Title: Yummy Indulgences (Men of Charlestown)
Author: Andi Anderson
Publisher: eXtasy Books
Release Date: July 15th 2015
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Page Count: 2nd Edition, 109 pages
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Blurb:
Sparks fly when blue collared worker Allen meets Shiloh the baker, but as their relationship becomes serious, will they be able to handle the heat?
What should have been just another day, ended up changing Allen Garner’s life forever. He’d just finished the night shift as a supervisor at the rendering plant, when his sister gives him a frantic call asking him for a favor to meet with the local baker, Shiloh Ballard, and pick out his parent’s fortieth wedding anniversary cake. Reluctantly roped into doing this chore, when all he wants to do is go home and sleep, Allen is surprised and immediately enchanted by the beautiful baker the moment he lays eyes on him.
Shiloh can’t believe a strong, masculine man like Allen would ever be interested in a rainbow flying, petite baker like himself. Immediately sparks fly between them and they are swept up into a whirlwind romance which soon turns into a deep love neither man expected. But there is one problem. Allen hasn’t revealed his sexuality at work and because of this, their relationship must be kept a secret, causing both men to wonder if their relationship is strong enough to survive living together as a couple out and proud.
This is a predictable, cookie-cutter sweet, fluffy romance. Be warned this is heavy on the insta-love! It’s not for the cynics-at-heart.
It’s a (mostly) paint by numbers romance with the two main characters, Allen and Shiloh, falling for each other the instant they set eyes on each other. My biggest complaint on that end is for most of their scenes together you could easily interchange Shiloh’s pronouns of “he”, “his”, and “him” with “she” and “her” and change out Shiloh’s boy parts with girl parts and it would have made absolutely no difference whatsoever.
I personally felt like the ultimate portrayal of Allen’s homophobic workplace and bigoted co-workers was trite and unimaginative. It felt like a lost opportunity for Anderson to have fleshed out Allen’s life and character more to really show how and why Allen had stayed closeted for so many years. I mean, he stayed in his position hiding who he really is from his co-workers and boss for fifteen years. I would have liked to have read more about the conflict of keeping his job at the expense of being true to himself.
“One thing you need to know about me is that I hate lying. Nothing is worse than a liar and the ironic thing is…I live a lie and I hate it. The men I work with would never understand my sexuality. They have no tolerance for it and would do everything within their power to make my life miserable enough at work to either quit or sabotage me in some way so I would get fired.”
Much of this story just felt like a huge lost opportunity for character development. Instead it just offered up a simplistic love at first sight romance with no real substance.
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