about the cover. This has got to be one of the best covers I’ve seen. It was created by Shobana Appavu. I remember when the book was first released and I saw the cover I was completely drawn to it. I would read the book just for the cover alone.

Tattoos & Teacups begins with a prologue. I don’t think that a prologue was necessary since it doesn’t add anything to the story. In fact, it has a different feel to the rest of the story and is a bit confusing in that it appears that the scene is set after the events in the story take place.

This story is told in first-person through Robert’s eyes. It took me a bit of time before I could get a feeling for Robert’s character. He came across as not having a personality except for the drunken scene he shared with his friend Adam; which I found to be a riot and was one of my favorite scenes in the book. I can only think that the author created Robert as having a rather vague and distant personality in order to show the readers how restrained he was. It was only during times of intense emotion that Robert’s feelings came through. I’m specifically thinking of the beginning of the pivotal scene that happens near the end of the book between Robert and Chris. I wish that kind of emotion had happened more often because I would have been more drawn to Robert’s character. As it was because of his emotional distance, I also felt distant from him.

Chris, being about ten years younger than Robert, had a youthful feel to him. In fact his personality and ‘voice’ seemed to waver between different types. The first type was the young man that meets Robert for the first time. One of Chris’ other voices was 'the female,' where he came across so much like a female I had to stop at times and make sure that Robert was talking to Chris and not some woman that appeared on the scene. Another of Chris’ voices was that of a young teenage girl. That was even more disconcerting than the adult female’s voice. I didn't notice the tone of voice changes as often at the beginning of the book but starting about half way through the story.

What I liked about Chris and Robert’s relationship was that the two are opposites but yet, not complete opposites. Robert teaches Chris how writing has a rhythm the same way music does. And in their differences, Chris opens up Robert’s world to trying new adventures, and Robert gives Chris quiet stability and a ‘belonging’ that Chris didn’t have in his other relationships.

Tattoos and Teacups is a nice slow developing relationship story between Robert and Chris, it’s not filled with a lot of angst except near the end and I will admit it made me cry. The one thing I wondered about was why Robert and Chris decided that the decision they came to was the only one possible? I feel like they threw in the towel just because of Chris’ new gig. Robert and Chris were in love. Why didn't they try to make a go of it even if Chris wasn't around? There is such a thing as ‘long distance relationships.’ But, I suppose there wouldn't be any angst in the story if they had. So this part of the story rang a little untrue to me.

One thing I wish would have happened, is that the author would have had Robert’s friend Adam appear in the story more often. Other than briefly showing up toward the beginning of the book, Adam vanished from the rest of the story.

Despite my not relating to Robert’s restrained personality as much as I would have liked, and finding myself bothered by Chris’ multiple voices, I still enjoyed this book. I had to suspend my logic at why the couple couldn’t find a way to work out the main issue that creates the angst near the end of the story, but the angst is worth it when you find out how it’s resolved. I’ll just say that Chris is such a romantic in following his heart.

Tattoos and Teacups is a sweet, gradual growing romance between two people from very different backgrounds. I would read this again. I give this story 4 stars


( )

While it wasn’t exactly a struggle to finish, I was a bit bored by the content. There’s just no real conflict in the book: the age difference between the two MCs, although they seem to think it important, is quite minimal (less than 10 years); the MC’s child and spouse are very accepting; all previous trauma (one MC’s unaccepting parents; the other’s abusive ex) takes place off-screen and is barely alluded to; and their brief break-up in the middle (due to distance, not any bad blood between the MCs) occupies a single chapter. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. At first glance, to me, Robert (Rob) was a quiet, shy, insecure professor and Chris was younger, outgoing, vibrant, tattooed musician. As we get to know them, we find them in opposite roles with each other; it was great to see the characters evolve. The characters and their relationship was very well written. It wasn't a surprise to see the characters take a break, but it was nice to see them find their way back together. ( )

Time-line is odd. When you think it's been months it's only days and weeks and the other way around.
Story was sweet but didn't do it for me. 3 stars. ( )

4.5. Truely lovey, warm, happy love story. Highly recommended. ( )