Reviewed by Tidal
TITLE: Moby’s Dick
AUTHOR: A.J. Llewellyn & D.J. Manly
PUBLISHER: Torquere Press LLC
LENGTH: 159 pages
BLURB:
Burke Matthews and his team of experts of The Brigadoon have hauled everything from Russian nuclear submarines to stranded catamarans. After two weeks in the sunny port of Panino, Italy, trying to win the bid to salvage a distressed cruise ship half-sunk off the coast, Burke worries about the trapped fuel in the ship’s hull.
Burke knows with each passing day, hope of finding survivors diminishes, but chances of a leak increase. There’s another problem. The Bella Donna crashed in the middle of a marine reserve — an environmental disaster waiting to happen.
Allowed to drill, finally, he is astonished to hear knocking from an engine room. He breaks down the door to find a sick, but very handsome French Canadian waiter. Gabriel Bergeron is one of the sexiest guys Burke’s ever seen… and he soon learns, one seriously hung dude…
REVIEW:
I was drawn to this book for two reasons, the cover and the title. When I am sitting on the fence about a book, I must admit the cover will sway me. The cover of this book is definitely compelling but when I read the book, the picture my mind painted was quite different from the one on the cover and that was not a bad thing, because the cover didn’t match the story at all! The title now is another thing, it promised something and it did deliver, but it gave much more than I expected.
It was a very interesting story. Many people think of heroic people as those who do one specific thing but I tend to think of them as people who live their lives in a consistent way, Burke Matthews does this. Burke is smart, educated, respected and has impeccable character and integrity, it does not hurt that he is amazingly hot too. Is this too much to wish for? Come on this is a book, and it is written in a believable way too so I do not think it is.
Moby’s Dick brings to mind the Costa Concordia tragedy. This story has adventure, loss, betrayal, drama, old love, new love, all taking place with the backdrop of beautiful Panino, Italy. Before I read this book, I did not know much about the marine salvage business. They are desperately searching for survivors and there is a great deal of pressure from all sides. During their search, Burke hears a noise that sounds like someone trying to get their attention. Under Burke’s heroic leadership, they find French Canadian waiter Gabriel Bergeron. He is very weak, dehydrated and they take him to the hospital and continue their search…but there is a connection between the two men.
Burke cannot get Gabriel out of his mind, so after attending to his duties he goes to check up on him. They get to know one another and Burke soon finds out that Gabriel is just as beautiful on the inside as he is on the outside and he accidently finds the French Canadian is gifted quite nicely in another way as well.
Watching the relationship grow from attraction to throbbing lust is heart pounding. Many forces are working to keep them apart but nothing can deny the fireworks. The progression is really well written because it is genuine and not based on gratitude because Burke rescued Gabriel. There is more than meets the eye to both men’s character in terms of ingenuity, and tenacity.
The people of the town are so gracious and full of hospitality, and they welcome Burke and his crew so warmly. The story is so descriptive; you can really see the faces of the people, feel the wind on your face, and hear their voices when they speak.
The pacing and rhythm is great and there are no points in the story that it lags or get boring. Burke is just a regular guy doing his job and his crew respects him. This is refreshing! The characters were believable, compelling and the story had interesting twists. The sex scenes are smoldering and aside from that, the writing is so good that after the sex scenes are over you still keep reading because the story is so good. Moby’s Dick is much more entertaining than Herman Melville’s Moby Dick!
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Great review, made me want to read this book!