And if the Universe was sentient enough to be sending out warnings to certain people, I could only conclude it hated me, because it hadn’t sent me a warning for any damn thing, ever, as evidenced by the fact that I lived on a forgotten island with my hick cousins and my wacky uncle, and hadn’t had sex since January.
― May Archer, Off Plan“No,” I resumed walking. “I’m not up in his business either. Not like that. We’re friends. We decided.”
“You realize that saying you decided to be friends implies that there were other choices besides friendship.”
― May Archer, Off Plan
Fenn is fine and he’ll be damned if he lets anyone else tell him otherwise. It’s been five years since he retreated to the island of Whispering Key, where he landed after his career imploded. Now, he’s running daily boat tours for the few tourists who’ve come to enjoy the sunshine and listen to Fenn’s stories about the missing treasure that vanished along with the ship, which wrecked off the southern coast of the island some two hundred years prior.
But there isn’t much money in tourism, especially not for a tiny island as most of the professional services and young people have migrated to the mainland in search of a real supermarket and reliable cell service. However, Fenn’s uncle – who is also the mayor and Fenn’s employer/landlord – has plans for Whispering Key. So, when he sends Fenn on a mysterious early morning mission to pick up a VIP from the airport, Fenn is sure that this is just another tourist treasure hunter that his uncle has lured to the island.
Mason Bloom knows what it’s like for his life to blow up in his face. After his fiancée leaves him for their wedding photographer, claiming that Mason has “no passion,” Mason decides to leave his cushy job and apartment and move to paradise. He accepts the job offer of “in house” doctor at an exclusive resort on Whispering Key. However, he is so eager to ditch his old life that he accepts the offer based on the mayor’s insistence that the island is the preferred destination of the rich and famous.
Fenn and Mason hit it off with a true case of “loathe at first sight,” even though Fenn does feel a little bit bad that his uncle tricked Mason into accepting the job. Mason has an escape clause, which allows him to get out of his three-year contract within the first three months. However, after a few days stuck on a tiny island with nothing to do but a really hot, bitter, sarcastic, frustrated man, Mason starts to see the potential upside of remaining on Whispering Key.
The dialogue in this book was great, which is what always keeps me going when other parts of the story aren’t always the most sensical. Fenn’s redneck, gay, psychic, teddybear of a cousin Beale is the voice of reason when Mason cannot get past Fenn’s rudeness and Fenn can’t get over Mason’s pretentiousness.
Some of the side characters got on my nerves a bit, but not enough to take me out of the story. My main complaint is that I want to read a queer romance where both of the characters start out knowing they are gay or bisexual. It seems like 90% of the queer romances I read involve one of the characters having a bisexual awakening. This is fine but, if I want to take a break from this trope, I need to do a bit more research into the storyline beforehand.
The dialogue is lovely, the sex is sexy and sweet, and the setting is perfect for a whole pile of small-town romances and quirky but lovable characters. This is a quick and easy read, and a solid take on the small town/fish-out-of-water/enemies-to-lovers tropes.
I got this as part of Romance Bookworms “Stuff Your Kindle” day.