Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE: Coffee, Tea or Me

AUTHOR:  TL Travis

PUBLISHER:  Sapphire Publishing

LENGTH:  1192kb

RELEASE DATE: January 10, 2020

BLURB:

For Howie, the lonely barista, he longed for the dream life. Husband, house with a white picket fence, 2.5 kids and a dog. Sadly, all he could get were meaningless one night stands leaving him feeling…empty.

Jackson Milsap, the introverted writer, quietly pined for Howie from the corner of the café. Stepping outside of his comfort zone and asking him out on a date sent his social anxiety into overdrive. That was until the day he came to Howie’s rescue, forever changing both their lives.

This story was part of the Between The Covers limited edition anthology.

REVIEW:

Howie hasn’t had an easy life, but he’s doing fine with a job, a place to live and a best friend who has had his back for a while.  Not bad for a kid who grew up in foster care.  Jackson is a local writer who hangs out in the coffee/book shop where Howie works.  Howie is really attracted to Jackson, but Jackson doesn’t seem to have time for anything other than his writing.  But when Howie is mistreated, Jackson comes to his defense.  This throws Howie off a bit because nobody but his bestie has ever done that for him.

When Jackson asks Howie out, they are both a little surprised – and nervous.  Howie hasn’t fared well in the dating game as he’s looking for more than a quick encounter and on with his life. He’s wants someone who will stay, love him, live with him – the proverbial dream.  Jackson hasn’t had that much experience with relationships either and sometimes he tends to not communicate very well or clearly.  This sets Howie’s anxiety and low self-esteem issues off.  Eventually they start to figure out what they want and need from each other and express themselves without setting the other off 😉

This was really a cute story, and I really wanted to like this more.  However, there were a few things that detracted from my enjoyment.  One of my personal pet peeves are comma splices.  They tend to throw me out because I’m looking for the sentence break.  I really did like Howie especially, but I kind of had a hard time warming up to Jackson a little bit.  Also I found the ending to be a little abrupt. Perhaps that was due to a word count restriction, but I would have preferred something a little smoother.  All in all, it was entertaining – I just wished for something a little bit extra 🙂

RATING: 

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