Jonah works a job that is sucking the life out of him in Houston. He works with his best friend Rico and roommate, but that isn’t enough to make his life enjoyable. Jonah and Rico plan a weekend getaway to a fictional Texas beach town to escape the monotony of their lives by having a weekend that would make Dionysus blanche. Their plan is to drink too much, soak up the sun, and find multiple boys to have some fun with for just the weekend. What wasn’t planned was Jonah meeting and falling head over heels for Kent, the local, handsome bakery shop boy who is looking for more than just a fling. Tension rises between Rico and Jonah about the point of their best friends’ weekend getaway and the end of the weekend looms over Jonah and Kent. Can any of them salvage the weekend?
I don’t read much romance. Scratch that, I don’t read any romance. I think this might be the very first romance novel that I’ve ever read. I understand the appeal. The story was engaging and fun and transposed me out of my normal life for a little while. Parts were unbelievably cheesy and I rolled my eyes a few times, but I also laughed out loud multiple times and sighed longingly at some of the romantic gestures. Banner also wrote an ending that surprised me and worked.
I think the part that was the least believable or enjoyable was that every single person was fit and toned and muscular. I get that the story takes place in a beach town where a lot of people are scantily clad by default. And I get this is a romance novel and there’s a level of fantasy to everything. But does everyone need to have chiseled abs and well defined pecs. Even people who don’t need to be muscular for the role they play in the story are described as having bulging biceps or massive shoulders. Sure. I’m glad that the dive bar has a daddy Adonis slinging drinks to everyone. Cool.
—————————————————————————————————————————
This is my last review for CBR13. This is my second year participating, and I have enjoyed this year immensely. I love this community of readers, and I can’t wait for next year. Hopefully I can participate in more of the Zoom calls next year. Here’s a brief summary of what I read in 2021:
I read 81 books and reviewed 77 of them. 65% of the books were from my local library and 59% were audiobooks. 75% of the authors I read were not men and 32% were authors of color (this is what I’m going to focus on increasing for CBR14). My average rating for the books I read was 3.84 this year.