(view spoiler)[I love a good friends-to-lovers slash second-chance romance. I had high hopes for this one, even when I wasn’t overly thrilled over certain things thrown out in Tuck & Run. It was a bit of a preview of when Benji and Curtis/Laurence/Law see each other again for the first time in almost nine years. That specific scene was obviously shown with more detail in this book, and let’s just say I was even less thrilled.
The first two or three chapters were flashbacks. Benji and Laurence were best friends, starting when Benji was 13 and Laurence 12. They both came from horrible parents – one dad was the mayor of the small town, and the other one was all about money and power. They and the mothers only cared about image and appearances when it came to everything, including their sons. Regardless, the boys became the best of friends.
All that was good.
They eventually both came out to each other, fell in love, and when Laurence turned eighteen a few months after Benji, they married in a quick ceremony (outside of town, away from their homophobic parents), and were supposed to live happily ever after. Only that didn’t happen. The day after the wedding, Benji walked inside his house to grab his bag because he’d forgotten to in all the excitement of getting married. This was after having words with his horrible mother. While he was inside, Laurence ended up bolting without a word. This left Benji searching for him – including hiring detectives – for almost nine years.
Then we come back to Curtis. Because Laurence has been Curtis in all the books before now, that’s what I’ll be calling him from here on out in this review.
Curtis has been working for Mateo (from Hot & Bothered) for eight years. When he was 18, he didn’t just run from Benji, he started going by a different name to ensure he couldn’t be found.
That made ZERO sense to me, but okay! Something else that made zero sense to me… Mateo is a shrewd businessman. He didn’t get where he was by blindly trusting people. He doesn’t do anything in his career without thorough background checks, etc. Yet he had absolutely no clue that Curtis was actually Laurence.
In the real world, Mateo would’ve known every single thing about his new assistant, not just what he was told. Did he legally change his name? The word ALIAS kept being used, but the only way ‘Laurence’ could’ve had this new life as Curtis would’ve been if he had a legal name change. He’d have to get paid a salary, provide his security number, pay taxes, that type of thing. Hell, he couldn’t even rent or buy an apartment unless, again, his name was legally changed - or he used his birth name. At no point in the book is any of that mentioned. Just the word alias.
There’s being unrealistic and there’s being ridiculously unrealistic. And honestly, while I know a lot of mature eighteen-year-olds, one from Tiny Town America who has been sheltered his entire life, never could’ve just disappeared like he did without a trace. There would’ve been a lot of covering his tracks and some serious planning leading up to it. There was none of that with Laurence/Curtis.
Sorry, that’s my business brain talking.
I’ll get back to the story.
There’s this major build-up with Benji trying to find his long lost husband. Every single thing he does – including opening a bakery – is in hopes of finding his man. Mateo invests in his business, which immediately gets so busy he almost can’t keep up. In the midst of all this, Mateo is suspecting a few things. There’s even a chapter or two in Mateo’s POV.
There’s being a boss and good friend, and there’s jumping into business you know nothing about. In Mateo’s case, it was bringing Benji and Curtis back together after being apart for so long – in a very public setting. How did Mateo know there wasn’t abuse or infidelity or something like that in their relationship? If somebody goes to the lengths Curtis did to not be found, there had to be a real reason, right? Mateo didn’t know any of the details, yet he felt the need to go into matchmaking mode for his assistant.
And good Lord, these guys are all about over sharing with strangers – about their pasts, problems, and pretty much anything and everything. Curtis kept things to himself, including his marriage. Benji was out there telling everybody and their mama all about the husband who took off when they were both 18.
Benji and Curtis finally have a quick conversation about what happened the day Curtis disappeared. The reason for WHY he took off is finally out in the open. Do they take a few hours and work on catching up and maybe fixing everything? Of course not. Within seconds of Curtis having a, “Duh!” moment on why he left – he was wrong about something but didn’t bother discussing it with the man he loved at the time – they go right on to bed, and I’m not talking about sleeping. ;)
So much build up for… nothing. Almost nine years of running, and all was well after talking for a few minutes and some naked time.
It was so anti-climactic, and it was VERY frustrating. Sure, I’m glad they finally got their HEA, but it was a whole lot of rush, rush, all is well, and who cares about that silly misunderstanding that lasted almost nine years that could’ve been resolved in one quickie conversation? But no, Curtis had to run, start going by a different name, and then run AGAIN.
Uh, no.
Taylor, Aiden’s crazy best friend from Hot & Bothered (who I absolutely despised) was in this book and the last one. Apparently, she’s Rob’s cousin, with Rob being the manager of Club Deny.
Speaking of Rob… what an ass. At the end of Close & Personal, he meets Casey who will be a new bartender at the club. He’s supposed to be sitting in on an interview before Casey’s hired, maybe asking a few questions since he’ll be Casey’s boss. What he does instead is snap at the guy and basically insult him. I know this is the lead in to their book and them ‘not liking each other’. Well, it damn sure didn’t make me want to read it.
I may not. Honestly, I’m kind of over this world right now. There are only two books left, so I feel like I should go ahead and finish the series already, but I’m really just wanting to be done with it.
I say that, but I’ll probably finish it anyway. I would like to read Ball & Chain because I’ve liked Dallas every time he’s been in the series. The question is do I want to deal with Rob the jerk before I get to it? That depends on how I’m feeling later, I suppose.
Overall, I can’t say I loved this book. Had everything not been all fine and dandy after one quick conversation – after almost NINE YEARS of them being apart – maybe I’d feel differently. I’m so over rush, rush resolutions in books. With the exception of the author’s newer books that I’ve enjoyed the hell out of, His Christmas Conundrum, Bailey, that’s pretty much all I’m seeing. Also, Close & Personal may not have been super quick insta-love like the books before it, but it might as well have been because of how fast everything was fixed between these two after they'd been apart for so long.
I should also point out that I wasn’t thrilled over how Benji’s mother was handled, or the fact that he ever took her calls over the years – even if he only answered once a year - knowing that she likely had something to do with the man he loved taking off. (hide spoiler)]
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