Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Always for You
SERIES: True-Blue Book 5
AUTHOR: Becca Seymour
PUBLISHER: Rainbow Tree Publishing
RELEASE DATE: September 30, 2020
LENGTH: 44 pages
BLURB:
Join the residents of Kirkby for a celebration, romance, and just a little mayhem. It’s the perfect chance to get to know outgoing and loveable bar owner Ted, and his grumbly younger husbutt, Jason.
This fabulous couple was first introduced in LET ME SHOW YOU (True-Blue #1) and have featured in every book in the series to date. If you’ve gone into their story blind, you’ll be sure to have fun as you follow the chaos, but definitely treat yourself and go back to the beginning by reading Carter and Tanner’s story to get the bigger picture.
REVIEW:
Becca Seymour’s Always For You is a short story that you can read in (practically) a blink of an eye. But despite its short length, it still manages to deliver a sweet, heartwarming pseudo-holiday story.
It’s not entirely clear to me if Ms. Seymour intended this to work as a standalone, but it sorta does and sorta doesn’t. You can certainly read and enjoy this without having read the other books. Ms. Seymour has written a contained story focusing on an established couple, Ted and Jason, who appear in prior series books. Jason’s sister requests a “Christmas in July” party because she has unexpectedly and on short notice decided to visit from Australia. So Ted is enlisted to “throw something together” for the occasion.
Through that lens, the story shows love shared by an established couple, some family dynamics, a holiday party, and some unexplained history between two of the guests, Lawrence and Billy. You can enjoy that without knowing anything else.
That being said, it’s very clear that this story is part of something larger. Ted and Jason and most of the other characters appear in prior series books. They have relationships that developed in those other stories which will pique your curiosity about them. However, it also may frustrate you because you don’t know the context. You also don’t have a sense of who Ted and Jason are or why they warrant a separate short story if you haven’t read the other books. Additionally, this story really serves as a vehicle to set the stage for the next full-length book in the series, It’s Not You, featuring Lawrence and Billy. Where I ultimately land on this debate is that Always For You should be read as part of the series.
Overall, while there’s not much to it, the story is nevertheless interesting and enjoyable. It features cute animals and two sexy men and is fairly well-written. So if you are reading the series, definitely read Always For You. Most certainly do it before reading Book 6, It’s Not You.
RATING: 
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