Reviewed By Donna

TITLE: Cruising With Destiny

AUTHOR: Alex Carreras

PUBLISHER: Siren Publishing

LENGTH: 74 pages

BLURB: While on the ship Destiny, Nate Montgomery finds himself cruising the steam room for sex with a stranger. What he finds instead is his high school obsession with his lips wrapped around his cock.

Recently divorced and out, Steve Wilkinson plans to live his life experiencing as many men as he can, making up for lost time. Or does destiny have another plan?

Sailing the Western Caribbean, they find comfort and passion in each other’s arms while reliving their youth and wondering about their future. As the tropical days turn into passionate nights, they realize they are falling in love. But when the ship returns to port, will they still feel the same way?

From Miami to Jamaica to Grand Cayman and back again, love can be found sailing the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, but it also can be lost.

 

REVIEW: What I learned from reading Cruising With Destiny: if while on a cruise ship my husband professes a desire to visit the steam room, I should consult a lawyer and begin dividing our assets. Because apparently the steam room on a cruise ship is the place to be if you’re a closeted married man intent on getting some man on man action. Or at least that’s how it works on the cruise ship Destiny, upon which our two main characters have just set sail.

First up we meet Nate. Nate was meant to be sharing this cruise with his boyfriend but unfortunately they broke up, leaving Nate with a burning rash and no one to share his cabin with. After spotting a hot, assumed to be married man hovering outside a Friends of Dorothy meeting, Nate figures he’ll go hang out in the steam room and hopefully meet him there.

Steve, the afore mentioned hottie, is not in fact married. He is divorced from his wife and has taken this cruise with his son and his son’s girlfriend as a chance to spend time with them before they move away for college.

After their “hookup” in the steam room Steve and Nate discover that they knew each other in high school, and Steve was actually Nate’s straight guy crush.

I had some major issues with both Steve and Nate.

Steve confused me. In the beginning he says that he didn’t realize he was gay in high school. But then he makes reference to his painful youth spent hiding in the closet and also tells Nate that he had to drink all day the day his son was conceived in order to “get the job done”. Secondly, and this annoyed as well as confused me, Steve has this thought “when he decided to come out as a gay man, this is what he imagined it would be like, not cruising parks and steam rooms and wherever horny men would congregate, looking for a fast fuck or a quickie blow job. It was to be spent in a man’s arms, sharing each other’s lives completely, not for only a fleeting moment hiding away from the world.” But then, not long after that, he is telling Nate that they need a break (from their three day relationship) because he wants to sleep around with other men and experience “being gay”. So in short, Steve is a gay man who thought he was straight but was closeted anyway and has found the man he thinks he could completely share his life with but they need to break up so he can screw around. Sure.

My problem with Nate is simpler. Nate keeps getting erections while looking at Steve’s son. Fair enough, the first time it happened he didn’t know him as Steve’s son but even after Nate and Steve have been together, Nate finds himself physically attracted to the young man to the point where he needs to remind himself  “No touching, no temptation.” I’m not saying it’s unrealistic but I’d rather not hear about it while I’m already struggling to enjoy Nate and Steve’s romance.

The ending came rather abruptly and I would have liked to see Steve do some major groveling. But maybe that’s just me. The man needed to suffer.

I didn’t dislike this book. There were some fun moments and some well-developed and interesting secondary characters. Luckily I can move straight onto the sequel to see what these men get up to next.

 

RATING:

 

BUY LINKS: Siren Amazon

TITLE: Cruising Into Destiny: Commitment Ceremony

SERIES: Sequel to Cruising with Destiny

AUTHOR: Alex Carreras

PUBLISHER: Siren Publishing

LENGTH: 67 pages

BLURB: When Steve Wilkinson asks his boyfriend, Nate, of one year for his hand in marriage, he expects smooth sailing on the cruise ship, Destiny. And why shouldn’t he? But if that’s the case, why does Steve feel like he’s swimming against the strongest of tides with no shoreline in sight, instead?

All Nate Montgomery wants is a relaxing five-day cruise of the Western Caribbean culminating in a commitment ceremony with the man he loves, which should prove easy being surrounded by the people he loves…Or so he thinks.

But for some reason, destiny has taken another course, leaving the couple to maneuver the seemingly turbulent waters without the use of a lifeboat. But when sex, pregnancy, excessive alcohol consumption, affairs, and the revelers from the Friends of Dorothy meeting come crashing together all on one ship, anything is possible, even a wedding…or two?

 

REVIEW: Nate and Steve have been together for a year and they’re back on the cruise ship Destiny with family and friends for a very special occasion. They’re getting married.

I’m always worried with sequels that the main characters relationship is going to be screwed with in order to introduce some drama. Not so with this book. Although, the blurb did worry me. It says they have to deal with affairs. Did I miss that part? I don’t recall anyone having an affair. I was concerned it might have been Steve up to his old tricks. Hanging out in the steam room again maybe. But, nope. No affairs here folks, so worry not.

I was very pleased to read that Steve proposed to Nate. At the end of the first book it seemed to me that Nate was much more invested in their relationship than Steve was.

The only real tension in this story comes from the men having to deal with Steve’s family members. Including the ex wife who Steve is trying to remain friends with even though she’s a bit of a bitch to Nate. That situation always bugs me.

One thing I found wrong with this book though, and I can only assume that the copy I was given for review was the same as the final published copy, one of the characters has a different name. In Cruising with Destiny Nate becomes friends with a couple named Bartholomew and Adam. In this sequel he meets the two men again but Adam has become Andy. Maybe I’m somehow confused, but I double-checked and I’m pretty sure I’m right. Fair enough it isn’t a main character but you’d think someone would have picked up on that.

I liked this book more than the first one. It left the men in a place that I felt was a much more secure happy ending.

 

RATING:

 

BUY LINKS: Siren amazon

Overall Rating 2.75 stars