Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Taxes and TARDIS

AUTHOR:  N.R. Walker

PUBLISHER:  Totally Bound Publishing

LENGTH:  88 pages

BLURB:  Brent is a jock, Logan a geek, these men are a world apart.  But if opposites attract, maybe it’s the differences between them that make it worth the fight.

Brent Kelly is a laid-back tradesman whose only concerns are drinks with friends and which man to bed next. In need of a new accountant to sort out his nightmarish shoebox of tax receipts, he’s referred to Logan Willis.

He doesn’t expect to be intrigued by the science fiction-loving, geeky guy with dark-rimmed glasses and a TARDIS blue shirt. So his fascination with the soft-spoken Englishman surprises him, and their mutual attraction is completely unexpected. He most certainly never expects to fall in love.

One a jock and the other a geek, both men know the differences between them are vast and could cause problems. But in this opposites-attract erotic drama, maybe it’s the differences between them that make staying together worth the fight.

REVIEW:  

WARNING: This review contains in-jokes and fangirling of dangerous proportions. Proceed at your own risk.

Anyone who has known me for five minutes…or, hell, has been in my room for like five seconds, pretty much knows how I feel about Doctor Who (by the way, Doctor Who is the title of the series, not the name of the character. He is called The Doctor. It is also never ever Dr. Who. You have been warned). The show has been a not-so-quiet obsession of mine since my sister sat me down in front of a computer and put on that first episode of the franchise reboot in 2005. My computer is named Gallifrey, my Kindle cover is a replica of River’s diary, and I’ve been begging my sister to knit me a scarf like Tom Baker’s Doctor had. I also threatened to dress up as a Dalek for my sister’s wedding next year, but they decided to go with a Steampunk/Marvel Comics theme, so I guess I’ll have to save that costume for a later date. 😛

So, with all that in mind, it is really no big shock that when I saw the title, Taxes and TARDIS, I didn’t even bother to read the blurb before claiming this book as my own to review. It has TARDIS in the title…how on earth could I not love that?

(For the sadly under-educated, the TARDIS is the name of the Doctor’s spaceship/time machine. It stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It is a blue Police Box, from 1960’s England. And by blue, I mean it is the bluest blue that ever blued. It is beautiful and I would give my right heart to have one.)

Now, as a devotee of Doctor Who, I am used to having my heart crushed (Moffat!)…so even though my heart said “allons-y!” part of my head kept thinking there is no way this could live up to my expectations. But I couldn’t not read it. So there was nothing left to do but to yell, “Geronimo!” and dive right in.

Brent would never claim to be good at his accounts. So when his long-time accountant goes and gets sick, and he has to switch to a new firm, he is a little wary about how the new guy is going to react to his shoe-box (yes, an actual shoe-box) of tax-receipts. No doubt the old man will not be pleased. But the ‘old man’ turns out to be not-so-old, and while Brent has never found geeky to be his thing…Logan Willis, with his (TARDIS-)blue shirt, English accent, and geeky glasses, is ringing all his bells. And apparently making him incapable of human speech.

Honestly, all he expected was to get glared at over his messy taxes…Brent never expected to fall for the man doing them. But he can’t get that shirt, or that voice, out of his head. He just has to convince Logan that he is nothing like the douchebag jocks in his past.And also figure out what the hell a TARDIS is…

For a Doctor Who fangirl, this book was great–but also, it was just a wonderful story. One of my favorite pairings is when hot-muscly-men fall for geeky guys, thereby making Kindles ignite. Brent is not thick (well, except in the wonderfully-hard biceps kinda way), but he also knows that Logan’s smarts are something to be admired. And found incredibly sexy. Much like Logan’s TARDIS-blue shirt (which seems to have the same effect on Brent as BBC Sherlock’s purple-shirt-of-sex has on the hordes of Sherlock fangirls/boys). And Logan, for all his wariness about what Brent is really after, seems to find Brent’s down-to-earthness charming. Also, Brent is really hot, so that doesn’t hurt.

I liked how they both seemed to try and find a middle ground in this story. Both have been hurt in the past (from family or people who thought they could use/bully them), so they tend to circle around each other, trying to see if it is really as safe as it seems. But they are so pulled by their attraction that they seemed to gravitate towards a place of trust and love. It also doesn’t hurt that Brent goes out and tries to learn about some of Logan’s geekier aspects so that he has something, originally, to connect with him on.

My only real complaint is how things went down with Marty (the jealous asshole loser dirtbag). Not so much what he did, but how easily Logan was persuaded. I mean, he has been told what a piece of work Marty is, so why would he believe him without even checking with Brent? The whole ‘big misunderstanding’ trope will never be one of my favorites–mostly because it requires the MCs to act like idiots–so this wasn’t exactly my favorite piece of conflict in the story. I did however like how they ended up working it out. Sometimes it is good to have friends who know you so well.Even if they will end up taunting you because of it, for the rest of your lives.

I know this review is like crazy long—and maybe just crazy-crazy–but this book just brought out a lot of the fangirl in me. If you love Doctor Who then this book is a going to be a hoot. But even if you don’t (*horror filled gasp*), I think you will love the story and the characters in it. It is a great geek/jock story(though, strictly speaking, he is not a jock, but anelectrical contractor) and I think you’ll get a kick out of how fanboyish Logan is, even if you don’t get all the in-jokes. I am so glad I got a chance to read this, and I hope that you will too.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS: Totally Bound