The main reason I got this book was to find out things about Tom’s identity – or at least who his real father is. I think that’s what’s keeping me glued at this point in the series. I absolutely adore Tom and his cheeky personality.
The book centered on Tom and Phil trying to help one of their “friend but not exactly friend” lesbian pub owner, Harry on getting one of her customers to back off from one of her barmaids. Then we also have the dealio about Tom’s father’s identity and the couple sorting out their relationship.
This installment however left me at a loss yet again because I couldn’t quite connect (still) with Phil. There’s just something not working for me about their relationship. Now, it’s very understandable for readers like me not to get the couple since apparently, they’re still at the very early stage of their relationship as a couple and we’ve only got the meet and greet with Tom’s weird-ass family and the novel hasn’t even covered Phil’s side of the family. Now I thought that was just way overdue at this point. But yeah, I guess we’d see that one sometime soon in the series.
Now off to some nice parts in the story, Tom’s best pal Gary finally tied the knots with his little darling Darren and as usual, he’s still a drama queen but a good drama queen at that! And outrageous, of course.
I mostly loved the whole relationship “talk” in this book (which I didn’t get much) and didn’t care at all about the mystery part involving Harry’s pub. The only mystery I was curious pre and post-reading the book is all about Tom’s dad! And we’ve got a cliffhanger for that. I was like, OHMYFREAKINGAWD. But after a bit, I was like – okay, I thought it’s a pretty good cliffie and at least we’ve that to expect next time.
As I’ve mentioned, I’m still not convinced with their relationship or maybe I’m just looking for more “Phil time” (maybe a POV from Phil next time?) but I loved that at least they’re progressing in their relationship. This is way better than the last book and was more realistic and I’m hoping next time that it’d capture more romantic time with the couple. Overall, I thought it’s a fun read.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Published March 17th 2015 by Samhain Publishing
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About The Author
JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.
She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novella Muscling Through was a 2013 EPIC Award finalist, and her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy.
JL Merrow is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: http://www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow
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