REVIEW : Heat – An ABCs of Love Novel – T.L. Travis

Heat Book Cover Heat
An ABCs of Love Novel
T.L. Travis
Gay Romance, LGBTQ Romance,
Sapphire Publishing
May 26, 2022
Kindle
175
Amazon

What do you get when you throw a burly blacksmith and the town’s poster child for clumsiness together?

A whole lot of swearing and a threatening use of duct tape.

And the need to construct a sign that reads, “DO NOT LET CAMPBELL NEAR THE FORGE!”

Alabaster Falls’ local blacksmith, Daughtry Blackburn, was satisfied with his reclusive status. He had iron to bend and orders to fill but he knew he needed something to take the business to the next level. His father had fought taking their business into the twenty-first century, but since he’d passed, it was up to Daughtry to keep things forward moving and he knew there was no way to do so without being on the World Wide Web. Metalworking, he got. Computers, not so much.

Campbell Jenkins was desperate to be accepted by his peers in the little town he’d called home since birth. Problem was, he was accident-prone. Not just in the sense of an occasional break here or there, but in a "can’t walk by glass without it shattering – even when it seemed he was a mile away" type of thing. No matter how hard he tried to fit in, this curse led to failure. Forced to stay stuck inside the walls of the home his grandmother left him, he spent his time learning all he could about computers and social media. His online friends never cast him aside—too bad the real world wasn’t as kind.

When he answers an ad in the local paper for online marketing assistance, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Least of all, the brawny man answering the door to a log cabin that had seen better days.

Can two opposites in forced proximity learn to play nicely or will one wind up in an iron grave?

Heat is a complete stand-alone in the ABCs of Love series where one author a week will deliver a brand-new story for you to rediscover your ABCs.

Review By D. B. Wilson

Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

What I liked:

The moment I started reading the book, I fell in love with the characters. Campbell is a klutz, and the town isn’t very fond of him. Daughtry is a typical small town muscle man, who the town adored. Despite being opposites, the two complimented each other beautifully.

I also loved the way the story unfolded and enjoyed reading as the main characters overcame their life obstacles and things that kept them from being whole. Again, complimentary personalities went a long way in promoting their self-exploration and growth.

Critique

As much as I enjoyed the story, it desperately needed to be edited. I also struggled a lot with believing any thirty-year-old in the United States didn’t know how to use the internet.

There were times when the author would say things then contradict herself later. For example, in one scene, the blacksmith was working on something when the other guy came in, and then in a later scene he said he was glad he didn’t start the forge.

Despite my critiques, this was a very sweet novel, and I even got a little verklempt in the end. I just wish the author had done a little more editing before she published.

 

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