Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: One Under

SERIES: Porthkennack #9

AUTHOR: J.L. Merrow

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 249 pages

RELEASE DATE:  March 19, 2018

BLURB:

London Underground worker Mal Thomas is staying in Porthkennack to recover from a traumatic experience. Getting some more bad news from home is the last straw—until big, blond museum curator Jory Roscarrock steps up to offer some comfort.

A doctor of English Literature, Jory should be in a prestigious post at a top university. But a youthful indiscretion has led him to abandon academia to come back to his home town, Porthkennack, and the controlling family he’s never really felt a part of. He’s delighted to find a kindred spirit in the young Londoner.

But Jory’s family hurt Mal’s best friend deeply, and while Jory’s desperate to repair the damage, his own mistakes threaten to keep them apart. Meanwhile Mal’s torn between his feelings for Jory and his duty to his friend—and his fears that a failed relationship could be more than his shattered confidence can take.

REVIEW: 

This is my first Love Bytes review for this series, so before I wrote my review, I read all of Chris’ previous Porthkennack reviews. I found that we tended to agree on most points in the series. It’s been a universe of pleasant surprises so far, and this book is no exception.

I was excited to read about characters we haven’t seen since way back in the first book, Wake Up Call. Dev and his family and friends have always made an impression on me and I was happy to revisit them. This is a shared universe series rather than a continuous series, so reading all books isn’t necessary to enjoy this one, but to get the full experience of this book, I’d definitely read Wake Up Call first (and maybe Joanna Chambers’ A Gathering Storm for some Roscarrock family backstory). However, I’ve enjoyed every Porthkennack book so far, so I’d give them all a go!

This entire book just feels cozy and familiar. Mal and Jory’s romance builds organically with friendship turning to attraction turning back to friendship before it blossoms into something real. Both men have huge issues going on in their lives (Mal’s past trauma at his job, Jory’s son and ex-partner) that romance seems impossible for them until they just stop denying their attraction and go for it. Mal and Jory are pretty much the definition of slow burning, mutual pining, so if you’re into that, you’ll adore them.

Though I haven’t read too many J.L. Merrow books yet, I love her distinct voice and writing style she lends to every character. All of the voices in this story (Mal, Jory, Tasha, Bran, Bea, Jago, Kirsty) are perfect for each character, giving them such good personalities even when they get a small amount of time on the page. Mal and Jory’s class differences come up once in a while, but they make way for their own brands of teasing and flirting more than cause tension between them. They are very different characters who work so well together. I especially like Mal and how honest and shameless he is, even when dealing with emotions and trauma beyond his control.

I do wish we got a bit more of Dev. He’s pretty much the crux of the story—the one element keeping Mal and Jory apart—that I wanted more emphasis on him, his return to Porthkennack, and his tenuous relationship with the Roscarrocks. There was a lot of build-up to it that never paid off. I also wish we got more of a glimpse into Jory’s relationship with his son Gawen, especially since parentage is such a huge part of the Roscarrock family lore.

Also, the F/F fan in me desperately wants a Ceri/Tasha story, and it seems there might be a slight building towards that in this story. Fingers crossed!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Riptide Publishing

Amazon