Title:
Author: Lori Toland
Cover Artist: Justin James
Publisher: Loose Id
Buy Link: Trust in Me
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Length: Novella
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 rating stars
A Guest Review by Raine
Summary Review: Pleasant bread and butter romance revisiting first love, marred for me by use of stale misunderstanding plot line.
Blurb: Tristan Winter’s day takes a turn for the worse when his best employee calls in sick. As the only other technical specialist able to step in on such short notice, he takes over what seems like a run of the mill job — until he runs into his old crush from high school, Jamie Hunter. Ten years after a summer fling left him with a broken heart, Tristan now has a different view of life and love but this time around, will he push away the only man he ever cared about?
Review:
This was a nice set up, written in the first person from Tristan’s point of view as he is forced by circumstances to revisit his painful first crush. The story moves the reader through time; past, present and future and through—superficially—various locations: Portland, Seattle and Florida. However the hinge of the plot is unfortunately that silly ‘misunderstanding’ cliche, this one which could have been solved with a five minute visit across the street or a phone call, was particularly weak. Moreover this stupidity had resonated in both their lives and separated them for ten years. *pause for gasp of irritation* That over, the trip back in memory to Florida for that first sexual experience was good and hot. I actually found this to be the highlight of the book. From this point on it felt like mostly explanations, and reorganisation towards resolution.
Back with the hot first sex—how they saw themselves at this stage of their lives in comparison to how they were perceived by the other was nicely done and these insecurities added depth to their personalities. This also added to the then and now perspective. It was further developed in the present time with the slight misdirect about Tristan’s particular role in the company, though I could find no other reason for this downplaying of his status.
Both characters were likeable. Jamie’s unexpected troubles with his father over his career choices prevented him from being just the bland, perfect, golden boy object of Tristan’s adolescent crush. The book’s movement out from the drama of finding each other into the reality of their present day lives with the interaction with Jamie’s family providing a little tension was a nice development. With the final look at plans for the future, all the i ‘s were dotted and the t ‘s crossed in this neat romance.
I found both characters engaging, but there was not enough here to lift this book, for me, above the level of a pleasant read.
Author Link GoodReads
You are so right about the BM making the characters look stupid, I hadn’t picked up on that aspect of it. Here you have what are meant to be two exceptionally bright young men too, which compounds the whole thing.
Thanks for the comment Wave.
I wrote a post about The Big Musunderstanding sometime ago and this is a great example of how authors misuse this trope. Why? Why? Why? Do. They. Do. This? It drives me batty and makes the characters look stupid.
I was tempted to review this book until I saw the time period of their separation and figured that the BM had to figure in this. 🙂 Thanks for confirming my opinion Raine. 😆
Ten years huh? One phone call? Sirius is thinking that she can barely tolerate stupid characters and makes sure to stay far far away from this story. Thanks for saving me an aggravation Raine 🙂
I know it is very odd, acting as devil’s advocate….they were both young…..oh hell…..I can’t even be a proper devil.. 😈
yes – it was a shame to use such a silly device, especially as communication is so easy now it is just too hard to accept that they wouldn’t get in contact no matter how young or how guilty or embarrassed. 🙂