Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Shelf Life

SERIES:  Hearts & Crafts

AUTHOR:  Kelly Jensen

PUBLISHER:  Riptide

LENGTH:  330 pages

RELEASE DATE:  January 16, 2022

BLURB:

Good things come to those who bake.

Grayson used to love baking, but the recipe for running his parents’ café changes every day. His dad, overwhelmed by grief, is no help. They can’t even talk about Gray’s mom, let alone the failing business. Of less help is the crush Gray has on Sporty—a trainer from the local gym. Gray barely has time for his friends, let alone scratching the itch Sporty inspires.

Aaron suspects he’s not Gray’s type, meaning Gray probably isn’t into fitness, board games, or redheads. Still, that doesn’t stop Aaron visiting the café twice a week. The day Gray finally speaks to him personally could have been the start of something—if Gray hadn’t immediately suffered a heart attack.

The prescription for Gray’s recovery includes exercise, but when Aaron steps in to help, Gray is dubious. He’s never been fond of working out. The more he gets to know Aaron, though, the more they seem to have in common, especially when it comes to games. Aaron has been quietly designing his own, and when Gray shows interest, they embark on a quest to complete it together: a hero’s journey complicated by family, the demands of their careers, their fledgling relationship, and learning to be honest about what they want out of life.

REVIEW:

Gray has been running his parents cafe for the past two years after his mother died of a heart attack.  It’s wearing on him trying to do the job of two people.  His cousin Patty is helping, but every day the lunch rush seems to be more of a hassle.  The part-timers he’s hired have a bad habit of not showing up and his best friend Oliver can’t always step in, even though he does do a lot.  A bright spot is the sporty guy who comes in for his lunch sandwich special twice a week.  The freckled red-head is not his normal “type” but something about the guy gets to him.

Aaron is a fitness trainer and personal trainer.  He works with his sister and her wife at their local gym.  His sister is his bestie and he’s happy to help them with their son and he loves his job.  He really loves helping people.   One day as he’s picking up his lunch order, things are going a bit crazy at the Cafe.  Then Gray, the owner, goes down.  He’s having a heart attack and Aaron does his best to help him while they wait for the EMTs.  He feels like maybe he had a part in Gray’s attack since they ended up bumping heads while Aaron was trying to help Gray with the coffee urns.

Once Gray is being released from the hospital, he’s going to have to do some cardiac rehab.  Aaron volunteers to train him while he gets back to health.  They end up with developing a friendship despite Gray’s rather prickly nature after the heart attack.  And it turns out that although they are polar opposites when it comes to fitness, they do have more things in common than originally thought.

In the meantime, Aaron’s mother has arrived and is staying with him for a while.  His father is on some tour in New England and his mother decides she wants to spend time with her kids.  Aaron was adopted after spending 10 years in the foster system.  He and Devorah are very close though and it’s clear his parents love him.  But he’s never really felt able to share all of himself with anyone.  He’s got a deep love of RPG board games and he’s even gone so far as to create his own game.  It’s just for his own enjoyment – but then his mother finds his work.  And it turns out that Gray is really into gaming as well and he’s so impressed with what Aaron has done.  They begin to work on the game together.  A client at the gym has a contact in the gaming industry and tries to hook them up.

At the gym though, things aren’t going to plan.  Seems Devorah has different plans for Aaron’s life than he does.  Her assumptions make Aaron uncomfortable and then angry.  The it feels like his whole life is falling apart.  He can’t seem to talk to anyone about what’s happening and he’s having trouble on all fronts.  It’s a good thing that he figures out that he’s going to have to start letting people in if he wants to be happy in both his personal and professional life.

Well this was just a lovely story of two guys facing midlife and finally finding a comfortable place to land – although not without a few bumps along the way.  Aaron has some baggage from growing up the way he has.  He loves his family, but he is still in some ways the odd man out.  When things start to go sideways with work because he won’t fall in line with his sister’s plans and goals, he struggles.  He can’t seem to bring himself to talk about the problems with either family or friends.  When he discovers that things are going off the rails with a new employee and he has the added pressure of trying to get the game seen, it becomes too much for him.  And he has a hard time letting Gray in to help him.  Gray is dealing with delayed grief after his mother died and also his own health problems.  Add in the fact that his father is a shell of his former self and Gray feels like he is alone in most things and it’s easy to see why he had a heart attack.  Aaron becomes his bright spot.  They are so compatible despite what appearances might show.  They connect on a level that neither of them ever has before and it’s nice to see two guys who have been sort of unlucky in love finally find their HEA.  I also loved seeing Oliver and Nick and Cam from the previous story living their lives as well.

This is a really enjoyable series.  If you are a fan of mature characters getting their hardwon HEA, you will really like this.  Recommended!  I can’t wait for the next book which I hope is Cam’s story 🙂

RATING: 

BUY LINK:

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