Saxon James

The novels in this series are full of joie de vivre. Finding that other person is the biggest high for these characters. The sexual attraction is exhilarating between Aleks and Gabe, but of course, like the best of romantic comedy, they become each other's best mate.

Gabe is a drop dead gorgeous fireman and Aleks is a drop dead gorgeous hockey player - so off to a good start. The thing is, the story that brings them together has a great set-up - Aleks is coming off a divorce from his childhood sweetheart. Gabe has been married to his job but has moved out of his shared house to his own pad so that he can be a grown up. Aleks is pan sexual, and for some reason, which I didn't pick up in my listening, any moving on he does will be with a man this time. But he's new to everything - to dating, to loving a man, etc. So Gabe become his tutor.

There is close to zero angst in this story. Total escapism, and the delicious fun of romantic comedy.

I'd give this 4.5 stars except that I felt Iggy Toma and Alexander Cendese went a little overboard with their narration. It wasn't necessary because Eden Finley and Saxon James know what they are doing - they write fabulous light-touch romance - it doesn't need any hard sell in the form of overacting. Normally, I love these two narrators, so it's a departure for me to pick a hole in their performance.

And as for "foolish" puckboy, good news is that Aleks isn't a fool - he and his new team mates in Seattle love to be silly at parties - I have some sympathy that they deserve to destress in that high pressure life - but he's pretty mature, the way he goes about finding a new life and happiness.

So Aleks and Gabe's meet cute is due to how silly Aleks and his friends are. It's as SharingTheBookLove below says, meet cute is the right word because its this that sets up the meet cute fun that follows.

I wasn't 100% sure what a meet cute was, since I don't think that expression was around in my youth. Here is a definition from Wikipedia:
"A meet cute is a scene in media, in which two people meet for the first time, typically under unusual, humorous, or cute circumstances, and go on to form a future romantic couple.[1]
This type of scene is a staple of romantic comedies.... Frequently, the meet cute leads to a humorous clash of personalities or of beliefs, embarrassing situations, or comical misunderstandings that further drive the plot."

This quote comes from an article, Why Online Dating Spells the End of the Meet Cute, by Lauren Forsthye: "The term “meet cute” appears to have first originated in the 1938 movie Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, where the two main characters and love interests meet shopping for pajamas and end up having a “cute” conversation."… (mais)

This was good, but I think I am saturated now with MM Romance and will go looking for the next Romance sub-genre to explore. What will that be?

If I wasn't coming to the end of this startlingly tender and rewarding road, I'd be giving this novel the dues it deserves.

One thing that stood out and made this novel a little different was how the MCs loved that each other was a good, caring, decent, real person - and tried to do good. Christian is a good friend; Emile is into philanthropy. They admit to each other freely and often how much they love that goodness they see each the other. It's an odd sort of thing to be at the heart of their attraction to each other, and to be vocalised, when they have all the usual things in spades like beauty and hotness!

They also have equality to a degree that is unusual - they both need each other and each does offer real help - they are like a team against the world, or at least against their horrible families. (Their families are so awful they are a bit cartoonish - they could be wearing witches hats.)

I loved these words at the very end - especially when Christian says that he never needs to worry about being a disappointment to Emile - Emile loves that he makes mistakes, word vomits at the worst times, is clumsy, is sometimes timid, gets into messes. Emile loves all of him - it's so amazing! Emile has soft edges and is good. He's protective, but it's not a macho protectiveness. Same could be said of Christian for Emile. Their protectiveness is familial, inventive, brave, crazy.
"Emile shows me what it's like to be married to a partner, a supporter, someone who is always in my corner and willing to go to the ends of the earth for me. I never have to worry about him letting me down. I never have worry about disappointing him. And because he shows me that daily, I want to return it, and I'll never stop trying when it comes to him."… (mais)