Hello, there! I’m back again with another gay book review, haha! This one was a clandestine book on my April TBR – totally shouldn’t have been read there, but it was and I regret nothing – and it’s been a while since I finished it, but I was lazy and didn’t write a review for it earlier, oops!
Anyway, the book in question is Seducing Jordan, first of the Ache of Desire series, from Andrea Dalling 🙂 I downloaded it for free on Amazon sometime in March/April and was seduced and read it almost on the spot, haha! Now, to the review!
Jordan can’t wait for college to start. He is so tired of desiring his very straight best friend Rick and getting nowhere, of being trapped in a small town without options to openly explore his sexuality. More than anything, he is tired of the hypocrisy that surrounds him. Jordan knows he still may have problems in college and on his adult life thanks to his sexual orientation, but he refuses to hide who he is to please others.
Jordan needs a change of scenario, now.
Rick can only think of one thing for months now: his best friend Jordan. With college so close, Rick is nervous to share Jordan with the world and maybe lose him to some random stranger who won’t just become his best friend, but also his lover. Rick can’t stop thinking about having sex with Jordan, but wouldn’t that mean that… He also is gay?
Rick needs a change of scenario, now.
Determinated to understand himself and show Jordan how he doesn’t need college guys, Rick sets up a romantic camping trip for them. But will it the problems between them or just show them that sex indeed just complicates everything in a friendship?
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂
I’d like to start this review saying that this book is a novella (aka quick read) and an excuse to read about gay sex between curious virgins teens. I honestly thought it had much potential and maybe the next book will deliver that, but it didn’t happen this time. However, it was an entertaining read, as there is no instalove, the characters are very well developed through the pages and the sex is the most real that I have ever read, for good and bad. It served me well and I was amused every time I picked it up for reading in between my official April reads, but it isn’t impressive by any means. Four stars 🙂
The narrative is third person with switching points of view between Jordan and Rick. Dalling’s writing style is smooth and simple, you fly through her words and the reader doesn’t even notices how much he already got into the story until it is over, haha! It is very engaging and we are trapped in Jordan and Rick’s own confusions and feelings. I liked Dalling’s style and definitely will keep reading this series – at least the gay books, I’ll explain this better later.
The plot was simple, but I wasn’t sure of the outcome until the last page. I had mixed feelings about the immediate future of Jordan and Rick, but I liked how they ended. Dalling was very realistic in portraying the boys’ relationship, how it developed, transformed in the weekend they shared on the camping trip. I honestly missed seeing a little of their relationship before the camping trip, to evaluate for myself how things went instead of trusting Jordan and Rick’s memories, but oh well.
The characters were well constructed for such a short story, but I have to say that Rick is a dick, haha! You saw what I did there. Jordan is cute enough, but I wasn’t very pleased with his submissive way towards Rick. I mean, Rick always had him way with Jordan, he used Jordan’s feelings. I don’t like when this happens to achieve sex. Hell, you have to have a very good reason for me to put up with this! And sex is so not a good one!
I honestly hope to see Rick growing up in all senses or else, I sense Jordan suffering a lot in his hands and he totally doesn’t deserve that!
Now, let’s talk about sex scenes. This book is all about sex. What makes it interesting is how Dalling glues said scenes with the story events, how she manages to make every scene a key piece of the puzzle that is Jordan and Rick. I was highly amused to see how realistic she was even with the small things, it was educative and entertaining at the same time. Just like hetero romances do, a lot of times homosexual romances won’t contemplate the small things a couple has to take care of to have sex, but not with Dalling. Every small step was there and for that, I give her a big high five 🙂
And can we just take a second to look at this wonderful cover? It was the decisive piece for me to download and start reading Seducing Jordan right away, haha!
About the comment I made about only reading Dalling’s gay books, let me explain myself better, haha! You see, Ache of Desire currently has five books. The next book, Handling Cynthia, isn’t focused on Jordan and Rick as you may have guessed from the title, but on Rick’s ex-girlfriend, Cynthia. Annelise, dear, sometimes you are such a genius.
ANYWAY, the blurb makes it quite clear that Cynthia likes BSDM and, while I don’t oppose to it (it’s a free world, you should enjoy it if that’s your thing), BSDM is so not my thing. I make exceptions here and there, but I don’t think I’d stand a hetero BSDM-sex-only-book. I ironically don’t deal well with those, oops! Jordan and Rick’s story comes back on the third and fifth books, so I plan to grab those 🙂
Overall, if you enjoy gay romance, quick and steamy hot reads and don’t mind uncertain ends, you should give Seducing Jordan a go 🙂
Thanks for reading my review! I took at look at Amazon and unfortunately the book is back to $0,99, but you can still read it for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited user 🙂
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