Another solid novella in this series. This didn't feel as insta-love as the rest, probably because Stephen spent a lot of time fighting his attraction to Ryan.
An age gap story with a background of unrequited love. ( )

Another solid novella in this series. This didn't feel as insta-love as the rest, probably because Stephen spent a lot of time fighting his attraction to Ryan.
An age gap story with a background of unrequited love. ( )

This fourth story in the ‘Mary’s Boys’ series is just as amazing as the three previous volumes – and there is only one bad thing about it – the fact that it seems to be the final book in this series. I loved the characters whose journey and growth does not come easy, and the fascinating back-and-forth once Steven realizes who Ryan is and what a tough time they (realistically) have dealing with an eighteen-year age gap. While their initial encounter ends up being very passionate, they fall for each other very gradually and I think that was just right. And let’s not forget the fantastic characters of the “supporting cast”, people who have populated previous books as well as some great new additions. As ever, Hamburger Mary’s may be a real chain of GLBTQ -friendly restaurants in the US and the characters are fictional, but they all feel as real to me as the restaurant.

Steven got my sympathy from the opening scene – feeling too old to put much work into getting a date “just to get laid”, stressed out because he is the owner of one of Hamburger Mary’s restaurants and wants to make it a success, and then ManDonna – the formidable drag queen of previous books’ fame – throws him a curve ball in the shape of a political satire on the president that has Steven fearing for his freedom. He is right in the middle of a midlife crisis (having exchanged his comfortable savings and corporate life for ownership of a restaurant), and then his father’s dying words undermine his self-confidence even further.

Ryan wants to be an artist, against his family’s very express wishes. He paints on the side, hoping to sell more of his art, but his day job as a mortician pays the bills. What he wants to be and what he does on a day-to-day basis is surprisingly far apart, but I can see how that might work better: it enables Ryan to focus on his art and really see his work as a means to an end rather than get all involved and distracted by it. And then one of the deceased he is in charge of turns out to be the father of a man Ryan used to admire from afar when he was in college… the attraction is still there, but the guy doesn’t seem to remember Ryan. And the complicated back-and-forth begins…

Both Steven and Ryan are complex, amazing men who have more issues than should be legal. And those are just their personal problems with parents, career choices, and each starting their own business. By the time you add the almost twenty-year age difference and the fact Steven (the forty-five-year old) knew Ryan (who is twenty-seven) when Ryan was a kid, their problems are more than obvious. Both have a lot to learn and I wanted to smack them upside the head (quite carefully, of course) more than once just so they'd wake up (especially Steven). But as painful as it was to watch them fumble through the initial dates and the discussions and recriminations that followed, it was a joy to watch them change and grow.

If you like May/December romances with realistic relationship issues and obstacles, if you want to see two men “fall into passion” before they begin to realize how complicated that will make their lives, and if you’re looking for an entertaining, gripping, suspenseful, aggravating, and very emotional read, then you will probably like ‘Deeds and Confetti’ as much as I do. It is touching, I loved every minute of diving into its world, and I really hope that, one day, Brandon Witt will write more stories in this series!


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )