Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Falling for Raine

AUTHOR:  Lane Hayes

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  219 pages

RELEASE DATE:  February 27, 2023

BLURB: 

The gentleman, the hot mess, and a little British adventure…

Raine

Moving to London is scary and daunting, but I desperately need this job–and a redo. Okay, so I may have oversold my qualifications. That shouldn’t be a big deal, though. I mean, being an assistant’s assistant seems easy enough, and I’m a fast learner.

Hold up!

I’m already in over my head with spreadsheets, new pronunciations, and temperamental appliances. And just as I’m mentally preparing to face going home early, the big boss offers me an opportunity I can’t refuse. And I definitely should because Graham Horsham is an infuriating, complicated grumpy bear with a razor-sharp tongue, a wickedly dry sense of humor, and…I like him far too much.

Graham

I’ve been bamboozled. I’m not quite sure how I ended up with an assistant who spills coffee daily, wears wrinkled shirts, and chatters nonstop. He can’t stay, but I don’t want him to go and that’s madness. The Horsham Group is closing one of our biggest deals ever and I won’t jeopardize it. This one is personal.

Yet so is Raine.

He’s a breath of fresh air—silly, impetuous, lighthearted, good-natured, and…quite lovely. I like him more than I want to admit. For some reason, I can let my guard down with him. It’s unnerving and probably unprofessional.

But not to worry…I will not, under any circumstances, fall for Raine.

Falling for Raine is an MM, age-gap romance featuring a British silver fox, a desperate but adorable American, and a UK adventure!

REVIEW: 

Raine is having a very bad day.  Travel mishaps galore trying to get from LA to Vegas and his penchant for tripping over his own feet have made him very very late for meeting up with his new boss and the team for his move to London for a new job and new start.  *sigh*  Oh well, he’s got a last night in Vegas before he heads off for new horizons.  He goes out with poor directions and ends up in a gay bar WAAAAY off the beaten path.  He realizes he’s in the wrong place, but well, he’s going to have a drink before he calls it a night.  Then a lovely British bear sits down next to him.  Raine decides to try to get a leg up on his new country home and they have chat and have a good time over a couple of drinks.  They both decide to call it a night, but at the last second the bear invites Raine to share his car.  Well one things leads to another and  . . . instead of dropping Raine off, he invites him to his hotel room.  After an evening of great sex, Raine returns to the real world and off to London.

His flat is OK and he makes his way to the office where he realizes he is WAAAAAY over his head.  His friend arranged for a glowing recommendation but he’s clearly very very underqualified.  And then he meets the boss – you can see where this is going 😉

There is a big deal going down and Graham is buried in it.  He is focused on making it happen, but Raine just won’t get out of his head.  They embark on a sort of no strings attached relationship – sex, not love.  But you know how that is going to go.

Well this was just lovely!  One of the things I think Ms. Hayes is very good at is providing insight into her characters and their motivations.  Raine is very much a 30-something trying to make a fresh start.  His upbringing is very unconventional and he has had the lucky to have a fully accepting and encouraging parent who always let him be who he was.  Graham has kept himself buttoned up for much of his life – and he’s still got some axes to grind about it.  He’s used his position and his money to ensure that he doesn’t have to hide who he is, but he’s not exactly comfortable either.  He’s developed a hard shell of protection – he views his wardrobe as armor even.  He made sure that he never fell into any stereotypes and that he has to be better, stronger, smarter, more successful to assuage those feelings of shame that he’s never really completely overcome.  As the story goes on and Raine gets beneath his hard shell, Graham fills in the gaps of his history and why the deal in question is personal for him.  Much as he tries to convince Raine that he’s not a good guy, Raine doesn’t believe him – because he’s seen the real Graham under the covers, as it were 😉

This story was also quite fun!  Raine is really a hoot!  His friends and his ability to just be himself – letting the chips fall where they may – is a breath of fresh air for the buttoned-up and stuffy business world Graham is used to.  Their banter and Raine’s teasing and cajoling of Graham to “let his hair down” with his never ending conversational tangents is so engaging.  Graham can’t figure out how he’s gotten here.  It certainly wasn’t anything he planned.  They are very honest with each other and Graham is clear that he doesn’t believe in “LOVE” and that he’s quite happy for sex and conversation.  Raine definitely leads with his heart and not his head so much and Graham doesn’t think he needs his heart for anything except pumping blood 😉  He is about to find his world upended though by the delightful Raine.

The epilogue was perfect for this story 🙂  I hope maybe Ms. Hayes will let us peak in on these two from time to time.  There are other characters in this world to mine, so maybe just maybe someday in the distant future we might get to visit this world again (hint, hint).  A lovely read – highly recommended.

RATING:

BUY LINK:

Amazon