Title: Eyes Only For You
Series: Eyes of Love #2
Author: Andrew Grey
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (193 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (10 October 2016)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 3.5 Hearts
Blurb: Marcello Bagnini has a history of falling for the wrong men, and it seems he’s done it again. Working out at the gym with his straight friend Jerry is becoming harder by the day-in more ways than one. Worse yet, Jerry isn’t the only one who notices Marcello’s wandering eyes. So instead of risking his friendship with Jerry and alienating the other guys at the gym, Marcello keeps his feelings to himself.
Real estate agent Jerry Foland has never explored his interest in other men, but there’s something different about Marcello, and Jerry’s starting to think he might like to see where his attraction could lead. However, Jerry’s controlling father makes it clear that it’s either stay on the straight and narrow or Jerry can say good-bye to his family.
As much as they try to stay away from each other, their lives overlap, both at the gym and when Jerry is contracted to sell the home of one of Marcello’s friends. Friendship grows into more, but Jerry’s father has his own agenda, and it doesn’t include having a gay son.
ISBN: 978-1-63476-687-6
Product Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/eyes-only-for-me-by-andrew-grey-1112-b
Reviewer: Prime
Review: I’m going to start by the outset. I love Andrew Grey. I love his writing style and I love the characters that he creates, weaving them into relatable situations that keep you glued to the screen or page. If I see an Andrew Grey book that I’ve, Heaven forbid, missed, I will go and devour that quick smart.
Eyes Only for You is one of those books that have slipped through the cracks for me. In fact, I also missed the first book in the series, Eyes Only for Me, but luckily this sequel works perfectly fine as a standalone book. However, for those that read the first book, you’ll probably be pleased to hear that Ronnie and Clay (yes, I went to read about what I missed while writing this review) do make a number of appearances throughout the book. Overall, this was an enjoyable book. I think because it was written by Andrew Grey that leaves me more disappointed than a normally would be for a book like this.
The story is about Marcello and Jerry. The story is relatively simple. Jerry has never acted on his attraction to men before, but one day he just cannot hold back, especially after his break with a woman. Marcello is Jerry’s work out buddy and despite knowing that the man is straight he finds himself intensely attracted to him. The biggest problems for these guys – Jerry remaining in the closest (his family aren’t particularly nice) and Marcello being in a near identical situation in his previous relationship. Marcello also has challenging parents but they are now more accepting of their son’s sexuality than Marcello realized.
The storyline is one that hooks me, even ignoring the fact that Andrew Grey wrote the book. However, the words on the page didn’t quite catch me. OK, so this is difficult to explain. But to me there were a number of chapters where key events happened and I really enjoyed. Then in between them there was… well, there were chapters that I found just a tad boring, they felt like they were just filling in words and conversation that didn’t feel relevant. And, man, was that disappointing because I wanted to love everything about this book and give it an enthusiastic 5 stars.
That was my biggest issue I had while reading this. Other issues that I had with the book are primarily centered around the fact that the first few chapters were slow and didn’t feel like they were going anywhere (they were part of the filler chapters I talked about a few sentences ago). I think it was in this set up that I also found it hard to actually like Jerry. Don’t get me wrong, I eventually did as he had his “Gay for You” epiphany and just what Marcello truly meant to him, but at first he was not an easy person to like.
As I said earlier, because I love Andrew Grey’s books, I set my expectations very high for this book. This is primarily for people that like a gay for you romance.