REVIEWED BY CINDY
TITLE: Not Just Passing Through boy
AUTHOR: Jamie Dean
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 106 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 27, 2015
Blurb:
Socially awkward, closeted virgin Avery Malcolm passes his days and nights running his bigoted aunt’s motel in rural New Mexico. He dreams of getting away and hitting the road, but with one friend, a few acquaintances, and no real life to speak of outside his duties as front desk clerk, he doesn’t know if he’ll ever get a chance.
Fate sends hot drifter Chase Lancaster to the Red Ram Motel, riding in on his sexy black motorcycle. Within twenty-four hours, Avery’s life is turned upside down. Before long, even though Chase’s sexual interests seem to run exclusively toward women in bars, Avery finds himself falling for the beautiful biker with no permanent address. Chase is much more than his bad boy persona, so while it’s nice to have another friend, Avery doesn’t know how he’ll survive with his heart intact when Chase inevitably moves on.
Review:
Avery Malcolm is a young man with big dreams but who is terrified they will never come true.
Chase Lancaster is the all-American bad-boy Avery becomes infatuated with, even if the man is terminally straight. Avery settles for being his friend, but can’t help taking advantage of a few situations that come up.
I loved Avery from the beginning. He’s sweet and kind and horribly taken advantage of by someone who should love him. But he keeps dreaming, even if he’s not sure they can ever come true and that side of him touched me.
Chase? We all know someone like Chase. He’s beautiful and he knows it and has no probably using it to his advantage. But he’s also a sweet man who loves his sister and it’s no wonder that Avery is helpless in the face of everything that Chase is.
They start out as friends, hanging out and giving Avery something he’s never really had with anyone except his best (and only) friend Jenny.
Jenny is my only sour note in this story. Too many times in m/m stories, women are portrayed as jealous or mean and even if she apologizes, it just bugs me. I’d like to see women best friends be better represented.
I have to admit, that Chase’s attitude is a little over the top, but it wasn’t hard to discern early on that maybe he was just trying to figure some things out for himself while enjoying the company of someone as kind and decent as Avery.
Watching them dance around each other was a joy and while I had no doubts about a happy ending (I don’t do not-happy endings) there’s still enough pain and angst to make the payoff at the end all the sweeter.
The writing is excellent in this story. The author has a good handle on both of her main characters. The dialogue is well written and deftly polished and the storyline itself quickly swept me along to the end. Once I started it, I couldn’t put it down until it was finished….at 2 am no less.
I can highly recommend this story to anyone who likes a little laughter, a few tears and seeing lovely, sweet boys have their dreams come true.
I haven’t read anything else by Jamie Dean yet, but you can be sure that I will definitely be looking for more from them in the future.
Rating: 
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