Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Jeff Martin is a closeted doctor on the Isle of Wight. He prefers to remain in the closet primarily from the fear that his coworkers and patients will not want to deal with a gay doctor, and it’s pretty easy to do since his longtime lover, Tris, lives over three hours away and never comes to visit Jeff—it’s always Jeff who makes the drive there. Until one night when he arrives late and discovers Tris doesn’t come home until the next day. And it’s evident Tris has been with another man. Storming out, Jeff realizes on the way home that this really needs to be the last time he sees Tris because he’s turned the other cheek one time too many.
He’s almost home when he meets a sexy mechanic after his car breaks down. All he wanted was to get home into his own comfy bed and cry himself to sleep. But Cameron Gillard is larger than life, and Jeff is immediately drawn to him. Before long, he and Cameron are seeing each other everywhere they go—not impossible to believe on their small island. Cameron introduces Jeff to other gay men who live there–Sam and Liam from The Isle of… Where? are among the men who become Jeff’s friends too. And when he’s outed accidentally, he’s shocked at the wonderful support he receives from his fellow doctors and other coworkers and quite surprised by the number of patients who really don’t care. In fact, he’s discovered a whole world he’d been missing by being with Tris every weekend.
He and Cameron fast become romantically involved, until Tris shows up and manages to throw a monkey wrench into the works, and Cameron departs in a fit of jealousy.
I enjoyed this audiobook both because the story had such a homey appeal and because the narration was outstanding. It certainly didn’t hurt that so many of the men from The Isle series were featured in this story as well. And a certain very likeable character from this book (Logan) is going to get his own story in the next installment of this new series so I’m really happy about that.
The major drama in this book surrounds the relationships of the characters themselves. Jeff is seen interacting in all his facets—as a doctor, a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, and a lover. Cameron isn’t given as much page time, however, we do get much more family and family drama with his character, as his great grandmother is one of Jeff’s patients, and her daughter provides a lot of drama. His parents were wonderfully supportive as well. And the previously mentioned characters from The Isle were also given quite a bit of focus, principally Liam, who was still not fully recovered from his past traumas. Tris was the perfectly devilish ex-lover, providing just enough relationship drama to drive a wedge between Jeff and his new man.
Overall, it was a sweet story with a super narrator who had an authentic British accent. I definitely recommend this one in audio format.
The beautiful cover art by LC Chase depicts both MCs (very good-looking!) superimposed on a photo of the isle.
Sales Links: Dreamspinner Press | Amazon | Audible | iTunes
Audiobook Details:
Release Date Apr 29, 2016
Type Novels
Pages 214
Length 6:12
SKU 7773
When an assassin’s bullet strikes his predecessor, Grayson Alexander becomes the first openly gay President of the United States and his husband, David Hammond, becomes the first openly gay First Husband. With their world turned upside down, David relies on his career as a medical school professor and ER doctor to keep him grounded. But his decision to keep working ruffles feathers from day one.
Chase Manning, the BFF of James Bryant from Designs of Desire, looks and acts like a twink on the surface, but once someone gets to know the man below the surface, they are shocked at the strength of character and dominant nature they find. And that’s what Rhys Sayer, James’s bodyguard, finds out when he stops being offensive to Chase and starts to allow himself to see with his eyes and not just his prejudices.
Two years of living with his controlling boyfriend left Chico worn down long before that boyfriend revealed he’d been seeing someone else. With no other choice, Chico moves in above his cousin’s garage in a small town in the redwoods, where he merely goes through the motions. To get him out of the house, his cousin pushes him to volunteer at a local dance studio to help with their annual show.
For paramedic Adam Carson, his world is lights and sirens and saving lives. Pressures at work keep him firmly in the closet, and life is too busy to contend with the complications that come with dating and relationships. When a familiar face from his past turns up where he least expects it, Adam starts to question whether or not there is room in his life for those complications.
Paul’s been called many things—graduate student, humanities tutor, jock-hater, even broke—but “forgiving” isn’t one of them. When the new women’s softball coach at Calapooya College specifically requests Paul to tutor his athletes, Paul’s forced to put aside his strict “no athletes” policy for the sake of his paycheck.
This audiobook is a compilation of the two books of the Holly Creek series in one: Dogwood Days and Spring Fever. It is not labeled as an ongoing series, but it did end with a cliffhanger—a very unsettling cliffhanger—and I can’t describe how irritated that made me. There was no indication of that in the blurb, and I really dislike that more than I can even say in print.
Dreamspinner Press, book 1 in the Desires Entwined series
