Law (Scandals #3)

Title: Law (Scandals #3)
Author: Jess Buffett
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Release Date: February 29th 2016
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Erotic Romance
Page Count: 63 pages
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 2.8 stars out of 5
Blurb:
Scandals, Book 3

Law
Being in the internationally successful boy-band Right Time had been everything I had ever wanted and more. Well, except for one thing, or should I say one person? But I had long ago acknowledged that I couldn’t have both the life and the person and I should be happy with what I had. That worked until he showed up in my life again. And then nothing made sense.

Byron
For years I had pretended I didn’t care. Ignoring my feelings had become second nature to me. That was until my niece begged me to take her to see her favorite boy-band, Right Time, for her birthday, and I came face to face with him. In all fairness, she had no idea the can of worms she’d be opening. And to tell the truth, neither did I.

Przemyslaw “Law” Kolera is one-fourth of the wildly popular boy band “Right Time”, and completely in the closet. The only person he’s ever had feelings for was his music teacher, Byron Patterson: the man who gave direction to the quartet when they were in high school, and the one person with whom Law has always been in love. One of the worst moments of Law’s life was when he declared himself to Byron and was rebuffed by a surprised Byron. Because, of course, the two couldn’t be together as it wouldn’t be right.

Years later Byron meets Law backstage at one of Right Time’s concerts and it’s clear their old attraction is still there. But now Law is hiding who he is from his label, his band mates and the world and Byron is out and proud and unwilling to go back into the closet for anyone, even Law.

With all the grief and heartache I had faced over the years I had made a point of staying away from closeted men and straight guys looking to experiment. I had learned the hard way that nothing good ever came from getting involved with someone who couldn’t be honest about themselves, at least to the people they cared about most. Mainly because at the end of the day if they couldn’t be open for their own sake, they sure as fuck weren’t going to do it for mine.
It sucked. It was fact. It was life.
Which was why as much as I liked Law, and as much as a small part of me had always desired him even when it wasn’t appropriate, I was ready to walk away.

Law convinces Byron to stay and the two come together for a night of explosively hot sex.

It had been so long since I had let down my guard, allowed myself to feel something like this. Everything even remotely recent had been rushed and impersonal with a hint of fear overlying all of it. Afraid of being recognized, of being caught and outed. But this, I could have this right now, and I trusted Byron implicitly.
Tonight was for us.

The story is told from both Byron and Law’s POV, and though there are some good bones to this, ultimately I felt like a connection to the characters was lacking. Sure, it’s a novella, but I didn’t feel like I got a really good glimpse into who the characters really are. There were bits and pieces left out like bread crumbs for me to follow, but in the end, the story didn’t feel like it held anything really new or exciting.

I wanted to see more of Law and Byron together, to see them getting to know each other as adults, and see them falling in love. I just didn’t feel like the story delivered on that for me. Couple that disappointment with one of my personal pet peeves in writing (the constant use of “the older man” and “the younger man” as a descriptive) and I was annoyed more than once while reading.

On the positive side, even though this is the third book in the series I didn’t feel left out and I liked the parts of the characters I did get to read. I just wish there’d been more.