Double Shot Cappuccino

by Stephani Hecht

When Tyler and his best friend, Luke, joined the military five years ago, they made a pact to defend their country and make their families proud. Now, Tyler is home and Luke never will be, tragically losing his life in combat. The first place Tyler goes when returning to the small town of his youth is the coffee shop owned by Luke’s younger brother, Nash. Tyler is both thrilled and dismayed to find that he’s instantly attracted to the younger man. What’s more, Nash makes it clear the attraction goes both ways.

Nash still hasn’t gotten over his brother’s death. He’s lived the past year in a fog, his only joy being his shop and making it a success. But when Tyler comes back into his life, everything changes. Not only does Nash have a reason to live again, but he finally sees hope for the future. Yet he soon learns that a happily ever after may not be in the cards when Tyler makes it clear he doesn’t want a commitment.

Can Nash convince Tyler to give their growing love a chance? Or are they destined to be alone forever?

Genres: Gay / Contemporary

Genres: M M Romance, Friends To Lovers, Contemporary, Romance, Military Fiction, Novella, Short Stories

60 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2010

About the author

Stephani Hecht is a happily married mother of two. Born and raised in Michigan, she loves all things about the state, from the frigid winters to the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. Go Wings! You can usually find her snuggled up to her laptop, creating her next book or gorging on caffeine at her favorite coffee shop.

When she’s not running around like crazy, trying to get her kids to their various activities, she’s currently working on numerous projects. In the coming months, she has several books coming out with eXtasy Books in both The Lost Shifter Series and Drone Vampire Chronicles, plus a few additional projects that are still in the development stages.

Visit Stephani on the web at:
Email her at:
archangelwriter@yahoo.com

Reviews

[Daisiemae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read several books by Stephani and I like her work. I liked this book, but it wasn't one of my favorites by her.

I liked Nash. He was a loveable character and easy to identify with. I did have some issues with Tyler. I liked him. He had a lot to deal with in a short time. Death of his best friend, injured while on duty, discharge from the Marines and so on. I understood his hesitation to be openly gay, but I'm wasn't totally sold that he was suddenly comfortable with coming out and I'm not really sure he was truly in love with Nash. They had some definite chemistry together and Tyler and Nash had obvious affection for one another, but I wonder if they really will live HEA?

I thought the secondary character, Colby, stole the show. The blonde HIMBO has a lot more going for him than meets the eye. I'm looking forward to reading his story and finding out how Tyler and Nash continue to build on their relationship.

3.5 stars but I'll bump it up to 4

[atmatos · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my guilty pleasure books are romances set in coffee shops. I don't know why they make me all warm and fuzzy, they just do. This one was just a really big meh for me. Not only was it over priced, the drama at the end was just too much. I found myself skimming, and not really caring about the sudden epiphany that leads to the HEA.

I am just glad I had the ARe bucks cause otherwise I would have a serious case of buyers remorse.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nash and his brother Luke had a dream to run their own coffee shop. But life had another plan. Nash worked on their dream and Luke went off to Afghanistan...Luke never came back and now Nash is working their dream alone and he won't admit it but he's floundering. The coffee shop is successful enough, Nash thinks he's dealing or at least that is until the day Janet, his friend and most trusted employee says she's leaving. The same day that Tyler, his brother's best friend and his childhood crush walks into Coffee by Nash and Luke shattering is confidence and offering to help him out of the tight spot that Janet is leaving him in. Nash knows he's not dealing he's drowning but what a guy to do but say yes to Tyler's offer to help.

One week and then Tyler's gone. Nash can do it after all Tyler's not even gay, right? Wrong. Tyler and Nash spend a week working and getting to know each other. For Tyler it's spent getting to know the man that Nash has become. For Nash it's a week spent fulfilling his childhood fantasy.

'Double Shot Cappuccino' is a second release and judging from the 60 pages that the original release is shown to have this second edition has been expanded to 73 pages and while it was an enjoyable story there really weren't any surprises to be found.

I liked Nash. Nash stood up for what he believed in and was loyal to his friends and genuinely cared about his employees. Tyler sadly did not endear himself to me and even at the end when he did the right thing. I still felt that Nash deserved better.

Unfortunately even with the increased pages I found that I still wanted a bit more. More...about Colby. Nash's part-time employee who seems to be so much more than he lets the world see and I would have liked more detail at the end.

*************************
A copy of this book was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Janna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Double Shot Cappuccino which was the first book I've read from this author. It’s a sweet love story between a cute coffee shop owner and his deceased brother’s hot best friend. The shared history of friendship and loss is in the end the glue that makes their relationship more than just a bunch of steamy, sexy encounters. I loved the heroes and I loved the setting of the coffee shop and the secondary characters coming with that setting. I also loved the old video operating as the catalyst for Tyler’s eye-opening moment. It’s not a long read but it certainly feels like a full-fledged story.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sweet story about a former Marine and the unexpected love he finds with his best friend's younger brother. There's a fair bit of emotion to be dealt with as the BF died and both men have yet to fully deal with it. One of the secondary characters almost steals the book away from the protags and I hope to read his story in the future. I've enjoyed all of author's books that I've read in the past and this was no exception.

[Bubbles Hunty Honest & Direct Opinions · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all the books I have read by Stephani. Very sweet, romantic and always a happy ending.

[Ami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tyler visits Holly, Michigan, after being discharged from the Marines -- and get reacquainted with Nash, his best friend's little brother. Nash's brother, Luke, died on duty, and Nash hasn't really get over it -- until Tyler comes through his coffee shop's door. But Tyler only visits for a week and he will be leaving, going back to Ohio to live for his parents. How can Nash convince Tyler that to stay?

Have not been disappointed with any of Ms. Hecht's story so far, I find myself LOVING this one. It's a wonderful story about falling in love with best friend's little brother. I like both Nash and Tyler very much. The scenes coming to the HEA is just SO SWEET (especially the part of where Tyler watches the video of him, Luke, and Nash). Now I hope Ms. Hecht writes a sequel about Colby, Nash's employee at the coffee shop because he definitely is a story material and need his own HEA.

[Riina Y.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short but sweet, and hey there's a coffee shop! Yum yum <3 the smell of coffee, cute men in aprons, stolen kisses and more in the back room... Dayum!

Honestly I'm not blown away but it left me smiling. The cast is very likeable :) though it really was too short, meaning there was way more potential !

The story evolves around one week!? =D
man, there's no time to learn enough about the cast, which makes them seem a bit shallow, but mostly I just wanted more details more background more stories from the past and well just more :(

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good m/m romance about a guy who’s having a hard time getting over his brother’s death the previous year. Will his brother’s best friend’s brief visit help? Or just lead to more heartache?

[Heather C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute story. A little bit sad but ended with a HEA. I didn't like Tyler for most of the book until he finally manned up at the end.

[Sarina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review written for Love Bytes Reviews.

While I’ve read books by this author before, and really enjoyed them, I found this one just okay. With the attraction between the main characters highlighted in the blurb, I expected to feel more of a connection between them than I actually did and that was a little disappointing. There was obviously lust but I didn’t really feel the love for Nate coming through on the part of Tyler. The love Nate had for his brother’s best friend was fairly obvious but it would’ve been nice to feel it going both ways.

Nate was a nice guy; even as he still struggles to deal with the death of his brother, he finds time to care about those around him. He kind of made a pseudo family out of the employees at his coffee shop and it was obvious that he wanted to do more for them at times but didn’t feel he had the right to. Tyler, while a decent enough guy, came off as a bit callous for a good portion of the story and I didn’t really connect with his story at all. He feels a lot of guilt over Luke’s dying, and about how they’d drifted apart in the months before he died, but the way he treats the thing he has going on with Nate didn’t really bring him up in my estimation.

For a story this size, there was also a lot more sex than I was expecting and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it brings home the fact that Tyler is just having a fling before leaving town while highlighting how much it affects Nate. On the other hand…there was a lot of sex. Lol It’s a good bet that a lot of others wouldn’t think it was too much but I found I would’ve liked more story and less sex in this instance. The ending, while a bit sudden in the epiphany department, gives you a nice happy ever after and regardless of how I feel about Tyler’s sudden change of heart and rapid coming out, I did enjoy it. It wasn’t totally believable in my opinion, but it did make for a good ending. I’m honestly not sure I’ll read this one again as it didn’t really bring up any strong feelings in me towards a second look but it certainly wasn’t a horrible story. I liked the setting a lot and the majority of the characters but without that essential connection, this one is pretty firmly placed on the ‘eh, it was okay’ shelf.

http://lovebytesreviews.com/2016/07/3...

[Elisa Rolle]

This is a “comfort zone” novella, probably like the coffee place where the story is set. Tyler was Nash’s older brother best friend and he was always there while Nash was growing up; Nash loved both his brother than Tyler, only maybe in a different way. When both Tyler than Luke decided to enlist in the Marine Corp, Nash worried for both of them, and when Luke died in a mission, Nash lost both of them. Years later he is probably mourning both losses, only that while for one there is no solution, for the other indeed solution seems to come when Tyler enter Nash’s coffee shop one day.

Just come back home to close his grandmother’s home and probably forget everything of the little town where he grew up, Tyler realizes that Nash is not someone he can easily ignore. While he was young and still living in town, Tyler had realized he was attracted by men, but he had never considered Nash: Nash was his best friend’s little brother, and btw, when Tyler left, Nash was still underage. In the years he was far from his small hometown, things didn’t get better: in the Marine, for Tyler was not possible to openly live his sexuality, and once he came back home, there was really no reason at all. Tyler is not used to externalize his feelings; he has imbedded in him the “closet” philosophy.

When he realizes Nash is grown up and an attractive man, and gay, Tyler sees no reason to not have a no strings attached fling with him; the attraction is immediate, and maybe Tyler doesn’t realize that maybe the root of it are deeper in the past of what he thinks.

Sincerely, while I can understand Tyler’s reluctance to admit his feelings for Tyler, I really didn’t like his attitude; he is ready to play the knight in shining armour, to play the hero, but the simple act to love Nash seems a hard quest. In a way Nash, with his live and let live attitude is a bigger hero than Tyler.

It’s really a “good feelings” novella, Tyler and Nash’s obstacles to love are little things, and aside from Luke’s death, that is always present but not really an heavy blanket on the mood, the two of them have it pretty easy, and happiness is really at hand reach.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TLMOYC/?...

[Charly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, but not as fleshed out as I wanted it to be

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 7/10

PROS:
- The connection between the two guys forms quickly and they interact naturally, easy with each other right from the start.
- The story has a light, fun setting--a small town that’s hosting a classic car show--that makes for an almost fairytale-like atmosphere.
- The amount of angst in the story felt just right for its length, and the angst didn’t feel contrived to me. There’s one major issue that one of the guys has to work through, and he doesn’t take forever to do so.
- There are several sex scenes, and they’ve got a decent amount of detail without going over the top. They do lean toward mushy, but overall I thought the sex was well done.

CONS:
- Some of the words that come out of Tyler’s mouth did not strike me as things that a former Marine would say. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” he says at one point. “All I could think about was how sweet your lips were.”
- Usually when I criticize the length of a story, it’s because I don’t believe that the characters could fall in love as quickly as they do. In this case, I believed that the guys could fall in love within the span of a week because they’ve known each other since they were kids. The story felt rushed to me, though. I would have liked to see more quiet moments between them, more conversations. And then more toward the end about the men’s pain at the thought of being separated, and more about their happy reunion.

Overall comments: I thought this was cute but nothing special. There’s a revelation near the end of the story that makes for a sweet conclusion, but it’s so convenient and told so quickly that I rolled my eyes at it. If the story had been beefed up just a bit, with some more detail about the characters’ interactions and emotions, I think it would have been much better.

[pbj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love Stephani Hecht's books, and I wanted to love this one but it annoyed me a bit.
Maybe I'm just being grumpy today, but I really dislike convenient disabilities. Tyler, our closeted Iraq War vet has returned with the requisite leg injury that makes him limp with pain throughout the book except when he's dropping to his knees to blow Nash, or falling on the stairs as he screws Nash, etc. This isn't the whole reason I didn't really like this one, but it is symptomatic of my biggest problem with the book which is that it just didn't feel fleshed out to me. Everything felt like it was shorthand for some bigger idea that never came to fruition.
Why do we care that Denise is homophobic? Nash is already out and Tyler isn't planning to stay, so who cares? She says "You'll be sorry" and disappears. What about Colby getting beaten up? Oh, I guess there's going to be a sequel. Is Tyler really that big of an idiot that he has to be told that he loves Nash by his long dead best friend in a home video made years earlier? I guess so.
Sorry, I must be in a bad mood. I didn't hate this book. It was actually rather sweet.

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the last year Nash has been dealing with the death of his brother in Iraq and running the coffee shop they co-owned. Out of the blue his brother's best friend Tyler shows up, now out of the military himself. They start a no strings attached affair that within days becomes all strings for Nash as he's been in love with Tyler since they were kids, however Tyler treats him as just a good time. When he finally confronts Tyler about wanting more it doesn't go well. This was a sweet story and while it moved quickly the fact they knew each other for years helped make that more plausible. Tyler was a jerk though and I wanted him to suffer longer. I'm mean that way. I think Nash should have made him wait at least a week before he forgave him. Maybe two. :-P Nash's young clerk Colby seems to be set for a story which I'd love to read too. A good entertaining read.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this review on Amazon.com when I read this story in 2012. This is a great feel good, one sitting read with a wonderful ending that can be read again and again. It is well written (and edited) with good character development. By the end of the story it is easy to care about the protagonists and you want them to live happily ever after.

I've given the story a five star rating. I base this on the following criteria: plot (good), characters (likeable and well developed), writing (good editing and no obvious spelling and grammar errors), I think about the story sometimes and it makes me smile (always a good sign) and nothing irked me about the story when I was reading it (for example, using something from the wrong time period or poor research by the author).

[blub · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read Stephani Hecht's stand alone stories and this one is by far my favorite. The characters were very likable and I liked how Nash's employees were protective, like a family, when Denise would come into the coffee shop.

Taylor's attitude towards Nash near the end almost had me in tears. The scenario with the cassette video did have me in tears. I love reading books with family interactions and whatnot and this became the favorite part of the book for me. Followed by Taylor trying to rectify his wrong of course =)

[Shelley Chastagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific writing and characters. I liked how open Nash is. He jumps at the opening to be with Tyler. Tyler is so busy fooling himself that he seems a bit stupid. These two have been meant for one another since childhood and it takes a voice from the past to make Tyler see that. I loved that once he's willing to acknowledge his true feelings that he doesn't second guess Nash's reaction or wait to make things right.
Adult read

[ElaineY · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I agree - Colby needs his own book and that's likely the next one coming up. I'll be buying.

I didn't care much for Tyler. Once again, the length (or lack of it) was detrimental to the overall story. Tyler couldn't...shouldn't... just drop his fear of coming out so easily. It isn't realistic.

[Dre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm such a sucker for sibling's BFF stories. The video with Luke and Grandma sharing their little secret got my eyes a little teary. So cute! The only thing I thought was weird about this story was that Luke dying was never really discussed between the MCs, even though they were both still bothered by it.

[Gaa-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

In between 3 and 4 stars.

[Lexi Ander · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Glenna Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best M/M books I have ever read Loved it. Have since read 12 more of hers haven't been disappointed at all, Steamy sex scenes and wonderful romance definitely a must read

[Jayded · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed with this one. The realization of love at the end was unbelievable for me.

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too cute for words!!!

[Usagi Tsukino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kinda liked this story, although Tyler was an idiot and he get on my nerves at times -but still, I'm happy that Nash had his happy ending.

[Nikko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its a very romantic read!! I loved it!!

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars