Reviewed by Tori (Vicki)
TITLE: Pushing Phillip 
SERIES: Common Powers #4
AUTHOR: Lynn Lorenz
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 209 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 19th, 2017
BLURB:
Jobless, homeless and alone at Christmas—can his new friends keep him from running?
When the guys decide to spend Christmas together at the ranch, it’s going to be a time for catching up with each couple. Rush and Brian are hosting, Edward and Jack will be there and Mitchell and Sammi are coming in from Houston.
When Brian and Rush take Phillip, a newly outed gay man, under their wings, they discover he’s got a power. But this power is one that makes all of them uncomfortable, along with the young man himself as issues of trust arise.
Phillip finds himself jobless, homeless and alone for the holiday, and he’s run out of options. Just when he’s ready to move on, he finds new friends who are ready to give him a second chance at his dreams. Along with a second chance at love.
REVIEW:
I’m going to break this review in to two parts, the part about Phillip and Estaban, and the revisiting of characters from the previous three books. That’s really how my brain handled this book, two separate stories intertwining.
We first met Phillip as a barely there side character in Edward’s story, he was working the front counter at the auto repair shop that Edward’s car was towed to after Jack shot his tire. Phillip was the nice but quiet guy that helped, as compared to Jimmy the raging asshole/homophobe who harassed Edward. I was happy to see Phillip get his own story! We find out in this book Phillip has issues… he has a secret power, the ability to influence people’s minds. His mother forced him to use this ability for her gain, until Phillip had enough and took off. He ends up in the small town of Spring Lake Texas, and walks around until he sees a “now hiring” sign on an auto repair shop. He “influences” the owner to give him a job and let him stay in the crappy trailer behind the shop. He settles and lives a quiet life, crushing on a coworker named Estaban, and occasionally going in to the bathroom with a guy at the local bar. A good portion of his life is spend avoiding Jimmy the asshole, who also works at the same shop.
Phillip gets himself in trouble one night, and it costs him his job and place to stay. The only good part it he is rescued by Brian, the cop we met in book 2. Brian offers Phillip a place to stay on Rush’s ranch for the few days over Christmas, which Phillip reluctantly agrees to accept. He doesn’t like charity, but the chance to spend time on a real ranch and spend time with other gay men, who are out and proud, is too much to resist. Now if he could manage to get himself a job at the ranch…. well that would be just too perfect.
Most of the Phillip story line is spent on getting Phillip out of his bad situation, and into a good one. There is also some romance, it turns out that Estaban has also been crushing on Phillip, but the two just never put two and two together until Phillip loses his job. Then Estaban shows interest and the two go out on a date. Of course we have to have the Big Misunderstanding fight, which about drove me crazy. That plot device is used waaaaay too much, and we’ve already seen it in another book in this series. But anyway, it works to create some drama, and ultimately things workout for Phillip and Estaban. I will say that the romance part of Phillips story comes late to the game, and could have been stronger for me. There is also not much sex between the two of them, only right toward the end of the book. But overall I loved Phillip and liked Estaban (we don’t get to know him very well), and I liked how their story worked out.
The other half of the book was spent catching up with the three couples from the previous three books. Rush and Brian invite the other four men to the ranch for Christmas, and I enjoyed seeing them. Sammi was pampered by Edward at his new spa, which was fun to see, Sammi needs some attention! I was also surprised at how much I liked Rush in this book, considering how much I hated him in his own book… he was a totally different character. Charming and sweet, and so gentle with Phillip. I wish he had been that way in his book! Brian was helpful with the Phillip situation, and Mitchell was around too. There were a couple of naughty sex scenes at the beginning of the book with a couple of the couples that was nice to read as well. I liked seeing all of the men happy and stable!
This was definitely my favorite book of the series. I liked the Phillip story line quite a bit, although I wish the romance part was stronger and started sooner. But once Phillip and Estaban got started it was good. I also liked seeing the other couples and how they came together to help Phillip, both as a fellow gay man, and as one with a “power”. And as an unemployed, homeless man at Christmas! I feel like the writing was better in this book, I think there was a bit of time between when the first three were originally written and this one, and I liked this one much more.
I have found it interesting to re-read books I read early in my m/m reading, and see how I like them now compared to then. This series was one that suffered a bit I think, I remember liking the first three better the first time I read them than compared to now. This fourth one though was great from the start! I really enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it. If you have read the other three you really need to finish off with this one, it’s worth it!
RATING: 
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