Review: Hungry for Love by Rick R. Reed

Reviewed by Fehu
Hungry for Love by Rick R. Reed
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 200pgs
2.5 Pants Off

Blurb:
Nate Tippie and Brandon Wilde are gay, single, and both hoping to meet that special man, even though fate has not yet delivered him to their doorstep. Nate's sister, Hannah, and her kooky best friend, Marilyn, are about to help fate with that task by creating a profile on the gay dating site, OpenHeartOpenMind. The two women are only exploring, but when they need a face and body for the persona they create, they use Nate as the model.

When Brandon comes across the false profile, he falls for the guy he sees online. Keeping up the charade, Hannah begins corresponding with him, posing as Nate. Real complications begin when Brandon wants to meet Nate, but Nate doesn’t even know he’s being used in the online dating ruse. Hannah and Marilyn concoct another story and send Nate out to let the guy down gently. But when Nate and Brandon meet, the two men feel an instant and powerful pull toward each other. Cupid seems to have shot his bow, but how do Nate and Brandon climb out from under a mountain of deceit without letting go of their chance at love?

Review
This one was difficult to review, because I liked the writing, it is a well written story, which moves quickly and smoothly. My problem were the characters, mostly the female character or even more specific, Nate's crazy sister and I thought she was a few apples short of a basket, since she fell in love with a photo and a description of a gay man on a gay dating website AND pretended to be her brother!!! You might say hey, she is a teen, but no she is actually older than her brother who is 34, so she is over 30. I'll start at the beginning.

The story begins; some 20% of it is about Nate's sister and her older gal friend, who both like m/m romance and gay guys. Honestly as someone who reads m/m romance I would not want to be thrown in the same category. So Hannah, yes the crazy person has a name, wanted to see the profiles of a dating site and her friend who was a bit too crazy about gay guys encouraged her. Now Hannah wrote a profile and put a lot of her brother’s info and his name and even his photo. A sane person might have written that she is searching for a boyfriend for her brother. She is not that sane person. No she saw Brandon's photo and read his profile and decided to write him, pretending to be her brother. Brandon of course wanted to meet the person who has written him, no Hanna's brother Nate, who is somewhat of a slut, doesn't know what his sister is doing. Hannah convinces Nate to go to said date after explaining to him what she has done. Nate agrees and likes Brandon. Hannah wanted him to let Brandon down gently.

You would wonder why she wanted him dump Brandon, well see she fell in love with Brandon or at least with his nice photo and is crazy jealous of her brother who is always sleeping with different guys while she is mopping at home, whining that there are no nice guys for her. Since her brother was sleeping around, I don't understand what she had to be jealous about. If she wanted to sleep around, I'm sure she could have found guys?!

What else would such a person do, when said brother was meeting her crush? Stalk them of course! She actually dressed in black and hid her hair and went into the same gay café to make sure her brother dumped the guy, like she told him. She was out of luck, since they clicked. No she was not happy for her brother or for Brandon, who yes, let's say it all together one more time: IS GAY.  You think that was the end of her mad ideas and plans? Wrong! She continues to write Brandon and gets bitchier with every message, telling him what a slut Nate is, still writing as Nate!!! Oh she even wrote about sex, they supposedly had. Who would write a sex scene with ones brother???? Her brother was a liar as well, but he pretended to be a woman and thought of a complete persona, with a husband and children and interacted with his fans as such. Frankly the whole family was strange.

While I liked how the story was written and I've finished it pretty quickly, I disliked the female characters and they overshadowed the main romance plot. At least 30% of the story featured Nate's sister who got her own happy end and a guy (who should have been warned about her less than sane personality). It might seem shallow, but I'm reading m/m romance because I like to read about romance between two guys, not about their mothers, sisters or best friends. No, I don't mind interesting female characters or female characters in general, but here they had a bit too much story time and I hated them as characters. Brandon while nice overreacted about the wrong thing, namely finding out that Nate had an alias as a writer (who cares????). My impression of him is this: He brought his mother on his second date. Nate isn't a bad guy, but his wish to find a partner came out of the blue and wasn't explained in any believable way.

Should You Read It? If you like crazy female characters, go for it!

2.5 Pants Off