Reviewed by True
TITLE: Hard Chrome
AUTHOR: Anna Kensing
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 253 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 28, 2021
BLURB:
Neither time nor distance is on their side…
Twenty years ago, Dylan and Sebastian weren’t ready for the feelings between them, especially after their parents married, but the death of Dylan’s father has brought them back together. Dylan lovingly restores classic cars and he’s not keen on sharing his shop with his younger lawyer stepbrother from the big city. But he doesn’t want to dishonor his father’s dying wish.
When Sebastian returns to Maine and learns of his inheritance, their passion flares into something neither of them is ready for.
Love requires sacrifice, but will either give up the life he’s built for a new life together?
Hard Chrome is a second chance, small town romance with an age gap between a hot-tempered mechanic and a cool-as-a-cucumber lawyer, competence kink (on both sides), a 1955 Ford Thunderbird in need of restoration, meddling best friends (and former best friends), a cat named Simone and a dog named Giles, at least three hundred houseplants, and car sex.
REVIEW:
After twenty years (!) Sebastian, who’s now thirty-four, returns to a home where he lived with his mom for two years.
Sadly, his former stepfather died, there is a will and an inheritance.
Returning means also reconnecting with his former stepbrother.
Dylan is forty-two and runs his dad’s classic cars restore business. The surprise is big when his dad will say fifty percent of the business goes to Sebastian. Sebastian is a lawyer, he wants to stay for a few weeks and think over what to do with his part of the business.
I expected some struggle, but there wasn’t any. Both seem to accept the will.
Dylan and Sebastian are both gay and there is an attraction. The reconnecting is going well they end up in a romance. Sebastian is in a split, should he stay in Greenville or go back to California.
Meanwhile, someone wants to claim Sebastian’s fifty percent inheritance.
The story was mellow, almost no stress, a sweet and friendly read. I found the pace a bit slow maybe because of the lack of angst or stress. Dylan and Sebastian are mature and kind guys. The reconnecting between the two men was sweet but unrealistic. I mean, twenty years ago they were a family for only two years, they act as if they were together for way much longer. I couldn’t digestive the twenty years and it followed me through the whole story. Why twenty?
There are a few comments slash thoughts I didn’t appreciate, one was quite sexist and there was also prejudice about sexual preferences.
The story had a good focus on the men and their direct surroundings, some little side steps but mostly it’s about both men reconnecting and their father slash stepfather’s legacy.
Overall a friendly read I enjoyed but certainly not the whole time.
RATING: 
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