Reviewed by Dan

 

TITLE: Mother Parker

SERIES: Mayberry Protectors #2

AUTHOR: Rhys Everly

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 406 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  August 1, 2022

BLURB:

Divorced. Beaten down. A failure. Until a ray of sunshine comes into my life…

People call me Officer Grumpypants, but wouldn’t you be if life kept knocking you down?

My life is an endless sh*t list that I can’t even begin to unravel.

It all started when my parents died.

It continued when I was forced to sell my house.

And it all came to an epic conclusion when my wife walked out on me.

What I need is to get my mind in order and my life back on track.

So when my old commander offers me a job in Mayberry Holm, I grab the opportunity by the balls.

I’m ready to put my head down and my hands to work.

What I wasn’t planning though was becoming pet food for crows by this infuriating little man who throws seeds at my face.

Or being hired to help said man with his new store.

Or having to protect him from a bunch of criminals that prey on his softness and sweetness.

Even though he drives me insane, I can’t stop thinking of him. And even though he’s annoyingly cheerful, I can’t help but smile around him.

Or fantasize about him doing… naughty things to me.

What the hell is happening to me? Am I falling for the young, bubbly, pink-haired man? And is it too late to stop it?

Welcome to Mayberry Holm, a small island in the Atlantic full of crime, secrets and happily-ever-afters, and the ex-Navy SEALs that come to deal with them all.

 

REVIEW:

This was a new to me author, but whether he is writing as Rhys Everly, or as Rhys Lawless, I’m definitely going to be searching out more by this author.

Let’s talk about Mother Parker. I was hooked into the story almost immediately. We meet Parker on a ferry on his way to the island of Mayberry Holm off the coast of Massachusetts. The first few pages of the book give us a lot of information on Parker. He has a crappy time with life and now he has left his Navy SEALS position and is transitioning into civilian life. Along the way he has gotten a divorce from his wife, sold his house, and lost pretty much everything he had in the world. He is doubtful that his new life on Mayberry Holm will be any better, but he has several former SEALS colleagues on the island and they and Parker’s sister are going to be the support base he needs… hopefully.

Next, we meet Hwan. He is a young Korean-American man who has been living with his grandmother since his mother’s death. He has an inheritance from his ‘sperm-donor’ that he had let sit in the bank but finally decided to use to open his own bubble tea shop in the waterfront business area which also has an apartment above it, so he for the first time living on his own. His mother had a bubble tea shop but had to close it years ago. His shop is up and ready for business but getting the islanders to try his product is proving to be a longer process than he had hoped. He is working from dawn to dusk in the store, with only a young 16-year-old boy for assistance. He can’t afford more.

When the shop is vandalized, Parker’s friends get involved and Parker ends up volunteering to help protect the business and Hwan. Parker, an ex-SEAL, is huge compared to Hwan. That doesn’t stop Hwan from fantasizing about Parker, and when Hwan ‘accidently’ swings his phone around during one of his online blog posts and his audience sees Parker briefly, there are comments that he should be climbed like a tree, and encouragement for Hwan to do something, anything, with the hottie.

Because the book is written from both men’s viewpoint, we know that both are having thoughts about the other, but Parker is straight, isn’t he?

No more spoilers, I loved this book, and I will be looking for more by the author. One final note on this book though. I have to say that I was wondering as I was reading if there was another book in this series that I had missed that was a predecessor of this one. Some of the characters could have used a little background. The story alluded to the fact that Asher and Maddox, one of the couples on the island are newly together but we seem to be missing a story there. I’m hoping maybe we’ll get a 0.5 in the series to tell us their story?

I highly recommend this one if you’re into contemporary m/m fiction with  and opposites attract theme. It was an entertaining story that kept me wondering who the bad guys would be, so it had a little mystery thrown in as well, but you’ll have to read it to find out what that is about. Pick it up today!

 

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

Amazon