CBR16 Bingo: Scandal
Luca (Gentlemen of the Emerald City Book 1)
by L.A. Witt
Three stars
It’s the start of the off-season and Ethan is lonely. As a professional hockey player for the Seattle Breakers, dating is hard. However, being one of the few out players on his team, his dating life is closely watched. Since he’s on the road most of the time, he doesn’t have time to date, let alone meet someone he actually wants to date.
Touch-starved and depressed, he opens up the app for the escort service one of his teammates showed him. Before he can second-guess it, he books a night with a gorgeous man with a very steep rate.
Luca is a fulltime student. He is broke and trying to pay off some medical debt and make a dent in his student loans. He’s an Uber driver and a high-end escort. Since raising his prices, he hasn’t gotten any bookings with Emerald City in months. But when a new client books a night with him, he decides that he should at least get one more paycheck before dropping his escort side gig.
Ethan and Luca hit it off and Ethan “reserves” Luca for the summer. The money is too good for Luca to say no. He worries that he is taking advantage of Ethan, especially since he is pretty sure their pretend relationship is turning into an actual partnership.
Ethan is in love with Luca, but can’t believe that someone so gorgeous and charming could love him back. He decides to enjoy their summer together and not think about what will happen when the new season starts and Luca goes back to accepting bookings from other clients.
As for the scandal aspect, Luca’s family does not know he is an escort. If Luca and Ethan become a real couple, it would be easy for the press to learn about Luca’s job. Luca is terrified of hurting his parents, and Ethan is certain that the press would be relentless if they ever found out the two of them were dating.
I really enjoyed this book. The story was nothing new, but the dialogue was very natural and funny. I used to live in Seattle and loved all of the details that the author included, especially when Luca and Ethan road trip around Washington state and Victoria, BC.
I got this book as part of Romance Bookworms Stuff Your Kindle Day.
Reluctant Rockstar: Reluctant Rockstar #1
by Francis Fox
Two stars
Marty just wants to chill at his estate in the English countryside and nurture his beloved vegetable garden. However, as a world famous musician, he does not have as much down time as he would like. He’s sick of touring and just wants to retire and enjoy a life outside of the spotlight. When scandal rocks his band, they disband temporarily so as to recover at home.
When Marty gets home, he learns that his gardener and friend Fred has had a heart attack. While he is recovering, his adult grandson Simon takes over the care and maintenance of Marty’s garden.
Simon is as opinionated and as professional as his grandfather, and soon he and ‘Martin’ are working side-by-side as they plant, weed, and harvest Martin’s heirloom veggies. They are attracted to one another but Martin is wary. Not only is Simon his much-younger employee, he is Fred’s grandson.
The two of them are clearly interested in one another, but it takes a brush with death for Martin to accept Simon’s affection.
This is a sweet, short novella with very little angst. Aside from having less drama than I usually prefer, it is a perfectly decent way to kill a few hours.
Content warnings for light BDSM.
I got this book as part of QueerYourBookshelf.
For this year’s CBR16 Book Bingo Reading Challenge I’m choosing albums from the 1970s that helped raise me. When I think of Scandal, nothing can top Rumours (1977) by Fleetwood Mac.
