Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Open Hearts
SERIES: Stealing Hearts
AUTHOR: K. Evan Coles
PUBLISHER: Wicked Fingers Press
LENGTH: 193 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2020
BLURB:
Some hearts are made to be opened.
Jae-seong Bak has never been in love. He prefers to let his personal life take a backseat to his career as a nurse, especially since no-strings hookups with men he’s glad to call friends have always felt like more than enough.
After years of moving around the United States, Jae takes a job in his home city of Boston, arriving just in time to celebrate his brother Ty’s engagement. In reconnecting with friends and family, Jae befriends Emmett McNeil, a young chef and Ty’s future brother-in-law, whose own bad luck with love hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for life.
As the summer passes and Jae and Emmett help their families plan the wedding, the spark between the two men ignites, though each agrees to keep their hookups under wraps in order to prevent potential drama. Taken off guard by the depth of his feelings, Jae backs away, only to find that going back to being just friends with Emmett is much harder than he ever could have predicted.
Now, standing with Emmett as their siblings make their vows, Jae must decide if he’s really content to hold the man he loves at arm’s-length or if taking a chance on more is in the cards.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the third book in this series and as such contains spoilers for the previous two books. It can be read as a standalone, however.
Jae-seong Bak has finally returned home to Boston after having lived in lots of different cities over the years as his career as an RNA has taking him all over the country. But his brother Ty is getting married and he’s decided to stay in Boston for a while both for his family and because he needs a break. He’s been happy with this life, but he’s in his 40s now and he’s thinking maybe it’s time for something different. He’s always had plenty of friends with benefits over the years and he’s been fine with that. At the engagement party for his brother, he meets the bride’s brother, Emmett McNeil. Emmett is a chef of some repute who is temporarily living in Portland, Maine opening new outposts of his food venture with Aiden Marinelli (who we met in the second book in this series). Emmett is a very attractive, friendly and kind man who looks after Jae since he’s got a very intense food allergy and he wants to make sure that nothing happens.
Jae and Emmett are the best men in the wedding as Amelia, Emmett’s sister wants him standing up with her. Ty is supposed to be planning the bachelor getaway and Emmett offers to help. Emmett is also working on the food for the various events – rehearsal dinner, wedding reception, etc. Ty and Emmett begin hanging out to plan this party at a campground in Maine. Pretty soon their chemistry is too hard to ignore. But Emmett has been through a bad breakup and he’s not interested in love since his last two boyfriends were coworkers and they both went belly-up. He’s on a down with love kick and Jae has never been in love before and isn’t looking for a relationship either. They agree to keep their hooking up on the downlow so that they don’t have to deal with their families.
Emmett’s parents rejected him when he gave up his football scholarship to pursue Culinary school and do what he really loved. He’s also pan and they didn’t know what to do with that either. His father has since passed away and it’s clear his mother doesn’t respect his career or his life choices, which make things tense. Jae’s family just want him to find someone and settle down 🙂 While they manage to keep things secret from the families, Jae and Emmett’s friends and co-workers know that they are hooking up 😉
Things are going along really well for the wedding. However, Jae is realizing that he’s feeling a lot more for Emmett than just lust. But they’ve agreed that this is casual and Jae knows that he’s going to get hurt if he doesn’t pull back now because somehow, when he wasn’t looking, he’s fallen in love with Emmett. There is a crisis that brings things to a head with them and both men aren’t happy with this turn of events. It’s interesting though that while they thought they were being so secretive, other people can see what’s in their hearts maybe even before they do 🙂
I really enjoyed this story! I loved Emmett from the previous books as we met him as Aiden’s business partner at Endless Pastabilities (still love the name BTW). This book fills in Emmett’s backstory and revolves around his family relationships with his sister, future brother-in-law Ty and Ty’s family- including his older brother Jae. What starts out as a friends with benefit sort of agreed upon summer fling ends up being so much more. Jae doesn’t even know what to do with all this since he’s never felt this way about anyone before. He misses talking to Emmett as much as he misses the sex when their schedules don’t line up. Jae’s friend Sal, his friend with benefits before he meets Emmett is a good guy and I wonder if we will see him in the future? There are plenty of sexy times in this book and lots of food talk too. Every time I read one of these books, I end up being really hungry by the end 😀 I like learning things when I read and the little tidbits of Korean culture shared in this story were new to me. Jae’s allergy was something new also and was an integral part of the story and showed the reality of people living with severe food allergies. This series revolves around a group of friends who are in the medical profession and so their stories/relationships overlap. It’s nice to see everyone living their best lives after finding their person. If you’re a fan of first time falling love in their 40s romances with a well-deserved happily ever after, then I think you’ll really like this one. Recommended.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: