Mandarin Orange: Sweet and Sour

Title: Mandarin Orange: Sweet and Sour
Author: T.C. Blue
Cover Artist: Alessia Brio
Publisher: Torquere Books
Buy Link:
Genre: M/M contemporary romance
Length: 225 pages
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

A guest review by Jenre

Summary Review
Foul mouthed, and very straight Riley finds himself attracted to his gay neighbour in this enjoyable Gay for You story.

THE BLURB

Riley has never been the kind of straight guy who sneers at gay men. Hell, most of his best friends are gay, and it only matters when Riley wants to drink a plain old beer at the froufy bars they drag him to. He can look and appreciate, but dudes just don’t do it for him. Or so he thinks, right up until the new downstairs tenant arrives almost literally on Riley’s doorstep.

The raging storm and motorcycle crash with which Kelly makes his entrance pale in comparison with the battle inside Kelly himself once he gets to know Riley. Riley is damnably hot, nice, and exactly Kelly’s type, except for one little thing — according to all the evidence, Riley’s straight.

Is love truly blind, or does it just wear blinders? Riley and Kelly need to figure it out before the labels and categories drive them irrevocably apart.

THE REVIEW

I’ve been looking forward to this story which features Riley, the foul mouthed and frankly outrageous best friend of Jeremy from the previous book in this Fruit Basket series, Lime Green: Margarita Mondays which I reviewed here. This book begins when our other hero, Kelly, crashes his motorbike into Riley’s truck which is parked in the driveway to his apartment block. The apartment block is owned by Riley’s uncle and Riley acts as superintendent for the building. It turns out that Kelly is renting the flat below Riley’s, one which is usually reserved for his uncle’s latest lover. Thus begins a series of misunderstandings, which is not helped by either Riley’s pride or his baffling attraction to Kelly.

There was much to like about this story, which is essentially a ‘gay for you’ tale. Riley is a great character, who is larger than life and very comfortable in his own body. He’s accepting of others but also not afraid to stand up for what he thinks is right, a trait which ends up getting him into trouble. The way that his attraction to Kelly slowly develops is realistic. This has been one of the better GFY stories I’ve read because Riley is just so comfortable around gay men, and indeed most of his friends are gay. This meant that when he begins to feel attracted to Kelly, his open-mindedness worked in his favour. I also liked that the author tackled the fact that Riley is just attracted to Kelly and not just curious about gay sex. Riley admits that he’s never been interested before, even when it’s been offered, and so it’s Kelly, and Riley’s feelings for him that provides both the romance and the sexual attraction.

I also liked Kelly as a character, although he’s slightly overshadowed by Riley. Kelly’s reservations at getting involved with Riley are justified, and I also liked that he a strong, independent man who slightly resents Riley trying to run his life. Both heroes are almost upstaged by Kelly’s dog, Goober, who manages to be rather endearing and disgusting at the same time. I’m not a huge dog person (and he is a huge dog) but Goober added some well needed humour to the book, as well as lots of dog slobber.

Another plus point was revisiting some of the characters from the previous book in the series, although I was glad that they didn’t overwhelm the story. They flit around Kelly and Riley, offering advice and friendship, making the story more than just about the two men. There are a few new characters who are introduced too and I get the impression they might be on hand for future hero material.

I did have a couple of niggles with the story. Whilst Riley’s swearing is part of his character, it did begin to grate on the nerves after a while. Another niggle was about some of the misunderstandings that crop up early on between Kelly and Riley. I couldn’t see why Riley would care enough about Kelly, a man he barely knows at this time, to keep the secrets he does from him, especially about his job. Riley goes to extraordinary lengths to cover up his lies and yet he only met Kelly a few days previously. It just seemed a bit odd. Much of the tension at the beginning of the book stems from a series of small misunderstandings, and whilst most of them fit well with the story and were cleared up quickly, the issue surrounding Riley’s job added a false note to what is a realistic and romantic story.

Apart from those niggles, which were fairly minor, this is a pretty enjoyable story with likeable characters. The author has managed to address the issue of lack of trust and re-examining your sexual orientation in a way with is both light-hearted but convincing. Fans of GFY will not be disappointed in this addition to the sub-genre. I’m really enjoying this Fruit Basket series and I’m very much looking forward to the next offering in the series.