Title: Smoke in My Eyes
Series: NA
Author: Becky Black
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Short (45 pages)
Publisher: JMS Books (October 16th, 2013)
Heat: Mild
Heart: ♥♥♥3Hearts
Reviewer: Eli/Mandingo
Blurb: After a decade together, death took Daniel’s lover away in an instant. A year of grieving kept him from thinking about the future. But now fearing loneliness, fearing aging and its effects, he’s ready to find someone new before it’s too late. Filled with good intentions, Daniel joins a gym. He plans to work hard to keep what time is all too quickly taking away from him. But are good intentions enough against the many distractions and temptations of life? Is he really prepared to make the sacrifices required? Meeting gym owner Chris may be the extra boost his motivation needs — if only he could figure out why Chris keeps blowing hot and cold on him.
Death claimed Chris’s lover too, but took much longer about it. The memory of watching the man he loved suffer has left Chris terrified of getting close to anyone again. He likes Daniel a lot, but there’s a problem and Chris can’t fix it, only Daniel can. If he’s serious about being with Chris. It’s a straightforward ultimatum. Daniel smokes and Chris will not date a smoker. Daniel has a choice. It’s Chris or the cigarettes.
Daniel has to prove to Chris that he’s ready to make changes and he’s not all mouth. But can he do it? Are the sacrifices he’ll have to make worth it? Should he even be changing himself to suit a man who’s made him no promises and who might still back off later? Chris has to learn to accept Daniel’s imperfections and mortality. Only once he gets past the grief and fear can he take a risk on loving Daniel, even knowing he could be hurt again.
Daniel takes on the biggest physical challenge he’s ever faced to prove he’s serious about Chris. But in the end, he has to decide if he wants to make the changes for himself and his own future, whether Chris is part of that or not.
Purchase Link: http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=945
Review: Well the blurb is going to be much longer than the actual review. The blurb left little for the reader to actually experience because the entire plotline is revealed. The only thing left to really discover is if you liked ‘how’ the author told the story. The theme of the story is change and one’s motivation to change. Daniel must find his motivation to become healthy and live a new life and Chris must find his motivation to simply move on from the past. Both men have to prove things more to themselves than to each other. This is accomplished through Daniel’s eyes since this is his story. He moves himself to a new reality and is thus able to move Chris to a new reality as well.
The story takes place over six months and the interaction between the men is real to what one would or could expect with men both grieving and needing to come to grips with their new reality. Daniel’s journey to physical fitness was interesting to read, but I’d have liked to have read more about his interaction with his fellow athletes and any hook ups he might have had. But the key is that his journey focused on him and not on his pining for Chris. It is only after he found himself that Chris returned to the picture.
The best part of the book is the end when both men are able to accept the changes that they’ve each made and you are able to envision what a future for them could be like. Not a bad short read, I recommend in between flights at an airport.