Close & Personal

Club Deny #3

by A.W. Scott

PLEASE NOTE THIS BLURB HAS SPOILERS FOR THE END OF TUCK & RUN

Curtis
I spent too many years trying to fit into my small town.
My personality was too loud and I was often too much for them.
When someone new moved in, I thought he'd be just like everyone else.
But then he showed me that love was powerful and life-changing.

At least, I thought it was.
It only takes one night to change everything.
One night to put me on the run from the one man I shouldn't have ever needed to escape.

Benji
I'd spent countless hours trying to find him.
After screwing up the greatest thing to ever come my way, I was determined to get him back.
But I had no idea the lengths he would go to hide.

Finding him alive and well was a shock.
Him running from me wasn't a surprise though.
He was never one to like confrontation...

Leaving town the day after our wedding was proof of that.

This will be medium angst, with a bit of hurt/comfort. There is NO cheating.
Club Deny follows a group of friends as they find love in unexpected ways. Each book follows a different couple. They are best read in order. This book is designed for readers 18+.

Genres: M M Romance, Second Chance, Romance

206 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 16, 2021

Reviews

[Denise Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Curtis and Banji become fast friends as soon as they met. Both wanting to leave the small homophobic town they live in. When Curtis becomes 18 they run off to get married.
but Curtis runs after his marriage to Benji, making a new life in the city with a new name so no-one can find him.
Benji has no clue as to why, but spends the next 8 years trying to find him. As private investigators couldn't find him he thought he would open a bakery, as 'Curtis' had a very sweet tooth , and hoped that if he tested the treats from the bakery he would realise Benji made them.
This is a really sweet second chance book. Had to read in one sitting.
Can be read as standalone but we'll worth reading the others in the series.

[Cindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I love a good friends-to-lovers slash second-chance romance. I had high hopes for this one, even when I wasn’t overly thrilled over certain things thrown out in Tuck & Run. It was a bit of a preview of when Benji and Curtis/Laurence/Law see each other again for the first time in almost nine years. That specific scene was obviously shown with more detail in this book, and let’s just say I was even less thrilled.

The first two or three chapters were flashbacks. Benji and Laurence were best friends, starting when Benji was 13 and Laurence 12. They both came from horrible parents – one dad was the mayor of the small town, and the other one was all about money and power. They and the mothers only cared about image and appearances when it came to everything, including their sons. Regardless, the boys became the best of friends.

All that was good.

They eventually both came out to each other, fell in love, and when Laurence turned eighteen a few months after Benji, they married in a quick ceremony (outside of town, away from their homophobic parents), and were supposed to live happily ever after. Only that didn’t happen. The day after the wedding, Benji walked inside his house to grab his bag because he’d forgotten to in all the excitement of getting married. This was after having words with his horrible mother. While he was inside, Laurence ended up bolting without a word. This left Benji searching for him – including hiring detectives – for almost nine years.

Then we come back to Curtis. Because Laurence has been Curtis in all the books before now, that’s what I’ll be calling him from here on out in this review.

Curtis has been working for Mateo (from Hot & Bothered) for eight years. When he was 18, he didn’t just run from Benji, he started going by a different name to ensure he couldn’t be found.

That made ZERO sense to me, but okay! Something else that made zero sense to me… Mateo is a shrewd businessman. He didn’t get where he was by blindly trusting people. He doesn’t do anything in his career without thorough background checks, etc. Yet he had absolutely no clue that Curtis was actually Laurence.

In the real world, Mateo would’ve known every single thing about his new assistant, not just what he was told. Did he legally change his name? The word ALIAS kept being used, but the only way ‘Laurence’ could’ve had this new life as Curtis would’ve been if he had a legal name change. He’d have to get paid a salary, provide his security number, pay taxes, that type of thing. Hell, he couldn’t even rent or buy an apartment unless, again, his name was legally changed - or he used his birth name. At no point in the book is any of that mentioned. Just the word alias.

There’s being unrealistic and there’s being ridiculously unrealistic. And honestly, while I know a lot of mature eighteen-year-olds, one from Tiny Town America who has been sheltered his entire life, never could’ve just disappeared like he did without a trace. There would’ve been a lot of covering his tracks and some serious planning leading up to it. There was none of that with Laurence/Curtis.

Sorry, that’s my business brain talking.

I’ll get back to the story.

There’s this major build-up with Benji trying to find his long lost husband. Every single thing he does – including opening a bakery – is in hopes of finding his man. Mateo invests in his business, which immediately gets so busy he almost can’t keep up. In the midst of all this, Mateo is suspecting a few things. There’s even a chapter or two in Mateo’s POV.

There’s being a boss and good friend, and there’s jumping into business you know nothing about. In Mateo’s case, it was bringing Benji and Curtis back together after being apart for so long – in a very public setting. How did Mateo know there wasn’t abuse or infidelity or something like that in their relationship? If somebody goes to the lengths Curtis did to not be found, there had to be a real reason, right? Mateo didn’t know any of the details, yet he felt the need to go into matchmaking mode for his assistant.

And good Lord, these guys are all about over sharing with strangers – about their pasts, problems, and pretty much anything and everything. Curtis kept things to himself, including his marriage. Benji was out there telling everybody and their mama all about the husband who took off when they were both 18.

Benji and Curtis finally have a quick conversation about what happened the day Curtis disappeared. The reason for WHY he took off is finally out in the open. Do they take a few hours and work on catching up and maybe fixing everything? Of course not. Within seconds of Curtis having a, “Duh!” moment on why he left – he was wrong about something but didn’t bother discussing it with the man he loved at the time – they go right on to bed, and I’m not talking about sleeping. ;)

So much build up for… nothing. Almost nine years of running, and all was well after talking for a few minutes and some naked time.

It was so anti-climactic, and it was VERY frustrating. Sure, I’m glad they finally got their HEA, but it was a whole lot of rush, rush, all is well, and who cares about that silly misunderstanding that lasted almost nine years that could’ve been resolved in one quickie conversation? But no, Curtis had to run, start going by a different name, and then run AGAIN.

Uh, no.

Taylor, Aiden’s crazy best friend from Hot & Bothered (who I absolutely despised) was in this book and the last one. Apparently, she’s Rob’s cousin, with Rob being the manager of Club Deny.

Speaking of Rob… what an ass. At the end of Close & Personal, he meets Casey who will be a new bartender at the club. He’s supposed to be sitting in on an interview before Casey’s hired, maybe asking a few questions since he’ll be Casey’s boss. What he does instead is snap at the guy and basically insult him. I know this is the lead in to their book and them ‘not liking each other’. Well, it damn sure didn’t make me want to read it.

I may not. Honestly, I’m kind of over this world right now. There are only two books left, so I feel like I should go ahead and finish the series already, but I’m really just wanting to be done with it.

I say that, but I’ll probably finish it anyway. I would like to read Ball & Chain because I’ve liked Dallas every time he’s been in the series. The question is do I want to deal with Rob the jerk before I get to it? That depends on how I’m feeling later, I suppose.

Overall, I can’t say I loved this book. Had everything not been all fine and dandy after one quick conversation – after almost NINE YEARS of them being apart – maybe I’d feel differently. I’m so over rush, rush resolutions in books. With the exception of the author’s newer books that I’ve enjoyed the hell out of, His Christmas Conundrum, Bailey, that’s pretty much all I’m seeing. Also, Close & Personal may not have been super quick insta-love like the books before it, but it might as well have been because of how fast everything was fixed between these two after they'd been apart for so long.

I should also point out that I wasn’t thrilled over how Benji’s mother was handled, or the fact that he ever took her calls over the years – even if he only answered once a year - knowing that she likely had something to do with the man he loved taking off.

[eros · Rating 1 out of 5]

**SPOILERS AHEAD**


This was such a frustrating read to me. I really just wanted to keep going with this series because the plots are all so fun and just exactly what I want! But the writing just never gets it right! It felt like someone just wanted to write something so they did but it also felt like a project that the author loved because there would be such heartfelt scenes, scenes that I would've appreciated more if we tackled the issue of Curtis/Lawrence just fucking off after the sad attempt of Benji's mother to get him to leave Benji. In what world would that make sense, it's not even the fact he left because of that, it's the fact Benji was the one who chased him and even after all these years it seemed like Curtis is the only victim here. Imagine being gay and falling in love with another gay person and you both had homophobic parents you had to tolerate all throughout your growing years because you still don't know shit about handling yourselves and instead of having your lover stand with you HOURS AFTER YOUR SECRET WEDDING, they just leave. and you're the one to chase them. and you're the one still chasing them like it didn't traumatize you that the one person you thought loved you and was willing to grow old with you just left because of, what? A fucking recording that he knew himself deep inside could've been fake. And he let that be for nine fucking, agonizing years.

I'm not saying I would absolutely leave Curtis if I was Benji but I definitely would. How can you say you love him when you didn't even give him the chance to explain? Why would you waste so much time being angry and afraid when you could've been so happy, you DUMB FUCKING ASS BITCH. I hate this series. I actually was gonna rate this 2 stars and then I started my review and damn, I really hated this book.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was written well and the characters were developed nicely. My only problem with this book centers on the pivotal moment when Curtis finds out that Benji was not at fault for anything. Benji's mom cobbled together fragments of recordings to create an audio clip of Benji "agreeing" to pretend to be in love with Curtis for the sake of his father's company. That was ok as far as plot twists go, but the complete turnaround in Curtis' mind of "Oh yeah, I guess he wouldn't do that, huh?" was a little too quick and anticlimactic. Going back to re-read that moment and weighing it against the length of the book, it's not too bad; but that small moment weighed against 8 years of turmoil and grief for Curtis seemed a little...off.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and the romance was nice, but it seemed like half of the book was spent establishing their current work situations and friendships. I wish a little more time had been spent on the actual romance and the two of them reconnecting. I really think this book would have benefited from being expanded, especially with all of the emotion that seems to be packed-in. This wasn't rushed exactly, but it did feel like the author fit too much into a small package--- and that was a disservice to the high-quality writing. This was my first book of A. W. Scott's, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Mandy (MP Book Reviews) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curtis didn't fit into his small home town and everything changed when Benji arrived. They were so happy together until one night was life-changing and sent him running away. Benji spent so many hours trying to find him on his own and with the help of multiple private detectives determined to get him back. Finally finding him alive and well was a total shock, that he ran from him wasn't a surprise as he never liked confrontation after all, leaving town the day after our wedding was proof of that.

Wow. In many ways this story was addictive and I was thrilled for them both to find each other again, but I also found it difficult to cope with - after all, when you know that certain people would do anything to split you up and make trouble, then why did you believe them and not wait to ask for clarification from the one-person you love more than anything else in the world? Easy to read, feel and understand. This is an MM story with mature content.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a glaring issue with this book. In a conversation that was shared in both this book and the previous one, Curtis' boss Mateo emphatically calls him a Little (which half the time in this series appears to mean a submissive/boy rather than a legitimate Little, i.e. one whose main kink involves age play) but it is clear in this book that Curtis isn't submissive at all. He enjoyed one spanking his husband gave him in the past, which doesn't automatically make him a submissive; it just makes him open to some fun in bed. Curtis is definitely just a bottom who can be a bit flamboyant. However, I liked the second chance plot of this book in general, the character development was decent, and it was reasonably well written and edited, so it's a solid 3 star read for me.

[Leslie Zak · Rating 5 out of 5]

MM romance

Curtis works for a private investor and has a flirty although lonely personal life. He has a secret he keeps from his boss and his friends. His boss, Mateo, invests in a bakery owned by Benji who has his own secret which is discovered by Mateo. Nine years ago Curtis and Benji were in love and married until cruel lies separated them. Can Mateo help make this right? Great story full of hurt and love.

[Stealth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another hits the spot!

I really liked this story because it's about what true love is all about. People that fall in love, get married, third person gets in the middle, lies about what one said about the other, finds each other, and loved each other to the point both over 9 nines years never cheated on the other. That's true love. DANG! Don't hear that it happens a lot. THANK YOU A.W.!
ENJOY!

[Himom90 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable!

I really liked Law/Curtis and Benji’s story. Despite the premise, it’s low angst and sweet. It takes a while to build up to the lovers reconnecting, in fact it doesn’t happen until well after the 50% mark, but it’s worth the wait. I’ve been enjoying the series so far and I’m looking forward to reading Casey and Rob’s story

[Rachel Blomberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finding your true love again

Falling in love as teenagers then getting married and losing that person because of a misunderstanding is the pits. I'm glad Benji kept up looking for his husband and then when finding Lawrence aka Casey again they had the passion to take off where it ended. Very much in love.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a lovely second chance tale

Absolutely adorable story.
This took awhile to get going due to the back story that needs to be told, but once we got to the present day, the story galloped along, with Curtis and Benji being able, with the help of their friends to rediscover the joys of their previous relationship.
I finished this story, with such a happy smile.

[Melinda Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Close & Personal

I loved Benji and Curtis’ story! Curtis was a big part of other stories, and it was great to see his life finally come together with a long lost love. There was a lot of hurt on each side, and a lot of missed time, but their love is so strong I have complete faith in their HEA!

[Denise GremoryKohta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am loving these!

I don’t know why I waited so long to read this series. They are fantastic. Loved that call with Benji’s mom. And the way each book gives us an HEA while leading us to the next is awesome.

[Demonia Shadow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curtis is not a Little. Why author keep doing this in each book?
50% of the book just repeating what happened in books 0,5 - 2 from different POW. Then anticlimactic make up sex after 9 years of running. Why talk like grown ups, right?

[Emma Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was sweet and full of sugary goodness. I adored Benji and Curtis. The friendship and emotions was a delight!

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m glad Curtis and Benji got their HEA but I wish the author did something with the little side of Curtis that’s been mentioned in a few of the books in this series.

[Ethel Nesson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best Beacon Ever!—a Bakery of Sweet Treats!

A strange story of young love, loss and steadfast hope will heighten your desire to hang in there during the tough times. Enjoy!!!

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

[Kelly ~Booktrovert~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐ 3🔥

[DANNETTE HUGGINS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one.

Curtis was needing his happy ending. Though his kink wasn’t really brought up her with being a little though so that was a little disappointing.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this may be my new favorite book and couple! I like the idea of them being so close to each other but not meeting for so long. I’m not a fan of miscommunication/misinformation, but this is prob my exception, when it’s written this way. I’m also not a fan of meddling families, but she knew how to write things I normally dislike into a way where I enjoyed them.

[Kassandra Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Close & Personal

Another great addition.

Love this second chance romance. I’m ngl, at one point I got a little choked up with all the goings on.

Highly recommend his series but definitely read them in order.

Can’t wait to see what’s next.

I received a free copy of this book from the author and am voluntarily leaving a review.