Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Doors Open on the Left 
SERIES: Open Doors
AUTHOR: Vinni George
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 123 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 16, 2023
BLURB:
Strangers on a train…
Dr. Brooks Bruno has one rule: don’t interrupt someone when they are reading. But when a sexy stranger boards his train, he’s too intrigued to follow his rule. He’s also too smitten to remember to ask for the guy’s phone number. But he can’t get the stranger’s face out of his head.
A missed connection…
Henry Miller has always been a hopeless romantic, so when he meets a gorgeous guy who loves books as much as he does, he’s pretty sure he’s the one. Unfortunately, Henry is too caught up in their literary banter to ask the important questions…like his stranger’s name.
A second chance at love…
In a city as big as Chicago, finding each other again will be nearly impossible, but sometimes fate intervenes in mysterious ways.
Doors Open on the Left is a 40,000-word standalone novella set in the Open Doors world featuring a jaded English literature professor, a bookstore owner who loves romance novels, a human shop cat, and a secret identity.
REVIEW:
Brooks Bruno is a literature professor who doesn’t exactly love teaching. He’s written some books under a pen name – which he does love doing, although he’s in a bit of a writer’s block situation. Rushing to get to the summer class he’s teaching to enhance his tenure application, he spies a super cute guy on the L reading one of HIS books. He has to know what the guy thinks. So they get into a discussion but then Brooks has to run to his class and they don’t exchange numbers or even names 🙁 But he can’t stop thinking about the guy. His friend Beckett recommends he try this app that one of his students has set up to try to connect with the guy since Craig’s list and personals are a no go.
Henry is intrigued by the guy he talked books with on the L. But he has no idea who he is or what he does or even his name. So missed opportunity 🙁 He’s a little mopey about it at his bookstore, Tiny Tales, when his resident non-customer thinks she’s found a reach out on an app that might be about his missed connection 🙂 He’s surprised when it actually works! He’s also surprised when he hears back from his favorite author – the one whose books he discussed with the intriguing stranger – actually answers he emails about a potential signing even at his bookstore. You can see where this is going, right? ;
The rest of this cute and quirky book takes Henry and Brooks through some surprises. I’m not going to be the one to spoil them. Let’s just say there are plenty of surprises to go around here and they all end up being good ones!
This story was so sweet in the best way 🙂 This series was one of my favorite debuts in 2021 and I have enjoyed each new couple in this loosely connected group of friends who all find their happily-ever-afters. In this one, we have two really great guys who have a meet-cute in a huge city and then serendipitously find each other again. There are wonderful side character with Mrs. Matthews and Beckett who are sort of Cupid’s assistants in this case. As someone who works in Chicago and has on and off for almost 40 years, it’s fun to see this take on public transportation, restaurants, local neighborhood haunts, etc. Brooks coming into his own and deciding how he really wants to live his life was a delight. There is so much to like about this story but the biggest things for me was the connection between the two main characters. I think anyone who is a true booklover can relate to how fantastic it is to find like-minded individuals to discuss books and tropes and characters with. I just read a really disheartening article today about the cliff fall-off of those pursuing Humanities educations in the US 🙁 I fear we are going to be a much poorer world for that. Whether it’s language or literature or history or philosophy, we just seem to continue to dumb things down. *sigh* In this story, we get two very compatible men who despite a near miss and some potential miscues and mistakes, are able to find a way to support each other and make each other happy 🙂 This one has plenty of cute and steamy and humorous moments that I think will give readers lots to enjoy. Highly recommended and an absolutely lovely addition to this series.
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