Title: Sharped Dressed Man
Series: Mixed Tape Series Volume #1
Author: T.A. Chase
Genre: MM Contemporary Romance
Length: Novelette
Publisher: MLR Press (June 7th, 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: For twenty-five years, Jim and Dan have thought about what could have been, and now they have a chance to find out.
Jim Stanton and Daniel Perkins fell in love with each other at a ZZ Top concert in 1987, though they never admitted it. After graduation, they let their love slip away, but never forgot. Their 25th class reunion gives them the chance to correct the mistake.
Product Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=TAC_SDRM
Review: A very sweet little story Sharped Dressed Man follows two High School best friends who drifted apart in the years that followed until one day, after twenty-five years, they received a Reunion Invitation.
The story is a bit weird in some part. See both men had this epiphany at a concert of ZZ TOP they both attended, that they were in love with each other. Neither though had the guts to share that little info with the other, instead being afraid that if their best friend would find out they’d lose the friendship they so much valued. Ending up, of course, not only trying to hide what they felt, but also losing their best friend anyway when High School was over.
As years passed by and each of them settles into their careers, neither has the same time to go back home for visits. Not once managing to see each other during these twenty-five years. The yearning though is there, the longing of seeing their best friend. The man who all others had to compare and compete for each. And now the time has finally come for them to make that happen.
So you see this story is quite easy flowing in concept. Jim and Dan’s families both are not only very accepting, but also trying to match them together. There are no complications and no angst at all in this entire story. Only the fears each character harbors that their feelings won’t be reciprocated. So when they finally meet right outside the place where their reunion is held their hunger for each other steps in and takes them both in a reunion of their own. A first time holding too much passion for them to contain.
Honestly, either I’m too picky or this was a bit too much for me, but the dialogues between the characters were not very fascinating, they rather put me down a bit. There was this huge going round and round blaming each other (thankfully the next day) about how stupid they were to have lost all this time. While in the meanwhile, there was no dialogue about their current state. How are these two men? What happened to them in so long they haven’t laid eyes on each other? They jumped so fast into the “I love you”, “let’s stay together,” and “let’s get married” that I sort of had a mental whiplash with that.
Bottom end, I would rather have a HFN than a HEA here. But, objectively, any fan of the sweet romance and the love conquers it all, even our fears of rejection, would probably love this story. It’s sweet, it’s easy, and it has a most satisfying end.