Review: Wheels and Heels by Jaime Samms

Wheels And Heels (Stories from the Hen & Hog #1) by Jaime Samms
Riptide Publishing, Amazon, Goodreads
Novel: 265pgs

3.25 Pants Off

Blurb: As a teenager, Ira Bedford fled a troubled home life and people who didn’t understand his penchant for feminine things. In the city, he fell in with Cedric, who found him work as an underage stripper. It took him years to escape Cedric’s influence and try to build a life of his own.

Now, he just wants to be left alone to create his art. But Cedric’s on-going harassment means Ira had to drop out of art school, is squatting in a friend’s apartment, and is still relying on his allure as a sexy, skirt-wearing exotic dancer to pay his bills.

Then he meets Jed. Part-time bartender and the apartment building’s superintendent, Jed is just the right mix of strong, kind, and protective to pull Ira out of hiding. He also welcomes Ira into his chosen family at the Hen and Hog Pub. But Ira yearns for more. Still, he doesn’t dare to hope that Jed will want him and his questionable past, his skirts and high heels, his hang-ups, and the profession he seems unable to escape. But Jed will do anything to prove him wrong.

Review

HEELS AND FEELS

A part of me likes this story and another part of me is in my “meh-ish” feels. While it was cute and all that, for me it’s also easily forgettable. 

Ira, struggling art student and exotic dancer. He loves the prettier things in life, and while he remains true to himself by wearing his heels and skirts it gets him a lot of flack. Throwing the dancing for money in the mix and people generally just stereotype him for a tweaked out whore. Ira has his quirks and he’s also got his demons that he’s trying to get away from. Then there’s Jed who came to his rescue on his bike. Jed who is the epitome of a nice guy, and what Jed needs to understand is that Ira doesn’t need saving (or so he keeps insisting). 

What I really was hoping for, was to enjoy this story a lot more but alas that wasn’t the case. I didn’t not like it but it’s a sort of  “meh” like. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t very good either. Ira’s contradictory personality made it sometimes irritating to read, and some of the fool choices both men made could have been easily avoided. The villain in the story could have easily been handled and way too much time was spent on his unnecessary story-line. I found that part to be hella weak and everything could have been handled quickly. Between Ira and the over exaggerated mean guy, I didn’t want any more. 

I did enjoy the setting of the story, the very own streets I’ve walked here in Toronto. So kudos for a strong sense of place. Also, the supporting characters were quite interesting and there are a few people that I’m very interested in and would love to read their story. 

Overall, I liked it but still felt a tad bit disappointed. Which is darn shape because it had the makings of a really good book but the delivery was off and I found the book to be contradicting itself sometimes. Ira wanted to be seen as strong and that he didn’t need a protector but would feel happy about being protected and got mad when Jed failed one time to come to his rescue. The fact that Ira likes to dress up was a great part of the book but sadly it didn’t help my enjoyment.