Blow Me Away by Billie Bloom

Expected Release Date: January 10^th

I’ll be honest. The beginning of this book was not good. It was awkward and stilted, and a few chapters in I was convinced it would be a chore to finish it. But, fortunately, I was wrong. And after the first – and way too rushed – part, the story found its stride and ended up being a cute, low-angst read.

Synopsis: Noah needs a date for his sisters destination wedding. His ex will be there with his fiancé, and Noah refuses to show up alone. Enter Noah’s best friend’s straight brother Nick. Nick agrees to act as Noah’s new boyfriend for the trip. It’s a free vacation, and Nick needs a place to stay. Win-win! Only, Nick is smoking hot, and apparently a very good actor. So good that Noah might even start to believe in the ruse himself. Especially since Nick turns out to be curious.

But the beginning… It feels like Bloom tried to speed through the boring stuff to jump right to the fun and dirty. Now, I like smut as much as the next girl, but in this case, the boring stuff were actually essentials like establishing the personalities of the MCs and creating credible and interesting backgrounds to the story. Rushing those aspects of story-building is never a good idea. As it were, to me, the entire bi-awakening smut-fest was just *meh* since I hadn’t really started to care for either Noah or Nick yet.

And don’t even get me started on the incredibly fast and angst-free way Nick switches teams.

It only got better once they left Hawaii and got back to the real world. Then, the story started making sense, with both of them not being able to forget their fling but instead craving more. Where Noah doesn’t really want a curious straight guy – or a closeted gay one – but still can’t forget about Nick. And where Nick is fighting his wants as well as his own, and others’, prejudice. At this point I cared for them both and was completely invested in the story.

There’s is no real angst or controversy in this read. There’s no drama or fight. But it still works. The last two thirds of the book was quite delightful and was generally a feel-good and fuzzy story.

In conclusion, I do recommend Blow Me Away to lovers of low-angst romance. The beginning of the book is only 2-star writing, but the middle and end are 4-star material. So I feel that an overall 3-star rating is justified.

However, I don’t get the cover picture. Sure, it’s funny and suggestive. Pretty much the perfect cover for a raunchy romance. That is, if one of the MCs were wearing makeup. But since neither Noah or Nick wears lipstick, the cover is just weird.

* A free e-copy of this book was kindly provided by Gay Romance Reviews *