Title: Out!
Series: The Shamwell Tales, #3
Author: JL Merrow
Genre: Contemporary/Humor/ British
Length: 322 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (January 19th 2016)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts
Blurb: When the costs are added up, will love land in the black?
Mark Nugent has spent his life in the closet—at least, the small part of it he hasn’t spent in the office. Divorced when he could no longer deny his sexuality, he’s sworn off his workaholic ways and moved to Shamwell with his headstrong teen daughter to give her a stable home environment.
His resolve to put his love life on hold is severely tested when he joins a local organization and meets a lively yet intense young man who tempts him closer to the closet threshold.
Patrick Owen is an out-and-proud charity worker with strong principles—and a newly discovered weakness for an older man. One snag: Mark is adamant he’s not coming out to his daughter, and Patrick will be damned if he’s going to start a relationship with a lie.
Between Mark’s old-fashioned attitudes and a camp, flirtatious ex-colleague who wants Mark for himself, Patrick wonders if they’ll ever be on the same romantic page. And when Mark’s former career as a tax advisor clashes with Patrick’s social conscience, it could be the one stumbling block they can’t get past.
Product Warnings: Contains historically inaccurate Spartan costumes, mangled movie quotes, dubious mathematical logic and a three-legged pub crawl.
ISBN: 9781619229938
Product Link: https://www.samhainpublishing.com/book/5697/out
Reviewer: Aerin
Review: I suppose this series is more comedy than anything else, innit? After a particularly intense book I chose Out! as a pick-me-up, because I knew it was going to be funny and light and I desperately needed something like it.
If you’ve read the previous books in this series, than you should be familiar with Patrick (remember that broken shin of his he got while playing cricket? Yep, that Patrick!). I know I’ve been hoping he would get his own book at some point, only Mark is definitely NOT someone I would’ve imagined as Patrick’s other half.
I’m not sure I liked Mark that much, although I can’t think of a reason why I didn’t. No, I can’t say I disliked him or hated him, and he was even funny most of the time. As a character I liked him a lot. As Patrick’s love interest…not so much. I didn’t think they were good together, and he whole age difference between them was so overdramatized, it annoyed the crap out of me.
Mark Nugent and his spitfire daughter, Fen, have recently moved to the small village of Shamwell in order for Fen to get a fresh start. Mark is closeted and old-fashioned, and he kind of acts like he’s 50 instead of 39. He makes such a big deal of the 14 years between him and Patrick. Everybody does. Like he’s old enough to be his father instead of just accepting it as it is. It drove me the hell insane!
Fen however, is hilarious, the epitome of teenage girl, with enough drama to drive everyone insane. She’s a smart cookie that one. Got her father all figured out and she’s playing him like a fiddle. But under her Goth exterior and smart mouth lays a girl with a heart the size of London. I really loved her for being so accepting and mature when it came to things that were really important.
I really liked the characters, especially the secondary ones, because they took away the focus from Patrick and Mark. Yeah, I KNOW that’s not supposed to be a good thing, but since I didn’t like them together that much, and I got extremely frustrated with Mark playing martyr in order to protect his innocent daughter (hah, what a joke!), the hilarious secondary characters made it all better.
Christ those guys can drink, as it seems like they’re known by bar owners everywhere.
This book, like the previous ones, is very lacking in the steam department, although this one is slightly more X-rated than the rest. We even have a sex scene, pretty descriptive and funny, although I didn’t enjoy it as much as i hoped i would.
5 STARS for the characters, especially Fen and David, I really loved them all!
2 STARS for the romance and unsuccessful matching of Mark and Patrick!
3.5 stars is my final rating.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com
