Title: Hotel Pens, 2nd edition
Author: Geoffrey Knight
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novella (83 pages)
Publisher: Wilde City Press (October 1st 2014)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 4.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Tams
Blurb: Travel writer Joe Jordan hasn’t been home to New York since his boyfriend broke up with him. Instead, he’s hopped from hotel to hotel. Collecting pens like a child in a fairytale might leave a trail of breadcrumbs hoping to find his way back.
But now he has an assignment, an article titled “5 Ways to Rediscover New York.” Being back on his home turf is daunting—until he meets Claude Desjardins, a gay romance translator staying in his hotel who, after a night of near passion, leads Joe on a treasure hunt through Manhattan, writing clues on Joe’s skin using hotel pens.
But it isn’t just New York Joe needs to rediscover.
This is a re-release, story initially released October 2012 through Dreamspinner Press
Purchase Link: http://www.wildecity.com/books/gay-romance/hotel-pens/#.VCiZy_ldVGQ
Review: Joe Jordan has been miserably single for a while, travelling the world, calling random hotels home. He loves his job, even if the constant travelling did cost him his boyfriend. After losing those roots, the home and the life he shared with Shawn, he hasn’t planted new ones, he hasn’t wanted to. Until now.
Joe first sees Claude in the lobby of his hotel and is drawn to his French accent. It’s almost endearing when Joe notices that Claude has the same obsession that Joe himself has. Collecting hotel pens. There is an attraction between them that Joe is hesitant to explore, for many reasons. But he still finds himself meeting Claude at the Empire State Building the next day, and Claude proceeds to show the New Yorker his city through a different set of eyes.
This was just a fast, fun, sweet and romantic read. The flow of the story was steady from start to finish, and that was just about the sexiest bubble bath ever! Claude and Joe both have lost someone they cared for in their lives, they’ve been alone a long time and so it all seems like kismet when they meet and fall for each other in the same instant. But Claude is determined to romance Joe, writing clues for the next stop on their date on Joe’s body with one of their hotel pens, sending Joe on a romantic scavenger hunt through a New York he has missed all these years.
I kept thinking of Sleepless in Seattle when I read this story, there were several similarities. This is a must read for my fellow hopeless romantics!