Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: More Than a Friend

SERIES: More Than #2

AUTHOR: Nic Starr

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 111 Pages

BLURB:

Tim Walker is a free man. He’s broken up with his girlfriend and is ready to move on to a new relationship. But the relationship he wants to pursue is fraught with challenges. Firstly, Scott Richardson is a man, and only Tim’s closest friends know Tim’s bisexual. Secondly, everyone knows Scott relishes the single life. And then there’s the big one: Scott is the younger brother of Tim’s best friend, Paul.

Scott can’t deny an attraction to his brother’s friend Tim. Lean, dark blond, and blue-eyed, Tim is hot and hard not to notice—especially since Scott and Tim work together. Too bad the man is straight, and too bad Scott worries how Paul will react if Scott hooks up with his best friend.

Tim and Scott want to see if there’s a chance for more than friendship between them, but neither of them wants to lose Paul. Together, they must find the courage to follow their hearts and find a way to have it all.

REVIEW:

Sometimes I just need a book that’s all love, puppies and rainbows without a whiff of angst in sight, and this second story in the More Than series was all of those things with a sprinkling of heart confetti for good luck.

Tim has finally broken up with the girlfriend from hell, who we were unlucky enough to meet in the previous book. Now that he’s single he’s ready to kick back and enjoy life a little, no romantic entanglements needed or wanted. It’s a perfect opportunity to reconnect with his closest friends and help out with some extra shifts at work. But spending more time at work means more time with Scott, the younger brother of Tim’s best friend, and more time with Scott makes it difficult continue ignoring his feelings for the other man.

Scott is also attracted to Tim. It’s been difficult for him watching Tim deal with his ex-girlfriend’s crap when Scott knows that he deserves better. But even when Tim finds himself single again, Scott doesn’t figure that anything would ever happen between them – after all, Tim is straight, right? Plus he’s Paul’s (Scott’s older brother’s) best friend and Scott doesn’t know how Paul would react to the idea of Scott and Tim together. But at the first hint that the attraction between them could be mutual, neither man is stupid enough to pass up the opportunity to get what they’ve always wanted.

This book could be read a standalone, but I would definitely recommend reading More Than a Superstar first. The two stories aren’t connected but all of the characters in this book were introduced to us in the previous story, we even got a few paragraphs of Superstar from Tim’s point of view. There are a lot of characters in this series, to be honest, the start of the first book was a bit of a battle to remember who was who, but by the end of that story I had all the players down pat and didn’t have any trouble at all with this book. Actually, I love a book with plenty of exciting characters.

The author did a great job of keeping the story interesting despite the lack of drama and angst. Tim and Scott were both completely likeable, friendly characters who could have very easily turned bland. I was worried that everything was going to be too easy between them, as there was no real matter for contention, and I think it shows certain skill from Nic Starr that she avoided this romance becoming weak and uninspired. Sometimes keeping a straightforward romance interesting can be harder than writing pages filled with dramatics.

I thought that the author also did a great job of creating intensity between Scott and Tim. It wasn’t just friends to friends making out, you could actually feel the switch in their relationship. I particularly loved their first kiss. I really appreciate when an author makes a first kiss something special, especially in a sweet romance like this one.

I can’t wait to see which couple might come next in this series. I’ll definitely be waiting in line to read it.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

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