A Change in Tide

I love this cover. A great representation of the hero. Nice composition. Nice typography, although the “A” is wierdly placed. All in all a nicely done cover.

So it is a testament to how well this author can weave a story that this ended up being a 3.5-Star read for me. Oh, it totally would have been an even higher rating if it hadn't been for that awful and unnecessary first chapter (see my rant below). I put this one down after that and gave myself 24 hours to bleach my brain before continuing from chapter two. From that point on this one was a wonderful read.

I really enjoy this author's writing style. It's very meandering in its pace without being boring. Although the last 20% did drag a little for me. There wasn't really any angst or drama. Just a slow building relationship between two broken people older in years than the typical H/h (Hero=39 Heroine=42). Adults behaving like adults. I enjoyed both main characters immensely. This book isn't heavy on the side characters but Jared's sister Jordy plays a huge part in the book and I loved seeing how close she and Jared were. Little Ole was cute and a certain OPP officer intrigues me greatly. I hope we get a book or at least a novella featuring those two.



I also LOVED that this was set in Canada...HELLO, home country here. We need more books set in Canada. I laughed my butt off when Jared and Jordy looked at Mia in horror when she didn't know the difference between the OHL and the NHL. I loved when the nurse told Jared there was a Timmie's still open. It made me a little homesick, to be honest. In any case, I have a rant to get to so I am going to wrap this up. Personally, I would suggest if detail OW scenes bother you to just skip chapter one and start from chapter two. There are a couple mentions of the heroine having seen the hero having sex, but you will be spared the details along with the...other stuff.

So my rant...The first chapter of this book was SO not needed and really had NO POINT in my opinion. Oh, I know that author wanted to show us that the heroine thought the hero was a player with the whole seeing him having sex with OW and then a pregnant woman shows up at his place a few days later (his sister). But that could have been achieved by simply having the heroine see the pregnant woman and think to herself that she just saw him fucking someone else the other day. I didn't need a full-blown play by play of him fucking the OW. Or the heroine getting turned on by it. AND I certainly didn't need the pages devoted to him seeing his nasty covered dick and realizing he didn't use a condom complete with more pages of him having the birth control talk and STD talk with the OW. Why? Because NOTHING comes of it. His dick doesn't fall off. No "OMG I am pregnant" baby mama drama. After that talk, they part on good terms and she is NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN.All that chapter achieved was to gross me out and disconnect me from the hero before I even had a chance to CONNECT with him. Look I don't usually mind OW/OM stuff if it before the couple meets, but it needs to ADD something to the story. Have a purpose. Come into play at some point. This was just a bunch of gratuitous crap that felt like it was added to pump up the word count. It all could have been presented in a general way. The nitty gritty details were not needed and yes, took some of my enjoyment away from an otherwise excellent book

First, I want to say that I mostly enjoyed this book. Both guys are pleasant enough to read about and be in the head of. I liked that, even for the short length, it wasn't a speedrun romance with them madly obsessing over each other within moments of meeting. I liked that there were absolutely no misunderstandings in this book.

To me, May-December romances mean something wildly different than this. Which is actually for the good. (I am not a fan of most age-gap romances, which probably leads to questions as to why I even went with this book - the the answer is because I'm enjoyed other work by this author and I managed to get this book free.) There is maybe 10-12 years difference in their ages. Matthew is 34. Skye's age is never mentioned directly, but he has been in art school for a while. So maybe 22-ish. To me, this is not a ‘May-December' romance.

What is is, however, is a size difference romance. There is constant references to how much smaller Skye is than Matthew. I think, if my foggy memory is right, that at one point Skye acknowledges that Matthew is three times his size. Which honestly sounds crazy to me, but whatever.

What I didn't like is the mentions of Skye being elvin and fae looking. Not things I really like a focus on. Also, it needs to be mentioned that there is some homophobia, assumed homophobia and internalized homophobia in this story. Not exactly what I was expecting from a light read.

But, over all, I enjoyed it, even if I didn't love it.