Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Universal Buy Link
Length: 60,000 words approx.
Cover Design: Garrett Leigh @ Black Jazz Design
Lucky Series
Blurb
Jude’s too chained to his work to notice what he’s missing by being terminally single, but a new face in the village soon catches his attention. City boy Isha is gorgeous, and when he starts to haunt Jude’s reptile shop as well as the hook-up app on his phone, he's a welcome distraction from Jude’s business problems.
For a control freak like Isha, letting Jude under his skin is an existential meltdown, but Jude’s not in the market to be anyone’s queer crisis, not when he’s facing troubles of his own. Unlocking their lives could push both men apart forever, but it might be a risk worth taking if sharing is the key to their happy future.
3.75 Stars
The third installment of the Lucky series by Ms. Leigh focuses on the budding relationship of Rae (from Cash) and Dom’s (from Lucky) best friends. This is an opposites attract, friends with benefits that never were simply friends type of story...
The main characters in this story are Isha - a workaholic, controlling, moody/brooding, deeply closeted bisexual, divorced dad of two adorable kids - and Jude - lover of all things reptile, who is closest to his pets rather than people, and out and proud queer man who has epilepsy. They meet by chance at Jude’s reptile shop and then again via Grindr and the sparks certainly fly.
I just never connected with Isha. I found him completely enigmatic. His entire friend circle is gay, yet he stays deep in the closet to the extent only his ex-wife is aware - not his gay best friend Dom, not Dom’s partner Lucky, not his kids, no one… While I don’t judge anyone for being in the closet, I found Isha less than likable because perhaps he wasn’t as good a friend as he could have been when Dom struggled with coming out of the closet himself. It seemed less than supportive to Dom and overly dramatic when the time came for Isha to fess up about his lover Jude to everyone in his life.
Also, what was with all the inner monologues Isha had? He brooded over everything, constantly pushing everyone away, not willing to open up to anyone, including adorable Jude, because of his fears of intertwining his love life, family life, work life (in other words, becoming a whole person).
Finally, and this pains me to say, the writing left me wanting a bit. I was never really connected to the setting or could never picture Isha and Jude in my mind’s eye. And maybe Isha’s brooding could have been cut a bit… The vast majority of the book was Isha being almost tormented about coming out, never wanting to let Jude get too close, but in the end (like the last 30 pages), he came out and pronounced his love for Jude and there was absolutely no drama. There was no difficulty between Isha and Dom. It was barely mentioned in the epilogue how his kids accepted it. So much angst, so little reason for it…
On the plus side, Jude was adorable and lovable and his chemistry with Isha’s was sizzling. Wanting to see Jude get his happily ever after kept me invested in this book, despite my not liking Isha.
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***
Garrett's debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.
Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.
Website: http://www.garrettleigh.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh
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