Reviewed by Amber
TITLE: Close to You
SERIES: Sunshine and Happiness #3
AUTHOR: Skylar M. Cates
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 248 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 28th, 2016
BLURB:
It’s hard to recover from a first love. Some people never do.
How hard would you fight to keep your best friend? Marc Lucas and Tomas Santos have been best friends forever, but now their friendship is in a crisis. When they were boys, betrayals ripped their world apart. They thought it was fixed, but some parts remained broken. Ever since he saved him from a humiliation at school, Marc has loved Tomas. The last thing he expects is for Tomas to love him back. To keep his best friend, Marc revisits an abusive past he’s tried to forget.
For Tomas, loving Marc has been anything but easy. His upbringing told him it was wrong, so why did it feel so right? Accepting who he is as an adult, Tomas decides he needs a committed relationship. To his deep sorrow, he can’t seem to find it with Marc.
When the two find themselves alone and in the grip of a hurricane, long-buried feelings emerge. Being “just friends” is no longer an option. They must risk it all on love.
REVIEW:
This was one of those stories where you wait and anticipate and sometimes you think that you can’t wait another minute because you’re so anxious for the story. I was exactly that way. I felt like I needed Tomas and Marcs story like I needed oxygen and maybe that’s where everything went wrong? This story was just blah for me. So much so that I felt like I was actually forcing myself to read it which sucks because I truly love and am invested in this series.
Tomas and Marc have a crazy long history. They met as kids and forged a strong bond. Unfortunately, Marc’s home life was anything but ideal and circumstances occurred that forced him to distance himself from Tomas.
Years later they are best friends and living in each other’s pockets. Unfortunately they are madly in love with each other but are scared to death to act on those feelings.
This story satisfied the need to know what Tomas and Marc’s history was like but it was so slow moving and uninteresting that it left me feeling bereft.
I willingly admit that I was really disappointed in this book. In my opinion it just was not engaging especially knowing where this author could have gone with these two characters.
Overall though this series is good especially the last book which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Go into this series knowing the author is good at what she does and you will need to know what happens with everyone mentioned.
RATING: 
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