REVIEWED BY: Christie
TITLE: Summer Lessons
SERIES: Winter Ball, Book 2
AUTHOR: Amy Lane
NARRATOR: Nick J. Russo
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 8h 25m
RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2017
BLURB:
Mason Hayes’s love life has a long history of losers who don’t see that Mason’s heart is as deep and tender as his mouth is awkward. He wants kindness, he wants love—and he wants someone who thinks sex is as fantastic as he does. When Terry Jefferson first asks him out, Mason thinks it’s a fluke: Mason is too old, too boring, and too blurty to interest someone as young and hot as his friend’s soccer teammate.
The truth is much more painful: Mason and Terry are perfectly compatible, and they totally get each other. But Terry is still living with his toxic, suffocating parent and Mason doesn’t want to be a sugar daddy. Watching Terry struggle to find himself is a long lesson in patience, but Mason needs to trust that the end result will be worth it, because finally, he’s found a man worth sharing his heart with.
REVIEW:
After listening to (and loving) book one in the Winter Ball series, I was very excited to see what the next book in the series had in store. Then, Summer Lessons came out and I greatly enjoyed every second of it. Especially since the main character in this book is one of my favorite secondary characters from Winter Ball. But don’t worry, even tho this is book 2 in the series, it can definitely be read as a standalone.
Mason Hayes is a mess. Well, at least his love life is. You see, he is an exceptionally sweet man, but afflicted with “foot in mouth” disease (meaning that he blurts out very awkward things at poorly timed moments. Okay well, all the time actually). We first met Mason in Winter Ball, as the Vice President of the company where Skip works. In fact, he ended up propositioning Skip while on the phone seeking technical support. Oops! Good thing Skip has a great sense of humor and they ended up becoming friends. In fact, Mason even joined Skip’s recreational soccer team.
Terry Jefferson only has time for one thing: taking care of his mother. At least, according to his mother. She barely tolerates him working or even being on the recreational soccer team that he loves so much, and has him convinced that it is his duty to take care of her every need, simply because he was born. Until he meets Mason, who shows Terry what is missing in his life: love, happiness, and the freedom to live his own life. For himself. Together, Mason and Terry form an amazing bond, both on and off the soccer field. Until Terry gets a taste of a freedom he has never known could exist for him, and his homophobic mom takes notice of their relationship.
Summer Lessons was a wonderful book. I laughed. I cried. I even argued with the (fictitious) main characters because of their poor choices. It has all the classic components of an Amy Lane story: wonderfully deep and complicated characters, angst, humor, and of course a sweet HEA. I have to say that I actually enjoyed this book better than Winter Ball. And that’s saying something, since Winter Ball was brilliant. What made Summer Lessons even better was Nick J. Russo’s fantastic narration. He brought this book to life in a spectacular way. I highly recommend you get this book, especially if you are a fan of Amy Lane or Nick J. Russo. It is certainly a must have.
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