Dylan has worked for Gabe for two years. Two long years of sarcastic comments. Two long years of insults, and having to redo the coffee pot four times in the mornings to meet his exacting standards.
Not surprisingly he has devoted a lot of time to increasingly inventive ways to murder Gabe. From stabbing him with a cake fork, to garrotting him with his expensive tie, Dylan has thought of everything.
However, a chance encounter opens his eyes to the attraction that has always lain between them, concealed by the layers of antipathy. There are only two problems - Gabe is still a bastard, and he makes wedding planners look like hardened pessimists.
But what happens when Dylan starts to see the real Gabe? What happens when he starts to fall in love with the warm, wary man that he sees glimpses of as the days pass?
Because Gabe is still the same commitment shy, cold man that he’s always been, or is he? Has Dylan had the same effect on Gabe, and has his solid gold rule of no commitment finally been broken? With his heart taken Dylan desperately needs to know, but will he get hurt trying to find the answers?
From the author of ‘The Summer of Us’ comes another scorchingly hot romantic comedy, showing what happens between two men when rules get broken.
I realized whilst reading this book that this, whatever trope this lone wolf/perennially traveling light/finds their other half is called with a dash of hurt/comfort, is my kryptonite. Every single time it gets me. Nowhere Ranch, First and First, Controlled Burn, the Enlightenment series, Bad Judgment, Rattlesnake and now Rule Breaker. If you can throw in a made family I'm likely to be putty in your hands. I laughed. I got choked up a couple times. I found myself grinning and, most importantly, I didn't want it to end.
Gabe and Dylan are boss and employee. They've worked together for two years and maybe at one point Dylan actually thought he hated Gabe, but all the "hating" was more lip-service to me, so if you're looking for an enemies who become lovers via hate sex this is not that book. What you can count on is witty banter, tension so thick you can cut it with a knife, sexy times and feels.
Now, the sex. It's topnotch with a little orgasm denial, Fleshlight usage, some come play, a touch of begging, rimming, big guy bottoming 🙌🏼 and these two, once they break the push/pull cycle, set the sheets on fire. Often. I was not mad at it, but sex is just one component of their relationship. The romance and the erotica were well balanced, IMO.
Dylan narrates the story of he and Gabe and he is sassy, snarky, witty and generally hilarious. He also has the biggest heart, a heart big enough to make up for the dearth of love in Gabe's past. What impressed me was how well developed Gabe was even though we don't get his perspective until the epilogue. Morton did an incredible job of doling out pieces of the Gabe puzzle so that by the time the Christmas sequence happened, I knew. I do wish I understood that club scene better, though. I'd dance a jig for a short from Gabe's perspective.
Gabe is a grump and an alpha, but it was so hard for me not to like him. It's obvious that most of his curmudgeonly ways are a defense mechanism, because everybody leaves. He just can't handle losing anyone else so he's closed himself off and told himself he's happy inside his beautiful and sterile shell.
The trajectory of their story was predictable in a broad sense but I found it no less compelling for it; it had to happen that way to balance their relationship otherwise Dylan would always question it. So, yes, expect a glorious HEA. At one point I was convinced Morton was trying to kill me, because BIG GUNS. I have a weakness for the possessive and growly ones and Gabe gets about eleventy kabrillion different kinds of possessive and growly once he's committed to Dylan. 😍 It was a sight to behold.
Maybe it did get a little sappy and maybe I thought Gabe's turnabout was quick, but the flip side of that coin is he's in love for the first time in his life. Weren't we all a little punch drunk and heart eyed the first time? So the sap in me threw the cynic in me some shade and told her to STFU and stop interrupting The Feelsfest! But then he played "In Your Eyes" for Dylan and even the cynic was slow clapping while surreptitiously grabbing a tissue for acute onset allergies.
*sniffles*
All the secondary characters play their roles well, even the asstacular Fletcher. *gag* I would welcome a follow up on Jude or Henry. Or both! #greedy
Recommend to hurt/comfort and whatever the hell this devoted singleton to committed boyfriend trope is called and those who like to wallow in the squishy feels.
Also, for all two of you who haven't read it already, here's the link to Gabe's proposal that we sort of got dangled with in the epilogue.
A review copy was provided.
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