Covet Thy Neighbor

I have to gather my thoughts

This is book 4 in the Tucker Springs series, which I'm reading in order, and though you don't have to, I feel that it's a good idea as previous characters are visited, even if briefly, and others are set up for future books. Having said that mouthful it kind of pains me to say that this one didn't work for me.

This might get spoilerish

The whole premise of this book is an “opposites attract”, dynamic to which end we have Seth, Micheal & Jason's tattooist friend from Where Nerves End and he also appears in the other books. He co-owns a tattoo parlor and lives in an apartment above the shop. He grew up in a family of Christian extremists who disowned him once he came out as both gay and a non-beleiver, so of course his polar opposite is Darren, a Christian youth pastor, who has just moved in next door.

On paper this has the makings of a ‘red meat' romance. One where we're going to roll up our sleeves and get into some maybe unpleasant corners. I live for these things and having come off the high of Dirty Laundry I rubbed my hands and hunkered down. Pretty soon it was clear that I would be disappointed. Every good Space Opera, one-handed smut fest, or fantastical shifter romp has one important thing going for it: a foundation of truth. This doesn't have that.

Seth is supposed to be an atheist and also someone who has been deeply hurt by his family's rejection due to his sexual orientation. I believe the latter but not the former. Atheism is in itself a form of belief, not just saying “I don't believe because my parents rejected me”. Presumably Seth started doubting in childhood and later in college, but this is never fleshed out other than in a throwaway sentence. Seth's atheism seems at worst a conceit for the plot or at best a bratty boy's reaction to having been hurt.

Darren is a Youth Pastor who rents the apartment next door to Seth's. I'm all about sex positivity but damn is Darren quick to jump Seth's bones! I get insta-attraction and insta-lust but for better or worse people in the Pastoring business tend to be a tad more circumspect when it comes to romantic attachments, or at least they should be. Whatever. The insta-boning didn't throw me off, though it also didn't do much for me. In general the attraction between Darren & Seth felt like ... meh? What had me shaking my head NO, NO, NO, was turning this pretty HUGE difference of opinion/belief into a Lifetime movie where love overcomes everything in 90 pat minutes.

My problem: I don't believe these two can last if they are who they say they are or believe what they believe, which for Darren amounts to the same thing. Let's face it, Seth really just has to overcome seeing Darren in the same light as his horrible family and to be honest Darren is far from that stripe of zealot. He seems, at least in his own beliefs, to fall within modern Christian churches that zero in on social work and outreach as opposed to the fire and brimstone preaching. Amen brother! Cool! But ... yep, Darren still is a Christian pastor. Though he eschews most of the Old Testament as parable (yeah!) and the New Testament is all about LOVE and that's AWESOME but ... there's a niggle. Among all of this love there're also those bits about living in God's Grace & resurrection and let's not forget that another part of being a pastor is to EVANGELIZE and bring people to live the righteous path. Nothing wrong with that but also something I don't think can be brushed under the rug and the final resolution to the detente between Seth & Darren is “do your thing, I'll do mine, and I won't ever try to bring you to my side of the aisle”. ... See what I mean? Either Darren won't be long for the pastoring life or he won't be a very good one or he doesn't truly love Seth. We don't know, and here's another problem, it was never very clear, at least not to me, why or what he believes. The only thing that was obvious to me was that he had the hots for Seth and is a bossy bottom. No judgement. On the other hand Seth seems like he can be brought back to the Church with two beers and one good blow job. So there's that. Maybe this will be HEA after all.

I'll stop now. I've said enough or maybe I haven't explained well enough. I dunno. sigh

The writing is fine and Seth's inner monologue is pretty funny. We get to visit with some of the guys and there's a pretty subtle set-up for one of the MCs in the next book. And if you're not riled up, like I evidently was, by what seems a contrived antagonism for the MCs, you may enjoy this as a harmless trifle or a bridge within the series. Also it's pretty short.