3.5 stars...One of the first m/m romances I read. Heavy on the number of sex scenes. Instant attraction/Love at first sight. I really like both main characters. A great summer read. ( )

3.5 stars...One of the first m/m romances I read. Heavy on the number of sex scenes. Instant attraction/Love at first sight. I really like both main characters. A great summer read. ( )

I should give this a two star, there really was little plot and it was mostly just sex scene after sex scene. But the writing grabbed me and hinted that there was a writer beneath all that rampant sex.

It was a story of instant love, but hey I fell in love after seeing my hubby for the first time so I give that trope a slide.



So to recap: meh on plot but wow wee on sex! ( )

This contains SPOILERS!!!

After meeting in a bar, a one night stand evolves with the speed of light into a “relationship” with D/s and bondage elements. Bram, the dominant “big man”/”cowboy”/”caveman”/ construction guy (nearly a one man stand in for the village people) more or less runs the show. He owns a big and important construction firm, which is convenient, as Jamie is a struggling young architect. This is the cinderfella-element (drop a huge, old mansion, a yacht, a hunting lodge in Canada and loads of money on top).

Bram and Jamie have more or less constantly sex, they don’t even make it through the appetizers on their first date – the make it a take away and go straight to Bram’s place to – well, guess what, yes, to have sex again.

A lot of “Baby”s, “I want you”s, “Shake for me”s (for real!!!) and A LOT of sex scenes (in case you missed the first two mentions of them in this review :-)).

Here a little example from their first date: "The sight of Bram caught in the peak of orgasm was like a holy experience for James. Like some bronzed god from ancient mythology, the man loomed massive and proud, sculptured body held rigid as stone, rugged face a mask of feral ecstasy, enraptured and euphoric in the release of his ravenous lust." - NOT SEXY.
At least not for me. I had a “bad 90ies m/f historical romance” deja-vue (which keeps reappearing with Jamie being rescued from the mean neighbour, being carried around in Bram’s strong arms etc…).

Insta-love and flowery prose at its worst.

First date, skipping the condoms already and mentioned the L-word... Though this is not a shifter-novel, Bram feels “mated” after this second meeting/first date. He has a “gut feeling” that they are meant to be together and Jamie is totally special, and this is right – well, it better be, because they already skipped any safety measures. I don’t see that they shared much (body fluids aside) on which this “feeling” is based upon. No, that’s not fair, I forgot: they both like Italian food. Well, see, great basis for a lasting relationship right there.

And then some small, kind of artificial hick-ups on their way to the HEA: Bram is out and Jamie not so much, so he struggles a bit with inviting Bram to an office dinner, boohoo. Jamie doesn’t trust Bram enough yada yada – in the end love conquers all, and if you have a love for Italian food in common, then you’re all good to go.

There was not much about this book I liked. Now that I think about it, there was indeed nothing I liked. The writing was flowery and over-drawn, the story didn’t make much sense to me and both main characters remained stereotypes without real personalities and development.

On a last note: I dislike insta-love per se, but accept that in real life it might happen to people, that they fall in love at first glance – BUT I just don’t find it interesting to read. It is boring and the authors always give away a great opportunity to let me get to know a main character, so that I care about him/her. There are some – very few – books, that technically have insta-love and I still liked them, but mostly I try to stay away from that theme. Very few authors can pull that off and still write a novel that I enjoy reading.
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Re-read (on Feb 10 - 11/12) for m/m team bingo challenge. Review. ( )