After his tumultuous teenage years, Smudge has settled into his quiet life in the sleepy English village of Slopy Bottom. He’s his own boss with the time and space to indulge his artistic creativity. And he has friends. He’s happy. Satisfied. Lonely. And the pool of potential soulmates is almost non-existent. His friends, Rick and Mal, flush with their own happy romance, keep trying to set him up with the most incompatible men, and he's never finding true love on Grindr. Hell, he's not even going to manage a hook up based on the kinky messages he’s been getting recently. He'll just have to slake his desire to find his own HEA in the pages of bosom-heaving romance novels.
Raleigh is the darling of Slopy Bottom’s blue rinse brigade: church organist, mobile librarian, and apparently wedded to his trademark cardigans. He seems to be the polar opposite of the artistic Smudge, whose brightly coloured mohawk and piercings should be a red flag to Raleigh. Yet he’s yearning for company too. It’s just that Raleigh has less expectation and definitely less courage to chase after it, for reasons that he keeps very close to his chest. Reasons that don’t stop him from being drawn irresistibly to Smudge.
Smudge is sure that the way Raleigh runs from him whenever he sees him is cruelly deliberate. A reflection on his bad boy looks and his disdain for Raleigh’s precious church. So why can’t he stop thinking about the softness of Raleigh’s curls and his delicate body? Then Raleigh offers an olive branch of sugar and caffeine, Smudge’s favourite combination, starting them on a road to an awkward truce. And when they are conned into working together on a community project at the local hospital, the proximity ignites a spark that can’t be ignored. But navigating the murky waters that could take their relationship beyond tentative friendship all depends on whether Raleigh can release his secret fears – and whether Smudge is the man to share and allay them.
Five bliss-filled hearts - though I have a bit of a confession; for some reason this book took me a while to get into. I kept starting it, then reading something else - I just couldn't get into it. Until I could. I truly don't know why this took me so long to get into to read because I loved it enormously once I did get going. Once I properly started it was an I-can't-put-this-down kinda read. I genuinely, genuinely loved it and had a horrendous book hangover at the end. I liked the first book, and the short prequel, in the series, so it should have been no surprise that I loved this too. It just kinda was after taking a little while to get into. My brain is a peculiar place. *shrug*
I love books that are set in Britain, especially in rural Britain, it is my favourite setting, if pushed to choose. I love small village/town stories, they generally have such a feel-good factor about them and this was no exception. Smudge and Raleigh are both characters we've met in the series as secondary characters and now it was time to find out their story. Smudge with his bad-boy aura and Raleigh seeming too good to be true - it just worked perfectly. Through in a bit of a crisis/humanitarianism/helpfulness, add a dash of UST, a pinch (and it was just a pinch thank goodness) of miscommunication, mix it up with helpful friends and a sprinkle of unnecessary jealousy and you have a beautifully baked story. The kind that warms your cockles, and make you crave tea and scones (jam first) while reading.
It's just good. A perfect series to comfort read. This book definitely can be read as a standalone - but why would you want to miss out on all the tales of Slopy Bottom? I, for one, cannot wait until the next instalment is available.
A copy of this book was given in exchange for an honest review.
For more information, see Goodreads.
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