Turquoise: Something’s Gotta Give

Title: Turquoise: Something’s Gotta Give
Author: Kiernan Kelly
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novellette (44 pages/21k words)
Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn

One Sentence Review: It was fine.

THE BLURB

Heath Ambers can’t seem to catch a break. When his former boyfriend, an ex-con, cleans him of house and home and breaks his heart, Heath doubts he’ll ever trust again. Can Bill, the honest, straightforward, puppy-loving police officer, help Heath find love again, or will Heath’s past destroy them both?

THE REVIEW

Turquoise: Something’s Gotta Give is part of Torquere’s Color Boxes series of Novellas and Novellettes, and the first book by this author that I’ve read. A combination of angst, gentleness and suspense, it was one of those hard-to-review stories because I found it to be just okay — it didn’t rock my boat, but neither did I dislike it — leaving me feeling a little “meh” about it overall.

The story opens with Heath purchasing a barely-running, oil-leaking, cat piss-smelling old van to replace the late model Audi stolen — along with just about everything else he owned — by his ex-convict former lover Johnny. It’s all he can afford right now because the a-hole also just about cleaned out his bank account. He knows he was dumb for trusting the guy and he’s certainly paying for it now, but orgasms and feeling bad for Johnny clouded his brain. One of the officers assigned to his case, Bill, wants to do more than help him get his stuff back — he wants Heath as a boyfriend. While undeniably attracted to this cop, Heath has been burned before and is hesitant to trust again. Bill seems wonderful — good looking, nice, trustworthy, kind, sincere, great in bed, dog-lover — but is he too good to be true? When Johnny continues to make trouble, is Bill now in danger of this criminal?

What I liked:

I thought Heath was, if not a little naïve and thinking with his dick at the beginning, fairly sympathetic. At first I felt the inclusion of the smexxin scene with Johnny was unnecessary, but I changed my mind when I realized it would help us understand both Heath and the situation better, plus give us a glimpse of whack-o Johnny.

I liked Bill a lot — better than Heath, even — and also wondered if perhaps he was too good to be true, but there are just really good guys out there. I liked the gentle way he was with Heath and him trying to damper his eagerness in wanting Heath. And I loved Clancy, his Golden pup, who was a secondary character in his own pee-in-shoes way.

What I didn’t:

Without giving spoilers, I thought the situation with Johnny later in the story was both a bit over-the-top and provided us with a few TSTL moments. You see it coming and you want to scream “YOU IDIOTS!” but, well, they aren’t going to hear you. 🙂

OVERALL

Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Fans of this prolific author will probably really like this story a whole bunch.