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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Waaaaaaaaaaay too perfect. Good, but perfect. Just. Utterly perfect. I could not read more than a few chapters in one sitting before I just couldn’t handle it anymore. But I did read the whole thing, except for the parts I skimmed.
My "only" liking this book instead of loving it I think is more about me as a reader than the book itself. I prefer books with a strong plotline, even if that plot is of the entirely internal variety, ie "how will these two people get together/stay together/fall in love". But despite that there were barriers, the love interests immediately get together, stay together, and fall in love. This meant that the pacing felt a bit off to me as an individual reader. I kept waiting for conflict of some kind, and there really wasn't anything until the last 80% or so of the book. I will give the book ALL the points, though, for not going where I thought it was going to go with the conflict. I really thought it was leading up to Milo having to admit that he was taking on too much, breaking through his emotional barriers against accepting money and letting Tom help him out as a sign that their relationship had reached a level of trust that was new for Milo. I was a little grumpy about it, but willing to keep reading. BUT THEN instead, when Tom uses his money to pay for a bunch of stuff without asking, it's treated as the manipulation and huge betrayal of trust that it is. Every character acknowledges that even if it does make Milo's life easier, to ignore what Milo wants is taking away his agency and is a huge red flag for all future interactions. While I personally did not love that Tom's epic grovel choice included keeping more secrets from Milo, since Milo's mother was in on it and Milo himself appreciated it greatly I choose to let it go and embrace that Tom's epic grovel specifically did not involve money, it involved time and thoughtfulness, and a willingness to do something knowing full well that it might not get the results he wanted.
I also loved Libe. She needs to be a part of all of the other books in the series. Which makes me realize that all of this series has queer men as leads who also have a strong female support network in their mothers, sisters, and female friends. I'd like to pretend that's true of all books, but instead I'll just celebrate that this author is clearly intentionally providing it. I love that all of the characters have strong support systems, period.
I also loved Libe. She needs to be a part of all of the other books in the series. Which makes me realize that all of this series has queer men as leads who also have a strong female support network in their mothers, sisters, and female friends. I'd like to pretend that's true of all books, but instead I'll just celebrate that this author is clearly intentionally providing it. I love that all of the characters have strong support systems, period.
Very good book! I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but I did enjoy all the domestic moments, as well as the development of the relationship between Tom and Milo. They had a magnetic attraction and that came through very well. I liked the nods to fairy tales, such as Tom telling Milo, "te quiero comer," and I'm sure I'll pick up more of those the next time I read or listen to it (which I'll definitely do).
Overall, it's kind of a reluctant Cinderella plot, but it addresses some of the problems inherent in that setup. Milo, in the Cinderella role, does not want Tom to sweep him off his feet, and that was an interesting conflict. Of course they do find a very fairy-tale-ish happy ending together. I've read a lot of versions of Cinderella since I started reading romance, and I've enjoyed them all.
The main thing I disliked:
This one seems a little preachier than the first book, in terms of social-justice issues, but that didn't bother me. These plots are about how real-world issues affect people's lives, and that seems reasonable to me. In fact, I like it, because I find it really easy to imagine the main characters as real people with believable problems.
I'm very excited to listen to book 3 now. This is the second romance series I've read of this kind, about a group of friends all finding love (Society of Gentlemen was the first), and I like the format a lot.
Overall, it's kind of a reluctant Cinderella plot, but it addresses some of the problems inherent in that setup. Milo, in the Cinderella role, does not want Tom to sweep him off his feet, and that was an interesting conflict. Of course they do find a very fairy-tale-ish happy ending together. I've read a lot of versions of Cinderella since I started reading romance, and I've enjoyed them all.
The main thing I disliked:
Spoiler
most of the important side characters in this book are female, and they all have to do a lot of emotional work for the main characters. After Tom and Milo have their big argument near the end, Tom's friend Priya gives him a very long lecture on how he had messed up his relationship with Milo. Tom has two other close friends who are men, but the burden to help Tom straighten out his life was on a woman. This is an extremely common trope in m/m, though, so it isn't really fair for me to complain about this book specifically. Still, that scene did annoy me.This one seems a little preachier than the first book, in terms of social-justice issues, but that didn't bother me. These plots are about how real-world issues affect people's lives, and that seems reasonable to me. In fact, I like it, because I find it really easy to imagine the main characters as real people with believable problems.
I'm very excited to listen to book 3 now. This is the second romance series I've read of this kind, about a group of friends all finding love (Society of Gentlemen was the first), and I like the format a lot.
I really did not like the main character which is what drives down the rating on this otherwise fine romance. (Also: precocious child alert for those who like to avoid)
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very much a fairytale romance as handsome charming millionaire Thomas and charity worker Milo fall in lust at first sight. Milo works for the charity to which Thomas is donating vast sums of money. The relationship accelerates very quickly and the two are very well suited except for the financial gap between them. Milo has no despite to be a kept man and Thomas has a tendency to chuck money around, and a staggeringly obnoxious habit of ordering for Milo at restaurants. (I feel a bit culturally adrift here because I would stare in slack-jawed incredulity at anyone under the age of 70 who tried that, and particularly someone who ordered me alcohol *at a work meeting* without asking, but Thomas does it despite being generally very socially aware and conscious of the power disparity, and presumably of the fact that food intolerances and allergies and religions exist. I have seen heroes ordering for heroines a lot in US romances so I am going to assume it's an actual thing that actual American men actually do, and that they inexplicably don't get the food dumped in their laps when it arrives. Nowt so queer as folk. /shrug/)
The point is, Thomas is hugely successful, driven, has already messed up one marriage by failing to pay attention to a significant other, and has a tendency to assume he knows best and to treat his lovers lavishly. Milo has very particular issues about money in relationships because his mother was a victim of domestic abuse relating to financial indebtedness, but really what it comes down to is that for all Thomas's caring and honesty, and the fact that he places intense value on how clearly Milo sees the real him, he *will not learn* to respect Milo's clearly expressed wishes about financial boundaries and making his own choices. He not only repeats the same mistake three times: he actually escalates.
On the one hand this is deeply frustrating to read. On the other, it's brutally realistic because making the same mistake over and over again is what people do--and it is also perfectly possible to sympathise with Thomas because he is not acting out of selfishness or lack of care. He does the wrong things for Milo, for the right reasons, and on the third occasion it's very hard not to sympathise with Thomas because Milo is being straight-up pig-headed. Which is of course his right, but when the only solution to a problem is "chuck money at it" and someone has money to chuck at it, one can see the temptation. It's very nice to read a millionaire romance that actually faces right up to the issues of wealth disparity in this way: there's nothing fairytale about being the beggarmaid to someone else's king.
It's quite an odd combination: fairytale romance with two people who are pretty much perfect for each other from the start, plus this gnarly, stubborn recurring issue. It means we don't so much have a sense of the story flowing onwards going through different conflicts as building up and sticking at the same place every time--until they finally break through it, which Thomas achieves in an excellent practical grovel. To make this sort of structure work absolutely depends on us rooting for the characters despite finding them frustrating. I think Herrera pulls it off, in part by showing that Milo's not perfect either and allowing us to sympathise with them both in their mistakes as well as in what they get right, and also by giving us an excellent cast of minor characters to shout at the pair of them so the reader doesn't have to.
This is a very strong series and I'm already anticipating book 3.
The point is, Thomas is hugely successful, driven, has already messed up one marriage by failing to pay attention to a significant other, and has a tendency to assume he knows best and to treat his lovers lavishly. Milo has very particular issues about money in relationships because his mother was a victim of domestic abuse relating to financial indebtedness, but really what it comes down to is that for all Thomas's caring and honesty, and the fact that he places intense value on how clearly Milo sees the real him, he *will not learn* to respect Milo's clearly expressed wishes about financial boundaries and making his own choices. He not only repeats the same mistake three times: he actually escalates.
On the one hand this is deeply frustrating to read. On the other, it's brutally realistic because making the same mistake over and over again is what people do--and it is also perfectly possible to sympathise with Thomas because he is not acting out of selfishness or lack of care. He does the wrong things for Milo, for the right reasons, and on the third occasion it's very hard not to sympathise with Thomas because Milo is being straight-up pig-headed. Which is of course his right, but when the only solution to a problem is "chuck money at it" and someone has money to chuck at it, one can see the temptation. It's very nice to read a millionaire romance that actually faces right up to the issues of wealth disparity in this way: there's nothing fairytale about being the beggarmaid to someone else's king.
It's quite an odd combination: fairytale romance with two people who are pretty much perfect for each other from the start, plus this gnarly, stubborn recurring issue. It means we don't so much have a sense of the story flowing onwards going through different conflicts as building up and sticking at the same place every time--until they finally break through it, which Thomas achieves in an excellent practical grovel. To make this sort of structure work absolutely depends on us rooting for the characters despite finding them frustrating. I think Herrera pulls it off, in part by showing that Milo's not perfect either and allowing us to sympathise with them both in their mistakes as well as in what they get right, and also by giving us an excellent cast of minor characters to shout at the pair of them so the reader doesn't have to.
This is a very strong series and I'm already anticipating book 3.