Cover Design: Garrett Leigh @ Black Jazz Design
Length: 48,000 words approx.
Rainbow Place Series
Blurb
Alex is about to turn eighteen and is firmly in the closet. He’s been biding his time, waiting to escape to uni, and finally come out away from the oppressive influence of his homophobic father. When he flunks his exams, he’s stuck in the small town of Porthladock—and what’s worse is that he’s working for his dad. The only thing that makes it bearable is Cam.
Cam’s comfortable with his bisexuality, but he doesn’t broadcast it. Young, free, and single, his social life revolves around playing rugby and hanging out with his mates. He’s attracted to Alex, but with the six-year age gap, Cam’s wary of getting involved. Plus, he thinks Alex needs a friend more than he needs a lover, and as their friendship grows, Cam decides he’s not willing to risk ruining it for casual sex.
When Alex’s dad finds out about his sexuality, Alex is suddenly both jobless and homeless. He finds work at Rainbow Place, the local LGBT-friendly café and Cam lets Alex stay in his flat for a while. But Alex would rather be sleeping in Cam’s bed than on his sofa. With them both living under one roof, their feelings for each other grow stronger, and the sexual tension is hard to ignore. Will giving in to it ruin their friendship and complicate things for Alex even more?
Although this book is part of a linked series, it has a satisfying happy ending, and can be enjoyed as a standalone.
My Two Pennies' Worth
What can I say? I love this small coastal town where Jay has set his series and the LGBTQ-friendly cafe that is at the very heart of the stories. This is book two of the series and I would say that it can be read as a standalone. We met both Cam and Alex in book one, and you would lose the backstory of the cafe by not reading the book, but reading it is not a necessity.
I've seen a couple of tags for this that I'd want to address.
Age gap: I think this is only an issue because Alex is so young (he turns 18 early on in the story). If I remember rightly, Cam is about 23/4. That's not an age gap for me, an age gap is 10/15 years plus. But Alex is younger than Cam and more importantly quite inexperienced.
Friends to Lovers: They start the story as acquaintances, not friends and despite being immediately attracted to each other, they decide friendship was the better option. The story focuses more on them becoming friends and fighting that initial attraction than your traditional friends to lovers story.
Jay writes characters that feel real and react like you and I and I love that about his writing. The story moves at a realistic pace and the characters stumble and occasionally fall during the slow-burn of their relationship.
A delightful story in what is fast becoming a must read series.
One day, Jay decided to try and write a short story—just to see if he could—and found it rather addictive. He hasn’t stopped writing since.
Jay writes contemporary romance about men who fall in love with other men. He has five books published by Dreamspinner Press, and also self-publishes under the imprint Jaybird Press. Many of his books are now available as audiobooks.
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