A Special Report from Mrs. Agent Palmer
As I mentioned in my post about the Blind Date with a Bookstore, I selected to receive two books in my curated box and this is a review of those two books.
While I enjoyed both books, I did not think I could come up with enough to say about both individually to write separate reviews and honestly, since they arrived together and I read them back to back, it made sense to write about them together.
The first book I unwrapped was also the first book I read, Top Secret by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. It is what I would describe as a young adult male/male spicy romance set in college centering around a secret relationship. Flutter Romance described it on a note they stuck to the wrapping as: MM Contemporary Romance, Angsty, Hate to Love, Opposites Attract, Sports Romance, New Adult Romance.
The novel follows the budding relationship of Keaton Hayworth III and Luke Bailey. Keaton is your typical popular jock and heir apparent to the presidency of his fraternity like his father before him. He is wealthy, well-liked and still in a relationship with his high-school girlfriend who his parents adore. Luke is barely making ends meet to support himself while attending the university thanks to a scholarship for local students. He doesn’t get along with Keaton and the other frat brothers and secretly works as a male exotic dancer to eat and pay rent at the frat house which is not covered by his scholarship.
This unlikely pair meets when Keaton downloads a hook up app to source a third person to join in with him and his girlfriend, a threesome birthday gift requested by his girlfriend. Keaton creates his account with the username LobsterShorts, inspired by his favorite pair of swimming trunks and his love of marine life. Unfamiliar with this type of app, LobsterShorts stumbles across SinnerThree, a regular user of the app and none other than fellow frat brother Luke Bailey.
Neither discloses their real names or photos while the two chat about Keaton’s request, so neither realizes they are chatting with each other while literally being across the hall from one another. Able to hide behind their usernames, the two of them chat openly and honestly with one another about all sorts of things, triggering an online chemistry that quickly turns into more and threatens to change everything.
I found the story well written but it was also a quick and easy read which can be just as enjoyable for me as a meaty emotional roller coaster of a romance novel. I was honestly hoping that both of these books would be nice popcorn books, so tasty it’s enjoyed quickly before the trailers are even over, or in the case of these books, good and easy not simple but quickly read through in order to move on to the next book on the ever growing to read pile.
The second book was Nearly Wed by Nicolas Didomizio. I loved this book. It was witty and humorous, more adult in its language and content in the way that it could be more relatable to an older adult who has experienced more of life and relationships. The main characters are also well beyond the college aged students of the first book, being in their mid-30s and mid-40s respectively. Flutter Romance described this one as: MM Romance, For fans of People We Meet on Vacation, Engaged Couple, Opposites Attract, Age Gap. Also, I must share that I probably would not have chosen this type of book for myself. I have to give kudos to Flutter Romance for getting me out of my romance novel comfort zone with this book.
This novel follows our main character Ray Bruno, a gay once divorced hopeless romantic who holds his parent’s marriage up as the shining example of everything he could ever want in a wedding and marriage. Ray is a former click-bait writer who put his entire life on display on the internet before eventually switching to a less problematic career as a columnist for an online magazine. Ray’s life takes a turn when he meets Kip Hayes, a doctor ten years his senior who is very private and recently out. The two begin to date and Ray decides to take a page out of Kip’s book by living his life out less online and more offline with Kip.
After the couple gets engaged, Ray thinks it’s high time he gets his chance at the picture perfect story book wedding that his parents had. He convinces Kip to stay with him at the resort in his hometown, famous for its concept of an earlymoon, a honeymoon that takes place before the wedding. Kip, who wanted to keep things small and private, concedes to the earlymoon and the big wedding, but not without some misgivings that rise to the surface when he runs into an old college buddy at the resort who doesn’t know he came out. What is meant to be a romantic week ahead of their special day suddenly becomes a stressful test of their relationship amidst a lot of secrecy, soul searching and revelations of the past.
I was so smitten with this book and the author’s writing style that I am definitely checking out the rest of their available catalog. I enjoyed Nearly Wed more than Top Secret, but not enough for it to earn a coveted spot on my bookcase. Both of these books will be off to a new home, purely for the fact that I need to make room. I need to ensure I have room on my shelves for books I have yet to fall in love with.
So it is with that in mind that I go off now in search of the next book, which let’s be real, is already in my house on a shelf, waiting. My husband does keep ordering autobiographies that we both want to read.