Review: Grounded by Aidan Wayne

Between raising his daughter Camille, his work as a full-time pastry chef, and his hobby of capoeira, Baz’s life is pretty full. He may be a little lonely, but he’s too busy to think about it all that much.

When his cousin Alaina introduces him to Terry, another capoeira student, Baz is instantly drawn to him. Though quiet and withdrawn, Terry ends up being a fun, interesting person who Baz can’t help but fall for. And when Baz does things, he doesn’t do them halfway.

Terry is a successful voice actor and a talented martial artist. But the fact that he’s shy, on top of being a trans man, has kept him from really dating. He likes Baz, he does—he just doesn’t want to mess up their friendship by failing at romance. Still, Baz is nothing if not stubborn, and Terry is willing to give things a try.

This story is pretty fluffy. I usually prefer a bit more depth with my stories but I didn’t mind this one as something light and short to fill up a few hours.

Baz is a really great character, and I enjoyed reading about him and his daughter, Camille. Their interactions were adorable, and I felt the author captured the nurturing side of Baz really well. He put himself out there with 100% surety that even if things didn’t go his way, he at least gave it his all. He handled his daughter with patience and care, and it was nice to read this type of father/daughter relationship instead of the strained relationship which is the usual trope.

Terry was a bit opaque. I felt like his character development was a bit stunted. I don’t know if this was intentional or if it was because we were always in Baz’s POV but I felt like I needed a bit more from him to feel good about the relationship between them.

I did enjoy the way they both navigated the relationship while trying to take care of how it may impact Camille. The author also managed to capture how children can be irrational and extreme when things change for them. This came across strongly in the story.

This was a fairly short story, 120 pages, but I felt like it captured the relationship between Baz and Terry and gave us enough solid foundation to believe in a HFN.

I enjoyed the author’s writing style and would recommend this as an easy read with a very supportive and easy going main character (Baz). Unfortunately Terry was under-developed and needed a bit more to make me love him as much as Baz.

A review copy was provided by the publisher for an honest opinion