Rating: 4 stars out of 5
What if youth wasn’t wasted on the young?
On the eve of his fortieth birthday, Ian Parker is looking for a reboot. He may be the proud owner of a trendy coffee shop in Austin called La Tazza Magica, but his love life has been MIA for years. During a trip to Denver with his best friend, Mark, Ian buys an enchanted chocolate from a mysterious candy store—then wakes up from a nap two decades younger. After the initial shock, Ian realizes a quirk of the universe has given him a second chance and, with Mark’s help, he devises a plan to start over.
With a new lease on life, Ian sets his sights on handsome architect Bartley James, a regular customer at La Tazza. He pursues Bartley as Ian’s twenty-one-year-old alter ego, Ryan, with decidedly unexpected results. Joining Ryan on his adventures are Matthew, the dreamy new barista, Jeremy, the geeky high-school math teacher, and Sam, the pizza delivery boy. Even as misunderstandings and expectations collide, Ian remains determined to right his past mistakes and find his off-ramp to happiness.
I have grown to love Brad Boney. I know in the past I’ve been hesitant to start his other books because I didn’t know how much heartache I would be dealing with. I haven’t been let down yet. I absolutely adore The Nothingness of Ben it’s one of my favorite books ever and to see them pop up all over his books makes me warm inside. I love that he is able to build this magical world, his writing is always whimsical. I like that he deals with real life topics on top of the romance aspect.
In this book we meet Ian, forty year old coffee shop owner of La Tazza Magica, who’s in a slump and has a major man crush on Bartley James. Right off the back I fall in love with the characters. Ian and his best friend Mark travel to Denver for some debauchery and it’s hilarious. I won’t give away what happens. Enter one Ryan Parker who I really liked except for him making one of the dumbest mistakes in his life! I was so mad at him, did you not learn anything from your uncle Ian. I’m so happy Mark said something because I was thinking he couldn’t be that careless. Of course Boney paints this magical time with an abundance of gay porn history I knew nothing about but I definitely Googled some things and can I say Hello Al Parker.
All in all I like how everything ended up, my only thing was the ending with Matthew. And I loved the Walsh clan, Stanton & Topher, Marvin and the Dime Box crew all making a presence in this book. I am certain that Brad Boney just gave my friends a new game night game… it was totally fun with that scene as well as that amazing shout out to Teen Wolf!
Cover Art by Alex Saskalidis, I liked this cover as usual the symbolism of the story always is a depiction based off the cover. I love the simplicity in the title and the cover. Alex did a good job.
Sales Links: Dreamspinner Press All Romance (ARe) Amazon 
Book Details:
ebook, 220 pages
Published March 16th 2015 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN139781632168429
edition languageEnglish
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 