Salvage

Is there an M/M version of Women's Fiction? If so, this book would qualify for the category. The focus is less on romance (although there is one) and more on Gabe's relationship with his ailing father and partially disabled sister, and how his return home to care for the former causes a re-examination of the beliefs he has held for years about how he is viewed by the two people he loves most in the world. He also has to recalibrate the relationship with his best friend Jamie, to whom he has served as rescuer and enabler since they were boys. In the midst of those complex dynamics, explicit sex scenes with Scott, the cute guy next door who has just moved in with the young niece and nephew he seems to barely know, seem jarringly out of place. Their relationship goes from mistrust to making out very suddenly without any discernible arc - they're not together, then they are, and that's about it. I'm not sure they even say “I love you” to each other, that's how little the stakes seem to be.

Several reviewers whose opinions I respect gave this 5 stars, but after reading 3 books by Con Riley, I am going to conclude that she's just not my cup of tea.