Reviewed by Lisa
TITLE: When Love Takes Over 
SERIES: Provincetown #1
AUTHOR: Jacob Z. Flores
NARRATOR: T.J. Jamesin
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 9 hours, 15 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2014
BLURB:
Zach Kelly’s life is a shambles. His boyfriend of three years dumped him, and his writing career is going nowhere. On a whim, he heads to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to nurse his broken heart and figure out his next step. He’s expecting to find rest and relaxation on the sandy beaches of Cape Cod. Instead, Zach meets a hunky porn star during a chance encounter at a leather shop he mistakes as a place to buy a belt that is definitely not for whipping.
Van Pierce is smitten when shy and inexperienced Zach crashes through a shelf of fetish gear. Though Van’s got an insatiable appetite for men on and off the set, his porn persona, Hart Throb, hides a broken heart. He’s struggling to find the reality the porno set doesn’t offer, and Zach is fighting to find the fantasy that will set his writing on fire. The odd goofball and the suave beefcake may either find love amid Provincetown’s colorful pageantry where summer never seems to end-or more heartbreak than either can imagine.
REVIEW:
This story has been in my TBR for a long time. I tend to gravitate towards stories that feature porn models or rent boys. And who doesn’t love an awkward underdog?
The story begins with Zach’s long-time boyfriend dumping him in a fit of pique. Poor Zach thinks everything is going fine until one day Ben announces he just can’t anymore. He can no longer take trying to mold Zach into the person he thinks Zach should be. And Zach realizes he’s lost himself to the demands of the other man, letting Ben control his life.
So Zach throws his favorite clothes in a bag and books an impulsive trip to Provincetown. He’ll show Ben he can arrange a great vacation trip without Ben’s input!
Van is a porn model who loves his life. He gets all the sex he can handle and people recognize him everywhere he goes, often stopping him to ask for an autograph or to have selfies taken with him. He meets Zach by chance when Zach goes into a leather shop and is captivated by Zach’s seeming innocence even with his horrible fashion sense. After the meet-cute, Van continues to think about Zach; wondering what it would be like to be with him.
The guys begin hooking up but refuse to call it dating since Van once had a very bad experience with dating and Zach is recovering from his breakup with Ben.
This story was a mix of things I like & things I found annoying. I enjoyed how unapologetic Van was about his career choice, how welcoming and colorful the secondary characters were, and the very strong sense of place. I didn’t care for some of the insta-love, repetitive things, and I thought the multiple references to man-stink were repulsive.
T.J. Jamesin has a huge following under the name Tristan James and he does a really good job with performing a bunch of different voices. While I love his voice, I’m often bothered by his mispronunciations of common words and the way he often pauses in the middle of sentences so it makes me think it’s a new sentence when the pause is over.
While I didn’t hate this story, I didn’t love it either. This would be a good fit for those who enjoy the opposite attraction trope, summer flings that become love, and people who are secure with their life choices.
RATING: 
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