Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Restaurant owner Tom Fearnes has loved his partner Cass for as long as he can remember, but their work often keeps them apart. When he meets a striking young man named Jake on the vibrant streets of Camden Town, their heady first encounter takes an unexpected turn.
Jake Thompson can hardly believe his luck when he wakes up in Tom’s bed. Tom is gorgeous, kind, and…taken. Tom’s explanation of his open relationship leaves Jake cold, but Tom is too tempting, and when hard times force Jake to accept Tom’s helping hand, he finds himself between two men who’ve lost their way.
Cass Pearson is a troubled soul. He loves Tom with all he has, but some days it feels like he hasn’t much to give. Jake seems like the perfect solution. Cass risks everything to push Jake and Tom together, but Jake resists, wary, until the darkness of Cass’s past comes to call. Then Jake finds himself the last man standing, and it’s time to dig deep and shine a light for the men he’s grown to love.
Without a doubt, this is one of the very best ménage stories I’ve ever read, and I’ve read quite a few. After thinking it over, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because the established couple did not set out to take on a new man, and it wasn’t all about sex at all. Not even a little. It was about compatibility, need, circumstance, nurturing, and finally love.
When Tom first met Jake, Jake was super prickly about being helped in any way. His Tourette’s Syndrome was flaring and Jake was cursing a blue streak. But Tom was attracted despite the TS and wanted to act on his attraction to Jake, so he pursued him until he got him in bed. Tom and his partner Cass have an open relationship, each recognizing the need for a different bed partner once in a while. So when Cass walks in on Jake the next morning, after Tom has left for work, he thinks nothing of it. Jake, on the other hand, is freaked out and departs as quickly as he can.
Eventually, Tom convinces Jake about his relationship with Cass, and his continued offers of helping Jake find employment finally take root when Jake admits his TS is the underlying cause of losing jobs, despite the legalities against that. He and Cass form a tentative friendship via text once Jake starts working for the company co-owned by Tom and Cass, and it’s Cass who finds Jake the day Jake is booted from his apartment for failure to pay his rent. The stubborn man had refused to take payment from Tom for the work he’s doing on one of their new ventures, and Cass is the one who realizes why he’s now on the street and goes to retrieve him. From then on, Jake lives with both men, though there’s no ménage sex until near the end of the story.
What there is, however, is a bond born of friendship between all three men, one that grows and blossoms into more until they reach the point where they all can acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, their support for each other, both emotional and physical, and their need for the strength they get as a threesome.
I am going to listen to the audiobook again very soon. The narrator was very good, giving each man a different voice, but it was mostly the story itself that impressed me and made way for this trio to worm their way into my heart.
I highly recommend this book and audiobook for hours of listening and/or reading pleasure.
The cover by Garrett Leigh features the lower face and tattooed chest of Jake. The dragonfly tattoo symbolic of the name of the new restaurant the trio opened for which Jake was the project lead. Very nicely done.
Sales Links
Riptide Publishing | Audible | Amazon | iTunes
Audiobook Details:
Audible Audio, 7 pages, 6 hrs 43 mins
Published August 18th 2016 by Riptide Publishing (first published March 16th 2015)
Original Title Misfits
ASINB01KI5XGIE
Edition LanguageEnglish
Winner: GLBT Menage in the 2015 Romance Reviews Reader’s Choice Awards!
Finalist: Best Gay Romance in the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards!
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 