Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Meet Me There
AUTHOR: K.M. Neuhold
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 294 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 5, 2022
BLURB:
Two men, dozens of cities, and a connection they just can’t seem to shake.
We haven’t spoken in fifteen years, and Marlon is the last person I expected to run into in a bar on Bourbon Street.
He’s not my gangly internet pen pal anymore, he’s all muscles, body hair, and temptation.
Our friendship feels like it never faded, but the heat between us is brand new.
We’re both in different cities every few weeks, hustling to build our careers and soaking up all the perks of being young, hot, and untethered. But our paths seem to be crossing more and more often.
“Meet Me There…”, they’re my new favorite words. Honestly, I think I’d follow Marlon anywhere. Does he feel it too?
***Meet Me There is a stand alone, super steamy, ultra-swoony best friends to lovers, long distance love, coming of age in their 30s MM romance with very low angst and lots of happy, mushy feels.
REVIEW:
Meet Me There is a standalone childhood best friends-to-lovers romance told in K.M. Neuhold’s hallmark style. There are plenty of laughs, irreverent behavior, hot, super-sexy times, and sometimes swoony declarations as only she can craft them. Even the two leading men, Marlon and Reed, represent Neuhold’s prototypical “dream” men – big, burly, hairy, tatted-up, macho men with hearts of gold. She does a fine job of developing both Marlon and Reed into likable, relatable, down-to-earth guys who have longed for each other since they chatted online on the regular at the age of fifteen. The chemistry between them is evident, and it translates to some sexy, adventurous encounters.
However, what’s missing in this story is depth and complexity. There’s not much in the way of plot – just two BFFs who travel extensively for their jobs, coming together when their paths cross to celebrate their friendship and have some hot AF sex before saying goodbye … until the next time. The story arc, such as it is, depicts the slow recognition by Marlon and Reed over time, through meeting after meeting and goodbye after goodbye, that they are more than BFFs. They are actually in love with each other and have been for some time but didn’t realize it until circumstance keeps throwing them together, like a proverbial 2×4 to the heads of these two oblivious men.
This story has zero angst, so it comes across as very one-note. It’s steamy, adventurous sex scenes loosely strung together by the on-again, off-again intersection of their lives when times and places align to allow them to be together. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of story – an easy, light, sexy, titillating read that doesn’t make you think too hard. However, I was looking for more – more depth, complexity, dynamics … more something to make this into a more cohesive romance, and I just didn’t find it in Meet Me There. It could just be a “me” thing or, like Marlon and Reed, a case of time, place, and circumstance. This just wasn’t the book I wanted to read right now. But it may be for you, especially if you like Neuhold’s writing. If that is the case, you’ll find this to be enjoyable storytelling faithful to her style.
RATING:
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