Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Thief of Hearts 

SERIES:  Stealing Hearts

AUTHOR:  K. Evan Coles

PUBLISHER:  Wicked Fingers Press

LENGTH:  103 pages

RELEASE DATE:  September 1, 2020

BLURB:

Some hearts are made to be stolen.

Mark Mannix doesn’t believe in love or romance, which is ironic given his birthday falls on Valentine’s Day. As he approaches forty, Mark is perfectly content with his life and nursing career in Boston, and—outside of his long-time friend-with-benefits, Alistair—prefers his hookups to be one-night stands.

When Mark’s plans for New Year’s Eve fall through, he attends his sister’s party and meets Owen Todd, a graphic designer of Caribbean descent. Owen is more than a decade younger than Mark and, at first glance the two men appear to have little in common. The chemistry between them is potent, however, and Mark breaks his no-strings pattern, seeing Owen week after week.

A connection forms between the two men, leaving Mark in uncharted territory and drawn to Owen in ways he’s never known before. Even so, Mark continues his hookups with Alistair but is startled when Owen withdraws out of a desire to protect himself. His foundations shaken, Mark must decide if he can watch Owen walk away or … if the time has come to follow his heart in a new direction.

REVIEW:

This is a romance that is a bit of surprise – mostly to Mark who was not looking for love.  Like ever.  But he forms a connection with Owen, one of his twin sister’s colleagues, immediately.  Mark has never looked for a relationship, but at a unexpected New Year’s Eve party meeting, their chemistry is off the charts.  But more than that, they have a good time together and Mark is confused because he’s never seen himself as a relationship guy.  His twin’s impending nuptials are plenty for him to deal with 🙂

Owen is younger and Mark and he has had a boyfriend, so he’s got a bit of a different perspective.  While Mark tried to be honest with Owen from the get go, this is definitely not something that Mark has dealt with before and he’s not sure what to do with the desire he has to see Owen.  He doesn’t want to give up his friends with benefits with Alistair, his long time friend and hookup, but it is definitely something different.  It takes him a little bit to see that Owen is a bit more invested in this thing between them and when Owen pulls back, Mark’s not exactly happy about it, but he understands.  A crisis, as well as some well-timed insight from his sister and her fiance help him to finally figure out where his head is at 🙂

I found this story to be very believable.  Mark’s age and his past help to provide insight into his philosophy of hookups over romance/relationship.  He and his twin sister are very close and having lost their parents, they have become even closer.  Her fiance is a coworker of Mark’s so the relationship between the three of them is close also.  Owen fit right into this group.  Mark has some niggles about the age gap, but nothing that stops him 🙂  Ultimately Mark realizes that he does have feelings for Owen, especially as he fears he might lose him permanently.  He’s never been in love before so he has to work through things.  Luckily Owen is up for the challenge of helping him do just that.  My only issue with this story is the ending was a little fast/abrupt, but I know that these characters appear in the other books in this series, so I wasn’t too worried 😉  I really enjoyed this story.  It’s fairly low angst but a sweet story of two guys who find love where they least expect it 🙂  Recommended.

RATING: 

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