Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Sun, Sea and Summer Songs
SERIES: Sun, Sea and . . . Summer Collection
AUTHOR: Megan Slayer
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 97 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 6, 2021
BLURB:
A Sun, Sea and… Story
Two men, one song and a summer to reconnect.
Jude Sanders walked away from Blake Payton three years ago and vowed not to look back…but the song he wrote and recorded with Blake has become a hit and he’s forced to perform the song with Blake all summer. He’s got to make a decision—face the mistakes in his past and give Blake another try or turn his back on their love forever.
Blake Payton knew the moment he and Jude recorded Summer Song that they’d created a hit. Summer hasn’t been the same without Jude in his life and he sees the tour as the ultimate chance to prove they belong together.
Will the tour, their lost love and the song of the summer be enough to put the pieces back together for good?
REVIEW:
Blake Payton is a b-movie actor – but really he’s a singer/songwriter and that’s what he wants to do. He’s also gay, but his controlling jerk of a manager/promoter had convinced him that coming out would wreck his career. So he walked away from the best thing that ever happened to him – Jude Sanders.
Jude and Blake wrote a song – Summer Song – during their time together, but now it’s blowing up the charts. Their old tour manager thinks they should get back together for a summer tour – promote the song and their own music and ride the wave the song’s popularity. He knows that things didn’t end great before for them, but he knows this will be good for them both. Blake agrees to do it if Jude will. Jude agrees once he knows Blake’s onboard. But then they have to deal with their managers.
Blake has had it with Kel, his nasty piece of work manager who has controlled Blake’s life and career. So he boots him and makes his own decisions for once. Because the thing he wants most is Jude. When he was in the closet before and wouldn’t come out, he knew he had hurt Jude. But now he’s ready and he knows they belong together. Jude is worried that Blake will be tempted by every other guy and that he won’t want to settle for Jude with his baggage. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Together they embark on the summer tour. Everything isn’t perfect – like Jude’s motion sickness and interference from people who should just take a hint. But others are there to help and make sure that nothing gets in their way. Because what they really want is an endless summer. Together.
This is a fairly low angst, brief story of two guys who were together, but broke apart and then unexpectedly have the opportunity to come back together again. They had never stopped caring about each other and it was just too good of a chance to pass up. Blake is dealing with his guilt about the way things ended before and Jude is dealing with wanting to protect himself from heartache again. I loved Bob and Rachel who were instrumental in getting them to do the tour. The villains of the piece were a bit caricatured, but in a short story such as this there isn’t the time to build them into 3-dimensional people. Because this is a shorter story, there isn’t a lot of time to delve into their issues too deeply, so things like prior drug addiction and an abusive childhood were sort of footnotes in the story. Ultimately it’s a rather easily tied-up story of second chances. For a quick easy read with an HEA, this might be a good choice.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Pride