Title: Buchanan House
Series: N/A
Author: Charley Descoteaux
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (136 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (19 Aug 2015)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts
Blurb: Eric Allen, thirty-three-year-old line cook, moved in with his grandmother, Jewell, after a disastrous coming-out when he was in middle school. She raised him, and he cared for her when she fell ill.
When Jewell died, she left everything to Eric—angering his parents and older brother. The inheritance isn’t much, but Eric and his bestie, Nathan, pool their money and buy an abandoned hotel on an isolated stretch of the Central Oregon Coast. The hotel isn’t far from Lincoln City—a town with its own Pride Festival and named for a president—so they christen it Buchanan House after James Buchanan, the “confirmed bachelor” president with the close male friend.
Eric and Nathan need a handyman to help them turn Buchanan House into the gay resort of their dreams. Eric finds Tim Tate in the local listings, and over the months leading to opening weekend, Tim reveals himself as a skilled carpenter with many hidden talents. Eric falls hard for Tim, but before he can see a future with the gorgeous handyman, he has to get over twenty years of being bullied and shamed by his birth family.
It would be much easier if Eric’s brother Zach wasn’t trying to grab part of the inheritance or ruin opening weekend.
ISBN: 978-1-63476-454-4
Product Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6718
Reviewer: Prime
Review: This is a real interesting book that has a really interesting historical background as to the name of the book/the B and B that is brought by the MC and his best mate. This is the second Charley Descoteaux book I’ve read (previously read and reviewed The Pinch of the Game) and I have to say that this one, with all its sweetness and a touch of angst and drama, is my favourite of the two.
I have to say, that there really is one MC of this book, Eric, whose family except for his grandmother rejected him when he revealed that he was bisexual. Years later and now with his grandmother dead, Eric’s bestie Nathan has a plan for the pair to buy an Oregon resort, fix it up and open it up to the gay community. Eric’s love interest is Tim, a handyman who is hired on to help the guys with the odds and ends that need to be fixed up. He really doesn’t come through as an MC as such, not really until the last quarter of the book. I would have loved to have heard more from Tim.
There are a whole other host of minor characters that paint Eric and Tim’s world with colourful and sometimes eccentric personalities. There is also the clash of Eric’s biological family giving him issues, something that I wasn’t completely satisfied with when it was only resolved with a quick phone call and no real explanation.
As I said this is a really sweet book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is about a guy trying to make a fresh start and making a pretty good go of it. All in all it is an uplifting sort of book and something that I think would appeal to a general audience.
The historical side note, said in the blurb, the guys name their resort after President James Buchanan – who was a bachelor with a “very close male friend”. Totally fascinating, even if you aren’t from the States, this book has me wanting to read up about Buchanan, though I wish a bit more background was incorporated into the book.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *