Title: A Hold on His Heart
Author: Andi Anderson
Length: 16,223 words
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Genre: m/m contemporary romance
Rating: C+
Blurb:
It’s just another interminable day at the office for clerk Justin Myers. After a wild night at his favorite club, he’s nursing a hangover and wishing he was home instead. All he wants is to get through the day unnoticed and hopes his pounding head will subside. When his co-worker Preston goes out of his way to help him, Justin realizes the nerdy engineer has a crush on him. They’re polar opposites, and at first, Justin isn’t sure what to do about Preston’s gentle flirtation and friendship. But as Preston becomes a bigger part of Justin’s life, he realizes that love has no boundaries after all.
Review:
This opposites attract romance begins well with Justin, an admin worker, recovering from a hang0ver after being out at a club. He’s asked out to lunch by a co-worker, Preston, and whilst out with him realises that Preston is attracted to him. After a bit of an awkward moment, Justin relaxes and finds out that he has more in common with nerdy Preston than he thought at first.
I really liked the first half of this story. Justin is a nice guy who has a boring job, and I liked seeing his opinions of Preston at the beginning. He doesn’t see Preston as boyfriend material because Preston is a bit shy and doesn’t have a great taste in clothes. The awkward point when they were out to lunch was handled very realistically, and it reflected well on Justin that he tried to see past the dorky exterior and learn something about Preston’s quiet and gentle nature. As their friendship develops so does Justin’s attraction to Preston, and I enjoyed seeing him take Preston out on dates, and the way we are shown how lust ties in with their regard for each other as a person.
The second half of the book didn’t work as well. The sex between the men was nicely done with a tenderness, but it was also very similar to other sex scenes in other books written by this author. There’s a scene where they go fishing which seemed extraneous to the story. I think the scene was supposed to show Preston taking Justin to do something he loved (after Justin had taken Preston out clubbing), but it turned out to be a bit of a dull scene and I began to lose interest. At this stage, the story was also creeping into ‘too sickly sweet’ for my liking and the end was pure sugar.
It’s that last scene and the sweet epilogue, which made me put the book into the C grade, only because sweetness like that is not to my taste. The writing is good and I liked the characters. If you like very sweet romances, then I think this would be a good book to pick up and you will probably rate it more highly than I did.
