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Perfect Catch
Lifelong friends, business partners—and lovers. What’s the catch?
Best friends since childhood, and now running a fishing business in a small town on the wild Cornish coast, Henry and Chris have never kept secrets from each other. Or have they?
Henry’s straight. That’s what he tells himself, but it’s been way too long since he dated. Because Henry has a secret, and that secret’s Chris.
Chris keeps his own secrets. Deep in debt he needs money fast, and starring in his one man porn videos is a sure way to get it. One is fun, but it’d be better with two. And who better than his lifelong friend, Henry?
When Chris suggests a very different kind of partnership it could be everything Henry’s dreamed of—or a waking nightmare.
Perfect Catch is a steamy, out-for-you / bisexual awakenings, small-town gay romance. Two tough, big-hearted fishermen work out how to love each other differently from anyone they’ve loved before.
Best friends since childhood, and now running a fishing business in a small town on the wild Cornish coast, Henry and Chris have never kept secrets from each other. Or have they?
Henry’s straight. That’s what he tells himself, but it’s been way too long since he dated. Because Henry has a secret, and that secret’s Chris.
Chris keeps his own secrets. Deep in debt he needs money fast, and starring in his one man porn videos is a sure way to get it. One is fun, but it’d be better with two. And who better than his lifelong friend, Henry?
When Chris suggests a very different kind of partnership it could be everything Henry’s dreamed of—or a waking nightmare.
Perfect Catch is a steamy, out-for-you / bisexual awakenings, small-town gay romance. Two tough, big-hearted fishermen work out how to love each other differently from anyone they’ve loved before.
- GenresFriends To Lovers
234 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 10, 2021
About the author
Liam Livings
55 books41 followersLiam Livings is an award-shortlisted gay romance novelist, creative writing tutor, and ghostwriter. His fiction focuses on friendship, British humour, and romance with plenty of sparkle. He’s a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Chartered Institute of Marketing and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from Kingston University.
He shares his house with his boyfriend and cats. When not writing he bakes to indulge his dangerously sweet tooth, admires unaffordable classic cars, and drinks all the pink wine with friends. His favourite sport – of which he’s a gold medal winner – is reading a romantic novel in a long hot bath.
To learn more about his teaching, visit: https://www.realpeoplewritebooks.com/
To learn more about his books, visit: www.liamlivings.com
He shares his house with his boyfriend and cats. When not writing he bakes to indulge his dangerously sweet tooth, admires unaffordable classic cars, and drinks all the pink wine with friends. His favourite sport – of which he’s a gold medal winner – is reading a romantic novel in a long hot bath.
To learn more about his teaching, visit: https://www.realpeoplewritebooks.com/
To learn more about his books, visit: www.liamlivings.com
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 5, 2022
The Perfect Catch
By Liam Livings
Fluffy Cat Publishing, 2021
Five stars
What I like so much about Liam Livings’ books is how grounded they are in reality (at least his reality). As much as I enjoy fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal fiction, I also appreciate “real-life” stories. Livings has a particular gift at delving into emotion, interpersonal relationships, and the small details of everyday life. For an American reader, there is the added pleasure of getting a look into a familiar, yet decidedly different, world.
Chris and Henry have been friends forever. In their comfy, working-class world, rooted in small-town Cornwall, they have a strong sense of contentment with who they are and where they live. Chris has a small but loving family—parents who dote on him and a sister he’s close to—while Henry has a more distant relationship with the grandparents (MY age, I must note) who reluctantly, but diligently raised him. Henry has been embraced by Chris’s family, and all should be well with the world.
It is when Chris’s carefully laid plans for his future begin to go awry that he finds himself looking at Henry in a different light. What he doesn’t realize is that Henry has been seeing him in that same different way for some time already. The ensuing drama is all tied up in the vagaries of making a living as a fisherman in a region where gossip travels faster than the post.
As always with tales like this, withholding information and hiding the truth triggers upset, but even that disguises the bigger issue: these longtime friends are both beginning to grapple with the emerging awareness of their sexual attraction to each other and what that might mean in their lives.
Chris and Henry are both endearing and frustrating characters. They are not moving at the same speed emotionally, even though (it turns out) they are more on the same page than they know. The solution to their problem is easy (at least in the reader’s eyes); it is their own complex personalities that keep them from finding the obvious solution.
Society tells us who we’re supposed to be—based on a whole array of parameters—biological and cultural. Fear impedes clear vision, and both of these young men have to see past their fears to get to the truth they seek.
It’s an old story in a modern world. Livings gives us a very specific regional variation on that story, and it warmed my heart all the way through.
By Liam Livings
Fluffy Cat Publishing, 2021
Five stars
What I like so much about Liam Livings’ books is how grounded they are in reality (at least his reality). As much as I enjoy fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal fiction, I also appreciate “real-life” stories. Livings has a particular gift at delving into emotion, interpersonal relationships, and the small details of everyday life. For an American reader, there is the added pleasure of getting a look into a familiar, yet decidedly different, world.
Chris and Henry have been friends forever. In their comfy, working-class world, rooted in small-town Cornwall, they have a strong sense of contentment with who they are and where they live. Chris has a small but loving family—parents who dote on him and a sister he’s close to—while Henry has a more distant relationship with the grandparents (MY age, I must note) who reluctantly, but diligently raised him. Henry has been embraced by Chris’s family, and all should be well with the world.
It is when Chris’s carefully laid plans for his future begin to go awry that he finds himself looking at Henry in a different light. What he doesn’t realize is that Henry has been seeing him in that same different way for some time already. The ensuing drama is all tied up in the vagaries of making a living as a fisherman in a region where gossip travels faster than the post.
As always with tales like this, withholding information and hiding the truth triggers upset, but even that disguises the bigger issue: these longtime friends are both beginning to grapple with the emerging awareness of their sexual attraction to each other and what that might mean in their lives.
Chris and Henry are both endearing and frustrating characters. They are not moving at the same speed emotionally, even though (it turns out) they are more on the same page than they know. The solution to their problem is easy (at least in the reader’s eyes); it is their own complex personalities that keep them from finding the obvious solution.
Society tells us who we’re supposed to be—based on a whole array of parameters—biological and cultural. Fear impedes clear vision, and both of these young men have to see past their fears to get to the truth they seek.
It’s an old story in a modern world. Livings gives us a very specific regional variation on that story, and it warmed my heart all the way through.
February 13, 2021
**I received a free copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving a review.**I really like best friends to lovers romances. This one was nice but it took me a bit to get in the flow of the story. Sometimes I got a little lost with the POV...MCs thoughts were scattered ....some scenes abruptly stop and I find myself wondering what happened. I did like the overall premise. Henry and Chris been the best of friends for years...like brothers. Them being best friends you would think they would be able to talk about their sudden feelings for each other. Fear of losing each other held them back which is understandable. I really liked Chris but it took me awhile to warm up to Henry...personalities so different. Chris the free and happy go lucky guy and Henry is the stoic, shy quiet one. Nothing wrong with being shy but a lot of times being quiet really hurt his friendship with Chris. Most of the book was a little push/pull between the guys but eventually it was a sweet outcome and that epilogue was lovely.
February 15, 2021
Longtime best friends and business partners Henry and Chris are so close, they're like brothers... almost. But underlying their closeness is a growing unspoken attraction neither are willing to confront, until Chris's new venture provides them the cover to explore their true feelings and each other.
Their story is told with dual POVs, with frequent flashbacks to key moments in their friendship, and it's a slowly unfolding, emotionally confused, awkward and angsty journey of self-discovery and finding the courage to be open and honest with yourself and those you love. The epilogue is especially sweet, too. I received an advance reading copy of this e-book and have left this honest review voluntarily.
Their story is told with dual POVs, with frequent flashbacks to key moments in their friendship, and it's a slowly unfolding, emotionally confused, awkward and angsty journey of self-discovery and finding the courage to be open and honest with yourself and those you love. The epilogue is especially sweet, too. I received an advance reading copy of this e-book and have left this honest review voluntarily.
February 11, 2021
If you are used to the trope where one MC asks another one to be his fake boyfriend for a wedding or similar family affair, prepare yourself for a whole new kind of proposal that Chris makes to his best friend Henry, good old straight Henry. Oh boy! Turns out both men have been keeping some real secrets from each other (and trying mightily but unsuccessfully to hide their feelings from themselves). When the walls start to come down, these two are hot enough to burn up their boat. Two wonderful characters and a wonderful twist on the friends to lovers trope.
February 12, 2021
What an awakening for both men and a struggle to get there. A very slow burn with what I can only describe as hella hot interlude to the final act, small town gossip and meddling busybody's. When friendship hid a secret neither men were expecting it caused some strife and tension. More secrets revealed a could be crippling debt but a saucy answer reveals hidden truths between the two. I enjoyed both points of view and the internal anguish they faced. Very cheeky and funny at times and not alot of scorn, just alot of coming to terms with what was in front of you all along.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews