Reviewed by Lesley

TITLE: Balance

SERIES:  Oakley’s Crew Book 2

AUTHOR: Nicole Dykes

PUBLISHER: Self published

LENGTH: 178 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  10^th March 2025

BLURB:

Archie
My favorite principle in landscaping and in life is balance.
In any situation, that’s my goal—to find that perfect balance. And I’m good at it too.
That is until I met Cane.
Now, nothing makes sense, and everything is off balance. I’m not sure what to make of this and how to make it work.
I’ve never felt like this before, and I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. All I know is I want to find a way.
Cane
I knew I wasn’t happy before I met Archie. But after? It became pretty apparent I wasn’t.
Blatantly so.
How am I supposed to go back now? Especially since he showed back up in my life at just the wrong time—or right, depending on how you look at it.
I don’t even know if I can convince him to forgive me. And I don’t know what I want.
All I know is I’ve never felt more secure in who I am than when I’m around him.

REVIEW:

This is the second book in the series about the landscape gardeners that work for Oakley and  Travis’ landscaping company. In the first book we met Walker, this time the focus is on his best friend Archie.

Archie does not do relationships at all. He is all about hooking up and having a good time and he has no intention of ever changing. That is until Cane walks into Archie’s local bar and one look is all it takes for him to realise there is something different about Cane and he has to have him.

After a shared night of passion Archie wakes up in Cane’s hotel room and the unthinkable has happened, Cane has gone. Never before has Archie not been the one to leave and it has to be the one guy that has really sparked his interest that left him.
Imagine both their shock when Archie goes to do a landscaping job in the next town over a few months later for a young woman getting her garden sorted so that she can get married there and Cane is her fiancé.

Cane knows he is unhappy. He knows his current situation is not right for him and he is only doing what is expected of him because the last thing he wants to do is upset Evie his fiancé and their parents. As their wedding looms ever closer they break up again and as always he goes back to her knowing it is not right for either of them. Then the unthinkable happens. The one guy that it does feel right with is at his new house, getting the grounds ready for his wedding. What is he going to do?

As simple and low angst as the first book in the series Simplicity was, this is very different. Whilst there is no actual cheating in it I did have repeated flash backs of Ross from Friends screaming “We were on a break!!!”. They were definitely on a break in this book.

There is definitely more angst in this book than the first one as well with parental homophobia, the calling off of a wedding and the very scary process of becoming your own person and not just doing what your parents expect of you.  This is a very well written book, and I did enjoy it I just felt a little uncomfortable at points, but that’s ok.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon