Review: Resonate by Talia Carmichael

Reviewed by Fehu
Resonate (Something In Common #3) by Talia Carmichael
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 204pgs
3.5 Pants Off

Blurb:
When Gerald Ramirez and retired rock star Bur Jenkins meet, it’s not exactly love at first sight. Actually, Gerald thinks Bur is using their mutual friend, and Bur seems to get a kick out of messing with Gerald.

To be honest, Gerald’s never been attracted to another man. But then Bur admits he’s attracted to Gerald, and now Gerald can’t stop thinking about what the two of them might be like together. After proving to himself he’s not interested in any other men, Gerald comes forward with an admission of his own: he’s interested in Bur, and he wants to give dating a shot.

Bur never dared to hope for this, but the chance to get close to Gerald is too tempting to resist, even though Bur is sure their relationship will crash and burn. After all, they’re completely mismatched….

Review:
Warning: Be prepared for moments of surrealism!  Get over it and just have fun with the characters and the book. This would be a good book to read on a holiday or at a beach.

You know there are books when you give up on realism and just go with the flow, leaving logic behind. This is one of them. Most used sentence to explain complex matters in this book: Gerald thought about it!

There must be something in the water of the town, because everyone seems to be gay and if he wasn’t then with careful consideration one can become gay. Since this was the third book in the series and I read the first a while ago, I was overwhelmed with all the names and relations. Everybody seems related and knows each other somehow.

Gerald is a mysterious man with legendary powers in bed and of thought. I did say to be prepared for a trip down the rabbit hole right. So while I liked Gerald, mostly his sense of humour, thought his determination to get his ex-rock star boyfriend a job was amusing as well.  Mostly I could not take him or the story seriously.

Why? Well the same Gerald, who was straight, never interested in men, turned up gay for a person he at first disliked, the former mentioned rock star. No, that is not the part that was unbelievable, but we are getting close. As an explanation to Bur, for whom he decided to become gay, he told him that he thought about it! Yes, that’s it.

Imagine this sentence used every time, when Gerald told his friends and his mother that he was now with a male and they all went: “Oh well, if you thought about it, then that’s fine!”. After I got over the strangeness, I was just entertained by the story overall.  Realism made some appearances in form of homophobic colleagues; though don’t forget there are many gay people on the force and some are Gerald’s friends, so it wasn’t really an issue for long.

There were some serious issues and nearly conflicts but they were resolved easily. The misunderstandings were amusing and they all lived happily ever after. While there were some holes, like the selective public interest in Wilbur, I ended up liking this story because of the humour and the charming, sometimes silly characters. Then there was this issue with the ex-fiancé and Gerald’s TV - Daisy, but that’s another story…

3.5 Pants Off