Reviewed by Taylor

TITLE: Meet Me in the Middle

SERIES: Distance Between Us #3

AUTHOR: L.A. Witt

PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing

LENGTH: 218 pages

BLURB: Fool me three times…

Dale Ramsey is looking forward to his twenty-year high school reunion except for one small problem. Adam O’Connor, his old friend—and old flame.

Twice before, Adam has disappeared from Dale’s life. Once after a graduation night fling, and again after a hot reunion years later. When Adam resurfaces this time, single and on the verge of retiring from the Navy, Dale wonders if he’ll want to mend fences…and maybe tear up some sheets.

The spark between them is alive and well, but Dale resists. After all, Adam only seems to come around when his life is in flux, and Dale is through being a placeholder until something better comes along. He wants his friend back, but not if he’ll be deserted a third time.

Inevitably, though, their attempts to rekindle their friendship wind up igniting something much hotter, and stirring up emotions too strong to ignore. Making Dale wonder if he should put his heart on the line…or if this time he should be the one to walk away.

Warning: Let’s face it, Dale’s been sitting quietly (well, kind of) on the sidelines since The Distance Between Us, and he waited patiently through The Closer You Get. Dude is seriously ready for some scorching-hot action, so keep a fire extinguisher and some ice handy. These boys are gonna need it…

REVIEW:

So, I haven’t read the previous two books in this series and I was able to understand and follow just fine, in case anyone was curious.  This is the story of Dale and Adam – two high school best friends who acted on an attraction right after they graduated high school and right before Adam left for the military.  They lost contact until their ten year reunion where they once again acted on a mutual attraction before Adam crushed Dale’s heart.  The time has come for their 20^th high school anniversary and Dale is determined not to let history repeat itself.

Of course things do and they are both left to deal with the aftermath and the knowledge that Adam will be retiring from the Navy soon.  They definitely want to rebuild their friendship, but Dale needs more, he needs a promise and he needs to know what happened in the past won’t happen in their future.

This was surprisingly less angsty that I thought it would be, certainly more hot than I expected, and overall, I really enjoyed this book.  There were some small niggles for me such as I loved, loved Adam and Dale’s interactions, yet I found their interactions with Dale’s friends (the couples from the first two books) to be stilted and awkward.  How many times is the reader going to get the same Ethan is old joke?  Enough, please.  How many times do I need to read about how sexxxxxxy Keiran is or how he turned Alex in to a naughty boy?  I get it.  Really.  How many times am I going to read that Dale wonders if the other two other couples are getting it on behind closed doors and he’s jealous?  Jesus, just ask if you can join in!  It was repetitious and I just wanted to get back to Dale and Adam.

Another small problem was that I didn’t really get much bonding time with the guys as a couple.  Like sure they were best friends twenty years ago, and sure they are IM’ing, Skype’ing, etc. but the reader doesn’t read that many conversations between the two.  Although the part where Adam told Dale sometimes people need to take things slow kind of melted me a bit.  However, sexually these guys were stupid hot together and I definitely felt a connection with them as a couple there.  I liked that they agreed to start out as friends and had small little trips here and there.  It’s not that I don’t believe them as a couple; I just wish I’d gotten a tiny bit more.

But this was fast and sweet and hot…I’d read more in this series for sure.

RATING:

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