Reviewed by Lady Macbeth
TITLE: This Ain’t No Gay Romance
SERIES: Perimeter
AUTHOR: Sasha Avice
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 318 Pages
RELEASE DATE: January 3, 2023
BLURB:
I’m not gay.
I’m getting married.
So why can’t I stop sleeping with my chubby workmate?
When Rollins is sent to work on the edge of the Australian desert in the early 2000s, the last thing he needs is for Jay, the gang leader’s geeky son, to get sent with him. Charged with cleaning drug money through a job on the mines, Rollins expects his task to straighten Jay out to backfire spectacularly.
And it does—because Rollins is obsessed with sleeping with him. Even though Jay is a white gangsta wannabe with terrible fashion sense and awful opinions on everything, Rollins has to have him.
But according to Jay, Rollins—ex-SAS soldier with the body of a God—is a decent lay, but not boyfriend material. Rollins is outraged. And yet he still can’t get enough—impending nuptials, disappearing money, and threats of gang violence be damned.
But when Jay confronts him with an impossible offer, Rollins can’t possibly accept… can he?
REVIEW:
This is one of my favourite MM romances ever, I’ll never get tired of rereading it.
It’s not the usual romance and I loved every second of it. It’s funny, steamy, infuriating (Rollins, how dare you speak to Jay like that?), hilarious, a little sad sometimes and romantic in a different but still meaningful way.
The first chapter was odd at first, because of the flashes from the future, and I didn’t understand what was happening, why they were in a boat. But then it became easier to read and it was actually very captivating and it was impossible to put down.
I struggled a bit with the language sometimes, but this is totally on me because I’m not a native English speaker and I know nothing about Aussie slang.
I adored both MCs with all my heart: Rollins is a very handsome man (Tim, the MC of The Cook, describes him as a GQ model, an Adonis) and he’s also a closeted bisexual who’s always refused to acknowledge that side of his sexuality; he’s had sex with men during his deployment, but since he’s attracted to women too, he always dismissed it an unimportant. Rollins is now engaged to a woman, Sarah, and even if he doesn’t particularly like her, he’s still going to marry her because it’s the “normal” thing to do. Rollins lives in denial and he’s got a lot of internalised homophobia.
He has sex with Jay, repeatedly, he feels things he’s never felt before, but when jay talks about boyfriends or same sex relationships, Rollins always ends up dismissing him or, worse, deeply hurting him.
Jay is amazing: he had a very difficult childhood but that didn’t make him lose his gentle side; he’s spontaneous, caring, adorable, he keeps his pain and his sadness hidden from everyone, he just smiles and shows up, he’s never afraid. And he deserves all the love in the world.
With his personality, Jay has Rollins under his spell. Rollins doesn’t understand why he’s so attracted to the guy and tries to avoid him, but, thanks to a forced proximity situation, he’s not able to resist him and he slowly overcomes his prejudices towards sex (like, he cannot give oral because he’s not gay) and opens up to him. Rollins is a grumpy man, quite the asshole actually, but it was beautiful to read how much he cared about Jay, how he wanted to keep him safe.
Their sexual encounters slowly become more than just physical attraction and feelings get involved. Rollins feels deeply that Jay always gets him, he confides to him things he never spoke out loud to anyone. As the days pass, they become closer and closer. And when Rollins finds out some unexpected truth, he’s not even that mad at Jay, he’s just worried and wants to keep him safe.
There’s cheating in this story, so some readers could be uncomfortable with it, but, if this can help, there’s no love at all between Rollins and his missus, not only from Rollins’ side, but from Sarah’s as well. Their relationship was just convenient, the normal thing that had to be done.
The scene at the church really broke my heart and I was so sad for Jay. He was so brave and, luckily, they got their sweet romantic HEA.
I’m not going to lie, I need more from them. I’m not ashamed to admit I pestered the author over the years asking for a bonus epilogue and I don’t think I’m going to stop any time soon.
What can I say, I just love them both so so much.
Absolutely recommended.
RATING: 
BUY LINK:
