For such a short story it was surprisingly complete. David was charming, shy, and feels unimportant and overlooked by Christian and his philandering. Christian is self-absorbed and falling into complacency despite taking increasingly amazing photos. Together they have more than a few issues to work through if they're ever going to see eye-to-eye.
Overall, I liked this story and gave it 3 stars. So here's the reasoning behind the 3 and not a 4...
There were inconsistencies in Christian's reasoning for hiring David as well as his overall treatment of his assistant. He was temperamental and moody, fine for an artist, but then an about-face is supposed to be believed will last with a thousand warnings of "I might screw this up." And David is supposed to pick up the slack emotionally as well as almost everywhere else. I won't give spoilers until later on in this review in the rant section, so I'll leave the frustration of the moment here.
David has a past to overcome and a few photos won't fix it. With the ending of the story there's not enough there to believe that Christian will help or hinder his own personal growth. David is, himself, a photographer but we learn almost nothing about his subject matter or what projects he wants to work toward. To us, he's just an assistant. I would have loved for more.
Despite those frustrations, both characters have depth and feeling. There's plenty of eroticism and steam, not just between the two MC's, which is another of my issues, but again, that's for later. There's also a steady flow throughout the entire story so reading doesn't feel stilted or like it drags. Overall, a good story with more of an HFN than an HEA.
On to the rant...
*THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD!!*
I hate cheating. Anything that feels like cheating is awful and makes me dislike a book instantly. It takes a lot from the story to overcome that but if there's cheating or anything like it in the story, it'll pretty much never get a 5-star rating. So is there cheating in this story? No. Just the emotional kind right in the beginning with Christian screwing a model in front of David. If he has feelings for him, even though he's committed to denying and avoiding them, why screw someone else right in front of him? I find that callous, unfeeling, and super prick-ish. Definitely horrendous behavior.
Then there's Christian saying he intentionally hired David because he's plain so he wouldn't be so tempted and so David knew he couldn't reasonably ask for Christian to take him to bed or to photograph him. Ugh, another a-hole moment right there. But the real frustration for that isn't because David is described as plain by someone who supposedly likes him. I mean, with Christian's history of other assistants, it's understandable that he'd take measures against going through that drama over and over. No, it's when he is emphatic later that David's not plain and never has been. So, which is it? David thinks he's plain, Christian admits to it in his own head, so how do things go from being reality for one opinion to that opinion changing and then that's the reality? I mean, changing your mind and then deluding yourself into thinking that the new opinion was the one you've always held is ridiculous. Similarly, when out cruising for a hookup it's only as Christian is walking home that he thinks about David yet he tells David later that he was comparing everyone to him. So are all these things he's saying just lines to keep David or are they all true and we're supposed to accept his re-writing history because he was just denying his affection before now?
So, like I said before, there's an HFN feeling and we all hope for an HEA but with Christian setting himself up for failure, a distinct lack of interest in David's professional goals, and David's self-confidence issues there's a lot to overcome.
And there you have it. I liked The Photographer's Assistant overall even though there were some things that bothered me enough to rant about it. The story was short, had good feels and sexy moments, and the writing was generally enjoyable. Still a fan of Andrew Grey.
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