Reviewed by Amber
SERIES: Little Squirrel
TITLE: Mano’s Story #2
AUTHOR: Michael Murphy
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 pages
BLURB:
Mano and Jake, friends since childhood, are each the brother that the other never had, hermanos. It doesn’t matter that Mano is gay and Jake is straight. They have each other’s backs. When he grows weary of being used as a pawn by his parents as their marriage collapses, Mano moves in with Jake’s family.
Jake and Mano both need a chance to start over, so they move to Hawaii and work for Jake’s uncle, Mano working as a lifeguard. In his free time, Mano explores his sexuality and finds he has no shortage of men in his bed. But after watching his parents’ relationship disintegrate, Mano guards his heart and keeps it strictly sexual.
Determined to become self-sufficient, Mano returns to college while still working full-time. When he meets the man of his dreams, he’s too scared and unsure of himself to pursue him. For years he went out of his way to avoid getting close to a man, so now when he wants to, he doesn’t know how. With the encouragement of Jake and others, Mano searches for the courage to go after what he’s always really wanted.
REVIEW:
What a conundrum, I’m in with this book. I don’t even know where to start. I will admit to being very nervous after reading the reviews of this book. I rather enjoyed book 1 of this series so when I found out there was a second book coming needless to say I got very excited. I enjoy how this author tells a story. I loved being inside Mano’s head. I really liked the supporting cast in this story. I absolutely adored Jake, what an amazing best friend. I also enjoyed the anticipation of waiting to see who was going to be Mr. Right for Mano. It was so different than the way most books are set up, we were left waiting to see who it was going to be, and I really liked that.
This story starts with Mano picking up his entire life and moving to Hawaii to live and work with his best friend, Jake. Jake’s uncle, Jakob owns a hotel on the beach and graciously offered Jake and Mano room and board. Mano loves living in Hawaii; he loves his job as a lifeguard, and his chosen family, Jake and Jakob. Mano get’s comfortable and starts going to gay clubs and bars to explore his sexuality and to get in the dating scene. He never lacks for willing partners and discovers his voracity in bed. Going through life and living it to the fullest one day he’s struck blind, deaf, and dumb when he meets super gorgeous, Jordan and this is where this book started going downhill.
Jordan was almost a non-existent character in this book. We never got a back story, we know he’s a business man, wears suits, is extremely handsome but that’s it. He’s like a ghost. Even when they had sex for the first time he was incredibly quiet throughout the whole thing only saying things that were expected of him. I don’t know I just felt no connection whatsoever to him.
Another thing I’m struggling with is how unbelievably cheesy the last half of this book turned out. It was almost like reading 2 separate books. The first part was unique, refreshing, exciting, and funny. Then the last half was every textbook, clichéd, cheesy romance scenario you could possibly think of. I don’t know. I just sort of felt left down, I guess.
All in all, the writing was good but the last half ruined this story for me, unfortunately.
RATING: 
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