Title: When I Say When
Author: Tia Fielding
Length: 8,874 words (35 pdf pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (FREE)
Genre: m/m contemporary
Rating: C-
Blurb:
Jordan has his hands full running the publishing firm he saved from going under at the cost of his personal life. He doesn’t have time to date, but that’s not to say he doesn’t have needs.
Instead of trying to find a date, Jordan makes an appointment with a prostitute—something he’s never done before—and his companion turns out to be his high school crush, Gabe! Panic would ruin everything, including the chance at something real that Jordan suddenly craves.
Review:
I enjoyed the beginning of this blast from the past romance, although it degenerated into a bit of melodrama at the end and left a few things hinted at, rather than explained.
Jordan is a busy guy, no time for dating and he’s kind of accepted the fact that he’s still hung up on his best friend’s brother, even ten years later, and they’ve had no contact in years. But he finally makes an appointment with a prostitute, only to find… Gabe. Both are thrown off by this, and after a brief discussion, they both admit their attraction and decide to sleep together anyway. It’s amazing, but in the morning Jordan slips out, leaving the money, only to kick himself for doing so later.
That’s when things kind of tipped over for me. There is a flashback to the night they attended a concert when Jordan and his friend were 17 and Gabe was 19. During one of the songs, after Jordan admits he thinks the lead singer is hot, and his friend wanders off, that Gabe kind of teases Jordan, putting his arms around him, touching him and fueling his fantasies. Ten years later, seems they are both still obsessed and now Jordan suddenly can’t eat, or sleep and is functioning poorly at work. When he goes on-line to find out more about Gabe, he finds out he quit the business and that the bedroom they slept in was not the one described by other clients, making him feel even worse about treating Gabe like a whore.
Once Gabe makes a move and they agree to try, it leaps ahead to their families being fine and there is a hint of BDSM, with Gabe being more submissive, and also, conveniently Gabe had enough income that he only hooked because he liked it and was good at it. Hmmm. That works well so that he can drop out of the business with no ramifications to his income.
So I liked the beginning of this story much more than the end when they both started wallowing, but some may find that kind of long-term love more romantic than I did. It’s worth checking out to try the author’s style as it’s free through Dreamspinner Press or All Romance e-books.
Hey Tam 🙂 I agree with you completely. The only saving grace from me hating this story, which I felt was a hot mess, was the beginning/flashback scene at the concert, which was rather well written and made quite a bit of sense. I just thought that the rest was terrible, lol.
Yeah, the flashback was good, it just didn’t work at the end for me.