Review: Wood, Screws, and Nails by Piper Vaughn and Kade Boehme

Reviewed by Whuppsy
Wood, Screws, & Nails by Piper Vaughn and Kade Boehme
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 176pgs
4.5 Pants Off

Blurb:
Aaron Costa’s summer was all planned. Despite having to remodel the family lake house, it would be a vacation of sorts, and he had every intention of enjoying it—until the friend who was supposed to help him got injured and left him in a lurch. He decides to take the opportunity to bond with his son and hires Julian and his roommate, Malachi, to assist. 

As a broke college student, Malachi could use the money, and spending the summer with Aaron for eye candy sounds like a dream. "Look but don’t touch" becomes his motto. But when Julian starts flaking on his responsibilities and Malachi and Aaron are forced to spend long hours alone together, their mutual attraction is impossible to resist. 

Aaron can’t fight the temptation sexy Malachi presents. But more than their age difference stands in their way, not the least of which is Aaron’s semi-closeted status and the fact that he’s never openly discussed his sexuality with his son. He has no idea how Julian will react when he learns his father is not only gay, he’s also dating his best friend.

Review
Ok, now this was such a sweet little romance. I enjoyed taking the time to read about these characters and fall a bit in love with them.

Aaron Costa is a 37 year old gay man who is not exactly out or in the closet. He’s just who he is. At the tender age of 16 he gets his best friend pregnant and they have their son, Julian. They raise him together and let him know that he’s loved. Aaron hasn’t been in a real long term relationship with anyone and that makes it easier not telling Julian that he’s gay. He wants to find someone to share his life with, but in his work as a contractor and dealing with the manly mentality of the job makes it hard to find someone.

Malachi is 21 years old and is Julian’s best friend and roommate. He’s given the chance to work most of his summer with Julian and his father in restoring Aaron’s Parents lake front property. He’s always known that he was gay and he has a thing for older guys. So, his falling for Aaron isn’t really a big thing for him. Malachi wants to go to school to become a teacher. He’s doing it for such wonderful reasons and he has such a great heart. I liked how Mal was this great character. Warm, funny and just an all- around good guy.

The secondary characters in this story were pretty great. Julian’s mom and step-dad were such good friends to Aaron they were there for Aaron to talk to and give good advice. Mal’s parents were so sweet and loving. I loved the way that they supported him. Even Aaron’s Parent’s stepped up in the end. Now…Julian. Sigh. This boy was the brat of the story. I really didn’t like him much. He was this spoiled brat and such a slacker. I disliked him for much of the story. But he redeemed himself at the end.

I know that Piper Vaughn stated that she was worried about how people would react to the age difference and the fact that Aaron was Mal’s roommate’s dad, but I have to say that it didn’t bother me in the least. I felt that it wasn’t really a big deal for me. That it was truly a story about two people falling in love with each other. That the age difference and who they were to each other didn’t factor in to it for me. I just love a great story and Piper and Kade delivered one.

This story flowed so smoothly and you were on the journey with them. You felt each emotion that our characters went through. You felt for them. You watched them try to hide how they felt for each other and watched them finally give in. You watched Aaron struggle with Julian’s behavior and how to handle it. You watched them struggle to find what they meant to each other. It was really a sweet and yet so very sexy book to read.

I would recommend you give this sweet book a try. Aaron and Malachi are such sweet characters and it was fun to watch them fall in love. Don’t let the age difference bother you. Just read this sweet love story and fall in love with these two wonderful guys.

4.5 Pants Off

Review: Trouble and the Wallflower by Kade Boehme

Trouble & The Wallflower by Kade Boehme
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 200pgs
3.75 Pants Off

Blurb:
Raised in near seclusion by an agoraphobic mother, Davy Cooper’s social skills are almost nonexistent. Now that his mother has died, he needs to make friends for the first time in his life. He catches Gavin Walker’s eye, but the sexy, confident, bad boy hipster intimidates shy Davy so much that he throws away Gavin’s number every time he offers it.

When Gavin defends Davy from a rude guy, Davy begins to warm to him. However, with his limited experience, he thinks he and Gavin are too different, and anything more than a casual acquaintance will end in complete disaster.


Review
This was my very first time reading the author, and I can't say I'm overly impressed but I did like it and I enjoyed the characters. However, I can say my feelings are mixed on how much I like it, like a blender of mixed feelings. On one hand it had moments of awesome and in other parts it felt flat. I feel like if this was tighter in both delivery and overall plot this book would have been great. It had the ingredients but the measurements weren't on par (omg what is with that description).

Davy Cooper's social life is surely lacking, which highly due to the fact that he was raised at home by an agoraphobic mom. To say that this new found freedom to talk and be around people is understatement but Davy can deal with all that. What he can't deal with is the sexy Gavin stopping in with his friends and making him feeling nervous, also a little nauseous, and inadequate. There is just no way in hell a guy like Gavin could be interested in awkward social pariah like himself so the only conclusion is that this over flirting is a joke and Davy isn't really finding it funny.

Davy decides to step out of his comfort zone once again and hit up a gay bar. He's done it before with no success but he's willing to give it another go. When Gavin arrives with his friends Davy decides to be bold even knowing that Gav is nothing but trouble, but sometimes you gotta take risks and all that. He gets proven right when Gav hits the dance floor with a sexy twink and it starts to look a little bit more than just dancing. Davy has now got his answer clear as day. Gav was just being flirty and having a little fun with the shy boy who was playing hard to get, seems he got tired of the chase.

Gavin likes to fuck and he makes no apologies, he's young and isn't in a relationship so he will have all the fun. Yet, he can't quite explain his attraction to the shy Davy. Gav knows that Davy could never be a random hook-up and yet he doesnt want to run and he needs Davy in his life. Too bad he's fucked up more than once and he wouldn't be surprised if Davy gave him no chances. Davy is the man he wants to take home and introduce to his grandpa and hang out with. Seems like Gavin might have turned over a new leaf aka he only wants to fuck this one guy (who knew?).

As I said, I really liked the characters and the story but it started to drag for me in the middle and close to the end. But first let’s talk about what I liked, I really enjoyed Davy and Gavin and together they worked for me. They created a nice balance for each other and it worked. Love that little twist when it came to them having sex, I thought it would have been an easy resolved issue but I loved that the author stuck to their characters and found ways of making them work. I swear I didn't miss the anal part of it, and it was great to see them function and not make it an impossible part of their relationship. Loved the friends and just their overall coming together.

What I didn't like, I don't want to give too much a way so let’s say the arrival of a certain woman and her stupidness. It felt contrived and I just think it took away from a story that had so much already going for it. It really felt pointless to me and with Gavin already dealing with so much, it became too much. As I said, a cleaner delivery would have made this a book I loved, with such an amazing trope, it did fall a little short. This being my first time reading the author, I'm very much gonna seek out his backlist.

DarienMoya