Review: Eyes Only for You (Eyes of Love #2) by Andrew Grey

Marcello Bagnini has a history of falling for the wrong men, and it seems he's done it again. Working out at the gym with his straight friend Jerry is becoming harder by the day-in more ways than one. Worse yet, Jerry isn't the only one who notices Marcello's wandering eyes. So instead of risking his friendship with Jerry and alienating the other guys at the gym, Marcello keeps his feelings to himself.

Real estate agent Jerry Foland has never explored his interest in other men, but there's something different about Marcello, and Jerry's starting to think he might like to see where his attraction could lead. However, Jerry's controlling father makes it clear that it's either stay on the straight and narrow or Jerry can say good-bye to his family.

As much as they try to stay away from each other, their lives overlap, both at the gym and when Jerry is contracted to sell the home of one of Marcello's friends. Friendship grows into more, but Jerry's father has his own agenda, and it doesn't include having a gay son.

I feel like it could just be me at this point. I’ve had a run of rather average books and unfortunately this book falls in with that crowd. I enjoyed this story, but it was let down with stilted dialogue and an over-abundance of gym talk.

Marcello has been friends with Jerry for 3 months and is crushing after him hard, but he’s been burned badly by men in the closet. Jerry has also noticed Marcello but has only identified as straight. It doesn’t help matters that his parents are narrow-minded, controlling, homophobic pricks. Put these jumble of issues together and these two have some obstacles to overcome before they can be together.

This was a pretty cute story, but I just couldn’t get properly invested, I think this was largely to do with the way the dialogue was written. There were clunky info dumps that didn’t feel at all natural to how people spoke in real life.

“What do you do?” Sal asked, turning to Marcello.
“I’m a technical instructor. I work with Donner and Green in Mechanicsburg. We develop classes and teach various types of computer software. I personally teach and develop classes for Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, and I do a product for specialty publishing called FrameMaker. I also manage various projects within the office as a sort of in-house project manager.”

And Marcello came out with some pretty weird lines, that once again might look pretty on paper but would be stilted when spoken out loud. This one came after a kiss, before things got too heated….

“We can’t. I gave you a taste so you know the kind of man I am and how I’ll treat you. But the rest you have to decide.”

That sort of dialogue takes me out of the story immediately and I find it impossible to invest fully in the characters.

Then there was the gym talk, details of proper exercises and routines and cooling regimes. Honestly, I really really couldn’t care about that stuff and these guys spend alot of time at the gym...

This story did end on a much better note however, there was no unwanted silliness or take backsies of promises made on Jerry’s part. I found the last ‘dramatic’ climax a bit cliche but I actually liked it because it created an exciting event (other than going to the gym...) for these guys to experience together.

I liked the story, it was a nice, quiet, steady romance but it wasn’t executed in a way that griped me or had me overly invested.

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