Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Mixed Messages: The Complete Series

SERIES: Mixed Messages

AUTHOR: Lily Morton

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 921 pages

RELEASE DATE: October 17, 2021

BLURB: 

The bestselling Mixed Messages series is now available in one collection. Set in London, it follows a group of friends as they each find love with a lot of heat and humour along the way.

Rule Breaker

Dylan has worked for Gabe for two years. Two long years of sarcastic comments. Two long years of insults and having to redo the coffee pot four times in the mornings to meet his exacting standards. Not surprisingly, he has devoted a lot of time to thinking of inventive ways to murder him. Dylan has thought of everything from stabbing him with a cake fork to garrotting him with his expensive tie.

But then a chance encounter opens his eyes to the attraction that has always lain between them, concealed by the layers of antipathy. There are only two problems – Gabe is still a bastard, and he makes wedding planners look like hardened pessimists.

Deal Maker

Jude is a highly successful model but a very reluctant one. His life is full of casual hook-ups with pretty men in glamorous locations, but it’s still empty. Nevertheless, circumstances decreed a long time ago that this was his path, so he’s resolutely stayed on it and accepted his fate with good grace.

However, an accident at home has him making a new deal and accepting the offer of help from an unlikely source. It leads to an unexpected summer of falling in love with a larger than life man and his child.

Risk Taker

Henry is the odd man out. All of his friends are settling down, and his reputation as the Hook-Up King of London seems more like a curse than a blessing these days. Especially when it keeps photojournalist Ivo, his best friend and the brilliant man he’s loved since they were fifteen, at arm’s length.

But Henry knows that’s where Ivo wants him. So putting aside his feelings, he decides to give up casual sex and look for the real deal. After all, he has no chance with Ivo – or does he?

REVIEW: 

In a hypothetical world where you could only have one M/M romance title to read for the rest of your life, Lily Morton’s Mixed Messages: The Complete Series would be my choice.  I could write tomes about the magic Ms. Morton weaves through Rule Breaker, Deal Maker, and Risk Taker, the three books included in this series.  But you’d be better served if I simply whet your appetite with hints about the extraordinary love stories told within the 921 pages of this collection. 

Ms. Morton has written three series in the same universe with interconnected characters.  Mixed Messages is the first.  It’s followed by her fantastic Finding Home series, beginning with the incomparable Oz.  Then her Close Proximity series follows after, starting with another Rule Breaker-esque crowd favorite, Best Man.  (She has standalones, like The Summer of Us, Spring Strings, and The Cuckoo’s Call, that exist in the same shared universe as the three series as well.)  Ms. Morton thoughtfully and aptly titles each series, cleverly underscoring her overarching theme.  

Her Mixed Messages series reflects the love/hate relationship one of the main characters in each book has with love itself.  In Rule Breaker, it’s Gabe in his devastatingly heartbreaking but ultimately triumphant relationship with his assistant, Dylan.  In Deal Maker, it’s Jude, Dylan’s best friend since childhood, as he unexpectedly finds himself nannying mega movie star Asa Jacobs’ five-year-old son Billy, and unwittingly falling profoundly in love with both of them. Finally, in Risk Taker, it’s Ivo, the gorgeous ex-stepbrother and best friend of Henry, Gabe’s best friend since Uni. 

These three men share a commonality: each has suffered trauma and heartbreak at the hands of parents and ex-boyfriends that hang like an albatross around their necks. They’ve learned that love is bad and not for them.  Yet, in their hearts, they yearn for it but don’t believe they deserve it.  They want to love but can’t allow themselves to be loved because they’re terrified.

As a result, these men deliver mixed messages to their partners.  They begin to fall, so they deny and resist.  They start to give in, so they pull back.  They realize they want love, so they push their partner away.  Ms. Morton develops a complex, deeply textured, emotionally complex, and at times painful dynamic between Gabe and Dylan, Jude and Asa, and Henry and Ivo.  The mixed messages shared and the push/pull between them lead to the conflict’s inevitable climax, formed by exquisitely devastating scenes.  We’re left to ride out the falling action between that and the denouement with broken hearts alongside our leading men.  Have tissues. 😭 But also have no fear.  Ms. Morton delivers breathtakingly complete and beautiful HEAs for these couples, so you’ll eagerly jump on the roller coaster ride of emotions time and time again.

If you want to get a sense of the magical nature of Ms. Morton’s writing, just read the first chapter of Rule Breaker.  From that glimpse alone, you’ll undoubtedly understand why it receives repeated, zealous recommendations from readers as the preeminent boss/employee M/M romance. And why it also consistently appears atop “Best M/M Romance” lists.

Rule Breaker also sets up the gorgeous found family underpinning these stories, with Gabe and his best friend Henry and Dylan and his best friend, Jude.  As consuming as the romances are, the friendships are equally glorious. The prime example is Dylan and Jude’s lifelong friendship, one of my favorite parts of this entire series.  Their brotherly interactions and steadfast, unfailing love for each other will give you overflowing warm and fuzzy feelings. 

Ms. Morton’s stories are rooted in her characters, and character development is what she does best.  These men are authentic, multi-dimensional, and relatable.  They are adults in adult relationships with adult problems that carry weight, bear consideration, and have lasting impact. That’s not to say these men aren’t misguided adults who sometimes devolve into childish behavior (*cough* Dylan and Jude *cough*), but that just adds to the many facets of these characters, their relationships, and how they interact with the world Ms. Morton has created around them. Indeed, the world-building throughout Mixed Messages is phenomenal, laden with intricate details that bring the surroundings to life in vivid color. Ms. Morton’s writing is sharp, witty, snappy, and snarky, and her dialogue is par none.  Very few authors write dialogue as she does, and almost none do it better. 

These Mixed Messages stories hold up to repeated readings, never losing their freshness or charm.  The romances get better each time.  These six men are fascinating, endearing, charming, and snarkily funny, each in their own way. I could read about their exploits endlessly.

Each time you read Rule Breaker, Deal Maker, or Risk Taker, you see something new or understand something better, deeper, and more meaningfully than you had before.  The Mixed Messages collection is deserving of all the hearts and stars.  Five hearts is undoubtedly not enough. I’d give it ten hearts, a hundred hearts, infinite hearts if I could. Therefore, it will come as no surprise to you that Mixed Messages: The Complete Series receives my highest and most emphatic recommendation.  💖💖💖💖💖

P.S. Additional content for these couples can be found in Ms. Morton’s collection of short stories, Short Stack.  

P.P.S.  If you enjoy audio, the audiobooks for this series are some of the best out there.  Joel Leslie is at his finest, delivering voices that remain indelibly tied forever to these characters. 

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

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