Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  The Guy From Glamour

SERIES:  The Guy #1

AUTHOR:  Skylar M. Cates

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:  246 pages

BLURB: Anthony Carrino loves his big, gregarious Italian-American family, even if his sisters are interfering, and his dad, the local sheriff, knows everything going on in town. He’s happy as a middle school guidance counselor. Despite helping kids and their parents fix their problems, Anthony can’t manage to get his own love life right. If only everyone would stop calling him the “nice” guy.

Dean Pierce doesn’t do relationships. A tough-minded military man, he is dedicated to his job as a Night Stalker, flying Chinook helicopters and not speaking much to anybody. He certainly doesn’t want to deal with a mess of emotions. But when tragedy strikes, Dean finds his hands full with his troubled niece, her irresistible guidance counselor, and a meddlesome family, which includes a rather large puppy.

REVIEW:  

Dean Pierce lives to be a Night Stalker.  Flying helicopters in to save lives and rescue good men in trouble, is all he really knows.  It only takes one phone call to change his whole life, though.  When he finds out that his sister is dead, and that he needs to go take care of his niece, he finds himself forced back into a world that he really doesn’t understand.  It is only for two weeks.  Surely he can handle the civilian world for two weeks…

Anthony Carrino loves his job, mentoring and guiding middle-schoolers.  He loves Glamour, the small town he grew up in–and has returned toafter finding out his boyfriend was not so much in love with him.  And he even loves his family–despite how nosey and interfering they may be.  When one of his students loses her mother in a car crash, he asks his parents to brush off their nearly-retired foster-care credentials and take the troubled girl in.  He never knew that act of kindness was going to throw him in the path of her taciturn uncle.  A man he would very much love to get to know better.  Just as long as he doesn’t fall in love.  Cause he’s done with that whole falling in love mess.  Really, he is…

Neither man is looking to find a happily-ever-anything with the other.  But they might not get a choice.

This was my first story by Skylar Cates and I have to say I was really impressed.  I admit I was a little bit worried when I started this book because Dean came across as very unemotional.  He stoically took the news of his sister’s death, and was, it seemed more put out by the fact he had to leave Afghanistan, than he was over the loss of his sister.  He seemed robotic.  But then I got to know him better and really got to see that he was actually quite human.  He had just learned over the years that life (and family) was going to repeatedly kick him in the balls so he might as well get used to it.  I liked how he felt this disconnect.  And I liked how it made him stand out from Anthony and his family.  He learns so much from them, and watching it happen was a lot of fun.  I especially liked his attempts at seduction.  I think fixing a guy’s car is an awesome way to show you care.  Screw roses, make sure the man you like isn’t going to die in a fiery ball of mechanical death.

I loved the relationships in this book.  The story thrives on them.  The growing connection between Dean and his niece was very touching.  Neither one know, really, what to do with the other.  It was not an easy road for these two to travel, but they do slog along quite nicely.  And Anthony’s family was just plain awesome.  The twins remind me very much of my sister and I–jokes and poking and just general mayhem.  This was an incredibly loud, boisterous, and loving family.  Something that probably freaked Dean out, but something that he probably needed almost as much as Nicki did.

Dean and Anthony were a great pair.  They had a wonderful chemistry that I pretty much felt from the get-go.  And can I say, I love the fact that when they had their fight that Anthony stayed.  That he forced Dean to explain.  There was no walking away in a huff, convinced that Dean was an ass, and then walking back into Rick’s arms (who really was an asshole).   He fought for the man he loved.  It was a refreshing change.

I did have a bit of a problem with the pacing of the story after about two-thirds of the way in.  It really felt like after the whole big fight/misunderstanding that the climax of the relationship had been reached…but there was still so much ground to cover in the story that it kind of dragged a bit for that last third.  Everything that happened, needed to happen in order for the story to feel finished, but still, it felt too drawn out.  Honestly, if the fight scene had happened later it would have felt less like a rambling finish.  And to be truthful, the whole “mistaken kiss” trope is a bit clichéd and not one of my favorites.  It led to a fight that I loved, but the lead up to it was not something I really enjoyed.  I could have predicted that scene from the moment I found out Anthony had a cheating ex, and I would have enjoyed the story better if the story had surprised me, instead of taking the easy way out.

Still I really enjoyed this story and will gladly be picking up any future books in the series.  I’ve been rather hit-and-miss with new authors lately and I was really pleased with Skylar Cates.  Even with the few issues, this story was well written, and sucked me in almost from the beginning.   Not to mention it has one fine-ass covers.  That man is all types of yummy.  A perfect Dean, if I say so myself.  I am going to be keeping an eye on this author, because I really think there could be some great stories coming from her.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner  ::  Amazon  ::  ARe