Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Coffee and Ink
SERIES: The Playground (Book 1)
AUTHOR: Olivia Joy
PUBLISHER: Tygerseye Publishing, LLC
LENGTH: 126 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 24, 2021
BLURB:
Cary Lederman reads a lot more these days, ever since he discovered the Playground, a great LGBTQ bookstore with an intriguing young owner. He only ducked in to get out of the rain the first time, but now along with his new reading habit he has someone to watch. Or watch over.
Benjamin Harrison is starting over after tragedy changes his life in Texas and becomes too much to bear. In Boston, he pours his heart and soul into his bookstore and the sparkly, comfortable apartment above it. When his deal to rent part of his store as a coffee shop falls through, though, Benjamin isn’t sure how much longer his dream will last.
Cary impulsively offers to fund and run the coffee shop because he knows he’s found exactly what he desires, mainly in Benjamin. The boy is all jangled nerves and confusion, and Cary loves to be the kind of Daddy who gives his boy guidance as well as showering him with love. Will Cary be just the kind of man Benjamin needs and never knew how to ask for?
REVIEW:
A mew series by the writing duo Olivia Joy.
Benjamin Harrison has moved to Boston from Texas and opened a quaint lgbtq+ bookstore after his parents death tragic sudden death. Keeping it running financial means having the coffee shop space rented, which just fell through. Cary Lederman has been watching the young bookstore owner every since he ducked in from a sudden downpour a month ago. Over hearing the boy’s sudden outburst on the phone provides the perfect opportunity to finally strike up a conversation. On a whim he not only asks him out but says he wants to open the coffee shop!
Okay, I will put this out there. I know Cary had been observing Benji and all but it creeped me out a bit how fast he moved on the young, naïve boy. He didn’t even give Benji a chance to really sort things out but charged right in and took over like they had been in a Daddy/boy relationship for awhile. And poor Benji, he had previously thought that that type of relationship was only in romance novels. He never saw what was happening until it already was. I get that Cary knew what he had seen/observed. And that this was the right direction to move. Heck, he even thought it to himself in several occasions but just kept charging on like a bull in a china shop. And yes, Benji did finally catch on and eventually totally accepted it all however it was a little too much, too fast for me. And his orders about reading were a bit over the top and would have sent out red flag warnings to me immediately. I did like that he recanted and said they could read and discuss them together. And he stated why, because of a lot of misinformation out there in romance books and on the internet, which is true, however it felt a bit over-the-top heavy handed and it bothered me a lot!
I did like the side characters both at the shop and at brunch and it did relax me a bit that Benji would have other boys to talk with and ask questions other than Cary.
This is the first in the new series and I hope that all the Daddies won’t be so over-the-top from the start like Cary was. I get his actions but they did put me off a lot. We will see. I know that their pervious series the authors had a common locale but each story couple was uniquely different.
I did bring my rating up because it all fell together for me in the end after being quite anxious through most of the book.
RATING: 
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