Review: Scrap (The Bristol Collection #3) by Josephine Myles

When things come to a head, there’s nowhere to go but down…

On the surface, Derek “Call Me Dare” Nelson’s life is simple, doing up custom campervans while living in a slightly illegal caravan in his riverfront yard. When a handsome, smooth-talking developer offers to buy the land out from under his feet, Dare realizes it’s the same man he had to escort home from a party months ago for causing a drunken scene.

Grant Matravers lives a double life, attempting to adjust to weekends as a single, divorced gay man while staying closeted at work. The strain of keeping up the part-time pretense, missing his kids, and now a problematic attraction to the shave-headed, tattooed Dare, has worn his emotional barriers dangerously thin.

Dare blasts through those barriers in a way Grant isn’t prepared for, challenging everything he thought he knew about himself as a gay man. But as their chemistry heats up and the intimacy between them grows, Grant edges toward a decision that could blow up in his face. Exposing a hornet’s nest of complications that could destroy any chance for happily ever after.

Instead of fighting over who got to read and review Scrap, Lorix and I decide to tag team because that's what unicorns do :D

ANN:

I love this series so hard and this installment just confirms why. I love the setting, I love the characters and I love the story of them falling in love.

I think the thing I appreciated most about Dare and Grant was how incredibly imperfect they were and how those flaws made them perfect for each other. These were guys I could totally get with. They didn’t make declarations of love and smother each other with fluff. They’re guys who don’t wear their hearts on their sleeves and it takes them some time to get past the lust and the stubborn to realize each of them could have more. And more importantly, they deserved it.

Grant is not particularly likeable at first. He’s arrogant, kind of rude and an absolutely hot mess of emotions. I loved seeing inside his head as he grew though. It wasn’t pretty, but damn he managed to do a pretty good job pulling it all together in the end. On the surface, Dare is one intimidating and cold dude. He paints an imposing figure, but he’s a good and loyal man once you see past the tattoos and snark.

Speaking of snark, IT WAS SO GOOD. The conversations between these two were gold. They started out being adversarial and slowly moved to affectionate but never lost their edge. It was just so them. They may not have been gushing with feels all the time, but when either of them did open up and say something from the heart, it just mattered so much more. That’s pretty much my weakness right there.

The secondary characters were just as flawed and I really liked how the author handled both families. No one was perfect but no one was a villain either. Grant’s ex-wife wasn’t conveniently evil and the kids weren’t overly obnoxious or overly adorable. Dare’s brother was a train wreck, but still an optimistic work in progress. There was no cop out stereotypic characters that were used to move the plot along. They all added to the story by being believable and added to the depth of the main characters.

This was more than just a love story between Dare and Grant too. Besides my love for the love, the story of Grant becoming comfortable in his own skin made me so happy. It had to be so difficult, but by the end he earned every bit of happy he found.

LORIX:

All I really want to say here is WHAT ANN SAID, because honestly she nailed it. That review is so perfect. I love this series from Josephine Myles. After reading book 2 I was convinced I was not going to like Grant - let's face it, the little we see him in Stuff only shows his complete arsehole side. Big time. So, it's a sign of good author to not just make you like a previously despised character, but to fall in love with him.

I adored the dynamics between Grant and Dare (Dare is the BEST character). I have to admit I loved the relationship between him and his brother. That moment when you start to see beneath the tattoos and shaven head and see the real Dare. Those moments - they made me weak at the knees. The softness behind the stereotypical thuggish looking guy, the caring and yearning for peace and healing for his brother...in many ways I almost preferred these chapters to the ones with Grant. Not quite, but almost.

The dynamics between these two are fantastic. Like Ann said snark. SNark, snark, snark. Perfect. Their was a power struggle going on between these really, a power struggle that Grant, with his education and money and high powered job was destined to lose. It was the best thing that could happen to happen.

If you enjoy Josephine Myles words, or you love that British flavour to your reading I would highly, highly recommend this.

To read more about Scrap check it out over at Goodreads.

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