Lemon Yellow: Making Lemonade

Title: Lemon Yellow: Making Lemonade
Author: T.C. Blue
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance.
Length: 56 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A guest review by Jenre

THE BLURB

When Gray Latham’s uncle Will, dies unexpectedly, Gray travels to Connecticut to pay his respects to both Will’s memory and Will’s long-time girlfriend, Eva Monroe. Imagine his surprise when Eva turns out to be Evan — tall, lean, too attractive and completely in mourning Evan Monroe.

Evan’s expecting a quick visit from his lover’s uncaring nephew, but when Gray shows up at his door he finds much more than that. Between the instant attraction and an ill-advised, Margarita-fueled kiss, Evan isn’t sure what to make of the Montana rancher, especially with Bill so recently and suddenly gone. With emotions running high and interfering friends and family sticking their noses into things, can the two men find a way to accept life’s lemons and make lemonade?

THE REVIEW

Before I begin I’d like to point out that there is no lemonade in this story. None at all. Not even a bit shoehorned into the story to allow for the title of this story to make sense. What there is in this story is a lot of grief, mourning, guilt, tears, friendship, family, and a poignant story of love and second chances.

The story begins with a death, that of Will, the older lover of Evan, who has died suddenly of a heart attack. Evan is devastated. He had been with Will for eight years and was deeply in love with him. He sends an email to Will’s estranged family in Montana informing them of his death which saddens Will’s nephew Gray and his sister Sara. Gray visits Connecticut to see Will’s ‘Eva’ and pay his respects. Gray is surprised to find that Eva is actually Evan which gives him a sudden understanding of why his uncle Will and his father never got on with each other. Evan and Gray have an instant connection which is only partly sexual, but Evan is in mourning and only interested in friendship.

At the start of this angsty story we are plunged straight into Evan’s total, all-encompassing grief. This may initially put some readers off because it is very emotionally intense but I would recommend that you stick with it. Evan rails at the world for taking Will away from him in a scene which almost moved me to tears. I got such a strong sense of his love for Will and his feeling of injustice and betrayal that their time together was cut short. He feels helpless and alone, shutting out all his and Will’s friends because he can’t bear to be reminded of the good times they all had together.

Fortunately, before Evan can tip the balance into total self pity, Will’s nephew Gray arrives. I really liked Gray. He has a strong sense of family loyalty which is shown not only in his willingness to travel across the country to pay his respects to his uncle’s lover, but also shown later in his relationship with his sister. He also has a simple, accepting outlook on life. His easygoing nature and willingness not to push Evan eases Evan’s grief and goes a long way to helping him to start to pull himself together. I feel that I ought to mention that Evan’s Montana accent is written quite strongly in the way he speaks. I liked it and felt that it added greatly to his charm – especially as he is aware of his accent and make several self-depreciating jokes about it. I know that some readers don’t like their characters to be written with an accent but, again, I’d ask that you don’t allow that to put you off this book.

This is a second chance at love story and these are always very tricky when one character is recently bereaved, as is the case with Evan. I did feel that this was handled well. Evan loved Will very much and is surprised and very guilty when he is attracted to Gray. There is one very ill advised kiss – brought on by loneliness, the need for comfort and too much to drink – but after that I thought that the process that Evan goes through in the stages of grief were handled well within the book and I was happy by the end that things hadn’t been so rushed that it was unrealistic. The way that Gray copes with his lustful feelings for Evan was done sensitively and also humourously. I felt a mix of amusement and nervousness for Gray’s predicament. Amusement because he obviously has a bad cast of lust for Evan and nervousness, because I didn’t want Evan to throw aside his feelings for Will in favour of Gray too quickly as that would have ruined the story for me. In the end, I felt that balance was just right.

Overall, I would recommend this story. The characterisation was strong, even in the secondary characters such as Evan’s friend Troy and Gray’s sister Sara. Even Will’s character is much more than ‘the dead ex-lover’ as we come to know him through Evan and Gray as the story progresses. The plot moves slowly through Evan’s grieving period but I never felt that the story dragged. This is a very angsty read and perhaps may not appeal to everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed this short story.