This can be read as a stand-alone. I haven't read the others in the series and I was not once confused when reading this.

 

Very meh.
Nothing really happens.

The boys were sweet and I liked that this didn’t have a lot of relationship angst, but I was also pretty bored.



I felt there was nothing standing in their way once they got together at 30%. The rest was conversation, movies and sex. And some family drama that was resolved rather quickly.

There was the almost priest thing, but I never once felt as if Quinn was really going to go through with it, so if that was the conflict... it was a bad one.

Overall, I can't really find anything wrong with it. It has great writing, and the characters were sweet. But I also can't find anything really good about it.

“When I was fifteen, my mom walked in on me while I was… you know.” Okay. Not what I was expecting to hear, but that didn’t make me any less interested. “Choking the chicken? Slapping the salami? Training the one-eyed monkey?”

#1 Moment of Impact
#2 Moment of Truth
#3 Moment of Clarity

I think there is no need to say that I reject every kind of discrimination. But here in this book I was aggravated. Yes, I'm perfectly aware that the world is full of assholes and intolerance, I'm not trying to make light of all those people. However, I also don't tolerate it the other way around.



I live in a secular country but 94% of the population is Catholic. 70% are believers, but many more made the First Communion, even if after some time they forget everything about it only to remember it in the day of their wedding. I made the First Communion myself. And... 88% of the population here says that homosexuality should be accepted by society.

So, yes, we have the processions during the Holy Week and we have the Gay Pride Day. People can marry and people can divorce. Gay people can marry, too, since 10 years ago. We watch movies by Almodóvar with all his trans and we also watch über conservative shit. So what? I'm not religious but my culture is Catholic. Spanish History is marked by Catholicism. It's very meaningful that Arabs lived in Spain for 800 years and still Catholicism survived and fought back. We may do things slowly but we do them.



I've visited more castles and cathedrals and churches throughout Spain than I can count. It's historic heritage, after all. It doesn't matter how small the town is, there will always be a church, older than some countries or not, but it's very weird not to find one.



All my grandparents go to church and one of those churches gets full of prostitutes every Sunday. The priest welcomes them and I bet he is proud that the manages to attract the "black sheep" to his mass. What is the problem?



Why every time a Catholic character comes into scene immediately something rings into our head: "Bigotry!"? In my short experience, Catholic people are not the most intolerant out there. Mostly, they let people live. Catholicism is based on love and respect. The thing is, there are some who follow those principles, and there are some who don't. I don't think it's fair that we judge the main majority just due to a bunch of bastards that make too much noise. The USA has a lower percentage of Catholic people, about 24%. How come only 60% of the people in the States say homosexuality should be accepted by society? It's very senseless to say Catholic people are the guilty ones in the hate towards homosexuality, isn't it? Or maybe there are other factors apart from religion that determinate the open-mindedness of people? Can we honestly say that all Jewish, Islamic, Orthodox, Protestant, etc people welcome everybody with open arms? So how come Catholics are always the bad ones? I have some theories myself but I won't explain them here.



In this book I have the feeling this message is drummed into us: not every bigot is Catholic but every Catholic is a bigot. Just stop and think: how many books have you read that a Catholic is included (MCs or family or friends) in it and there are problems of acceptance of homosexuality? It's too much of a coincidence for me that they usually coincide. I have to think really hard to find an example of the opposite.



Yes, I know that the homosexuality marriage became legal in the States just some days ago, and I celebrate. USA has lots of influence, so of course this will spread to other countries. Spreading the equality. But please, let's stop the stereotypes. I bet gay stereotypes annoy real gay men, and religious stereotypes annoy me, too. I have no way to find out if Catholic people in the States are more fanatical or not but my American teacher told me that the people he sees going to the Gay Pride Gay in Madrid are "unthinkable" to be found back at home, he says that "everybody" goes there.

A free copy was given to me on exchange for an honest review.

This story features Jason Stern and Quinn Fitzpatrick, Collin's older brother (Collin's story is featured in the first three books of the series, this book can be read as a standalone from the his). The two meet when Quinn when he's hired to help rebuild part of the shelter that Jason works at. The two bond and thinking that Quinn is straight and so close to priesthood, Jason just knows it'll be a bad idea to fall for him. But when Quinn shows he's open to the idea of being with him, Jason just can't help but fall. They both aren't too sure about what will happen when Quinn's time is up, but decide not to think about it until Quinn time is cut a bit short.

I really enjoyed this story a lot. Quinn and Jason were both very likeable characters who haven't exactly lived a perfect life. They both made mistake with family and aren't exactly on great terms. They are pretty similar but also so different. Jason was so understanding and caring. Quinn too was very attentive to those he was was around and it really showed when he met Jason's family.

I really liked that Jason kept on checking on how Quinn felt about what they were doing when they got to that point in their relationship. The sex was sensual and blazing. The shower scene had me a blushing so hard I thought I would combust. I was very glad to see Quinn embrace his sexuality as he did. I expected a bit more of a freak out considering, up to that point, he never thought he would have this type of relationship with someone and he had immersed himself in such a religious environment.

I appreciated that the story didn't focus on the religious aspect between both characters since Jason's father was a rabbi and Quinn was on his way to taking his vows. I really liked seeing Jason get some closure and reuniting with his family. Even if it took something so extreme for Jason's father to realize that he was being foolish. I was sadden for Quinn and his mother not coming around.

The emotion impact was nice. The heartache when Quinn left and Jason's heart was breaking inspired some tears. The ending really was an "aww" moment and am glad we got to share the moment with Quinn and Jason.

2.75 stars rounded up

Too much smut not enough story for my taste. I mean chapter 1 alone spent more time about cooking than anything relationship related!!

Thus, Wiley making a move on David and the ILY part came way too sudden for me to believe the whole thing. Especially since the story was written solely from David's perspective and I only got Wiley's version from what he told David.

But it was light and easy, good enough to spare less than 30 minutes with.