Maximum Exposure

Palmer #1

by Talia Carmichael

Calvin Martin is taken off guard by his attraction when he finally comes face to face with Owen Granger – one of his big brother’s best friends. He doesn’t think Owen is interested but once Owen lets him know that he is, Calvin is all for jumping into bed but Owen has other ideas. Owen wants to date and then let things progress. Calvin will agree to a date but progression was something that needed to be nudged hard. Once they sleep together both men find their expectations shifted but they are unable to verbalize it to each other. It will take an exposure of a maximum kind for them to admit what they want.

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Short Stories, Contemporary Romance, Smut, LGBT, Ebooks

70 pages, ebook

First published January 25, 2012

About the author

Talia Carmichael is a romantic who believes that family, no matter if it is by blood or those you choose as family, is integral to who you are. She is an author who writes sexy stories in a variety of genres. She believes in creating stories that encompass all that falling in love or lust entails, from the highs of that first blush of attraction to the lows of not knowing if you can make your coming together as a couple work, and then finally to the acceptance of the reality of making a life together. It's all about the journey.

Among her books you'll find contemporary, futuristic, fantasy, and paranormal settings with M/M themes that will have a happily-ever-after. Her books are passionate, intense, and real...to fill the craving.

Reviews

[fishreads (back? from hiatus) · Rating 1 out of 5]

(1,5 stars rated down, finished 8 March 2023)

Maximum Exposure? More like Maximum Exposition...

This was such a strange reading experience, on paper this should have been a story about Calvin, a baker, and Owen, a photographer and also Calvin's older brother's best friend, except the majority of the story was wasted on too detailed descriptions of buildings and locations (Martin's Books & Bakery and the exact corned of Indigo Avenue and Indigo Place it was situated on and the four story building of G & W Photography) and family relations of all the major and minor male characters appearing in the story. Not only did this detract from the story it also made absolutely no sense. As I was reading the summaries of the next installments in this series I did not see a single character name that was mentioned here. But maybe I am at fault as I am not aware of the author's future writing plans.

The actual romance between Calvin and Owen was bland and uninteresting. There was no effort on the author's part to establish an actual connection or build up any kind of chemistry between the two. Calvin and Owen meet, they go on a date, they have sex, they keep having sex and being domestic together.

As for the sex scenes I found the descriptions quite cringe worthy:

Owen gentled his kiss, then slowly pulled out his tongue.

And just incredibly clunky:

Owen pushed him back, blanketing his body. He kissed Calvin hungrily, rubbing against his erection. Calvin gripped his ass, jerking him against him. Owen gasped then humped him.

The only scene that I found enjoyable and noteworthy was the one when Calvin's brother and cousins confront him about his feelings for Owen and force Calvin to get his head out of his ass.

As for Palmer, I was honestly confused about the town setting, all the family owned businesses and everybody knowing each other made it feel like a small town setting, but then the distance between the bakery and the photography studio is described as a twenty minute drive which gives me the impression of a larger town setting, or is my feeling off and I am thinking in European instead of American distances? In any case, I think it would be the best for me not to revisit this town again but I can't account for my masochistic tendencies and say I will not give this author's work another shot.

Themes: dual POV, older brother's best friend (completely wasted as a trope), miscommunication, small town (?)

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Carmichael's style in this one didn't really do much for me, and after 70 pages I expected more personality from the main characters. And an understanding of how an apostrophe is used.

More glaring than a couple of storyline inconsistencies was the complete absence of women in this picture-perfect fairy tale town. In 70 pages one woman got in two lines of dialog (including a one-worder), while four men work at the bakery-bookstore, two shadow the bakery as photographers, another two at the diner, not to mention all the gay cousins and Fergus the mechanic. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a man-fest in the bedroom, but for a realistic setting the gender scale was ridiculously off-balance.

And really, the two brothers and the two cousins, with their twin houses and dual-business, not to mention the double wedding, was just a bit much, even for happily-ever-after-land. (I lost track of all the Weber-Granger family connections, and after a point I wondered where the incest started.)

Thanks CoP, for the free read.

[DC · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is such a common trope for MM romance yet I was surprised at how poorly executed it was. I almost stopped reading before I finished the first chapter. Not only was I going crazy with Indigo this and Indigo that but it was all so weighed down by the overly descriptive narrative. And then when the chararcters were introduced, I thought I was being presented with a geneology lesson. Good grief! It was rather difficult trying to focus on the story and keep track of who related to who. As for the MCs, Owen was likeable enough; seems mature and level headed. Calvin, on the other hand, was just irritating. Without any background to help us understand his aversion to committment, he just didn’t make sense. For someone who is a partner in a successful business, he sure is flightly, immature and clueless. He gets himself all worked up because he develops feelings for Owen and he doesn’t know if Owen feels the same. Um, Really? Just how much more obvious does Owen need to be?
Sorry, but a good story should not be this tedious to get through.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Boy meets older brothers friend. Boy wants to screw older brothers friend. Friend wants to date boy. Bad banter ensues. I love friends to lovers stories or brothers' friend to lover as the case may be, and I've read a lot of really great ones that made me laugh and cry and everything in between. This one just had me skimming. There was no connection what-so-ever. All the banter felt forced. 'Hey I wanna date you. OK, hey let's have sex. OK, hey, we're in love now.' That's how it felt to me. And this is a personal pet peeve, but it is really statistically unlikely that two brother, and their two cousins who are brothers, and their two friends who are also brothers are all gay. Just not realistic and felt like she was just setting up tons of other book. Soooo many boring details about the town and the bakery and the people and who cares! It's a short story, just tell me about the MC's and a few ancillary people, I don't need to know about you're freakin' security system and you're friend who set up the website and the diner down the street and blah blah BLAH.

FREE here

[Mandy*reads obsessively* · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4*
I haven't read any other stories set in Palmer, so it took me a few pages to get into the story since there are a lot of names and family relationships to keep straight.
Once I got into it, it was a nice story.

[Sylvia]

Too much people, telling and explaining. Where's the story?

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calvin and Owen were really hot together. I would have loved if this was longer. I'm anxious to read more of this series soon.

[Jacque RidesAndReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book with Talia Carmichael. This is a short story and I wish it was longer. There wasn't enough time to get invested in the characters.

Although this was a short story and I had to fill in the blanks myself I did enjoy it. The MM scenes were good, I just wish there were more.

[Garth Mailman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An M+M novella. Involves professional pastry chefs, booksellers, and photographers. Family owned businesses. The title involves a double entendre involving photography and disrobing. After the two hotties get it on profanity and graphic sex scenes. If this is your bag go for it. At least the book’s well edited.

[Selina Durio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift from the author and enjoyed reading it. The story is set in Palmer and I hope there are more books set in this town, with these families as the center.

[Annemarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this story! Owen is back in town and he is falling for is best friend, Lucas' brother, Calvin. I like the interaction between all the Martin's, Granger's, and Weber's. I want more from Palmer!!!

[Zeoanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

My thoughts about Calvin? He's an obnoxious guy that has no redeeming qualities at all. I've no idea what Owen sees in him other than his good looks. Meh.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

So. Much. Exposition.
Also, the author / editor/ proofreader / whover could benefit from a review of plurals, possessives, and apostrophe rules.

[Sadonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really generous free read - sets up a new series. Owen and Calvin are a really interesting couple. Can't wait to read more in this series. They are very hot together and the underwear fetish is cute too.

So true to life that neither wants to be the first one to talk about where their relationship is going. Loved Lucas always trying to keep Owen and Calvin from having a little tryst at work. The scene with the welding torch is hilarious.

Looking forward to more in this series.

[Taff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply lovely. I would happily have paid to read this book. The only critisism would be that it was hard to understand the relationships with the many supporting characters, they needed to be fleshed out more than was possible in a short story. This being said it set up for any following books nicely and I would love to read it again as the first in a series. Apart from that....well lets just say that I'm hurrying off to hunt down Talia Carmichaels back log! So excited about this author.

[Cindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice start for a series. The story was good and most of the characters were likable. The secondary characters were entertaining. I look forward to reading more by this author.

[Katy Beth Mckee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a really cute love story and would like to read more.

[Brooke]

I rarely, if ever, have issues with writing styles but I just could not get into this. It was weirdly detailed and a major case of "tell don't show".

[qx · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5