Quick Reads and Quick Reviews 19

  

• Sapphire Embers: The Beginning of Dragons, Jadyn Chase
• From Bodyguard to Boyfriend, Wyatt Isaac
• Promise Me We'll Be Okay, Nell Iris

For being so short the author packed a lot of stuff in here.  Heartbreak, dragons, war, apocalyptic meteors, shifting, confusing clones, "save the species" mating, insta-love, angry townsfolk, dramatic sacrifice, and a kind of open ending...and that's not even everything.  I think there were too many elements to sufficiently do any of them justice.  The writing style is also not really my cup of tea.  It was far too flowery and surface-skimming rather than direct, moving, and the kind that delves deep enough to captivate you and keep your attention.  When it came to the long-lost-love aspect of the relationship it wasn't really believable.  There were quite a few things that you had to suspend reality for in the story but the relationship part shouldn't have been one of them.  It should have been the focus instead of feeling like an add-on to a complicated shifter/birth of dragons/post-apocalyptic world type of story.  I was quite underwhelmed and disappointed after being quite interested when I read the synopsis.  In fact, if you read the synopsis you pretty much read the condensed version of the story.  Needless to say, I was hoping for something a little more but got a little less.  2 stars.

Attracted from the start, Gabriel and Jensen dance around it and forge a tentative friendship while they get to know one another.  But one night in Honduras changes things for them.  As they learn to navigate their new dynamics it's their fear and uncertainty that will drive them apart if they don't admit to themselves and each other what really matters.  We're given a pretty good picture about each of these men right in the beginning.  Even up to their first time together we get a sense of why they would be good for one another.  From that point, though, things become a little muddy.  What we're led to believe is their main obstacle is given a token moment of consideration before determination that it's not what matters overwhelms it.  But then near the end it becomes the giant wedge between them and is addressed poorly.  Gabriel's other concerns were more natural and organic to their relationship drama and I feel that age was what was expected to be the problem even though it really wasn't.  There were also some awkward moments I came across that made me feel like I was missing something.  The dinner at Carly's house near the beginning felt out of place despite giving us the first moment of "contact" and hinting at something more than just a crush on a coworker.  Overall I felt the story lacked a read-through that could have caught the lack of fluidity in the relationship's progression before their falling out.  The ending, though, that was tender, sweet, and well thought out.  It made me want to forgive the other issues I came across.  And adding in the touching epilogue brought it up to where it should have been all the way through.  3 stars.

When the pressure of family and appearances becomes too much for Vincent he sheds what's causing him the most stress.  At least that's what he thinks he's doing when he leaves Jude.  He had no idea how wrong that decision would be until the only person he loved almost as much as Jude is taken from him.  With nothing left worth losing he finds the courage to knock on the door to his past, and hopefully his future.  Jude is doing his best to move on.  But being left is far different from doing the leaving.  Half of his heart is gone and he's reaching a point where he's going to break if he can't move forward and away from the devastation of Vincent leaving him behind.  And then a knock on his door one night changes everything.  If he can forgive, if Vincent can prove he's changed, they might stand a chance against their fears and insecurities and be able to build a future far better than they could have imagined.

Both men had their faults and they were each likable at their core.  I do wish there had been more groveling, more explanations.  What was there was sufficient but it also felt like it was lacking something, a punch of some kind.  And I'm not saying a physical altercation between the men.  There are quite a few moments where one or both of them put the explanations off.  Saying they needed to talk, they needed answers, and then not really getting back to it wasn't really satisfying.  And while the end was absolutely sweet, spontaneous, secret, and cute, it was a little bit of a shock.  With something in-between their reconciliation and the ending, some kind of settling, this could have been an even more enjoyable story.  As it was it was good but it could have been great with a little more detail, a little streamlining, and maybe a little more directed focus.  3 stars.