Secrets and Bow Ties by Lou Harper (Secrets #3)
Released: May 19, 2015
M/M Romace
Samhain
Reviewed by Mandi
Dylan is a waiter at a restaurant in Hollywood and loves to flaunt himself. He knows he is sexy and he loves to flirt with customers. Growing up very poor with a bad family life, Dylan’s main goal in life is to find himself a sugar daddy so he will be financially set for the rest of his life. But the hunt for his elusive sugar daddy is a long and hard one. One night he gets asked to go home with a big-time hollywood guy named Ed, but before things can get hot and heavy, Ed gets called away. All Dylan comes home with is $200 and a butt plug up his butt (I can’t make this up). At work another night, Dylan’s table features Simon, who is there with two of his friends. It’s Simon’s birthday and Dylan is asked by his friends to be extra flirty with him.
Simon is nerdy. He wears cardigans and bow ties and is a college professor. He is very shy and quiet, so he doesn’t know what to do with himself when Dylan starts flirting with him. Dylan ends up inviting himself to go home with Simon that night, and poor flustered Simon agrees. Blow jobs ensue.
Fast forward – Dylan realizes Ed was mixed up with bad people, these bad people being the Mexican Cartel, and they set their sights on Dylan, thinking he is hiding something they want from Ed’s house. Dylan flees to Simon’s place to hide, and that is how Simon and Dylan start a relationship.
I picked this one up because the blurb sounded cute. A flirty waiter searching for a sugar daddy, and a nerdy guy that wears cardigans? I like! The blurb doesn’t mention the bad guys that show up in this book and take over the story. Dylan is very…flighty. I think that is a good word for him. He is self-centered, always horny, and I don’t think the reality of the danger he was in ever sank in. He takes risks without thinking things through. The cartel danger seemed a little over the top silly in this book. It felt out of place to me. The book is less than 200 pages and I think it needed more time to build up the bad guys.
More disappointing, I never felt true romance between Simon and Dylan. Told in Dylan’s point of view, I wish we had gotten to know Simon more. He seemed steam-rolled by Dylan through most of the book. Dylan calls a lot of the shots and Simon kind of just follows him around. I never felt they fell in love with each other. Or even – lust honestly. Their attraction just didn’t mesh for me.
If you want light-hearted action that is kind of on the silly side, this might work for you. It was cute, but missed the mark for me.
Grade: C
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