The plot was fine. A little basic, but not bad. It was everything else that I didn’t like.
2 out of 5 stars
E-book. Kindle Unlimited. 307 pages. Published November 23rd 2016
Blurb:
Blue: When my ex walks into the resort bar with his new husband on his arm, I want nothing more than to prove to him that I’ve moved on. Thankfully, the sexy stranger sitting next to me is more than willing to share a few kisses in the name of revenge. It gets even better when those scorching kisses turn into a night of fiery passion.
The only problem? Turns out the stranger’s brother is marrying my sister later this week.
Tristan: I have one rule: no messing with the guests at my vineyard resort. Of course the one exception I make turns out to be the brother of the woman my brother’s about to marry. Now we’re stuck together for a week of wedding activities, and there’s no avoiding the heat burning between us.
So fine, we make a deal: one week. One week to enjoy each other’s bodies and get it out of our system. Once the bride and groom say I do and we become family, it’ll all be over between us. Right?
Fair warning: Blue and Tristan’s story contains smoking hot scenes of man parts touching, pee-in-pants descriptions of grannies cursing, and the sweet improbability of two strangers finding their happily ever after when they least expect it.
Likes:
- The Marian family at large.
- Piper.
- Tristan and Blue were likeable.
- The plot wasn’t bad.
Dislikes:
- The story’s tone is off.
- Biphobia.
- Gay stereotypes.
- Homophobia.
- The grannie’s constant sexual remarks.
- The lack of reaction to serious incidents.
- Too much sex.
- The drama felt fake, unnecessary, and didn’t affect the main characters at all.
- Prolonged first scene too focused on romance.
- The pre-wedding week didn’t make sense.
Yuck.
This book has a good rating, so I’m obviously in the minority with my dislike. And to be fair, the book isn’t awful. Blue and Tristan are generally likeable, Piper the dog is adorable, the Marian family is cool, and the vineyard is lovely. The plot itself is a little basic, but not bad. I didn’t even mind the insta-love (seriously, they’re in love within 24 hours of meeting). But there are simply too many unlikable things about this book to ignore or forgive.
There are a couple of things that went wrong for me right from the start. First, Tristan and Blue meet right away at the beginning of the book. There’s no chance for the reader to get to know them before they’re focused on each other. Sure, we learn facts about them, but they’re abstract facts. We barely get to see either man doing something by themselves away from the vineyard, and only at the end of the book. They spend most of the story in one location, surrounded by their families. If this was a novella, it would have been fine. In fact, I think the story would have been ten times better if the unnecessary drama and gratuitous sex scenes were cut, and the whole thing turned into a novella. As it is, I never got attached to the characters.
My second issue was the book’s tone. The author was clearly trying to make this a fun, happy, quirky book. None of it worked for me. Time after time, the characters waved off serious moments like they were no big deal, ignoring moments that would have had serious consequences, emotional or otherwise, in a different book. Tristan casually came out to his family despite knowing his brother was a raging homophobe, and didn’t spare a thought to any future consequences. An employee grabbed Tristan’s neck and slammed him against the wall, and there were no consequences for that employee.
Issue three was all of the biphobia, homophobia, negative gay stereotypes, and “funny” sexual remarks that were, at best, cringe worthy and at worst, sexual harassment. Tristan literally self-identifies as straight because he’s in his early thirties and hasn’t fooled around with a guy since college, so obviously his queer card has been revoked. Ridiculous.
Tristan does go through a not particularly stressful realization that he’s been repressing his attraction to men. But instead of realizing that he’s bisexual (he was married to a woman) he decides that he’s full-on gay now. Hello biphobia. Just about everyone in the book has it. And sadly, being gay doesn’t stop Tristan from negative gay stereotyping. When Blue offers to take Tristan to a gay bar, Tristan says, “Do I need to wear guyliner and go-go boots? Sprinkle myself with glitter?” To which Blue jokes, “You want to swing by my place and I can dress you up in some hot pants and a sequined tank top?” Then Blue laughs. “Oh my god, I’m joking. The look on your face. Jesus, Tris. Do I look like someone who wears that shit?”
John, Tristan’s brother, is the raging homophobe, with their mother less outspoken but no less obvious in her feelings. Why Blue’s sister wants to marry John when she’s got a whopping 5 openly gay brothers is never touched on.
The blurb describes “pee-in-pants descriptions of grannies cursing”, and if it was just swearing, I would have been fine with it. There’s a lot of it in the book already, and most went unnoticed. But the grannie’s other gimmick was their loud sexual comments about the main characters. Aunt Tilly was the worst. Speaking of one of the Marian brothers, she said, “Maybe he just needs to get laid. A good fuck ought to fix him right up. Works for me anyway,” she said with a shrug.” Ignoring the fact that Jude was under a lot of actual stress, I can’t help but be aware that if an old man was suggesting that his twentysomething female relative get laid, he’d be seen as a creep, while it’s supposed to be funny because Tilly’s an old woman.
And speaking of the Marian family, most of them live in California, where the vineyard is. Which made the week long pre-wedding get-together seem unnecessary. I could understand an exotic locale, but literally most of the characters lived within easy driving distance of the vineyard. Especially considering that the Marian family has 9 kids, three of whom are still in college. The cost of this event wasn’t touched on, and there was only a single vineyard specific activity planned all week. I know that the story had to happen that way to give Tristan and Blue time to insta fall in love, but the whole thing felt off.
As for Blue and Tristan, they seemed to fit well together. There was no major drama between them, and the rest of the drama barely touched them. Because of that, the drama felt manufactured, and I rolled my eyes a lot. Honestly, it felt like Blue and Tristan mostly had sex. I did take issue with the fact that, since Blue and Tristan met at the vineyard’s restaurant, they’d consumed beer, wine, and multiple shots by the time they got naked together for the first time. Blue did stop things between them because of all the alcohol. Then he immediately changed his mind because Tristan said he wouldn’t regret it in the morning. By my count, they had sex 15 times throughout the book, all but two on page and detailed. I’m no prude, but that was too much. I enjoy sex that deepens the relationship or furthers the plot. Most of the sex in this book was just filler.
While the actual writing wasn’t bad, I have zero interest in any of the other books in the series, and honestly wish I had DNFed the book instead of pushing through to the end. It wasn’t worth it.
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