Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: Marc Jillson & The Gazebo
AUTHOR: Anyta Sunday
SERIES: Love Inscribed #2
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 229 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2020
BLURB:
Want true, heart-throbbing romance? Put down the Cheetos, and stop being a jackass.
The question is, can I do it?
I’ve been an epic dick to my friends, my uncle. Him.
Travis Hunter. Photographer, econ-student, paraplegic. Can I redeem myself? Apologize? Make a fresh start?
Hunter seems to think so. Even roped me into saving his favorite gazebo from the bulldozers.
The confidence of this man amazes me. He’s no bullshit where I’m all bullshit. I throw up walls where he knocks them down.
He’s beautiful, too. Strong arms inked with hummingbirds, a wide teasing mouth, and blue eyes that read me like an open book.
He looks at me, and I look away.
These shivery feelings I have for Hunter? They can’t happen. I don’t deserve him.
Where did I put those Cheetos?
REVIEW:
Marc Jillson and the Gazebo follows its predecessor, Liam Davis and the Raven, in Anyta Sunday’s series, Love Inscribed. Marc and Hunter, students at Gable University, meet as players in an online game, playing and chatting all summer, not knowing they have previously met under less than ideal circumstances. Namely, Marc was a jackass to Hunter’s friend Liam the previous school year. The central theme of the book is Marc’s redemption and his inability to believe he’s worthy of Hunter. It is so difficult for Marc to be vulnerable and it nearly ends their relationship. Fortunately, Hunter is remarkably patient.
I found both Marc and Hunter very likable and their dynamic compelling. Marc is so very different from his character in Liam Davis and the Raven. Marc, then known by the nickname Jill, was nothing short of contemptible with his sniggering, sneering, and pelting Liam with derisive comments. He’s now a changed man. He has no “casual cool” as he calls it. He’s awkward and bumbling, unintentionally funny, and suffers from foot in mouth disease. He lies to save face but just ends up looking ridiculous. Hunter is wise beyond his years and has a maturity befitting a man who has faced evil and tragedy. As mentioned, he is oh so patient with Marc and is deliciously flirtatious. Although Marc’s transformation is staggering, it’s made more believable when you consider his behavior in the previous book was influenced by a crush on a very bad person. Although Marc’s situation is extreme, many of us can understand doing something ill-advised in the name of love or infatuation.
Let’s talk about the sexy times. First of all, Ms. Sunday does a slow burn so well. When the men finally get down and dirty, it’s scorching hot. Who knew wheelchair sex would be so very, very sexy? I wonder if Sunday researched the possibilities for a wheelchair-bound paraplegic or it this was all her imagination.
This book is said to be a standalone. Marc Jillson and the Gazebo is certainly enjoyable on its own, but I feel you would derive much more out of this one is you were familiar with the actions for which Marc is trying to atone. Understanding Marc’s prior interaction with Hunter and Liam is important for context. Reading Liam Davis and the Raven first won’t be a hardship because it’s an equally pleasurable book.
The central plot is a campaign to save the rickety old Lover’s Loop gazebo from demolition. Within the gazebo, more than three hundred initials have been etched in the wood in pairs, and forever-in-love padlocks have been attached. As Marc and Hunter work to report the story for the college newspaper, they come across some artifacts that tell the nearly half-century love story of K and V. Wishing to incorporate the star-crossed lovers into their article, they track them down, hoping they can help save the gazebo.
So, while Marc Jillson and the Gazebo is a story of how Marc and Hunter find each other and fall in love, the gazebo also represents the myriad love stories of K and V, Hunter’s parents, Marc’s uncle and his partner, and hundreds of others who fell in love on the Gable University campus. This is a very sweet story that I highly recommend.
RATING: 
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