Title: Close to You

Series: Sunshine and Happiness, #3

Author: Skylar M. Cates

Genre: Contemporary/Abuse

Length: 248 pages

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (March 28th 2016)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3.5 Hearts

Blurb: It’s hard to recover from a first love. Some people never do.

How hard would you fight to keep your best friend? Marc Lucas and Tomas Santos have been best friends forever, but now their friendship is in a crisis. When they were boys, betrayals ripped their world apart. They thought it was fixed, but some parts remained broken. Ever since he saved him from a humiliation at school, Marc has loved Tomas. The last thing he expects is for Tomas to love him back. To keep his best friend, Marc revisits an abusive past he’s tried to forget.

For Tomas, loving Marc has been anything but easy. His upbringing told him it was wrong, so why did it feel so right? Accepting who he is as an adult, Tomas decides he needs a committed relationship. To his deep sorrow, he can’t seem to find it with Marc.

When the two find themselves alone and in the grip of a hurricane, long-buried feelings emerge. Being “just friends” is no longer an option. They must risk it all on love.

ISBN: 9781634771368

Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7478

Reviewer: Aerin

Review: After reading Lovers, Losers, and You, I was so excited for Marc and Tomas’s story. We already know these two have a history, although we don’t know what that is. One thing’s for sure though… Tomas and Marc love each other. We saw that in the previous book. We watched them fight and argue one moment, go to being best friends the next and making lovey-dovey faces at each other when they thought the other one wasn’t watching.

In Close to You, we get the full story. It’s not pretty, more heartbreaking than anything. But it reinforces what we already know about their friendship and explains the behavior and the choices they make as adults. It takes a force of nature to bring those two together. But, once they get there, they hold on to what they have and fight for the happiness they deserve.

Marc’s childhood is terrifying to even think of, and it definitely breaks my heart to think of any child living like that. Raised by an abusive and alcoholic father who plays the perfect police officer during the day, Marc is repeatedly abused both emotionally and physically. He’s also neglected and unkempt, and that makes him the dirty kid who always wears tore-up clothes. The stinky one and skinny one, the one who’s more like an animal than a human being. Nobody ever was on Marc’s side, until Tomas.

Tomas’s father passed away when he was still a child. He and his mother came to live with his very religious grandparents. Tomas knows he’s not supposed to like boys the way he likes Marc, but no matter how much he tries to change that, he can’t deny how right it feels.

Marc and Thomas become best friends who never give up on each other. They always have each other’s backs, and that beautiful friendship turns into a fragile first love. Tomas eventually learns that sometimes doing what’s best for the person you love also means breaking their heart and losing them.

Years later, Tomas and Marc found each other again. But no matter how much Tomas wants a permanent relationship with the one and only man he’s ever loved, Marc is emotionally unavailable. Marc loves Tomas as well, and Tomas knows that.

But Tomas is the only person in this world who means more than anything to Marc and he’s afraid to lose that if their relationship doesn’t work. They finally manage to get it together and communicate. And don’t you know it, communication solves everything! Their journey wasn’t an easy one, but in the end it was all worth it.

I’m not sure if I feel disappointed in how Marc and Tomas’s story was told, because I definitely enjoyed reading the book, but something unsettled me. It took me a long time to really get into the story and that’s easily blamed on the writing style.

There are so many flashbacks/ it disrupted the flow of the story to the point where I wanted them gone. I wanted to know more about Marc and Tomas, but not through flashbacks; I think a longer epilogue with their lives as children would’ve nicely done its job. As it was, it took FOREVER for Tomas and Marc to give in and figure things out.

Another thing that bothered me is that this book was told from a 3rd person’s POV (author maybe?) in the present tense, and that was awkward as hell. It was like having a creeper spy on these guys and tells you what they do and feel. It really got weird when Tomas and Marc got to have sex, because I can’t feel the intensity and connection between the participants unless one (or both of them) personally tells me about it.

The real issue was the present tense, it simply creeped me out. I don’t remember having the same issue with the previous books, but maybe I’m becoming picky.

This really was a good book and a great story, full of friendship and caring and love. I loved how the guys, all of them, made their own little family and helped each other through everything. I’m so excited for the next book, because it’s time for River to stop being miserable and love again. That dude needs to chill; I’m thinking a shot of (Captain) Morgan is what the doctor prescribes.