Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: London Fog
SERIES: BrewBiz
AUTHOR: E.M. Lindsey
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 265 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2024
BLURB:
Part owner of the BrewBiz Deaf Café, Wren might not be the most self-aware man, but he does know a few important things he won’t compromise on.
No relationships.
No commitments.
No complications.
Then Percy shows up fresh from the UK and stumbles right into Wren’s path. Literally.
Percy is obscenely good looking, and since Wren never denies himself, he pursues Percy, and that one night rocks his world.
Now Wren doesn’t want to let Percy go, and that feeling threatens to upend the very core of his identity. So, Wren does what he does best.
He panics.
He ruins things.
And leaves Percy in shambles.
But he’s immediately filled with regret. Chasing Percy away is the last thing he wants, so he turns to his found family who show him that he doesn’t have to fit inside a box to be who he is. He can have what he wants and not lose everything he’s come to accept about himself.
If only he didn’t realize that after hurting Percy. His only hope now is a big apology, and praying that it wasn’t too little too late.
London Fog is the second book in the BrewBiz series. It contains a one-night-stand to lovers romance with disasters in babysitting, greyromantic awakening and acceptance, planetarium nights, fireflies, praise, panic kissing, and a steamy, swoony happily ever after.
REVIEW:
Note: This book follows immediately the events of the previous book. For the most part, it can be read as a standalone, but personally I feel like there are a lot of spoilers for the previous book and the context of that book is helpful to understanding Wren.
Well this book is a bit angsty and a bit of a different one. Wren is struggling a lot. He’s hurt people unintentionally. He has a big heart, but he’s looking for “love” in the way he thinks most other people are. He can’t do a typical relationship. Percy has been horribly mistreated by his ex. He’s still sort of licking his wounds years later. He’s moved to America from the UK to be with his sister who is adopting a little girl who is deaf. He didn’t realize that BSL and ASL are quite different and so he missteps when he steps into BrewBiz and it causes some big misunderstandings. But Wren likes him and doesn’t want him to feel bad.
Wren wants to help Percy and he feels like he is a good guy given what he is doing for his sister Penny and Lila, the little girl she is adopting. He shares his number and they meet for a drink and well things move pretty quickly to hookup. Wren explains that he doesn’t do relationships. He and Percy have explosive chemistry though and he stays longer than he normally does. He feels kind of bad leaving – even though they were both clear about what this was/is. But he does have regrets – which is sort of new for him. Percy has been honest about his horrible past relationship that was highly abusive. He had a gaslighting ex who broke him in many ways and he sees himself as not worthy maybe of more. Wren has a bad habit of making people fall for him and when he can’t reciprocate, well he’s left a string of broken hearts that he very much wishes he hadn’t. He knows he needs to be careful with Percy. And he is – until he isn’t.
They have some conflict as Percy is trying to learn ASL. Wren doesn’t like to always rely on his CIs. He’s lived between two worlds on both the hearing front as well as the personal relationship front. He and Percy have rather rotten childhood and parent history in common. It’s taken Wren a VERY long time to figure himself out. He’s pretty sure he’s aromantic, but when he starts to want more with Percy, he just doesn’t know what this is and he really doesn’t want to hurt Percy. They get together again after Wren rescues him from a bad social situation. They have a great night together and then well things start to go badly. They both make assumptions. Percy missteps. Wren reacts badly. The Wren makes assumptions and hurts Percy pretty badly. Luckily they have friends and found family that care about them and prod them to get their act together and be honest and communicate their fears and desire and limits and expectations. It really does take a village with these two 🙂
I really enjoyed this second book in this series. The author once again does a great job of filling in the details and conveying some of the nuances and challenges of deaf culture. The lack of awareness and mishandling and frankly assholery of people is unfortunately all too common. I loved that Wren knew that he felt trapped and overwhelmed between worlds and had been dealing with it all his life. But he also recognized it was up to him to figure out how to “be” in whatever world he wanted. Percy was a doll. He did so much for everyone else to his own detriment. Ravi is the best best friend ever. I really hope their are more stories in this world and we get to see more of this couple. I loved their resolution and where things ended up. It didn’t have to be conventional to be right. I hope we get more – especially Khai and Javier and Ravi need their stories told. Heck what is going on with Derek? Will he figure himself out? Enquiring minds want to know. Recommended.
RATING: 
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