A Fiercer Heat by Parker Avrile

A Fiercer Heat by Parker Avrile

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Blurb

A new matchmaking service lands in the Big Apple, and no hot gay celebrity will go unpaired… 
Rising singer Drew and former child star Traven have one thing in common― a desperate need for publicity to lift their careers to the next level. 

“Actor dates singer” is the oldest publicity stunt in the book. If they pretend to be boyfriends, the tabloid press is guaranteed to report breathlessly on their every move. All they have to do is be all kissy face for the camera in public and all hands-off professionals in private. 

Easy, right? Except for one thing. Assured Elites fake boyfriends have a way of becoming the real deal. 

It isn’t long until Drew and Traven find themselves struggling with the “hands-off in private” part. 

This 60,000-word full-length steamy gay romance novel features fake boyfriends, a menace from the past, and two men who learn how to make beautiful music together. No cliffhangers, no cheating, and always a Happily Ever After. 

This is the first novel in the Assured Elites trilogy. Each book follows a different couple, so they can be read in any order. (less)

Review

This was a cute, short read that on the surface had everything I’d usually enjoy. There was murder. It wasn’t overt murder, but murder happened and it even happened to someone who thoroughly deserved it, so that was a good thing. The main characters came from suitably challenging backgrounds, so the power balance was decent. The mob was nominally involved. It was set in New York, as all good things should be. (Look, it’s baseball season and my world begins and ends in the Bronx until the end of October, okay?)

Anyway, the two main characters were okay. They weren’t terrible. It wasn’t exactly hard to cheer for them. It wasn’t necessarily easy either. Drew had a chip on his shoulder the size of the Empire State Building, which made sense for his background. Unfortunately, Chekhov’s Gun didn’t apply here and his background was merely hinted at. His history didn’t come into play at all, not once, except briefly as a red herring.

Traven has a lot going on, and I do feel sorry for him. That said, he’s a liar. He has the opportunity to not be a liar a few times during their getting-to-know-you phase and I can see where pride would be a thing and all that… but still. And Drew just kind of rolls with it, which makes me wonder if his brain has been surgically removed and replaced with tater tots.

It doesn’t make the story any less fun. Don’t get me wrong. Neither does the weird “twin” thing, which doesn’t have much of an impact on the story other than to provide a running joke. Both of these things take me out of the story just enough to make snarky comments to the dog, who doesn’t care, but it’s not enough to make the story bad. It was just enough to chafe a little.

Like I said, this was a fun little romp that provided an excellent distraction on a sunny weeknight evening.