The Handyman Can

Handyman #1

by Dan Sexton

To handy men, Jake and Cory, building a relationship is a lot like designing a home or landscaping a yard. It's hard work, and you have to use just the right tool. When these straight-acting laborers first meet, they release their manly tension over a few beers and something much more sordid than sparks fly. Their strong libidos aren't used to experiencing feelings for another man, and it takes a few sticky situations before they understand the blossoming romance budding between them. Cute and tatted twenty-something, Jake Honeywell, will do anything for his kid sister. He loves landscape design and longs to travel north one day to see the fall foliage. He's recently come out-at least to himself and a select few. While this has him circle jerking with his buddies watching football, there's something missing. Cory Hamilton is tall, tough, and macho. He's a successful real-estate flipper who prefers the modesty of a simple life instead of the lavishness his burgeoning career provides. When the Home Television network discovers him, things change and Cory struggles to manage a developing man-on-man love affair. Step one of building an m/m romance: lay a solid foundation. Step two: build the framework. Step three: raise the roof. But, will Jake and Cory be able to fill the cracks in their unstable foundation? Warning: Contains graphic sex and strong language. This book is intended for mature audiences- and those who can appreciate two men loving each other. The Handyman Can is a full-length, standalone novel. The first few chapters were released under the title Handymen Do It Better but have been revised here and include some deleted scenes.

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Contemporary, LGBT, Erotica, Fiction, Contemporary Romance

254 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2015

Reviews

[~Kristin~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3~3.25 Stars
This was an Amazon freebie, it was ok the last 30% was good...the first 30% was not!

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sexy story with endearing MCs. Not great literature but a fun read. Enjoyed it.

[Inked Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

FourStars
This story is both a sexy erotic romp and a sweet love story. Cocky, affluent TV star Cory is well paired with Jake, a landscaper struggling to make ends meet and care for his family.

From closeted hook-up to relationship, Corey and Jake’s story rings true. I like the lack of sentimentality - sex comes before emotion, but my guess is that many relationships start in the same way. The sex in this story is steaming hot, and the men are beautiful and sweet.

I enjoyed this. The plot raced a little too fast for me to develop any emotional attachment to the men, but The Handyman Can is a simple, sexy story with an intriguing storyline.

I was given this in return for an honest review by Inked Rainbow Reads.

Sarah

[Randolph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty cliché without much depth. We're told that Jake is selfless and cares more about others (such as his sister). Then, at one point, he is on a plane and his actions are completely selfish and morally wrong. There isn't a real spark between the MCs even though the author is repeatedly telling us that they are meant for each other. Very one-dimensional characters. One loves eighties music the other loves Limp Bisket. Totally from two different worlds.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sexy hot read that has a good story line in there too. Do glad we got the whole story. Loved it

[Shannon]

Someone said it was too raunchy in their review so I must read this NOW!! :)

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first five chapters as a "free book" and became intrigued and needed to finish the story. Those chapters are repeated at the start of this book. The story is broken down into three parts. It starts off as an entertaining romp, including *cocky-boys'esque* positions, noises and dialogue. With two extremely well-built men - Jake, a landscape gardener struggling to make-ends-meet whilst trying to ensure a future for his sister, meets Cory, house flipper/realty investor debut home makeover TV star. Thus begins lust fuelled liaisons and phone calls which slowly morphs into genuine feelings and a romance that challenges them both.

The story moves at a fairly rapid pace in the second and third part, with a lot going on and it didn't allow me time to appreciate the change in dynamics of the relationship around the *romping*. However, when Cory has a family trauma, it was a heartfelt moment and was repeated again in the closing chapters with a quiet scene of reminiscence, quite poignant. The side characters all added to the story, some more than others, a few were questionable. The ending was sweet and the epilogue rounded it off well and left me with a cheesy grin.

[Lucrecia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Handyman Can

It was a nice story.
I couldn't get into it much though. One of those stories that are good but just not for me.
It felt too juvenile somehow. The situations, the MCs, most of all the language...
It just didn't click for me.
It's a solid story though, I don't regret reading for a moment. Just... I don't think I'd be reading it again.
I need something I didn't feel here for that.

Gotta appreciate it anyway ^^

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Dan Sexton’s first book, and good lord was it sexy. Jake and Cory were great characters and I really enjoyed reading their budding love for each other. Their sex scenes were HOT, and the author did a great job of slowly transforming them from the MCs getting off together into forging an emotional connection to each other. Definitely worth a re-read.

[Trio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly okay. The characters were really sweet and I liked the story. Enjoyed the author's writing style & I will definitely look to read him again. I'd give it 3-1/2 stars if I could just because it was very well written.

[Neil Plakcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

He writes about sex very well-- but sometimes that comes at the expense of plot. And there's some very awkward writing, too.

[Victorias' KeepinitReal · Rating 4 out of 5]

So unexpected...I really like this book. I was in the mood for a sex filled, dirty, raw, sexy book and I got that for sure!!! BUT so much more. The MCs were so good for each other. Jake was hilarious with his "hair-trigger" erections and release. LOL Cory was the perfect man and equal match for him. Their impromptu sexual encounter turned into a loving and committed relationship. They fell in love!!! This is my first book by author Dan Sexton. I plan on reading all of his work. His sense of humor, writing style and sexy way his words and describes the intense sexy playfulness with the characters was welcoming and I want more. Well I'm about to start reading Book 2 Wrestling With Love and I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

[Ron-Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. Great concept: a landscape architect and a house flipper fall for each other. Unfortunately, the story part of it doesn't gel that well, some of the dialogue is ridiculous (especially things they say, out loud, with absolutely no one else around), and it's lacking a little depth. Like a true fixer-upper, it has good bones, but needs a lot of remodeling.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written and generally not enjoyable for me. Instead of a mindless sexy romp, this was a tedious slog. Stilted prose and conversations ruined it. Sometimes it seemed like a contest to see how many brand names could be mentioned in one sentence or paragraph. Events in the book were more picked from a laundry list of things that could happen instead of advancing the story. There are lots of fun sexy gay romance novels out there. This isn't one of them.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a complimentary copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were fun to spend time with and the plot had enough twists and turns to keep me thinking. As impediments to their relationship arose, each man was able to decide what he really wanted in his future and went for it!

I'm looking forward to reading more by Mr. Sexton.

[Garrett Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great romance!

I chose this rating because I couldn't put this book down. I had to find out what happened to this two hot men and their adopted dog, Blu. I thought there was great character development. I'm at a loss now that there aren't any further stories with these two guys. I'll be writing the author for sure.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching and Kinda Sad

Here is a tale of two unlikely dudes falling for one another. A nice story, but with some sadness too. I’m not telling you what, you’ll need to read the book for yourself. Well written, good pacing, and enough tension and action to keep things interesting.

[Lea Blottiaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good Romance

The Handyman Can was a good read. It seemed like Jake and Paul got together at a young age. It's like you followed they're whole romance to the point of real love for one another . Good romance.

[Robert Fontenot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know that this book really needed a villain, much less the villainous duo of Gerry and Ethan. Parts of this book were fun but other parts were just tonally weird and uncomfortable. The part on the plane is particularly cringe.

[Denise GremoryKohta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cute and funny while still being hot. Loved the character growth.

[Bryan Spellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

68 of 75 for 2015. Why is it so hard for men to get together and realize that they're in love. Of course our society still frowns upon such relationships, even with the Supreme Court recognizing our right to be married. This novel, essentially a very well written gay harlequin romance, follows the lives of landscaper Jake and house flipper Cory who meet when Cory is visiting his parents who live in a golf club complex where Jake does the landscaping. Yes, they both feel something extraordinary when with the other, but, dammit, that kind of thing just doesn't happen. Except, of course, it does. Cory is getting ready to leave for a gig on a new "reality" show that will be filming in Seattle. Jake wins the hearts of the ladies of the complex's landscaping committee, but loses his job there when a homophobic owner learns his secret. Jake flies to Seattle to surprise Cory and ends up winning a spot on the tv show staff. As well as his man. It's all very formulaic, but so well written that you just don't care. Highly recommended if you don't mind graphic descriptions of male on male sex. Definitely a fun read if you like that sort of thing.

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some nice touches in the story, little things woven in that came back around to matter, and some good stumbling blocks set up for the relationship. Both the main characters were likable and the sex had a nice heat level. I was very interested in the story and the resolution but, here's the catch, it felt like we were never going to get there. The book felt SO long even though, page-wise, it wasn't. I think there were just too many story elements. I imagine that the author breathed such life into these characters that he wanted to tell us all their story--all the relationships in their life, all the other characters that were a part of it, all the backstory. There were many characters and scenes that could have been eliminated from the story to streamline and sharpen it. This is not to say that the story was tedious or boring. I read it straight through, wanting to see where everything led. I did enjoy it but couldn't quite give it 4 stars.

[Carol Tietsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was rather too raunchy for my taste and although I normally have no trouble reading (or editing) any erotica, this erotica was homosexual and I felt out of my element. I know I sound like a prude, and I also know that i am not one, but I like a little plot with m erotica, and it seems the only plot was not letting all and sundry know he was gay and being disappointed with people when they found out. I think it could be a great novel or story with some tweaking of the many (many) sex scenes.

[Sassy Beta Reading & Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good storyline

This will be short since reviewing from my tablet. No spoilers....that is what the synopsis is for.

Loved the storyline. Good story pace. Great characters. Dialogue was engaging. Sex was steamy but not panty melting. No heart twinges or surprise moments, but all in all an entertaining read.

Written as multi pov.

Would I read more from this author? Yes

Would I read more from this author? Yes

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must've read a different book than everyone else. I read a book about two men who were in their 20's, but acted like horny 16 year olds. I mean pulling off on the side road to jerk off? Or jerking off to everything, really. And the plane ride? Ridiculous that he's not strong enough to say no. They also fall in love after one session together. I didn't like the writing style either so from now on I'll just take a pass on this author.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great romance with plenty of spice.

Reminiscent of some of my favorite "old school" romance novels, it made me read it in one sitting. Cory and Jake are a hot duo that sizzle. Plus, if you are a fan of renovation shows and fantasizes of some of their hosts.. Well this one is for you....

[Isabella ~Mikku-chan~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hot and steamy - literally - with a bit exaggeration.
Jake and Cory were hot together, two sexy handyman. I didn't know what I've expected but I wasn't disappointed but I wasn't busted either... I had a solid story, hot sex in it, the struggle of two men exploring their new sexuality but I can only give the story 4 out of 5 stars...

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, the handyman can!

I enjoy a story where the obstacles to a budding romance don't feel insurmountable. These guys did have a few bumps in the road, but they handled them so well. The title had me thinking back a fluff piece, so I was surprised and appreciative of a good, well told story. Well done Dan Sexton, I look forward to reading more of your work.

[Ashley E · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a lot of sex, and not just sex, but kinda cheesy, porno sex. I'm not a big fan. In between all the sex, there were some good moments of romance and characterization, but not enough of them for me.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and sweet story. Really fast paced, but it had its moments. Definitely tell it was written by a man. Not that this is a bad thing, but it is different. Some of the phrasing threw me out of every sex scene.