Title: Vaulting
Series: N/A
Author: Megan Slayer
Genre: MM / Contemporary
Length: Novella
Publisher: Total E-Bound (May 13th, 2013)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥1.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: Vault for the gold or fall in love? What about both?
Dylan Parker wants nothing more than to win the gold. He’s worked on his vaults long and hard to be the best. And he is…until the best, Aiden Conrad, shows up at his gym. What’s a guy to do when the object of his affection also happens to be his stiffest competition?
Aiden’s no slouch when it comes to competition. He’s got more than a couple of medals under his belt, but finding love? That’s his one weakness. When he meets Dylan, all bets are off. Dylan might be damn good on the vault, but is he just as good in bed? Aiden’s next goal? Dylan.
Can these two hard-headed men find common ground and passion in each other’s arms or are they destined to fail in the biggest competition of all—the game of love?
Reader Advisory: This book contains lots of gymnastics fun, voyeurism, and hot sex in the locker room.
Product Link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?P_ID=2105
Review: I didn’t like this book for too many reasons. First of the blurb is in white contrast from the story itself. There is no competition between Dylan and Aiden at all. As a matter of fact, the story starts with Aiden approaching Dylan and telling him he’s thinking of joining their gym because he wants to be Dylan’s teammate. And Dylan always had admiration for Aiden because he is one of the best out there. Again no competition there at all, only instant lust and in the span of a month – that we didn’t witness- both of them have reached the point of deep feelings for each other even if no move has been made yet.
And that takes me to the pace and time frame for this book. The pace seems too frantic, the events between the pair happened in lighting speed, the time frame was hazy at best. There was no depth to the story; you couldn’t see the built of their friendship, partnership, and relationship. Thus, you couldn’t connect with either character that by the way was completely flat. Beside some “hurtful” past events in Dylan’s past we didn’t get much on their personality, who were they and so on.
Moving on, there was the issue of chemistry and the old classic telling that made it hard to feel them two. Both characters shared similar emotions. Both wanted each other, both were scared of their feelings, and both shared the same thoughts even. Between that and their intimate scenes that were as bland as they come, it felt as if I was reading a bad copy/paste over and over again. A big, big thing I disliked was the comparison of a certain sexual stance with submission and since the story had no kinky side in there, I couldn’t quite understand it why would that even be mentioned. And really, when too people like to have rough sex it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are possessive, I don’t get what one has to do with the other.
The plot was also a big reason I didn’t like this book. It was irrational in so many ways. At times, I felt like there had been more there, but was crudely cropped, chopped, and deleted so I was left with a text that jumped and leaped and the meaning didn’t fit. The dialogues made no sense and were often a contradiction of previous dialogues between the guys, adding to the feeling that there was a story behind the line that I’d somehow missed.
Speaking of irrational, the villain of this story (because every story needs a psychopath) made no sense at all to me. He wanted Aiden so he harassed Dylan – so far so good- but later on, he wanted Aiden so he beats the heck out of him sending him in the hospital… I suppose the author needed Aiden in the hospital so badly so that Dylan would have that kind of déjà vu, that the rationale behind it didn’t really matter. And dear me, a guy is in the ER badly injured, his mother and friend (because no one knew Dylan was the boyfriend in that damn hospital) go to check on him and visit, and the nurse said “Ten minutes then you’ll switch. Once we get him in a room, you’ll be able to stay longer. No monkey business.” I’m still rolling this over and over in my head to try to make some sense from it. The guy is barely conscious, badly hurt, friends and family are distressed and in agony to see he’ll be all right, what monkey business would there be for crying out loud?
So no, I didn’t like this one and I can’t recommend it.