Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Then Came Cal
AUTHOR: Lee Barrows
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 12,983 Words
BLURB:
Sean Hutchins is having the worst day of his life…
After losing what he thought was his dream job, Sean Hutchins walks away to suddenly find not only his professional life, but also his personal life, falling apart. Seeking comfort in his best friend, Cassie, the last person Sean expects to run into is Cassie’s big brother—and Sean’s long-time crush—Cal.
Cal is supposed to be on vacation visiting his baby sister, not babysitting her and her best friend, Sean. And he definitely is not supposed to be staring at Sean’s hot ass. But after spending some time with the guy, Cal finds himself with confusing feelings.
Should Cal act on his attraction? And can Sean find a way to put back together the broken pieces of his heart and his life?
REVIEW:
The storyline isn’t a new one…Sean loses his job, which finds him home much earlier than usual, just in time to witness a porn worthy orgy involving his quasi-boyfriend playing out in his bed. Not up to dealing with the drama, he simply closes the door and walks to his best friend’s apartment, where Cassie’s (the BFF’s) older brother discovers Sean sitting on the curb after having a good cry. Cal is there to visit Cassie, not to deal with her cute friend’s emotional breakdown, so he ushers Sean into the apartment and heads out for a night of fun. But nothing feels right about being out at a club when all he can think about is Sean, so Cal returns to the apartment, intent on ignoring Sean as he reminds himself again of the cons involved in hooking up with the younger man.
I think when it comes to short stories, readers tend to be more forgiving about characters hooking up quickly. I certainly didn’t have a problem with it here. Actually, I think the author handled that aspect of the story really well. There was already a prior attraction between the main characters which made their getting together feasible. I also appreciated that there were no “I love yous” and the ending was a HFN rather than a HEA. The only part of all that I didn’t buy into was the abrupt shift in Cal’s attitude. From a “definitely not going there” to pretty much committed dating within 24 hours? Like I said, I bought that they would manage to get together so quickly, but what I didn’t buy into was Cal accepting it all so easily.
Along the same lines, I liked that Sean wasn’t dramatically and ridiculously heartbroken over his hornbag ex. Like Sean acknowledges, Paul wasn’t technically cheating, they weren’t even really dating, it was more fuckbuddies than anything else. While Sean was upset, it was mostly because he’d allowed himself to be in that situation with Paul. Which was much more realistic and, in my case, preferred to any histrionics.
So why if I have more compliments than complaints does it get 2.5 hearts? Simply because there’s nothing memorable about it, nothing that makes it stand out from the rest. From what I can tell, this is Lee Barrows first published story (don’t quote me on that!). I’d definitely be willing to read future books from this author because the potential is certainly there. Unfortunately, it just didn’t hit the mark for me with this one.
RATING:
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