Reviewed by Chris

TITLE:  Honeymoon for One

AUTHOR:  Keira Andrews 

PUBLISHER:  KA Books

LENGTH:  243 pages

RELEASE DATE:  September 27, 2018

BLURB:  

The wedding is off, but the love story is just beginning.

Betrayed the night before his wedding by the supposed boy of his dreams, Ethan Robinson escapes the devastating fallout by going on his honeymoon alone to the other side of the world. Hard of hearing and still struggling with the repercussions of being late-deafened, traveling by himself leaves him feeling painfully isolated with his raw, broken heart.

Clay Kelly never expected to be starting life over in his forties. He got hitched young, but now his wife has divorced him and remarried, his kids are grown, and he’s left his rural Outback town. In a new career driving a tour bus on Australia’s East Coast, Clay reckons he’s happy enough. He enjoys his cricket, a few beers, and a quiet life. If he’s a bit lonely, it’s not the end of the world.

Clay befriends Ethan, hoping he can cheer up the sad-eyed young man, and a crush on an unattainable straight guy is exactly the safe distraction Ethan needs. Yet as the days pass and their connection grows, long-repressed desires surface in Clay, and they are shocked to discover romance sparking. Clay is the sexy, rugged man of Ethan’s dreams, and as the clock counts down on their time together, neither wants this honeymoon to end.

REVIEW:  

Like a scene out of a bad movie, Ethan Robinson comes home to find that his life is about to go seriously off the rails. Walking in on his fiance and his best friend fucking is bad enough, but add in the fact that Ethan and Michael’s wedding is only a day away and things soon become Ethan’s own walking nightmare. Unable to even look at Michael and Todd, Ethan decides to take his already planned trip to Australia and get away from everything for a bit. He doesn’t know what he will do after his drastically altered honeymoon-trip, but he sure as hell plans on it being minus the two cheating men in his life. Ethan never planned on Clay Kelly, one of his tour guides, though. Or Clay’s sweet charm–and slightly odd way of talking. Or having his heart come back online after so recently having it crushed. And even if had planned on any–or all–of that, could Ethan really throw himself at a new relationship when the ticking clock at the back of his mind never lets him forget a plane is only a few weeks away from dragging him back into the real world?

While it can take a bit of time to really get the relationship between Clay and Ethan going, I found the rather sweet nature of their growing attraction to easily off-set any of my impatience. Despite the fact that this story takes place over such a short span on time, the way the books uses the various scenes of travel and exploration to draw these two guys out of their shells and toward each other, makes it so that by the time they finally do something it feels organic and explosive. I usually have trouble buying love stories set over such a short time span, but that was not a problem here.

I think that the interactions between the two did a lot to sell their relationship. Ethan–on top of having to deal with being on his honeymoon sans husband–is hard of hearing. He started to lose his hearing while in college, and while it is not completely gone, it is pretty damn close. Even with the hearing aids he uses conversing with other people about the most basic things is a struggle. The way that Clay takes his time, choosing to focus on Ethan when they are speaking, really increases the bond between them. Because talking has to be done face to face, at the exclusion of the rest of the world so Ethan can really focus on what the other person is saying, it creates a sense of intimacy in these scenes. Everyone and everything else gets pushed to the background when they are speaking and so makes their growing attachment all the more believable for the reader. While I really do enjoy books that feature main characters with disabilities, my favorites will always be the ones where the author manages to use those disabilities to bring something else to the table. Andrews certainly managed to do that here. Had she just written Ethan to have a disability that would have been fine, but it was the clever and purposeful use of that disability to enhance the story that made it so great to read.

I know this book has been out for a month (not going to lie, the ARC did the virtual equivalent of falling between the couch cushions in my kindle and so I am rather horrendously late on this review for which I can only apologize), but if you have not picked it up yet, I can only say that now is a good time to drop buy whatever bookseller you prefer and give it a look see. There are some rather great descriptions of Australia in here, but more than that it is a great romance with two very likable characters. And so much slang. Hilarious Aussie slang. Which is probably the best kind.

RATING:  

BUY LINK:

Amazon