Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: To Hold a Hidden Pearl
SERIES: Rossingley #1
AUTHOR: Fearne Hill
PUBLISHER: Ninestar Press
LENGTH: 246 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 24, 2021
BLURB:
Dr Jay Sorrentino is getting married in ten days’ time to the girl of his dreams, so what the hell is he doing in a gay London club with a stupidly handsome stranger? As if calling off the wedding and alienating his friends and family isn’t enough, Jay also has to contend with starting a new job at a new hospital. So the last thing he needs is for the bloke from the club to be his prickly supervisor.
Dr Lucien Avery is a difficult colleague. He’s also the unexpected and reluctant heir to the vast Rossingley estate. Reclusive and miserable, he hates most of his colleagues, people who eat packed lunches, and supervising junior doctors. That is, until the delectable Dr Sorrentino turns up on his doorstep.
A light-hearted M/M contemporary romance, Rossingley takes place in Southern England and is centred around a fictional country house and estate by the same name. The first in the series, it can be read as a standalone.
REVIEW:
Lucien Avery has lost his family in a terrible accident. He’s not coped terribly well. But he’s making do – living at his family’s estate and working in the local hospital. He’s mentoring a young trainee doctor who has just called off his wedding. He also happens to be the last guy to give him a blow-job in the dark corner of a gay club two weeks prior. Uh-oh!
Jay Sorrentino has come to the very belated conclusion that in fact, he is not straight. And therefore, he should not go through with marrying his long-term girlfriend Ellie. Sadly, he confirms this data of affairs roughly a week before he is to be married by going to a gay bar and blowing the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. He’s cut off from his entire network with the exception of his casually homophobic best man. And then he gets to his new job and discovers that the man he met is indeed his training supervisor. A training supervisor who has quite a reputation as the most difficult doctor in the hospital.
Lucien and Jay are drawn together. Jay sees something in the damaged and sad Dr. Avery and they forge a rather tentative friendship. The friendship becomes something more as Jay and Lucien are more honest with each other than with anyone else in their entire lives. Jay is dealing with the lot and he’s reluctant to come out given how devastated everyone already is about his calling off the wedding. Lucien plays everything very close to the vest – especially at work. His reputation is not undeserved, but he’s never shared his story with any of his colleagues. Only Jay knows who he really is 🙁
Negotiating his coming out, is for Jay, like walking through various minefields. There is his family – who are rather conventional. And then there is his ex-fiance, another doctor, and the rest of his friends who are also doctors. They don’t know Lucien at all, but they know of him and they are not fans. Poor Jay is left to try to figure out how to come to terms with what he perceives as disappointing and unpleasantly surprising everyone he’s ever known – with the exception of himself and Lucien. He’s got to explain who he got to be nearly 30 and not know who is – and that won’t be easy either.
Hold on to your hearts for this one dear readers! This is such a beautiful love story! From the very first pages of this story, I was surprised and delighted with the writing. These characters are unique and charming and flawed and damaged and everything I love in a good romance story 🙂 They have to really work for their happy ending – mostly because they are both starting from a quite unhappy place. They both have put on a very different public face to their true selves. Lucien’s public face is to hide the grief over his loss and the position he finds himself in as the “Lord of the manor” and for Jay, it’s simply acknowledging that he is not at all the man he and everyone else thought him to be his whole life. Neither is ready to let go of these public faces – except with each other. But it’s slow going and there are fits and starts to their growing relationship. The supervisor/employee relationship is navigated with rather less drama than I anticipated. Lucien’s survivor’s guilt as well as his compassion are handled superbly in my opinion. Jay’s solid support and empathy and level-headedness are just what Lucien needs. They are so well suited – although it doesn’t appear that way from outside. I adored their romance and this is a writer to watch! Well done and Highly recommended.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Ninestar Press