Reviewed by Carissa

 

TITLE:  Serving Love at Carnival

 

SERIES:  International Men of Sports #6

 

AUTHOR:  T.A. Chase and Devon Rhodes

 

PUBLISHER:  Totally Bound Publishing

 

LENGTH:  150 pages

 

BLURB:  

 

Anything goes during Carnival, and two men are about to discover just how hot the nights can get in Rio.

 

A long-time member of a samba school, Pablo knows that Carnival in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro is always hot, and the tall, sexy man he hooks up with during the festivities is even hotter. He usually doesn’t go back for repeats, but something about Diego has him working harder than he ever has to try to meet up again.

 

Diego travels all over the world on the pro beach volleyball tour, but has found that the sexiest man he’s ever met lives right there in Rio. After a few false starts, they finally seem to hit a groove, but as time goes on, ghosts from Pablo’s past begin to affect their present.

 

It’s tough being the partner of a professional athlete, competing with travel, fans, and training for their limited time. Pablo’s always been let down by people who found it easy to leave him behind. Is he prepared to accept what Diego can offer?

 

REVIEW:  

 

“You miss him when he’s gone.”

“Of course I do.”

“And you’re happy as hell when you know you’re going to see him.”

“Will you get to the fucking point?”

Thi smiled wryly. “The ironic thing is, I don’t have a point. Meaning, I don’t have the answer, and neither do you. You have to take each moment as it comes. Enjoy life for what it is during good times, and get through things however best you can in bad times. And no one can predict the future. But don’t let worrying about what might happen keep you from making the most of the moment you’re in.”

 

Pablo and Diego only went out looking to get laid, that night of the Carnival. Neither was expecting anything more than a good time, a fun dance, and a quick fuck.  And that is what they got…and a little more.  Turns out that there is something between them that can’t be forgotten when the sun finally decides to come back into the sky.  But Diego is a professional volleyball player and Rio is only a home port in a long line of road trips and competitions all over the world.  And Pablo has a long history of people he cares about buggering off at the moment’s notice.  How can Pablo trust that a few dates and scorched sheets are enough to keep a lover who is professionally obligated to leave?  How can Diego trust that cool, rich, and insular Pablo could want a lover who spends his life in the sands?

 

Love, family, and trust are not something that comes naturally to Pablo, except he finds himself falling unfairly into all three for the hot and caring Diego.  Now he and Diego are going to have to find a way to make something work that seems impossible to keep.  And if it takes their collective family and friends to knock some sense into them…well then so be it.

 

What is this, book six in this series?  It has been one hell of ride all over the world, and it doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon (thank god).  This book takes us to the glitz and glamour of Brazil and into the lives of a volleyball player and a rehab trainer with more trust issues than a beach has sand.  Rio at Carnival is lights and color and sex (go check out the pics online, it is crazy).  Held right before Lent every year, this Carnival is considered the biggest in the world, and has over two million people on the streets every day (and yes, I totally paraphrased that from Wikipedia, ‘cause I don’t know anything, and Wikipedia know everything–and some of it is actually correct).  Brazil has been on my radar since it pulled out a win to host the World Cup later this year, and then the Olympics in ‘16, so it was really cool to get a glimpse into this culture that I have practically no knowledge about.

 

Starting this book with the Carnival set at center stage did a wonderful job of setting up the place and the characters in this book.  Everyone (or mostly everyone) has at least some idea of what the Carnival looks like…even if it a vague impression and amalgamation of photos of Rio and personal ideas about Mardi Gras (since that is probably the only Carnival that I’ve ever come across).  It is a massive party, and one in which almost anything goes.  Letting Pablo and Diego go at each other in this wild atmosphere was both incredibly hot and a good way to get the characters together.  It may been like fate that these two found each other–I mean, volleyball player with ankle injury meeting a rehabilitation therapist, it is match made in medical compatibility–but it where they go from that first wild alley blowjob that makes them so good.  The trust issues make both of these men wary of putting a name on what they start doing (other than fucking each other silly), but everything is hot and explosive.  When they start to see each other as something more than an easy release they have moments of panic, but they keep pushing each other, keep trying to find some type of reassurance that love does not mean that they are going to vanish into thin air in the morning light.

 

The secondary characters in this book do a great job of showcasing how many different ways their love can go wrong.  Carlos and Sofia, Diego’s mother, Pablo’s mother and father, and Thio with his whole family of asses, show just how love can change and bend to the pressures of the world and of time.  All different types of love, all different failing and strengths, but all of them need work, all of them require talking and communication and trust.  Because without it, love will flounder.  All of this going on around Diego and Pablo helps show the missteps and triumphs in relief.  It makes their relationship a journey around all these hidden obstacles, and not just a straight shot from lust to love.  It was also a good way to add tension to their relationship without making one of the MCs do something monumentally stupid.

 

I loved the atmosphere and setting of this book, though I have to admit that the language was a bit of a stumbling block for me.  Maybe it is because I’ve been spoiled for the last few books, what with them happening in English-speaking countries, but sometimes I had a hard time understanding what was going on when the characters lapsed back into their native tongue.  I love that it was there, because it really does lend the book a particular flair, but sometimes it wasn’t all that clear what was being said, even when taking into context what was happening around it, and I disliked not knowing what was be said.  I guess, if it really bugged I could have just googled the damn dialogue, but most of the time I just let it go.  It didn’t really damage the story, but sometimes it was an unwanted irritant.

 

There also wasn’t a whole lot of external conflict going on in this story.  Which was ok, but it meant a lot of the conflict was centered on Diego and Pablo’s issues (though it most mostly Pablo who was having major problems here).  This kinda made the climax a little flat.  It just didn’t have all the tension that I like in my stories.  I enjoyed watching the two guys finally figuring out that love was not going to doom them to an eternity of heartache, but I think I would have loved to have seen a bit more tension in those last few chapters.

 

I think by now it is pretty obvious I am a fan of this series, and with six books read and done, it is pretty much a forgone conclusion that I’ll be picking up the next book in this series with nary a qualm.  I love how Chase and Rhodes take us to all these countries and let us see a little bit of the local flair in a way that is fun and not all that exclusionary.  We get to be a part of the world, not just watching it.  It makes each story a unique experience and leaves me really wanting the next (and the next…) book in the series.  And the number of secondary characters I would love seeing getting their own story only seems to grow with each book.  I’d probably be happy if these stories never ended.  For now, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where they will take us next.

 

RATING:  

 

BUY LINKS: Totally Bound