Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Double Shot Cappuccino
AUTHOR: Stephani Hecht
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 73 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 25, 2016
BLURB:
We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world–the company of those who have known suffering. – Helen Keller
Nash has never gotten over the loss of his brother, Luke. Not even opening up the coffee shop that they’d always dreamed about has filled that missing piece in Nash’s heart. So, the last thing he needs is Luke’s old best friend, Tyler showing up. Worse yet, the guy is volunteering to help Nash during one of his busiest weekends of the year.
As soon as Tyler sets his eyes on Nash, he’s a goner. In all the years that have passed since they’ve last seen each other, Nash has grown up and then some. Tyler doesn’t know it’s right for him to make the moves on his dead friend’s brother. Yet, he can’t deny the connection that’s forming between them. Will Tyler be able to deny his needs? If so, will he be making the biggest mistake of his life?
This work has been previously released.
REVIEW:
While I’ve read books by this author before, and really enjoyed them, I found this one just okay. With the attraction between the main characters highlighted in the blurb, I expected to feel more of a connection between them than I actually did and that was a little disappointing. There was obviously lust but I didn’t really feel the love for Nate coming through on the part of Tyler. The love Nate had for his brother’s best friend was fairly obvious but it would’ve been nice to feel it going both ways.
Nate was a nice guy; even as he still struggles to deal with the death of his brother, he finds time to care about those around him. He kind of made a pseudo family out of the employees at his coffee shop and it was obvious that he wanted to do more for them at times but didn’t feel he had the right to. Tyler, while a decent enough guy, came off as a bit callous for a good portion of the story and I didn’t really connect with his story at all. He feels a lot of guilt over Luke’s dying, and about how they’d drifted apart in the months before he died, but the way he treats the thing he has going on with Nate didn’t really bring him up in my estimation.
For a story this size, there was also a lot more sex than I was expecting and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it brings home the fact that Tyler is just having a fling before leaving town while highlighting how much it affects Nate. On the other hand…there was a lot of sex. Lol It’s a good bet that a lot of others wouldn’t think it was too much but I found I would’ve liked more story and less sex in this instance. The ending, while a bit sudden in the epiphany department, gives you a nice happy ever after and regardless of how I feel about Tyler’s sudden change of heart and rapid coming out, I did enjoy it. It wasn’t totally believable in my opinion, but it did make for a good ending. I’m honestly not sure I’ll read this one again as it didn’t really bring up any strong feelings in me towards a second look but it certainly wasn’t a horrible story. I liked the setting a lot and the majority of the characters but without that essential connection, this one is pretty firmly placed on the ‘eh, it was okay’ shelf.
RATING: 
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