Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Ache

AUTHOR:  Marley Valentine

NARRATORS:  Gomez Pugh, Teddy Hamilton & Emma Wilder

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  6 hours and 56 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  July 28, 2021

BLURB:

From USA Today best-selling author Marley Valentine comes a brand new emotional MM romance.

I couldn’t tell you when I fell in love with Gael Herrera, but I wish I knew how to make it stop.

Falling in love with a straight man is a rookie mistake. But falling in love with my soon-to-be-married-to-a-woman best friend is nothing but heartache.

Through all the years, and all the men I’ve fooled around with, he’s always been at the back of my mind. An unrequited crush I wish I could shake. A dream that was never going to come true.

When I whisk him off to a surprise bachelor party weekend in Vegas, I surrender to the idea that this is an opportunity for me to finally let go of my feelings for him and say goodbye.

But after a heated exchange and an even hotter kiss, everything I thought I knew about our friendship changed.

Maybe I had it wrong. Maybe, after all this time, we were more than best friends. Maybe, just maybe, he felt it too.

Ache is an MM Romance narrated by Gomez Pugh and Teddy Hamilton with a supporting performance by Emma Wilder. This is not a ménage romance.

REVIEW:

Jordan Varga has been in love with his best friend for – well forever it seems.  But Gael Herrera is getting married to Elena.  Soon.  So as his Christmas present to Gael, Jordan plans an over the top bachelor trip to Vegas over New Years – which has a LOT of significance to Jordan and Gael.  They are going to spend a last New Year’s Eve together before Gael moves on with his life. Gael’s brothers in law are going too.  And there are some surprise guests as well who meet them in Vegas (which fans of Marley Valentine’s Without You will recognize).

While preparing for the trip, we discover that all is not perfect in Gael and Elena’s relationship.  Elena’s had a hard time with her family and Gael has been kind of her knight in shining armor.  But there is definitely something not right and/or missing here.  Gael is undoubtedly a torn man.

Jordan’s family kicked him out when he was teenager and came out as gay.  The Herreras took him in – no questions asked.  They are his family – he considers Gael’s parents his own and the same with Laura and Marianna, Gael’s sisters.  He spoils his nieces and nephew sill as well.  Ray and Seth are his brotrhers-in-law as much as Gael’s.  But Jordan and Gael share a connection.  Their friendship is deep and true – but the love between them is something more as well, even though they don’t talk about it or acknowledge it.  But this trip to Vegas will be their last opportunity.

The sizzling chemistry between the two reaches a boiling point in their suite in Vegas.  This isn’t the first time they’ve been in Vegas and we discover what happened before and how Jordan’s fear and Gael’s heartbreak have kept them at arm’s length for a decade, despite the love and desire and want on both sides.  When Gael insists on making Jordan listen to what he truly wants and truly feels – and share the reason for some of the decisions that he’s made, well there’s no going back.  Yes, they want to be together, but there are obstacles.

But then circumstances conspire to potentially take everything away – again.  Jordan’s not sure if he can survive it after being so close to getting what he truly wants.  With Gael fighting to recover, Jordan and Elena are both there and Gael has to try to figure out what is wrong and what he needs to do.  This part of the story is heartbreaking as well – for a whole host of reasons.   As Gael recovers and starts to realize something is really wrong, he owns his mistakes and his part in the heartbreak even though that doesn’t fix everything.  He has to be make the right decision for himself – not for the two people whose hearts he will have to handle with care and risk breaking.

This is the third book by Marley Valentine I’ve listened to and it might be my favorite.  Oh man.  The feels!  The narrators were familiar to me and I had enjoyed their work before and I loved their work here – the pain, the love, the desperation, the anger and the resignation were so so good. This is such a roller coaster ride!  Gael and Jordan are like the earth and the moon – tied together by a gravitational force that they can’t deny.  But Gael’s engagement is the thing that will finally break them apart.  Jordan is so afraid.  If he loses Gael and the Herreras because he can’t let go, then he will truly have nothing.  He’s scarred from losing his family when they abandoned him so he’s been afraid for a decade to hope that the thing he wants the most – Gael’s love – cannot be his and that he’ll lose everything.   He doesn’t want to take Gael from Elena, but he truly loves Gael and they needs to figure this out.    Jordan doesn’t hate Elena – she’s objectively a nice person – but he was surprised by the engagement.  And then Gael tells him the truth.  Seems like these two guys really really need to learn to communicate!  Yes, there is cheating and if that’s a hard line for you, then don’t read this book and then complain about it.  And then just when they think they have a plan, an accident nearly takes Gael from them all.  This part of this story especially is very difficult as Gael deals with a TBI.  The memory loss, recovery and pain for Gael is really difficult for everyone.

I loved seeing Deacon and Julian from Without You happy and settled together.  They are really good friends to Jordan and Gael and so supportive.  The secondary characters of Gael’s family and Jordan’s coworker and “friend with benefits” were also well-written and provided the believable background to the story of these two men who were meant to be together but realize they can’t do that without hurting someone they both care about.  I was heartbroken for both of them and for Elena that everyone couldn’t end up happy.

The ending was just sooooo good.  This story of two best friends who have put aside what might have been due to the fear of one and broken heart of the other is not an easy read – but oh so satisfying.   And in the end, their love is meant to be.  Highly recommended!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:  

Amazon

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