Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Rainbow Place 
SERIES: Rainbow Place #1
AUTHOR: Jay Northcote
PUBLISHER: Jaybird Press
LENGTH: 208 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 15, 2018
BLURB:
Can Jason find the courage he needs to be the man Seb deserves?
When Seb Radcliffe relocates to a seaside town in Cornwall, he feels like a fish out of water. He misses queer spaces and the sense of community he enjoyed when he was living in the city, and decides to open an LGBT-friendly cafe-bar.
Jason Dunn is the builder Seb hires to help renovate the rundown space where the cafe will be housed. Jason is also gay, but unlike Seb, he’s deep in the closet. He’s never had a relationship with another man–only allowing himself the occasional hook up with guys who are prepared to be discreet.
The attraction between the two men is instant and impossible to ignore. But while Seb is out and proud, Jason is terrified of being exposed. With the grand opening of Rainbow Place approaching, tension is growing among some locals who object to Seb’s plans. When things escalate, Jason is forced to choose whether to hide in the shadows and let Seb down, or to openly support the man he’s fallen so hard for.
REVIEW:
After moving to a small town in Cornwall, Seb Radcliffe finds himself for the first time since he came out rather bereft of a queer community. Sure his next door neighbors are a lovey lesbian couple, but outside the three of them the town seems to be staffed full of straight people and/or people still stuck firmly in the closet. After an off-hand joke about how he should turn his soon-to-open cafe/pub into “My Gay Cafe” Seb finds himself rather intrigued by the idea. He would love to create a place where LGBT people can find a place to gather, and maybe this would be a great way to create the community he has been looking for. Seb has no idea how the town will take the queer branding, though, or what the closeted man he is falling for will do when the cafe opens its doors for the first time.
Due to having a rather crazy summer, I totally missed this book when it came out back in June. Luckily for me Jay Northcote asked if any of us here at the blog would like to review the second book in this series (due to come out later this week), and so I took the chance to grab them both.
I’ve not yet had the chance to start the second book, but I have to say after reading this one, I’m really looking forward to it. This is a bit of a low-key story with not a lot of stakes, but the romance between Seb and Jason was on-fire and the question of what would happen with Rainbow Place–Seb’s cafe–kept me turning the pages. The last couple books I’ve had to read in the last week have had much grander scales, so it was nice to come back down to earth with this story. Nothing in this book was life or death, but everything going on in this story mattered to these characters in such a way as to make them worth caring about. I work near the queer section of my city and walking by all those shops and restaurants that openly show their pride in the queer identity, is something that always makes me smile. I totally get why Seb–and the LGBT people in this town–want and need something like that. Especially in the world we live in today.
There was a bit too much sex in this book for my tastes–though right now I’m generally not in the mood for that kind of thing, so I don’t think it is something that most readers would complain about. All those scenes are very well written, I’m just in a no-sex mood. Can’t really fault the book for that. The romance is nice, though, and I like how Seb never really put pressure on Jason to come out, even if he was disappointed each time Jason said he couldn’t. It wasn’t really something I ever thought about till I had to start doing it myself, but coming out can be scary enough without having everyone around you pressuring you one way or the other. The least that queer people can do is not be assholes to each other about it.
All in all, this story was very enjoyable and I’m really looking forward to cracking open book two. Jay Northcote has been a rather reliable author for me, so I’m glad to say that his trend is still sticking to form. And, well, I love me a good ol’ romance set in small Enghlish towns, so I’ll take all of them I can get my hands on.
RATING: 
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