Title: How I Met Your Father
Series: N/A
Author: L. B. Gregg
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novella (112 pages)
Publisher: Riptide Publishing (November 18th, 2013)
Heat: Moderate
Heart: ♥♥♥2.75 Hearts
Reviewer: Eli/Mandingo
Blurb: The man of your dreams could be sitting right next to you…
Former boy band member Justin Hayes isn’t looking for a man. He just wants a quiet, scandal-free Christmas at home in Chicago, out of the public eye. But his best friend and bandmate is subjecting everyone to his destination wedding, and Justin can’t dodge the “best man” bullet. All he has to do is get to the island on time, survive the reunion, and get Chuck to the altar with as little drama as possible. What could possibly go wrong?
Jack Basinger’s own plans for a quiet Christmas have been dashed by the summons to his daughter’s hasty wedding with a man Jack has hardly met. On the bumpy flight to the island, he finds himself comforting a nervous—and extremely attractive—young man. One hasty sexual encounter in an airport bathroom later, they both feel much better. No one ever has to know, after all.
Now Justin and Jack must find a way to explore their attraction, despite the distractions of disapproving family members, unexpected announcements, an impromptu concert, and an island paradise that proves there’s no place like home
Purchase Link: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/how-i-met-your-father
Review: I wish this book were longer. Why? Because there are so many ideas here that really needed to be explored that would have made the story so much better. The story premise is excellent and the characters are introduced and interact well together. The problem is that the love story between Justin and Jack just never has an opportunity to shine. Instead, it is buried amongst the other sub plots. This felt more like Justin’s story and how he’s to navigate his way from being the boy band guy into being a man who’s ready to have a relationship. If this is the intent – perfect! This then is what needed to be showcased much more. More so than his interaction with his former band members. The time spent exploring that really needed to be sent on his interaction with Jack.
The notion I assume is that the background noise of the former band mates and the wedding are to enhance the relationship with the men. What, however, ends up occurring, is the overshadowing of the romance. The reader has to deal with the former life of the boy band, the relationship between the band members, the obvious communication issues between Jack and his two children, the lack of relationship between Jack and his son-in-law, AND the reason for the shot-gun wedding (spoiler alert).
The solution would have been to KEEP all of these sub plots but insert Jack and Justin not as players in the plot but rather as pivotal to the development of these sub plots so that we learn more about ‘who’ these men are and how they will react to these issues and how together they build a relationship. Now of course, the story takes place over two or three days so accomplishing all that in itself is ambitious.
The title pretty much tells you what the end will be so you know it’s coming – what you then WANT to see as the reader is how they got there. The reader keeps get glimpses of the Justin and Jack story and of course you get to the ending and KNOW that, this is what is going to happen, but you never got to go along for the ride.