Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Former child star and deeply closeted adult actor Jax Conlon needs a boost to his flagging career. He promised his mom, just before she died. He hopes he's found it in a guest spot with the latest directorial prodigy, but his research for the role gets derailed by an encounter with a handsome stranger with more… hands-on experience.

Oz Parsons is a devoted dad to two amazing little girls. Maybe a little too devoted—he hasn't had anything resembling a personal life since his ex left, leaving Oz and the girls with broken hearts and abandonment issues. So a hookup with a hot guy is just what he needs to let off some pent-up steam without any complications. There’s something about Jax, though, that’s got him finding reasons to draw things out.

With their goals and families pulling them in two different directions, Oz and Jax have to figure if white-hot chemistry and desire that won't quit is enough to roll the dice and risk now on forever.

Book Review

Careers can easily become more important than a personal life, especially for men who aren’t comfortable with admitting they are gay. Jax, one of Theo’s friends from book one, is deep in the closet, and all because he thinks his career as an actor will be over if he comes out. I already got a few glimpses of that behavior in “Put a Ring On It”, but this second book of the series reveals all of Jax’s story. And the best part? It runs in parallel with the events in book one so that I got to see what all the little hints of Jax’s life, tantalizingly dropped in Kieran and Theo’s story, were about. As soon as I realized that, I was even more excited to read this novel. And what a ride it proved to be!
 
Jax is an actor under more pressure than most. He has not only promised his mother on her deathbed that he’ll be a success again, but he has also got something to prove to his friend, Theo, the successful theater director who told Jax to stop auditioning for his plays. In Jax’s mind, that means he just cannot admit he is gay, but it costs him. Quick hookups are all he has – until he runs into Oz when shopping for baby stuff in preparation for auditioning for the part as a dad with a small child. Oz isn’t just great in bed – well, the back of a car the first time, Oz also knows about parenting. After coaching Jax, he gets the role, and it not only becomes even harder to forget Oz, but it also leads to potential other roles, some of which would require Jax to become even more deeply closeted than he already is. What a mess!

Oz may be a successful structural engineer and devoted dad, but his personal life is as much in shambles as Jax’s – if for different reasons. It is tough enough for him to now singlehandedly raise his two girls. But the a**hole ex keeps interfering with a way of life that is much less regulated than Oz’s has to be around the children and it is tearing Oz apart. How can he tell the kids they can’t see their other dad anymore? Yet how can he deal with the interruptions and lack of reliability that is causing nightmares and other signs of abandonment in his daughters?

Oz and Jax might have never intended to share more than a quick hookup, and neither of them expects to see the other again, but the pull toward each other is too strong to resist. Even in the face of very different lives, career pressure, and all kinds of painful obstacles to a relationship neither of them is looking for, these two men keep coming back to each other. Like Kieran and Theo in the previous book, I wanted to shake them a little to make them wake up and realize how much they needed each other, but I could also see why they were so hesitant. Fear is a powerful enemy, and for the longest time, the author managed to keep me in suspense about Oz and Jax’s ability to admit that the potential for love and happiness was more important than fear.

If you like conflict of all kinds and lots of drama in your stories, if you want to know how two men deal with events that seem to be pulling them apart despite the fact they are so attracted to each other they can’t stay apart, and if you’re looking for a read that is as much a roller coaster ride as the Cyclone during Jax and his college friends’ annual meet-up, then you will probably like this novel. Personally, I am looking forward to the next installment in this story!

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 234 pages/73253 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	08-January-2016
Price	$6.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback, $14.99 bundle
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/risk-everything-on-it-by-ka-mitchell-5761-b