Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: The Haunting Crush
AUTHOR: Christie Gordon
PUBLISHER: Extasy Books Inc
LENGTH: 319 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 27th 2021
BLURB:
Kai is pathetic. Conner is perfect. Things aren’t always what they seem.
Kai Nez is pathetic. At least that’s what his mother tells him after blaming him for his father’s death from a diabetic coma. He’s the poor part native, part white gay guy the bullies picked on in their small-town high school, on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona. The crush he has on the football quarterback—homecoming king Conner Mitchell—will always be that, a crush. And he’s fine with it. Until Conner corners Kai at his graduation party and gives Kai something to fantasize about, then disappears. Years later, Kai is bar tending at a local restaurant. He’s happy where he’s at and he’s good at his job. Then Conner Mitchell shows up at the restaurant and bulldozes back into Kai’s life. At the same time, weird things start happening in the duplex he shares with his best friend. Haunted house things.
Conner Mitchell lives the good life, born into wealth, perfect student, perfect athlete and dating the perfect girl. But perfection is over-rated and short lived. After college and landing a lucrative job as a pharmaceutical rep, he breaks up with his girlfriend, moves back to the small town he grew up in, and finds Kai again. The brief moment they shared at his graduation party has always haunted him. And now Kai is dealing with a different kind of haunting and needs his help.
Kai is skeptical and fearful of both ghosts and Conner’s intentions. Conner isn’t going to let this chance pass him by. It’s time to show Kai who he really is and prove to Kai he’s not pathetic. He’s perfect.
REVIEW:
Kai is quarter Navajo, half convinced that he’s to blame for his dad’s death, and completely sure he’s crushing on High school quarterback Conner Mitchell. Then Conner pulls him into an upstairs bedroom, kisses him, and the two both end up coming. Kai is disappointed, but not really surprised, when Conner treats him coldly the next day. After all, Connor is high school royalty and Kai is pathetic.
The story jumps ahead four years, Kai is still in his small Arizona town. He is now working as a bartender, sharing digs with his straight but accepting best friend from school. While his self esteem is better than it was in high school, he’s content to “settle” for his current life. Then Conner returns and starts shaking up Kai’s world. Of course the ghostly manifestations in Kai’s digs are shaking him up a bit, as well.
This is an odd M/M romance. The fantasy fulfillment aspects of Kai finally getting his high-school crush are roughly intermingled/interrupted with a somewhat low key ghost story. Both work, but both could have been melded more smoothly.
Conner’s former friends, including his old high school girlfriend, are still around. Kai discovers that he can be very jealous. He’s unsure just how much he trusts Conner when Conner starts seriously courting him. Conner, and his interest in him, seems too good to be true. Kai’s also bothered by just how proficient Connor seems with giving fellatio…
The storytelling here is a bit muddled but earnest. At points it felt a bit like the paranormal parts of the plot-line had been tacked on as an afterthought. The overall writing style is unusual enough that the reader is never quite sure what kind of book they’re reading. I was almost certain at various points that Conner would reconsider, or Conner was hiding something huge, or that Kai’s jealousy would somehow spoil the guys’ relationship. That said, in many ways this is a very realistic romance. Since it is billed as an M/M romance, it’s probably not too much of a spoiler to say that it has a happy ending.
There is on-page sex but it’s integrated into plot-line of the story. It never feels gratuitous, and is never terribly graphic.
The main characters are all likable and it’s interesting to spend time with them but this isn’t as polished as what I’m used to reading. Overall, it was a satisfying read, but not something I expect I’ll want to read again and again. I am curious now about reading some of the author’s other works.There’s a lot to be said for earnestness.
RATING: 
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