Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  The Sunny Side

SERIES:  The Model Agency #1

AUTHOR:   Lily Morton

PUBLISHER:. Self-Published

LENGTH:  374 pages

RELEASE DATE:  September 6, 2022

BLURB:

Jonas Durand is successful, rich, and controlled. He owns a prestigious modelling agency and has the world at his fingertips, but a turbulent childhood has taught him to be focused and never deviate from a plan.

Dean Jacobs threatens that stance. He’s one of the world’s most sought-after supermodels, but he’s also laidback and lighthearted and free in a way that Jonas has never quite managed.

Dean has always been interested in Jonas and has never made any secret of his admiration, but from the beginning, Jonas put him in a neat little box labelled, “Don’t touch,” turned the key, and never looked back.

However, the universe seems determined to thwart Jonas’s plans. Over the course of one hot summer, the two men come together, and Jonas’s well-ordered life becomes something a whole lot wilder.

Moving from the glamorous worlds of London and Paris Fashion Weeks to the sleepy South of France, Jonas finds himself liberating partridges, chasing his supermodel, and falling in love.

REVIEW:

Oh, wow! There’s one word to sum up The Sunny Side: F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S!

It’s yet another outstanding book by the inimitable Lily Morton. She couldn’t write anything less than stellar if she tried, right? And it’s fun because it’s Dean, of course. We met Dean in Deal Maker as Asa’s stepbrother and Jude’s brother-in-law/hook up. In fact, they met through him. Dean was outrageous as a “pretty airhead”, words he might use to describe himself. Low self-esteem, that one. Reading Deal Maker, I never thought I’d fall in love with Dean. *sigh* Yes, he was utterly entertaining but in The Sunny Side we see he’s SO much more. I challenge you not to fall in love with him, too.

And Jonas! These two men are perfect for each other, exactly what they both need, filling a void in each other’s life. Jonas is the owner of a modeling agency where Dean is their top model. Dean needs someone who sees him as so much more than a beautiful face. Very few people see past the dumb blond reputation which, unfortunately, Dean has internalized. He’s been told this since he was a little boy — by his own parents, tragically. In reality, Dean has depth; he’s obviously charming, but he’s a warm and gentle, earnest and intuitive guy. He’s clever and takes the time to pay attention to others; he’s genuinely interested and cares about their lives. He’s knockout gorgeous by everyone’s standard (and if he looks anything like the stunning cover model, I’d be drooling all over him), but Jonas sees the beauty deep inside, too.

Jonas recognizes Dean’s fragility, vulnerability, and weariness. Everyone but his good friends want something from him and he’s near his breaking point. Plus, life is more difficult to navigate now that he’s given up drugs. But he finds Jonas to be a safe haven and he’s never felt that before, not even in his childhood. In fact, he ran away from home when he was just fourteen. Jonas cares about Dean’s happiness and state of mind, and not just because he’s the agency’s greatest asset.

They’ve been crushing on each other for some time but it saddens Dean to think Jonas won’t want him for long because he’s not intelligent. He has dyslexia and doesn’t read or write well. In fact, this is largely why people think he’s brainless. He can’t comprehend why such a successful man as Jonas would ever want him. Everyone else, it seems, thinks he worthless and they get tired of him. Low self-esteem, remember?

Jonas is scared by the foreign feelings Dean is awakening in him. He’s always had a tendency to date men who didn’t need be cared for as an excuse to remain standoffish. Now he needs to resist retreating into that comfort zone and letting it have control over his life. But he’s afraid of risking his heart by entrusting it to Dean. Dean, however, is teaching Jonas through example to live in the moment, relax, and open up his heart to possibilities. One way he shows this is through how he takes care of Jonas’ five-year-old, sweetheart of a daughter, Ruby. He’s head over heels about Ruby and his nephew Billy. Jonas can’t help loving Dean for how much he enjoys the children and comes to love Ruby deeply, as if she were his own.

I loved the numerous cameos in this book, including Mal and Caden from Spring Strings, Mal and Pip from Lily’s newsletter serial Model Clinic, and Jude and Asa. And of course, everyone’s favorite, darling Billy. Pip is a delight as Jonas’ sassy assistant who provides Lily’s trademark snark. A classic Pip-ism:

“Well, what am I supposed to think when my boss is chasing all over the countryside escorting the agency’s top model here and there while he frees the world’s oppressed partridges?”

As stated, Dean has dyslexia and it’s had a wide-reaching, negative impact on him. Lily clearly did her research on this learning disorder and represents it authentically. Most of us know that it affects reading and writing skills, but I never stopped to think how it shapes an individual’s entirety. Dean’s ashamed of his dyslexia and his nearly nonexistent self-worth governs so much of what he does. How sad it is that he goes through life thinking he’s less than. Fortunately, Jonas teaches him there’s nothing wrong with him. In the epilogue – set one year in the future – we see Dean and Jonas living a blissful life as a family of three with Ruby, who has become a more exuberant child. Dean loves his life of domesticity and we see his new interests and different career choices. We witness Jonas embracing a more satisfying life as well.

I’ve used the word care a lot in this review. It really is the theme of the book. The men are opposites in many ways, however it’s one commonality in particular that binds them together: they’re both caretakers who seek to nurture the other’s emotional and physical well-being. They make each other better men and bring joy to each other. You could say they’re like two unlikely puzzle pieces fitting together perfectly.

I’m fairly sure The Sunny Side will be on my list of top ten MM romances of the year. I bet it might be on yours, too!

RATING:   

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