Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Hitting the Mark
AUTHOR: Aidan Wayne
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 193 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2019
BLURB:
Marcus Economidis is a famous action-movie star renowned for doing his own stunts. But put him back in his Michigan hometown for his latest project and he’s a nervous wreck. Why? Taemin Choi—the taekwondo master who trained Marcus and helped him move beyond debilitating shyness to become the man he is today. Taemin was Marcus’s first crush, and now that he’s grown, their reunion might lead to more than a mentorship.
Marcus’s kindness and confidence impresses Taemin, and the attraction is instant—for both of them. Making time for each other won’t be easy, what with Taemin training to qualify for the Olympics and Marcus working on his latest film. But it all seems worthwhile when they’re together, reacquainting themselves with each other—in the dojang and beyond—and nurturing a romance more satisfying than anything either ever thought possible.
But can their romance withstand the pressures of Marcus’s fame and Taemin’s grueling schedule?
REVIEW:
Marcus is on the top to the world. He is famous actor, his career is going great, and he has everything he could ever want right in his sights. Including the man he has been crushing on since he was a teen. Now, all he has to do is get up the courage to tell him hello.
It has been years since he last saw Taemin, the man who taught him taekwondo and helped him break out of his shell. And when he was 15 there was no chance that Taemin ever saw him as more than a gangly teenager. Now grown up, and more sure of himself, Marcus hopes there is a possibility for the man to see him as an equal, a partner, and a friend. But with both of their lives so busy, and with their homes on separate sides of the country, it might have to stay as nothing more than a wish.
I can’t say that I have much interest in martial arts, except maybe binging Cobra Kai on Youtube. But I’ve never really let my lack of personal interest in a subject stop me from reading a story about it. Hell, that is how I became a hockey junkie. And while I am not likely to be dropping into any taekwondo matches anytime soon, I feel that Aidan Wayne did an admirable job of translating their love of the sport to a layperson. Even if I don’t find it personally all that compelling, I left the story understanding why Marcus and Taemin like it so much.
Unfortunately I do have to say that my one negative takeaway has to do with the taekwondo as well. Mostly in that if you, like myself, don’t have much experience in the sport all the sparring that happens in the book might play a bit flat. Mainly because I have no real idea what is going on most of the time. Though maybe this is just my universal inability to visualize action scenes.
Luckily everything else around the actual taekwondo is very well written. So even if there were moments where my attention wavered, it never lasted very long. I really liked these two characters and their interactions. Where I expected Marcus to get on my nerves (in general, wealthy famous characters rub me the wrong way) his initial hesitancy with Taemin really grounded him in my mind. Taemin himself was a bit more of an enigma, but as the story goes along, and we get to know him better, the easer it was to connect to him. The pressure he puts on himself because of trying to live up to his father was relatable, but it also never got over the top. And I could easily sympathize with his need to constantly push himself, even to his own detriment at times, in order to reach a goal that others might not understand.
Even with the occasional bumps in the road, I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable story. The characters never came across as flat, and I could feel genuine desire between them. Even if the sport this story revolves around is not something you find interesting I still think readers should give it a try. You might learn something new.
RATING: 
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