Book Title: Starboard (Voyagers Book 2)
Author and Publisher: Ava Olsen
Cover Artist: Angela Haddon
Release Date: March 21, 2023
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, collaborators to lovers, close proximity, second chances, bisexual rep
Themes: coming out – bisexual rep, second chances, redemption
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 262 pages
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Dylan Aylmer is a Hollywood actor struggling to make a comeback.
Falling in love with his ghostwriter wasn’t part of the script.
Blurb
Dylan: I’ve lived my adult life under the Hollywood spotlight, but no one really sees who I am. I’ve gone down the dark path of drinking my anxiety away, along with my career, but now I’m searching for the light again. My struggle to stay sober has me releasing long held secrets.
A contract to publish my autobiography means laying everything in the open. When I meet Max, my ghostwriter, I’m not sure how our collaboration is going to work. He’s a university professor from New York with more degrees than I can count and I’m a guy from West Texas that barely finished college. And he may be my ghostwriter, but Max is anything but invisible.
Intimate confessions lead to heightened emotions and an unexpected love that fills up all my empty places. I don’t know what the future holds, but I want Max to be a part of it.
I’m done hiding in plain sight. It’s time for this star to finally shine.
Max: I’m an established university professor and a celebrity ghostwriter. Why ghostwriting? Because it pays. And I need the money. My ex-husband likes to threaten me with legal battles over custody of our daughter and while he has family reserves, I don’t.
So I take a summer ghostwriting contract, a celebrity tell-all. I expect to meet another self-absorbed actor, but Dylan Aylmer doesn’t fit any pre-conceived mold. His eyes are so haunted that I can’t look away and now I’m curious to unlock all his secrets.
What I find is not only a man trying to mend his broken soul but a beautiful person that is so much more than outward appearances. I swore I’d never be vulnerable to heartache again, but Dylan has me breaking all my steadfast rules.
Am I chasing a shooting star, soon to be gone, or is our love the kind that shines forever?
He strolled out a minute later in ripped jeans and a gray t-shirt, and the simple outfit shouldn’t have looked so fucking good. Or rather, it was the man himself that always seemed to take center stage, no matter what he wore—or didn’t wear. He took a seat beside me, and I shuffled as far away from him as I could, my back hitting the arm rest. I continued to clutch the pillow tightly since my body didn’t listen to my brain’s directive to calm down.
“I wanted to be sure you were okay after everything we talked about. It was a lot. I’m worried.”
What I didn’t say, what I feared, was that the stress of all these personal revelations would cause him to relapse. Now that we’d shared intimate details about our lives to each other, I felt like a relationship, a friendship, had taken seed and I didn’t want anything to disrupt the tender roots. More importantly, I didn’t want to jeopardize his sobriety.
“I talked to Rowan earlier and came out to him. It was stressful, but such a relief once I said the words. And now I feel about twenty pounds lighter.” He paused and ran a hand down his thigh, picking at the ripped threads. “I appreciate your concern Max, but it’s not your job to worry over me and what I can or can’t handle.”
“I know that, but I don’t want to say or do anything that’s going to make things…difficult.”
“Stop tiptoeing around. You’re concerned I’m going to fall off the wagon.” Dylan shook his head. “I’ve been dealing with my addiction for a long time. But I’m finally facing the issues that caused me to drink in the first place, so I feel stronger in my ability to handle my urges. That’s all I can say. There are no guarantees. I can only take it day by day.”
All I could do was nod in return. Foolishly, I wanted to make everything better for him. My heart was trapped in a vise and the grip was getting tighter. I didn’t know what these intense feelings were about, but I needed to get myself back to my normal state.
“I’m going to head up and do some work.” I stood up and Dylan followed, reaching out to touch my arm. I resisted the urge to wrap him up in my arms and give him physical reassurance that everything would be okay. Instead, I did what I normally did when most people got too close. I stepped away.
“I’m taking the tender to Cannes for an AA meeting this evening at seven. Did you want to ride with me, maybe meet up for dinner after?” he asked.
“Sure,” I blurted out, obliterating my distance from him in one word. “But I thought we were supposed to avoid being out in public?”
“I’ll wear my disguise. I think I’ll be okay.”
“All right. I’d like to take a walk through the city.”
It was the prospect of getting off this ship for a while that intrigued me. A walk was desperately needed. Far away from Dylan for a while, from things I shouldn’t want. Wandering the streets of Cannes alone would be a good start. Maybe I could stop by a bar and see if a handsome man caught my eye.
Then I could tell this crazy desire I had for Dylan to fuck right off. And never come back.
Ava Olsen writes steamy and dreamy contemporary romances filled with heartwarming characters, cheeky banter and swoony moments.
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