Reviewed by Louisa
TITLE: Life on Pause 
AUTHOR: Erin McLellan
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 290 Pages
RELEASE DATE: October 30th 2017
BLURB:
Niles Longfellow is a nerd, and not the trendy type of nerd, either. He wears a historically accurate homesteader costume to work every day, has a total of one friend, and doesn’t know how to talk to guys. So when he gets a flat tire and the hottest hipster ever stops to help him, all Niles can think is that he’s wearing his stupid cowboy getup. Normally, Niles feels invisible to other men, but he’d take that invisibility any day over Rusty Adams seeing him in suede and fringe.
Rusty moved to Bison Hills to help his sister raise her daughter, and nothing is more important to him than that. He’s also fresh off a breakup, and isn’t prepared for anything complicated. But then he meets Niles. Rusty sees Niles as more than a clumsy, insecure guy in a costume. He sees a man who is funny, quirky, and unexpected.
Nothing about their connection is simple, though, especially the lies and insecurities between them. Niles doesn’t know if he can trust Rusty with his heart, and when Rusty’s sister decides to move away, Rusty doesn’t know if he can stay behind.
REVIEW:
Reviewing Life on Pause by Erin McLellan was difficult because I think it is one of those books you are going to love or hate. I am a bit conflicted on how I feel. To me, this book has the feel of a high school romance. Both trying not to get hurt or look bad while at the same time hurting the other person. They break up and get back together, they are friends and lovers and friends and lovers and it doesn’t seem to have any logical rhyme or reason.
Niles is a geek with no self esteem. He has never had a boyfriend and all his sexual experience comes from guys in bars who’s names he doesn’t know. So now that a guy has made an advance he doesn’t want to look foolish and doesn’t know what to do. Rusty on the other hand lies about having a relationship with a teacher he works with and never understands why Niles cuts him off emotionally after every time they have sex.
The storyline of the book is a bit on repeat. Friends, sex, silence, friends, sex, silence….. And it means that any sexual tension that may be there just disintegrates for me as a reader.
On the positives. I really liked Rusty’s sister and niece, they add some good interesting personalities to the book. But the two who I am most interested in is Trevor and Victor who are Rusty’s ex and Niles best friend. If Ms McLellan wrote a book about those two, then I would be all in. They are funny and sensitive and move the story along so well. I also really liked the museum that Niles works at. And how he deals with his family sadness.
Overall, I was not a huge fan of this book. But I think that some people will enjoy the by-play. And the sex toy collection is worth reading about. However it wasn’t really for me.
RATING: 
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