Length: 42,500 words approx.
Blurb
Derek is facing yet another Christmas where his life feels out of control. He has a new career that doesn’t feel like his, and parents who would just love to see him settled down. All he needs is a temporary buffer for the parties he has to attend, and for his parents to leave him alone. Enter, Luke.
Luke is twenty-thousand dollars short for the renovations on Halligans; his family’s bar in New York’s Financial District. A favor for a buddy has him agreeing to play the part of boyfriend to a guy with more money than sense.
But when the spirit of Christmas works its magic on the two men, and they begin to fall for each other, Derek runs scared, and Luke needs space.
It doesn’t matter what obstacles you throw in the way of love, or how much you run in the other direction, because, when you’re least expecting it, whether you want it or not, love happens anyway.
4.25 out of 5 stars
Love Happens Anyway is a standalone contemporary holiday m/m romance.
So it's that time of year again, close to the holidays ...and you know there are a plethora of holiday themed romances for your reading pleasure. Now some of these make the cut as re-reads after the holiday. Love Happens Anyway is going to end up on your re-read list for sure!
This is a cute, yet very sweet tale featuring the boyfriend for hire theme. Although I'll admit the couple in this story are probably one of the most relatable duo I've seen in this particular theme. Yes, Derek was raised in a wealthy family but that doesn't stop him from having self-esteem issues and feeling like people either kowtow to him because he's the boss or avoid him for the same reason. He wants to be liked as just another person on staff, and not as the boss. To that end .. he creates a almost too perfect firefighter boyfriend named Marcus, who even, ironically, 'rescues' kittens from a burning building. Until Derek is caught between a proverbial rock & a hard place when his family and friends want to meet this mysterious Marcus.
Enter Luke, the possible solution to Derek's dilemma... Luke is actually a now disabled firefighter who's taken over the family bar with his sister. They need an infusion of cash in order to finish the renovations on the bar in order to reopen it...but they're stuck and unable to come up with the remaining $20,000 to finish. Luke's friend Al ropes him back into his business to help with Derek's need for a 'real' Marcus. Of course you know things are never that easy, especially when feelings become involved and reality enters the picture.
The romance develops rather quietly between these two, with a lot of getting to know each other and also boosting the other person up type of interactions. It honestly worked very well for this story and set the perfect mood and setting for Derek and Luke. I really enjoyed the story the author crafted for these two characters in a short novella. The story even had a good solid backstory for both characters that managed to enhance the story vs detract because it wasn't complete. The story itself was well written, paced evenly, with solid primary characters and good secondary characters that just gave that little extra realness to the tale.
I highly recommend this one as a perfect little holiday interlude to take you out of the crazy family/work/shopping time that is upon us. You're going to want to have time to read this one because you'll do it in one sitting. Definitely pick up this tale for your reading pleasure.
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Excerpt
I knew Marcus was six-two, just a little taller than me. I knew he had blue eyes, and dark hair with red tones in certain light. He had a brother, but they didn’t see each other much, being that his brother was in the Navy. His parents were retired in Florida, but they’d had Marcus and his brother Adam late in life. Marcus was twenty-nine, same as me with only a few months separating our birthdays, and he was a firefighter. Oh, and he was a good, kind man who was thoughtful all the time and treated me like a prince.
“That’s such a shame. Anyway, how are Marcus’ kittens?” Mom asked. I pulled myself back to what she was saying. It was never good to not pay full attention to anything Mom said, otherwise you’d end up agreeing to all kinds of things she’d throw at you when your defenses are down. I loved her dearly but she was sneaky like that.
Which is how I got myself into this mess with Marcus in the first place.
“They’re fine.”
“Did he find good homes for them?”
“Absolutely, the last of them went to a widowed grandmother in his apartment block.”
“Socks? The dark one?”
I glanced at my notes. “No, you remember Socks went to his uncle; Spider went to the old lady.”
“Oh yes, of course, although why someone would name a kitten Spider I don’t know.”
“There were spiders in the house where Marcus found the kittens.”
“I still don’t understand how there could be spiders in a burned-out house.”
Shit. “Spiders are hardy.”
“You said the house was razed to the ground, dear.”
Now I was losing the will to live. “Well, maybe the spider was outside. Mom, I need to go, Moira is at the door and she needs me to sign off on the new AbbaLister raisins account.”
“Of course dear, just, please tell Marcus he is welcome at any time. We so want to meet him and thought it’d be better at the house.”
“I will, I know he’s keen to meet you.”
“Oh good,” she said, and I knew I’d fucked up and somehow given her an opening. I’d never mentioned once that Marcus wanted to meet them, because that would just give them the impetus to take matters into their own hands. My worst fears were confirmed. “Oh, I’ve had the most wonderful idea.”
Oh God, what?
“Your dad and I are coming into the city on Monday; book us dinner on any night, or lunch, breakfast, anything. I want to meet this young man of yours and if it has to be in a restaurant then so be it.”
“I’m not sure—”
“Derek, he can’t be busy every night next week, and every lunchtime, goodness me, we’ll even take a quick coffee if that is all he can manage.”
Shit. Shit. And double shit.
“I’ll see what I can organize.” I kept my tone regretful, to at least give the impression I would try to organize them meeting Marcus, but that it would be unlikely.
We finished the call, and I replaced the handset in the cradle, fighting the urge to throw it against the wall, sit and cry at my desk, or maybe, less drastically, move to Montana and become a cowboy.
So many lies.
There was no Moira standing at my door. It was still closed and I’d lied to my mom.
There were no kittens, I made those up, and the spider story. The word spider came about because when I’d been talking to my mom about Marcus and the kittens, a tiny spider had crawled over my notes.
I closed the notebook in which I had the names of five kittens with their various characteristics listed.
Mom wanted to meet Marcus, any night, any lunch, anytime.
Which sucked big hairy balls.
Because that was another thing I had made up.
There was no Marcus either.
The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn't like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.
mailto:rj@rjscott.co.uk
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