Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Gentleman
SERIES: Carver Brother
AUTHOR: Diana Roman
NARRATOR: Joshua Macrae
PUBLISHER: Wild One Press LLC
LENGTH: 10 hours and 32 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 29, 2024
BLURB:
Cameron Fairway has a secret.
Before he shares it with the world, he’s determined to build the confidence he wants to live life as a gay man and the experience hell need to snag Mr. Right. For that, he requires a mentor–someone experienced. Someone with manners. Someone discreet enough to be able to mix business with pleasure under the watchful eye of his fathers empire–a gentleman. Pete Carver is without a doubt that man.
Pete Carver has a problem.
Pete doesn’t mix business with pleasure because there is no pleasure in business. There’s only order and discipline if you want to succeed. When the boss youngest son approaches him with a proposition that rattles every one of his sensibilities, Pete is determined to get to the bottom of the ploy. Because that’s all it can possibly be–why else would the ruthless John Fairways son proposition a straight man in his father’s company? The apple can’t fall far from the tree.
* This story contains the following elements: slow burn, hurt/comfort, awakening, homophobic/racist parent, familial emotional abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder
REVIEW:
This is my first book by this author and I really liked this story! This is also my first audio from this narrator and I will be looking for more from him. Both of the MCs were distinctive in both voice performance and personality. Pete’s OCD is really clearly presented via his inner monologue. When he spirals, he has developed coping mechanisms that help him regain control. Cam is a younger man who misreads Pete and the whole misunderstanding and assumptions on the part of both men serendipitously lead them into a very unexpected relationship. Cam is right about Pete being a gentleman, but just about everything else he thinks about Pete is wrong.
Pete assumes that Cam is like the rest of his awful family. He’s sick of seeing the cronyism and the favoritism and the nepotism. He’s successfully running multiple divisions and his people like working for him. The rest of this company appears to be toxic. Cam seems to be something completely different, but he’s still a Fairway and Pete is suspicious that Cam is trying to bait him into doing something he shouldn’t so that the company management can fire him.
Cam assumes Pete is gay because of a bathroom encounter and a potted cactus in a pot with a rainbow on it in Pete’s office. Pete is unaware that this is even a pride symbol 😉 So when Cam asks him to be his first, well Pete plays along thinking he’ll catch Cam out. When Cam comes over though, it becomes clear that he IS attracted to Pete and he’s not on some nefarious mission to catch Pete in doing something wrong. Pete has no intention of doing anything else, but he does find himself feeling things he’s never felt with anyone. Not even his former fiance. What could this mean?
The more time they spend together, the more Pete enjoys telling Cam what to do. He’s done a LOT of research and he really does help Cam determine what he actually likes. For a germaphobe like Pete, he’s shocked by how much he is ok with the bodily fluids of sex with another man. They are trying to keep things on the DL of course and Pete hasn’t even shared with his family that he’s sort of seeing a guy. He’s not worried they won’t accept him, he’s just not sure exactly what to say. Turns out he doesn’t really have to “say” anything 😉
Then Cam’s family gets involved and well things don’t go well 🙁 Luckily Pete and his family are there to make sure that Cam isn’t left hanging out to dry. There are lot of surprising events that occur and ultimately Pete and Cam realize they are a great team.
Honestly I really loved Pete’s family. They ended up being cheerleaders for this couple. Pete and Cam are both good guys and Pete’s surprise at his attraction to Cam is well written. The narrator here did a great job of leaning into the dual POVs here. Pete’s anxiety ratchets up at times and I believed his spiraling. Cam has spent his life being ignored or ill-treated by his family. I was happy to see things work out for some characters who were caught in a bad situation. I would have liked more punishment for the true villain here, but maybe we’ll hear about it in the next book 🙂 Recommended for fans of a hard-won HEA.
RATING: 
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