Sunday Review

I’ve had a pretty crappy week, personally. And the other day I felt sad and down and needed a good pick-me-up. Something easy, breezy, and non angsty to take my mind off things. And I found it.

So, two (short) reviews for you today.

Loving Me, Loving You by J.D. Walker

Hanson Yoo despises his job. He works seven days a week and is in line for junior partner, but that’s not enough anymore. Why does he do it? To please his mother, or at least that’s how it began. But now, not even that can keep him going.

Late one night, Hanson helps an acquaintance out of a bad situation and meets Lindsey Grier, a man he’s been admiring from afar.

When Lindsey flirts with him, Hanson isn’t sure if it’s real or out of gratitude. Things like that don’t happen to him, and he has little self-confidence. Rather than take a chance, he cuts his losses and runs away. But then he doesn’t get the partnership, and realizes he has nothing left to lose.

Hanson has been given a second chance, and isn’t going to waste it. Maybe by learning to love himself, he can love someone else, too.

This was just what the doctor ordered. Short and sweet and in feel-good in general. The characters were great: I identified with Hanson and the way he freed himself from a job he hated. That’s just what I did when I left Sweden for Malaysia: I had a soul-killing day job back in Sweden, and here I’m living my dream as a writer. I also loved Lindsey: the way he acted toward Hanson was totally adorable and I just felt…happy…when I read it. Just what I needed.

 

First and Goal by Terry O’Reilly

After being disappointed too many times by the hook-up sites, Broadway dancer Darrin Houghton takes down his profiles. However, when he gets a message from an intriguing hunk on a site he’d forgotten about, Darrin sets up a meeting despite his reservations. 

Brad Grabosky is a deeply closeted football player in the NFL. Brad has a preference for no strings attached, anonymous, one night flings in seedy motel rooms. 

However, love has a way of complicating the intentions of both men, leading them to make compromises they never thought possible. Will Darrin and Brad find a way to get to first and goal and ultimately score a touchdown? Or will their chance at happiness be fumbled away?

This should come with a warning label: Contains a serious case of insta-love 🙂 Don’t get me wrong; I’m a fan of insta-love, but I have to admit this book teetered on the edge of becoming almost too fast even for me. But in the end I bought it. I think it’s because it was exactly what I needed: a highly emotional story about two guys who love each other. They loved each other so much I could feel it and the author managed to infuse the love even in the sex. And that’s my favorite kind of read: loving, romantic, and emotional.

Both books get four stars and my eternal gratitude for making me feel better ❤️