Inertia by Amelia C. Gormley (Impulse #1)
July 19, 2012
M/M Contemporary Romance
Self-Published
Reviewed by Mandi
Handyman Derrick Chance has lived a lonely life, by choice. By the age of 21, he lost many beloved family members, and now ten years later, lives in the house his grandparents gave him. Although he is gay, he has never had a gay relationship. He experimented with a woman years ago, but with the loss of his grandparents he is too scared to become attached to anyone. He feels like a relationship is so much work, he’d rather be by himself. But then he meets Gavin.
Gavin is an accountant and hires Derrick to install shelves in his apartment. Gavin blatantly flirts with Derrick, which totally throws him off stride. Derrick has never had anyone do that before, and Derrick isn’t a charmer so it isn’t natural for him to come back with witty banter, although he wants to. Gavin confuses him, yet he can’t deny the lust building between them. Gavin is coming out of a mentally abusive relationship, and still has some insecurities to deal with. As Gavin comes up with more ‘jobs’ for Derrick to do around his house, these two finally get past the flirting stage and make a move for one another.
Inertia is the first book in what I assume is going to be a series about these two guys, as this book ends quite abruptly. I actually cheered though, because there is no forced I love you, or fake feelings rushed at the end. It ends with them having dated for a few days, and it looks like the next book will venture into Derrick learning how not to be alone like he has the past ten years. But back to this book! What really stands out for me is Derrick. He is a little on the shy side, and just a really warm, nice character. I don’t think he has a bad bone in his body. His awkwardness and uncertainty about how to proceed in a relationship comes across really well. Although he has chosen to be alone for years, rather than start something just to face another depressing loss in his life, he is still lonely. Ten years is a long time to not have anyone in his life, even close friends, and I’m not sure I completely buy that he would be alone for that long.
When we first meet Gavin, he rubbed me the wrong way. He was obviously flirty but comes across as kind of too much of a charmer. I even thought him a little sleazy at first. I didn’t like his over the top seduction of Derrick. As this story is told in Derrick’s point of view, we don’t get to know Gavin very well at first. But by the second half of the book, I feel like his character settled down, and I could understand why Derrick would be attracted to him. Gavin had lived with a very controlling man, and whether more of that insecurity will come out in book two is up in the air. Right now they are in their honeymoon stage, and I’m interested to see how their relationship plays out once real life intrudes.
Since Derrick is a little clumsy with the physical aspect of the relationship, to me that just makes their bedroom scenes that much hotter. I loved how Derrick slowly gains confidence and Gavin is very patient and lets him learn. Very sexy.
Looking forward to the continuation of this story.
Rating: B-
Recent Reviews:
Joyfully Jay – 4/5
Jessewave – 4.25/5
Red Hot Books – B
Goodreads
Jen recommended this one to me but it was a bit expensive. Now the price is lower –at least on Amazon– so I’ll have to check it out. Not so sure how I feel about the ending and possible sequel, though, everything has to be a series now. Ugh.
Great review!
This ending is a definite – Happy for now…it ended with them together, and committed. But there is definitely room to explore a longer-term relationship.