Summer Lessons (Winter Ball 2) by Amy Lane at Dreamspinner Press
Genre | Gay / Contemporary / Erotic Romance |
Reviewed by | Christy Duke on 25-November-2016 |
Genre | Gay / Contemporary / Erotic Romance |
Reviewed by | Christy Duke on 25-November-2016 |
Mason Hayes’s love life has a long history of losers who don’t see that Mason’s heart is as deep and tender as his mouth is awkward. He wants kindness, he wants love—and he wants someone who thinks sex is as fantastic as he does. When Terry Jefferson first asks him out, Mason thinks it’s a fluke: Mason is too old, too boring, and too blurty to interest someone as young and hot as his friend’s soccer teammate.
The truth is much more painful: Mason and Terry are perfectly compatible, and they totally get each other. But Terry is still living with his toxic, suffocating parent and Mason doesn’t want to be a sugar daddy. Watching Terry struggle to find himself is a long lesson in patience, but Mason needs to trust that the end result will be worth it, because finally, he’s found a man worth sharing his heart with.
It should come as no surprise that I'm a HUGE fan of this author. I've read everything she's written excluding a few young adult books, and it doesn't make a difference to me what genre it is, what types of characters there are, whether it's filled with angst and pain or humorous, and it matters not what the plot is. Hands down I love every word written by Amy Lane. Sometimes that makes it very difficult to review her work because I feel as if I'm saying the same thing over and over. I'll apologize, in advance, if I gush too much and seem as if I'm incapable of being unbiased. At the very least, I'm being honest.
Mason glared at him. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I’m just never going to find the right guy? That there is something deficient in me, something that fucks things up at the last minute, something that says the wrong thing or does the wrong thing or—”…
“I just… I don’t want another relationship—not if it’s not going to be awesome, you know?”
I fell for Mason right from the start. He, literally, has no filter from brain to mouth and I loved that about him. The way the author showed him at different ages and the things he said and did was hysterical, but it also showed how lucky Mason was to have the parents he did. Falling for Mason straight off wasn't a problem… except then I immediately fell for Terry. It was impossible not to adore this kid who has an emotionally manipulative mother who is slowly strangling the life out of him. Terry and Mason were raised in completely different environments and it is hard for Mason to keep his mouth shut and not say what he thinks about Terry's mom. Goddess knows I'm not so sure I could have stayed quiet.
It has been a while (in an Amy Lane book) since I disliked a character as much as I did Terry's mom. In fact, she and Richie's dad are equally heinous. Ever since Terry's dad left when he was a little boy she hasn't worked, she's been on welfare, waiting for her son to get old enough to provide for her, all the time telling him everything wrong in her life is because of him. Trust me when I say I couldn't possibly describe her evilness well enough; it needs to be experienced.
“No.” Mason pulled him back. “It means when you know how you want us to be, all you have to do is tell me. Text me and I’ll be there. Knock on my door and I’ll probably bang you before we make it to the stairs. Call me and I’ll teleport through the phone. But… but until you tell me what you want us to be, you take your time. You go out with friends. You sit in your apartment and listen to whatever goes on in your head. You… you be you. And then….” His voice got wobbly. “Then you invite me along for the ride, okay?”
I had zero preconceived ideas about where the author was going to go with this story. I couldn't have begun to imagine all the places I went and all the things I experienced. Mason and Terry are definitely the main characters but as always, the author has written some enchanting secondary characters, and I'm dying to see more of them. 'Summer Lessons' seemed complicated, on the surface, but when I broke it down it was as simple as simple can be. Love can sometimes mean letting someone go and hoping they see you for who you are, and they come back ready to love you the way you love them. Wholly. Unconditionally. Wantonly.
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.
Format | ebook, print and audio |
Length | Novel, 260 pages/86825 words |
Heat Level | |
Publication Date | 25-November-2016 |
Price | $6.99 ebook, $16.99 paperback, $16.99 bundle, $19.95 audiobook |
Buy Link | https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/summer-lessons-by-amy-lane-7810-b |