Thursday, April 3, 2014

Black Dog by Cat Grant

3.5 STARS

Bannon's Gym - Book 1

(This was recommended to me by my longtime buddy Zoe X. Rider (she's an author as well, and you can check her out at her website .)

So, there's not a lot of romance here. Not even much in the sexytimes category either. But what we do have is a tale of two men who had been separated by a tragedy in their past, woken up by the arrival of a young man who is suffering a tragedy in his own life in the present time.

At first I thought the story was going to be about the young man, Tom. Then I thought it was going to be about him and the fellow who takes him in off the street, Eddie - a sort of younger man/older man type of relationship. Eddie would be in his 30s, I figured. Then we met Eddie's friend and one time young love, Danny and oh... okay... whatever lovestory there is going to be is going to be about Eddie and Danny. Cool. I'm a sucker for both main characters being past the first blush of youth.

So the action centers around Bannon's Gym - Eddie was once a boxer and Danny an MMA type guy and there's tai kwan do happening and other martial arts - and Eddie's diner that he runs with his mom, Grace. Eddie finds the abused Tom and takes him in, sheltering him with Grace and giving him a job at the diner. Danny helps out by channelling Tom's natural fighting talent at the gym. While this is going on... Danny and Eddie reconnect and get past the dark tragedy in their past.

It's a novella and honestly? I wished it had been longer. I wanted more about Danny and Eddie. I LIKED them together and I wanted to see more of them operating as a couple, discovering each other, being surprised by each and recognising familiarity in each other. I'm assuming we're going to get Tom's story at some point, because this IS Bannon's Gym #1 and it IS m/m where the series' abound!

Anyway, this was a good read. I'm glad Zoe recced it to me and I'll probably read the next one. :)

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