Growing up, Mathias Jago’s life was not a walk in the park. All he knows comes from the streets, so it was no surprise he wound up taking his clothes off for a living. Mathias settles into his life of regret and twenty dollar bills sliding into his underthings.
When Abhay Chetan walks into The Thornless Rose he instantly takes Mathias’ breath away. But that is just a momentary lapse in judgment…right?
Abhat Chetan, tech guru, is all work and no play. Besides, the last time he’d gotten involved with anything to do with his sexuality, he’d been disowned. Love is not on his radar. Then his friends talk him into a night out at a gentleman’s club and he goes more to shut them up than anything else. As the night wears on, Abhay is bored out of his mind until ‘The Gentleman’ is announced and Abhay cannot keep his eyes off the stallion in the dark suit. When two days later he’s still thinking about ‘The Gentleman,’ Abhay figures he can either do something about it, or let it drive him crazy.
Remmy Duchene is a Canadian-hockey-watching-baseball-playing kind of guy. He loves walking in the rain and bugging his friends about his latest story ideas. Remmy believes that true love comes in all shapes, sizes, and sexualities. He is always saying "I'd rather see two gay people in love get married than two straight people that hate each other."
I was really looking forward to reading Abhay’s HEA ever since he made appeared in Faded Into You, the second book in the series as Ravinder’s driver. Poor thing was kicked out of college and his parents disowned him when it was revealed he was gay. My heart went out to him. But Ravi befriended and helped him and his sister and changed their lives for the better.
Now here he is, a successful man in his own right but he’s still carrying around the emotional baggage of what happened before which is understandable.
Matthias has emotional baggage of his own and that’s what makes these two men so perfect for each other. They’re both hurting and just sort of navigating through life the best they can. But neither man is truly happy or living life to the fullest.
This book was the saddest to me at first because these two men were so unhappy. This is why I was so incredibly relieved that this author revisited Abhay’s character. These two men absolutely deserved their HEA ending.
As always, this author’s writing style is to the point. She doesn’t drag her stories out or weight them down with unnecessary angst or drama. The characters are wonderful in that they’re diverse and I don’t have to worry about reading anything stereotypical or offensive. The dialog is awesome and storylines always run along smoothly.
I appreciate this author. I know that when I open one of their books, I’m going to read about someone that looks like me that finds their HEA. And that’s important.
Well done, Remmy. Well done, indeed.
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That was quite the birthday party! It was supposed to be a bit of fun to help get Abhay out and enjoy himself, who knew he would meet the one at a strip club. Mathias saw something in the man in the front row that he'd not seen before. Giving the man a private dance was mesmerising for both men. Both men have had it rough and have pulled themselves up to be proud and independent. Finding that Abhay can see past Mathias’ profession is one thing, dealing with others' impression of him is more challenging. Finding love on the wrong side of the tracks.
A really good quick romantic read! I really liked the characters and could have totally read a longer book about them and see them exploring their relationship.
I also liked the diversity in this book because so much of romance (and even queer romance) is white cis centric - this is a cis centric book but there is a main character whose a trans woman - who I LOVED and I hope gets her own book!
If you’re in the mood for a quick queer romance this is definitely a good one!