Blurb:
Carter Darling’s life has been a whirlwind since his mother was elected to the Senate when he was a teen. From private school to joining the military, he tried to forge his own path while making as few ripples as possible. But an injury forced him to figure out new goals for his life. After his parents were involved in a sex scandal, he decided to go back home to Tennessee to get some distance and get away from the madness.
He didn’t bargain on Jeremy Beck returning at the same time.
Jeremy was finally past the rich boy angst that made for some dramatic teenage years, but he hadn’t earned back much respect from his parents by playing in an indie band. Now that his band was on hiatus, Jeremy was looking for space from his unhealthy non-relationship with a band mate, so returning home to figure out his next step seemed like the way to go.
Their initial reunion turned awkward. Carter was still holding on to hurts from their last meeting and Jeremy was trying to convince himself that Carter was still just his sister’s closeted little friend. But when they open up to one another again and decide a staycation fling would be a nice distraction, they may get more than they bargained for.
For two guys who’ve had so much drama in their lives, it might surprise them to find that sometimes love is found in the simple things. Who knew?
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Kade Boehme
Contemporary, M/M
151 e-book pages
3rd person
Stand-alone
March 20-22, 2016
Kindle Edition
Rating: ??????.5
Ratings are 1 to 5 stars and based mostly on GoodReads standards.
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Review:
A sort of friends to lovers, adolescent crush to grown-up requited love. I reeeeaaaly like those kinds of stories. Plus that cover…I really, really like that cover.
This newest release by Kade Boehme is likely one of my favorites of his to date. Except, I’m very hard to please when it comes to novellas, and I tend to want more packed in that smaller package.
The first few chapters felt a bit heavily weighted with laying out the circumstances for these fellas being in the right place at the right time. So many details ended up coming across a little bit disjointed and incompletely fleshed out in a rush to get to the good stuff.
Though, when I got into the thick of things with Carter and Jeremy tap-dancing around their attraction, genuinely enjoying one another, taking each day as it came I found it to be a lovely romance I could root for — topped off with Kade’s usual brand of scorching hot-n-dirty sex.
Jeremy, the older of the two by only a few years seemed more emotionally stunted and immature than Carter. I’m guessing it’s from wallowing in angst for most of his adolescence, overcoming addiction, and too many years railing against anything meaningful while still wanting to be valued. Carter — who came across as a little scared of life and lot reserved — overall, had a better grip even though still trying to find his place.
I’m a firm believer that real, everlasting love has nothing to do with big drama and grand gestures. It’s about the quiet times and the simple things. It’s about comfortable silence and inside jokes. It’s meeting needs and small generosities without keeping score. Kade nailed those aspects, but I do wish there’d been more of them alone building up that quiet intimacy.
All in all, this was fun and sweet with a few dashes of freaky sex. Also, it’s almost like Kade reached into my brain for the characters whose looks do it for me — a flaming redhead with alabaster skin and the rebel tattooed from head to toe — DUDE!
This review also posted on GoodReads.