May 2019 – Page 2 – Love is Love Reviews

Core Training (Work Out #3) by Andrew Grey

3 out of 5 stars

Ebook, 86 pages. Published October 20th 2010 by Dreamspinner Press

Blurb:

Hugh Douglas isn’t thrilled about reaching his fortieth birthday. But he gets an unexpected present when a waiter he knows, Max Pierce, flirts hard with him at the gym. They end up going home together and having the hottest sex Hugh can remember… and Max even wants to stick around afterward.

Starting a romance won’t be easy. Hugh can’t help but feel his age compared to the much younger Max, even though Max makes Hugh feel rejuvenated. Max is dealing with daily doses of abuse from his alcoholic father, but Hugh can offer support from his own life experience. If they can help each other, it just might be enough to make a life together work.

Likes:

The focus on Hugh’s worries about getting older and dating a younger man.
Hugh and Max as characters and together.
Both men grew as people.
The gym brought the men together but wasn’t a big part of the story.
Short.

Dislikes:

The first sex scene had awkward phrasing.
Max’s dad and friend Lila.
Max and his life aren’t explained well.
Important character info was left until halfway through the book.
Some of the decisions the characters made.
Some pet peeves.

I’ll be honest – I thought Max was a hooker at first. The story starts on Hugh’s forty-forth birthday. With the way Max immediately begins to flirt with him completely out of the blue, I thought Hugh’s friends had set up some sort of sexy birthday surprise with Max as the gift. I was wrong, but that wasn’t the only time I felt like there was a lack of clear communication about what exactly was going on in the story. Other instances included Max’s age, which wasn’t revealed until halfway through the book, and the reason behind Hugh’s lack of past relationships, which didn’t come up until the 62% mark.

I liked the focus on how the almost twenty year age gap bothered Hugh. It allowed Hugh to learn to trust both his feelings for Max and Max’s feeling for him. The addition of Max’s abusive father, and how Hugh helped Max get away from the toxic relationship, was Max’s form of growth. Both of which I enjoyed.

I do think the shorter novella format worked well for this story. The instant lust, and jumping into bed, started the relationship off with a spark that never went away. Not much time passed during the story, unlike the others in the series, but I didn’t mind that. Both men felt like they were ready to stop having one night stands and get into a real relationship.

Unfortunately, there were things about the men and their lives that weren’t explained well. Leaving aside how I didn’t know how old Max was for the first half of the book, except that he was young, it was never explained why he was working as a waiter when he’d gone to college. Also, his reasoning for staying with an emotionally abusive alcoholic father who took his money was weak.

New info about the men is continually sprinkled through the book, but most of it had never even been hinted at before and it felt like it came out of left field. I never even thought there was a reason behind Hugh’s lack of past relationships until it came up. And Max liking the orchestra felt really random.

Two tiny pet peeves really stuck out at me as I was reading his book. It’s the second time in the series that a man who was being emotionally honest, aka vulnerable, says they’re acting like a girl. Because real men don’t have feelings or insecurities, I guess. The second was Hugh showing Max how to do pushups and sit-ups. It wasn’t even like he was correcting Max’s form. At the 43%, Hugh “led them back to the mats and showed Max how to do a basic crunch.” I get that Max was physically small, but who doesn’t know how to do a crunch? Gym class is mandatory in the US. Just…ugh.

Overall, I liked the character arcs in this story better than some of the previous books, but the execution was lacking. I think time should have been spent at the beginning developing the characters rather than having them jump straight into bed.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Ebook. 110 pages. Published March 16th 2011 by Dreamspinner Press

Blurb:

When George Higgins agrees to help a soon-to-be-former professional football player rehearse for a guest appearance on a talk show, he doesn’t expect anything to come of it. To his surprise, Darren White shows up on time and actually makes an effort to learn from George. But Darren has definite problems; he can barely read and sounds awful when he speaks. Luckily, George is a teacher and Darren’s motivated. It’s crunch time: the first rehearsal for Talking Sports is looming, and Darren and George will have to work together if they want Darren’s guest appearance-and their budding relationship-to turn into a full-time gig.

Likes:

Interesting characters.

Plot that kept me interested.

Less focus on the workout and more on the men’s personal lives.

Seeing Darren learn and grow.

Darren’s perfect Christmas gift.

Dislikes:

Felt preachy, especially at the beginning.

Beginning could have been stronger, especially when introducing George.

Lots of clichés.

Wish more time had been spent on Darren’s learning process.

Everything felt rushed. This story could really have used a longer format.

I didn’t realize until I was more than halfway through this book that I managed to accidentally skip the third in the series. But since none of the characters from that book seem to appear in this one, I just kept going.

This book was definitely an improvement over the others that I’ve read. The gym and workouts were still a part of the story, but a small part, which was a nice change. Instead, the men’s lives and personal struggles came to the forefront. I also liked that both men had physical limitations but weren’t defined by them. It was a nice change from the Adonis-like bodies in the first two books.

Both George and Darren are interesting characters. Once I got to know them, I was invested in the story, more than with the first two books in the series. The beginning was a little weak, and didn’t hook me right from the start, but the epilogue was really cute, as was the Christmas gift Darren gave to George. It showed how much he’d come to learn about what was really important in George’s life.

Their relationship was sweet and happened naturally. I liked that they didn’t immediately click and had to get to know each other a bit. I wish the book had been a full length novel instead of a novella. Darren’s learning process, as well as learning to be true to who he was, should have been expanded on. Most of the learning process was summarized in a few sentences, skipping weeks at a time.

What was left in the story was a number of clichés. Both Darren being a football player who has trouble with learning and George’s past relationship drama were both things I feel like I’ve seen lots of times before. Some of the clichés, especially George being a teacher, were used like a soapbox at times, beating the reader over the head with the fact that teachers aren’t paid enough for the work they do. While George being a teacher did come up a lot, it was definitely noticeable when the preaching began.

This is my favorite book in the series so far. I’ve rated it half a star above the others, which might not seem like a lot, but the downsides of the shorter format kept Crunch Time from getting bumped up to four stars.

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Month: May 2019

Review: Core Training (Work Out #3) by Andrew Grey

3 out of 5 stars

Review: Crunch Time (Work Out #4) by Andrew Grey

3.5 out of 5 stars