Release Day Review: Counting Down (Counting #2) by Kelly Jensen

It’s been a week since a Christmas Eve blizzard changed the course of Marcus Winnamore’s life. Plan A is now Plan B, and the first item on his new agenda is taking Henry Auttenberg on a date. They’ve been invited to a New Year’s Eve party, and Marc is counting down the hours until midnight… until he can kiss Henry in front of his colleagues and friends.

Things don’t quite work out to plan. Finding the elevator out of service, Marc and Henry check the stairs, only to choose the wrong door and become locked in the basement. Close quarters once again make for close conversation, and as they explore every avenue of escape, they also explore the deepening attraction between them. For Marc, this isn’t an experiment. Will he still feel that way when he has to admit to someone other than Henry that he’s gay?

Oh man, I missed these two.

I love where the author is taking this relationship and how the pacing is going. In Counting Fence Posts, Marc and Henry got trapped in a blizzard and confessions were made and the potential for something more began. It was right before Christmas then and Counting Down is set on New Year’s Eve, so they’ve only been ‘together’ for a week and while everything is still new, there is no doubt the two have a connection that’s headed to more than just a casual fling.

There’s more than just the getting-to-know-you thing going on though. Henry is out, he’s gay, no question, while Marc, on the other hand, has never been with a man before so he’s got a lot on his plate beyond getting to know a potential boyfriend and this is where the strength of this series lies. It actually works out well for them that they seem to keep getting trapped (first the car in the blizzard and now locked in the basement of an apartment building) because they are captive to communication and I don’t know that they’d have the heartfelt conversations they’ve been having without these scenarios.

Marc has been fascinated by Henry since day one, but it’s all new to him and he’s got a lot of new feels to sort out. Henry is very interested in more with Marc, but he’s also not going to just be his experiment and while they do talk about all their feelings (props to characters who communicate!) it’s still a new relationship and both of them are still feeling their way forward cautiously. Anything else would wreck the balance that’s been built up and I guess I would say that these two have the most guardedly optimistic HEA in the works ever.

I can’t wait for their next ‘date’.

For more info and to get your copy of Counting Down, head over to Dreamspinner Press.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**