Review by Heather C. and Sid

TITLE: Chaser
AUTHOR: Rick R. Reed
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
BLURB: Caden DeSarro is what they call a chubby chaser. He likes his guys with a few extra pounds on them. So when he meets Kevin Dodge in a bar bathroom, he can’t help but stare, even if he does make an ass of himself. As far as Caden is concerned, Kevin is physically perfect: a stocky bearded blond with a dick that’s just right. (They met in the bathroom—of course he looked!) But Caden gets tongue-tied and misses his chance.

When Caden runs into Kevin one night on the El train, he figures it’s fate offering him a second shot. Caden manages to get invited back to Kevin’s place for a one-night stand that turns into the kind of relationship he’s dreamed about.

But the course of true love never did run smooth, and Kevin and Caden’s romance is no exception. When Caden returns from a few weeks away on business, Kevin surprises him with a new and “improved” body—one that fits Caden’s shallow friend Bobby’s ideal, not Caden’s. Caden doesn’t know what to do, and his hesitation is just the opportunity Bobby was looking for. This isn’t the same Kevin he fell in love with… is it?

HEATHER’S REVIEW

I think I had a like/hate thing going on with these guys. It was like a train wreck from beginning to end…and I just couldn’t turn away from it. Not that I even wanted to turn away, because I was hooked from the very beginning. Seriously, I could not put this book down. This was my first book by Rick R. Reed, and it won’t be my last…for sure. At first, I found the detailed descriptions a bit tedious and all the internal monologues a little distracting, but I quickly got over it and was captured by the story.

So what is Chaser about?  You guessed it…Caden is a hard core “chubby chaser” who only finds large and beefy men attractive.  Then, of course, his best-friend-forever, Bobby, is a full-time narcissistic and shallow man-slut. So when Caden meets up with Kevin, a sweet, beefy blond, it’s instant lust.  They have the most wonderful and perfect night together…and then everything goes to shit.  Caden leaves town for 6 weeks tending to a family emergency while Kevin secretly sets out to get in shape.  During this time, the two guys “supposedly” get to know each other via text, emails and phone calls.  Unfortunately, this all happens off the page, and the reader never experiences any of it.  Meanwhile, both Caden and Kevin are showing convincing signs of insta-love.  Ugh!

Jump forward 6 weeks: Caden comes back to town and finds Kevin all buff and healthy.  How do you expect Caden will react?  Yep, you guessed it…Caden is as shallow and superficial as his best friend Bobby…almost.  The big difference is that Bobby doesn’t hide it, he flaunts it. So while Kevin is trying to figure out what the hell he did to upset Caden, and Caden is trying to figure out what to do now that he is no longer attracted to the man he thought he “loved”, Bobby is quickly moving into the worst-best-friend ever category.  The things he does to hinder Caden and Kevin’s fragile relationship are unimaginable and unforgivable!  Yet, when his duplicity is revealed, Caden’s reaction is not at all like I expected.  This really bothered me, and I’m curious to see where Caden and Bobby’s relationship stands in Raining Men.

So, as I predicted, Caden figures out that he is still attracted to and wants Kevin, and once the two guys finally stop for a second and communicate, it’s all happiness from there.  The End.

Overall, I think Caden and Kevin were actually together for about 15% of the entire story.  And I just can’t forgive missing out on experiencing their relationship grow during those 6 weeks apart! So that leaves me very conflicted on how to rate this, because you can see that I obviously thought it had a lot of flaws. But I prefer to rate on enjoyment, and I really enjoyed the reading experience this put me through; even though I wanted to scream…a lot…and stab Bobby in the face. I’m going with 3.5 stars because that is what my heart is telling me.

As much as I hate Bobby, I’m still looking forward to reading Raining Men to see if its possible for him to be redeemed.

Heather’s Rating:

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Heather C. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love
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SID’S REVIEW

I read this book alongwith Heather, doing a buddy read and had an amazing experience. We both finished this entire thing in a day – which is never possible for me as far as novels are concerned, since there’s always something or the other to keep me from reading. But when I began Chaser I simply couldn’t turn my attention anywhere else. It was as if I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, curious as hell to know if the boys are going to end up together!

Rick R. Reed is one of the experts when it comes to writing and this is proven by the way he has written Chaser. It had a hold on me – though of course, I would agree with Heather that the internal monologues, that sounded like a broken record after some time, had me skipping those parts.

Heather and I had a very long conversation about this after we were done reading and she has already mentioned some accurate points about where this story lacked. But finally, we could never deny the amount of fun we had while reading Caden and Kevin’s story. I, for one, did feel the connection to both the main characters and I guess this is why we yearned to get some more of them – this is why we felt it was unfair that we didn’t get many glimpses of their romantic moments together.

I am frowning right now as I am commenting on Bobby – the antagonist in this book – because, to be honest, I felt nothing but pure hatred towards him throughout this book. Caden considers him as his best friend, though Bobby never gave me a reason to believe that he actually was. Not even before he pulls off the boyfriend-stealing stunt, not ever! Why Caden would even have such a selfish, scheming, careless guy in his friends list, was beyond me!

Heather rated this book based on how much she enjoyed this book and I would do nothing different. The fact that I was so deeply connected with this book gives me a good reason to rate it a bit higher. I am ready to forgive any other flaws this book has, just for that reason, however I can’t ignore the disappointment I felt on how quickly the story had ended. I felt the ending was a bit rushed and the author deprived us of yet another Caden-Kevin moment.

Still, Chaser will always be close to my heart and people like me, who love romance with a bit of drama would enjoy this as much as I enjoyed it!

Sid’s Rating:  (3.75 stars, actually, rounded up to four!)

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