Title:You and Me and the Moon
Author: Pepper Espinoza
Publisher: Amber Quill Press
Genre: Contemporary m/m
Length: Extended Amber Kiss (12K words)
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Luke and Noah’s romantic weekend starts off on the wrong foot, then they figure it out and have make-up sex.
THE BLURB
The sequel to Amber Allure’s Best Seller My Only Home…
Two years after best friends Noah Hill and Luke Wesson became lovers, the men begin to feel the stress of juggling their careers and raising a child while still making time for each other. Finally, in an effort to rejuvenate their relationship, Noah insists on taking Luke away on a quiet weekend vacation, just the two of them.
But things don’t exactly go as planned, and all of Noah’s old fears come roaring back. Luke needs to meet Noah halfway before fear and doubt eats away at everything they have together…
THE REVIEW
This “extended Amber kiss” exemplifies the problems that Wave described in short fiction (see her post here): little plot, even less character development, and lots of sex. While I generally like quick, fast reads, this story did not work for me.
Readers were introduced to Luke and Noah in My Only Home (reviewed here). This story picks up two years later. As it opens, Luke and Noah are in the car, heading off for a romantic weekend, which Noah feels they desperately need. Luke, who was a self-confident single dad in MOH has become an overprotective worrywart who is letting his six-year-old daughter dominate his world. It was not at all clear to me what caused this personality change. Maybe the fact that they are living in LA and Luke is afraid a white slaver will come along and steal her off the street? Whatever…Noah thinks the remedy is some naked playtime at a cabin in the woods. And that is where they are heading…
Trouble is, Luke didn’t get the memo telling him to unwind and relax. The whole drive to the cabin he has his cell phone glued to his ear. At the cabin, he does the same thing. Noah tries to talk to him without success, gets frustrated, and leaves.
Luke finally comes to his senses and realizes he is screwing up big time. He heads out to find Noah who actually had taken a hike on a trail near the cabin. They meet up at the end of the trail, have hot sex under the moon (hence the title) and from that, the reader assumes, life is good.
Readers who enjoyed Luke and Noah from MOH may find more entertainment in this story than I did. I found it short, rushed, and somewhat implausible, especially the way Luke was acting, given what we know of him from the previous book. That said, the writing did have some funny moments and I was glad to find out that Luke and Noah are still together and mostly happy.
Recommended if you like sequels or are a fan of the author. Otherwise you might want to give this one a pass.
I think it is more difficult to write a short story than it is a long one.
Hi Leslie,
Good review. I had the same experience while reading this. I generally like Pepper Espinoza’s writing and did like the first book, My Only Home, but was disappointed by this sequel. Maybe the length was the problem, but like you I was also not happy with Luke’s behavior, which seemed out of character from the original book.
Leslie
Like TJ, I’m a fan of this author and therefore I’m quite surprised that this book turned out the way it did. I haven’t read You, Me and the Moon but it would seem to me that the issue here has more to do with Luke’s character than with the short format, although that does have its problems. Generally 12K should be enough to pen a delightful story especially since this is a sequel, which is probably the best vehicle for a short story. I’m sorry this didn’t work for you.