Reviewed by Elizabetta & Sid

TITLE: How I Met Your Father
AUTHOR: L.B. Gregg
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 98 pages
BLURB: The man of your dreams could be sitting right next to you.

Former boy band member Justin Hayes isn’t looking for a man. He just wants a quiet, scandal-free Christmas at home in Chicago, out of the public eye. But his best friend and bandmate is subjecting everyone to his destination wedding, and Justin can’t dodge the “best man” bullet. All he has to do is get to the island on time, survive the reunion, and get Chuck to the altar with as little drama as possible. What could possibly go wrong?

Jack Basinger’s own plans for a quiet Christmas have been dashed by the summons to his daughter’s hasty wedding with a man Jack has hardly met. On the bumpy flight to the island, he finds himself comforting a nervous—and extremely attractive—young man. One hasty sexual encounter in an airport bathroom later, they both feel much better. No one ever has to know, after all.

Now Justin and Jack must find a way to explore their attraction, despite the distractions of disapproving family members, unexpected announcements, an impromptu concert, and an island paradise that proves there’s no place like home.

20% of all proceeds from this title are donated to the Ali Forney Center in New York, whose mission “is to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) youth from the harm of homelessness, and to support them in becoming safe and independent as they move from adolescence to adulthood.” To learn more about this charity or to donate directly, please visit http://www.aliforneycenter.org/

JOINT REVIEW:

Sid Love and Elizabetta share some holiday reading with LB Gregg’s How I Met Your Father…

Here it is, mid-November and we’re wrapped up in our blankies with a hot cup of tea, reading by our kindle-light. (Ebetta: Wait, hold the horses, LOL!, Is it cold where you are in India, Sid??? — Sid: Well, it is officially winter season here, so yea, blankies sound comforting to me, thanks. — Ebetta: Ah, good to know!) Suddenly we’re transported to sunny, tropical Puerto Rico for a Christmas holiday wedding.

From the extremely bumpy plane ride where our two MC’s meet hot, to the fairy-lit canopy with wedding guests in white linen sitting under a star-studded evening sky, this takes us away, and in style. Made us smile… and we so love the title.

This light-hearted, humorous piece centers around Justin Hayes, former lead singer of the popular boy band, Rhythm Method (Ebetta: Ack! Hate the name, but it is a boy band). Justin’s looking at thirty now, and the boy band days are long over, but he still manages to attract a lot of attention with his good looks and easy-going charisma. He’s on his way to stand as best man to fellow bandmate and best friend, Chuck Kinney, and his glowing bride, Mandy.

Little does Justin know that the hot ’n sexy older man sitting next to him on the plane will play a big role in the wedding festivities. Not everything goes smoothly as family drama kicks up. There’s a nervous groom, a ganja smoking teenager, and a bride with a secret…

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Ebetta:  Hey Sid, what did you think of Justin Hayes, former lead singer of a boy band hooking up with the much older, suave, Jack Basinger? I’m picturing Justin Timberlake… (Justin for Justin, ha!) what about you?

Sid: To be honest, I never really pictured Justin as any celebrity figure though the character of Jack was totally reminding me of Brad Pitt’s hotness. But now that you mention it, I can actually see JT fitting the description. Who did you have in mind for Jack?

Ebetta: Y’know Brad Pitt works great for me! I was thinking Richard Branson (Virgin Air magnate) but cuter and younger… so it’s Brad, LOL!

Now that we’ve got the visuals… I love the premise of the story. Romance unfolding on a sunny tropical isle, secrets revealed, family drama, all good ingredients for a wedding setting. What did you think of the set-up?

Sid: It was all that a wedding is supposed to be. Everyone wants it to go smoothly but hell if it does! I was hooked the minute Justin’s hand was held by this handsome ol’ stranger and just knew it was going to go far, far deep into awesome-ness (well, I’d read the blurb of course 😛 )

Ebetta: I thought that interaction between them on the plane was a little odd, actually. Seemed rather forward of Jack. He and Justin had no clue who each other were for one thing (this would only come out later). But Justin is afraid of heights and dislikes airplanes, so I guess Jack felt it necessary to comfort his freak-out??

 

Sid: You know, Jack’s forwardness didn’t weird me out mostly because I assumed that’s the way he was. And I have to say, it is commendable that the author managed to keep him in character right till the end! There’s a time when he confesses to Justin that even he gets nervous around Justin, but that came as a surprise not only to Justin but me as well because at that point, we get to see the real Jack Basinger.

Ebetta: Ok, so, we pretty quickly feel the heat between these two. I really like how the author doesn’t spell out every last detail about them, how we can read between the lines for ourselves who these guys are and why they connect. And that heat between them… Here’s Jack after a come-on from Justin…

“You want to go there Justin? He drew my name slow, like the attraction between us could never be weird enough or wild enough for him. Like I could not only have whatever I wanted, but he’d give it to me for free. “Would you take your pants off for me? Right here? Because I’d like you to.”

… and the humor between them… Here’s Justin to Jack…

“I wish my dad had been as cool as you…”

Sid: That’s a funny one, like many, many others. This book is jammed with hilarious moments – like the one where Justin realizes that the guy he got “laid up” with at the airport is actually the FOB. Oh my god! I was laughing so hard.

Heat blistered my cheeks. Mandy could never find out I’d had sex with her father. Not ever.

Those were five words I wouldn’t string together in this lifetime: Sorry, I had your dad.

Ebetta: IKR!! That bathroom scene in the airport, hot! And it’s so hard to pick quotes, there are so many freaking good ones!

Sid: And I also agree that the main characters truly connect in this book. I have seen in so many novellas where the author tries and fails in achieving the romantic factor along with the heat growing between them. But this one just hits the right spot. I was a happy reader.

Ebetta: Yes! Also, the camaraderie between Justin and his ex-band mates. There’s a lot of teasing, ribbing, funny dialog between them. You get a sense of good friends between them. I thought the secondary characters were well done.

Really, the only negative for me was that there wasn’t enough sex! There was that very hot bathroom scene… But at the end, there is a ‘year later’ cut-away epilog. That bothered me… I wanted to see how Justin and Jack moved together. Sigh…

Sid: The epilogue takes a long gap of a year to show us where the two had ended up and of course, we were getting what we were hoping for. But that was a lot to take in, too soon. Like you, even I wanted to know how they ended up making this life-changing decision after all. I mean, the age difference between Jack and Justin is a good number of years, and although it is kind of hot — connecting with Jack’s life also means Justin will require getting used to the fact that his lover has two grown up kids.

Ebetta: AND Justin has to come out of that closet!

Sid: And, Justin has to come out of that closet, yes! Lots of misses.

But that’s all that bothered me. I am the one who roots for true romance, so lack of sex didn’t make any difference. (I wouldn’t have complained if the author had included more, though.)

So, taking everything into consideration — the wedding drama, funny stuff and two lovely men that I instantly fell in love with — I would rate this winner at 4.5 stars! And you, Eliza?

Ebetta: Yeah, this was still a delicious treat for me. And in a lovely, lush setting too… I would rate it between 4 – 4.5 stars. It’s a fun, light read just in time for the holidays. Oh, and I’d also recommend another holiday short from this author “Mistletoe at Midnight”. Loved that one too!

Sid: That, then, is definitely going high on my to-read list!

JOINT RATING:

BUY LINKS: Riptide Publishing

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Elizabetta is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: ELIZABETTA’S REVIEWS
To read all of Sid’s reviews, click the link: SID’S REVIEWS
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