Reviewed by Amber
Series Review of Why I Love… 1 & 2
AUTHOR: T.A. Chase
BOOK 1 TITLE: Why I Love Geeks
PUBLISHER: Amber Allure
LENGTH: 201 pages
BLURB:
Chuck Davidson has an aversion to modern technology. He likes sports, beer, and classic cars. Chuck’s a homicide detective, and it’s put a damper on his relationships. Hard to find a guy who will put up with his crazy hours. How is he to know that planning the impending death of his newest phone will bring him in contact with a cute geek who just might have a thing for rugged, slightly out-of-touch with the newest gadgets older men?
Herbert Pommerest has never been on a date or even kissed a man before. Oh, he knows he’s gay. He did all the experiments to ensure it was true, not just a rebellious phase or a knee-jerk reaction because women scared him to death. It’s easy to hide himself behind his research and daydream about what having a boyfriend would be like. Saving an expensive phone from an early demise brings him in contact with a street-wise mature detective. Suddenly Herb wishes he knew how to flirt because he’d love to take some lessons from Chuck Davidson of the sensual kind.
Can a geek and a detective find common ground between their worlds before one of Chuck’s cases threatens to put Herb in danger?
REVIEW:
This is the second series I’ve read from TA Chase, the first being The Love of Sports series which I thoroughly enjoyed. This series take a different spin. Instead of famous sports figures we have love stories involving every day Joe’s.
The series starts with Why I Love Geeks. This first book was cute. We are introduced to the first main character, Chuck, who is a hard as nails police detective who has shunned modern technology. He is about to throw his latest cell phone in the street because it won’t stop ringing and he has no idea how to answer it when super-geek biochemist Herb comes to the rescue and helps Chuck answer his phone. As a thank you, Chucks buys Herb lunch and leaves him with a sweet kiss on the mouth.
For this being a 200 page story, everything seemed to move really fast. And that is probably my biggest problem with the story. Herb is a virgin and “supposedly” very shy but he can’t seem to shut up. He is constantly saying exactly what’s on his mind, the moment it pops in his head. This leads to Chuck and Herb getting pretty hot and heavy very early on, which then led to insta-love.
Chuck is drug further into Herb’s world when one of Herb’s coworkers is found dead. Chuck’s investigation leads him right to Herb’s workplace which allows him and Herb to grow closer. What follows is a series of twists and turns involving an invisibility serum, Russian spies, meddling family members, and Chinese gangsters.
Through it all Chuck and Herb fall in love.
Overall, this story wasn’t bad and it wasn’t great. It was simply just middle of the road for me.
RATING: 
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BOOK 2 TITLE: Why I Love Waiters
PUBLISHER: Amber Allure
LENGTH: 172 pages
BLURB:
As a member of a covert army unit, John Davidson isn’t scared of many things, yet one look into the dark blue eyes of Heath Kane and John knew a different kind of fear for the first time. John couldn’t be gay, at least not out and proud in his unit, even with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell being repealed. He’d never been interested enough in any man to risk the fallout.
Heath Kane left home never wanting to return. The army-base town wasn’t the best place for a gay kid to grow up, but his grandmother did her darnedest to make it good for him. Now he’s paying her back for all her love. She’s getting older and needs help with the family restaurant, so he waits tables at the Corner Café while taking online courses to get his degree. Even though the army base provides lots of buff eye candy, he knows it’s best to keep his eyes to himself.
Yet neither Heath nor John can deny their attraction, and when John returns from a visit up North, he seems willing to act on their mutual interest. Are John and Heath willing to risk everything to hold each other?
REVIEW:
In this second installment of the Why I Love Series we’re introduced to a loveable guy named, Heath. Heath is a waiter at his grandmother’s cozy diner in Georgia. A regular patron of the café is John, an Army Ranger who is regularly deployed to very dangerous countries. John also happens to be the younger brother of Chuck who we met in book one. John, who is recently out of the closet to his family has a massive crush on Heath, hence why he goes to the café so frequently, aside from the good food of course.
After a pep talk from his brother John decides to ask Heath out. Very similar to book one, Heath and John, hit it off and find themselves in bed rather frequently. Also, similar to book one, this seemed like insta-love too. I don’t know what’s missing from these books but both one and two have left me feeling absolutely nothing. I haven’t closed each book with a smile on my face, which is unusual for me with this author.
I was endeared to Heath. I love the fact that he came to Georgia to help his grandmother out. You can tell they have a deep, love and affection for each other. His grandmother accepts who he is and who he loves without question, which is admirable.
We get a few moments of Herb and Chuck throughout the book. A seemingly forgettable trip to Atlanta has both couples meeting up due to Chuck wanting to ask John to be his best man in his wedding to Herb.
It’s unfortunate that these two books weren’t better. I just didn’t feel any kind of connection to the characters.
RATING:
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