Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Chasing Eddie
SERIES: Golden Gate Love Stories #3
AUTHOR: Frank W. Butterfield
PUBLISHER: self-published
LENGTH: 152 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 10, 2019
BLURB:
January 29, 2019
Eddie Smith is a chubby bear of a guy who lives in Daytona Beach and doesn’t work much anymore but isn’t retired.
Whit Hall has just retired as a tight end for an NFL expansion team and lives in San Antonio.
At 52, Eddie feels at home with himself and has learned how to roll with life. He’s happy enough where he is and doesn’t expect much to happen anytime soon.
At 35, Whit is ready for a life that put less of a strain on his body. He’s banked plenty of dough but doesn’t know what to do next
About to sit down to his favorite take-out lasagna, Eddie gets a call from a friend who wants to hire him to help Whit figure out what’s next in his life.
Eddie is a kinda, sorta life coach and might be able to help but seriously doubts it.
Reluctantly, he climbs aboard his friend’s private jet and flies to San Antonio. Once he arrives, he ends up getting a whole lot more than he bargained for. Whit Hall is aggressive, he’s angry, and he’s under a lot of pressure.
It’s a good thing Eddie (sorta) knows what he’s doing!
Now that he’s retired, Whit is looking for the next thing.
He’s set, with plenty of bank. And he’s doing what he can to deal with his parents, who are all up in his business. A lot.
Then, one Wednesday morning, he opens his front door. Before he knows it, Whit is chasing Eddie Smith out of his house, down the street, and even further.
It’s a good thing Whit is (kinda) in shape for this new type of chase!
Neither man wants to go far…
But unexpected changes are chasing them both…
Wherever they end up going, and whatever ends up happening, this will be the beginning of something new and wonderful for them both.
This 45K word stand-alone contemporary male/male (MM) romance involves a chubby bear guy and a retired professional football player.
Included:
Some tension…
Hints of a coming-out story…
Medium-heat sexual descriptions…
Slightly nerdy details…
Some metaphysics…
And a HEA (that’s a happily-ever-after)…
Not included:
Much angst…
Graphic sexual descriptions…
A cliff-hanger…
This story is the beginning of a series of contemporary romantic adventures. It ends with the start of one of those, so there are some loose plot points but no cliff-hanger.
Topics: virgin, virgin hero, out for you, first time romance, mid-life transformation, innocent first timer, late bloomer
Golden Gate Love Stories are all about the lives and loves of men who fall in love with each other and find the one they were waiting for.
Set in the same universe as the Nick Williams Mystery Series and the Daytona Beach Book Series, these love stories focus on the men who come together, find true love, and really do live happily ever after.
REVIEW:
This was definitely a different book than what I was expecting. Not that that’s bad. I was expecting the whole ‘life coach’, find what makes you happy kind of thing and they move on. But what ended up happening is what made them happy, was being together and one of them finally coming out and being who he wants to be. Not what someone else wanted from him.
Eddie has been asked to go see Whit, a now retired football player. Apparently, he feels at a loss in his life, since he’s only 35. Eddie agrees to do the whole life coach thing, but what was a plan has now turned into a big huge angry mess, because his friends said the wrong things. Whit was thinking Eddie was there for health tips and to lose weight. And when he finds out the truth, it’s not pretty. It’s also made both Eddie and Whit mad, because things were said and they were hurtful. To the point, Eddie walked out and left. Leaving his friends a not nice message. Whit calls the friends, who happen to be his boss, and wants to get to Eddie to apologize. But the problem is they are feeding off each other and not in a good way. Eddie ends up leaving for good and goes home. Whit, eventually, chasing behind. What Whit finally realized is something Eddie had mentioned. He’d been living his life for everyone else, thinking he owed them for one reason or another. But the truth is, you have to live your life for you. And no one else. And when he realized that, he realized what he really wanted. And that was Eddie. But Eddie has been burned before and doesn’t quite know how to trust. But does eventually. After all, you only live life once. But because Whit announced to his mother on speaker phone that he was gay, he had just put his life in danger. Because when Eddie’s friends found out what was really going on in that church and under Whit’s name, without his permission, it was about to get nasty. And now, they’re on the run.
It’s not a bad book. I liked the characters. Especially that they talk to ghosts. But the problem with them is they were just like bulls butting heads instead of really talking or listening. Once they finally got the bullcrap out of the way, then they learned to communicate better. And that made a huge difference. Communication is always key. As well as honesty. It’s not easy. Especially when you’ve lived your life one way for so long. But if you are truly that unhappy, you have to cut the toxicity out of your life. No matter who it is. Because, unfortunately, family can be the worst kind of toxic.
RATING: 
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