Blurb: Although Jesse McIntyre slings drinks in a gay bar, up until recently, he kept to himself and stuck to his rule never to hook up with customers. He’d been down that road before and bore the physical and emotional scars from it. The last thing he’d wanted was to fall for Robert Bauer, the wealthy businessman with the sexy smile who started frequenting the bar. They were opposites in every way, so Jesse never dreamed Robert, the pressed and polished owner and CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation, might be interested in a tattooed, college drop-out bad boy like him. But when fate threw them together for a long weekend, they finally gave into the passion that had been brewing, and the resulting explosion rocked their worlds.

Now, five months later, though the fire’s still burning sinfully hot between them, the realities of their opposite lifestyles begin to take a toll. Robert’s constant business travel weighs heavily on Jesse. When he realizes they’re having more phone sex than real sex, and he’s sleeping alone the majority of the time despite the fact he and Robert are supposedly living together, he worries there’s more behind Robert’s trips than just business. Jesse’s sure Robert’s avoiding him, avoiding them, but through the years his lover has built so many thick, protective walls to guard his emotions, Jesse finds it tough to get past them and discover why. He loves the man like crazy, and doesn’t doubt Robert loves him, too, yet will love be enough to overcome whatever is haunting Robert and heal the rift that’s slowly tearing them apart?

My thoughts: I picked this up because I really liked the prequel „Passion“ and wanted to know how the story continued. From the first book we know already that Jesse easily jumps to conclusions and this was again proven here. But where then it was sort of understandable now I found it was just too much. 

If you don’t like SPOILERS, don’t continue reading!

The whole story alternated between the two men sleeping with each other and Jesse either complaining about Robert’s absence or Jesse analyzing Robert’s every move and tone in order to find out whether Robert really loves him or not. I found that extremely annoying.

In “Satisfaction” Jesse has become a needy whiner who constantly begs Robert to not leave again or to come back home soon. Geeze, he’s a grown man who has spent most of his life without a partner and all of a sudden he becomes clingy to the extreme. Even though he did correctly suspect there was an ulterior reason for Robert’s frequent absence (I’m coming to that in a minute), it still is feasible that a successful businessman has to travel a lot and his partner has to either put up with it or draw the consequences.

Robert, on the other hand, has his reason to be absent all the time which is equally irritating. You either want to be with someone or you don’t. To get together and long to be with your partner and at the same time leave him continuously just doesn’t make sense to me. The reason for this contradictory behaviour was basically that he was afraid of getting dumped out of the blue again and took precautionary measures not to get attached too much. For crying out loud! Robert is not the first person in the world to get dumped and won’t be the last one either. Even given his childhood situation (which, by the way, I couldn’t remember from the first book; so I have to go by what was mentioned briefly here) I just found this hard to believe. Get over it already!

I can’t say I was too happy with this story. It was a quick read, even more so as I only skimmed through the sex scenes. All that whining and moaning so got on my nerves that I just couldn’t get into it.

Available at Amber Allure

Here you will find my thoughts on Passion.

Synopsis: Martyn inherits one half of an antiques shop from his uncle. Because of certain stipulations he cannot sell it on as planned but is forced to work together with the owner of the other half, Simon. Martyn and Simon, the son of the former partner of Martyn’s uncle, have known each other for a number of years, but never got along. In spite of the obvious dislike they have for each other, there was always a sexual attraction between them.

Review: I’ve stopped reading excerpts, so it came unexpected that the story is told from Martyn’s point of view in first person and in present tense. I am not a great fan of first person storytelling and the present tense  is something I really had to get used to at first. Once I got into the story, however, it didn’t bother me at all anymore.

The reason Martyn doesn’t like Simon is Simon’s stand-offish, superior attitude, but there is a reason for it. Once it gets evident that they are on the same level, things become easy. But Martyn is still left in the dark about the nature of his and Simon’s "relationship". Simon could have been a bit more forthcoming with his feelings, but then the story would have been shorter than it was already. Martyn is rather insecure, and since we only know what he knows, we are being left hanging in midair as well. This was quite realistic. You know, you’re in love, have a sexual encounter and afterwards you are forced to wonder about whether this was a one-night-stand, whether it will turn into some sort of fling, a steady relationship, what?

Once Martyn and Simon have cleared up everything they have such a nice thing going on, it’s too cute. I can picture them so vividly, working together in their antiques shop, living in their perfect cottage, happily ever after. It was enough to make my heart melt.

Highly recommended to everybody who likes it sweet.

Available at Amber Allure

Synopsis: After his parents’ death Charlie shut everybody out of his life and lived like a hermit. His only casual friend that remained with him was Noah who was in love with Charlie all along. It seems that their friendship has reached a point now where it will either become more or will break completely.

Review: This short story deals with much more than just a romance. It’s about friendship and that it needs maintenance, about depression and how it can ruin your life if you let it, about rejection and how you deal with it. For such a short story it was packed with topics and they were all handled extremely well.

After a sexual encounter, which had already happened when the story begins, Noah reads more into it than Charlie will allow. Noah would like to see Charlie as his boyfriend now, but Charlie won’t have any of that. In fact he’s pulling away quicker than you can imagine. He has been depressed since his parents’ death and has lost all his friends over his inaccessibility.

The only person he confesses his problems and feelings to is a fellow gamer on the internet. What he doesn’t know is that the real person behind that guy is Noah. Noah is hurt that Charlie would talk about his innermost thoughts with a guy he doesn’t even know, but not with him. When he learns that to Charlie he’s only a neighbour he has sex with on occasion he decides to pull away himself.

I liked that a lot. Way too often the person with unrequited feelings get clingy and start begging, not so Noah. He withdraws from Charlie, doesn’t call or visit him and goes out with other friends. Charlie slowly realizes that he misses Noah and that it’s his turn to actually work for their friendship.

I loved Noah’s friend Kevin. He gave the story, which was a bit sombre with all the unreturned  and depressive feelings, a light tone. And I admired Noah for his determination and how he managed to go on with his life without getting in touch with Charlie.  Even after meeting him once more he doesn’t just get back to his usual behaviour but keeps on living his life without Charlie. Only then Charlie realizes that he has to come and acknowledge his feelings, not only to Noah, but also to himself.

For a short story, a format that often deals with just a short encounter and some minor issue or other, it was a marvellous and full-fledged read. After "Perfect Man" and "Trust" this established Shawn Lane as another favourite author for me.

Available at Amber Allure

Synopsis: Robert, a successful businessman, has been ogling Jesse, the bartender in the local GLBT run bar for some time now. Jesse has noticed Robert as well, but never let on to any customers that he’s gay. He wants to leave his past behind and is not interested in any sort of relationship or even a short interlude. One evening the two men are thrown together by bad weather and spend a passionate night. However, Jesse doesn’t seem to be ready for being with Robert, because he left the morning after with a short, impersonal note.

Review:  We met Robert already in the story about "The elf and Shoemaker". There we saw him in a short scene in Logan’s shop, a scene that is re-played here from Robert’s point of view. I liked how Robert and Jesse were attracted to each other, but never made a move. Robert because he thought Jesse was straight and Jesse because he didn’t want to get involved with anybody, even though he was dying to get to know Robert. The way they watched each other in the bar and noticed every little bit about the other was just like in real life.

The situation that forced them to spend the night together was credible. OK, blizzard and snow rifts are not the most original way of achieving that, but at least they are feasible. I could also relate to Jesse’s issues and his suspicions towards Robert later on. They both were complex, realistic characters and I just had to know how everything was going to be resolved. Once more a well meaning room mate gave a helping hand. It’s always good to see friends or family actually help instead of throwing constant spanners into the works – a device that is being used way too often in straight romance,  at least for my taste.

"Passion" was a pleasurable read – perfect to cuddle up with on a cold evening, preferably with lots of snow outside.

Available at Amber Allure