A review by lezreadalot
Sapphire Sunset by C. Travis Rice

4.0

“I don’t want to be with someone I’m not afraid to lose.”

3.5 stars. Okay, this was cute as hell. One of those books you can just turn your brain off and enjoy thoroughly. Except 'turn your brain off' isn't right, because I got really absorbed in these characters and their romance; I liked them so much!! This took a bunch of conflicts and plots that I'm usually pretty lacklustre about and made it fun and entertaining and kinda heart-warming? Logan is a new security guard at a luxury resort; Connor is the owner's grandson. They meet and have an amazing 24 hours together, but both their personal lives and outside influences push them apart. Five years later, they meet again at the resort. So it's a second chance romance in that way, except that their first 'romance' was very short lived. And that has to be my biggest nit-pick about the book; the time period was just so short? In the present timeline, things moved super fast. Something would happen, and I'd think like at least a week had passed since then, but nope. More like a day. It felt rushed; I wish this had taken place over a couple months, maybe.

But the author was still able to sell it, though? They were intense and enamoured with each other in such a lovely way, and there were swoony heroics and some bodyguarding (which I LOVED). I loved the conversations about gay masculinity and expression, how people have their ideas about what's "acceptably" gay, how Connor bucks all of that. They had some really great banter, and even though I'm pretty sure I raised my eyebrows at a couple things, this just made me smile so much? And it was really hot.

Listened to the audiobook as read by the author, which I usually don't like when it's done outside of non-fiction. Most authors aren't professional narrators after all. But this was really good. The voices for women weren't amazing, but otherwise, hats off. And the nice thing about an author reading their own book is the pacing/cadence is always right. This was just such a nice, fun read. I've read Christopher Rice's litfic in the past, and this is a lot different, but really good. I'll definitely continue the series some time.