Catch Me If I Fall

Title:  Catch Me If I Fall
Author: Riley Knox
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Amazon:
Genre: Contemporary M/M, Romantic Comedy
Length: Novella/18K/74 PDF pages
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Review Summary: A funny sweet romance between two very likable characters that I would like to revisit in a year.

THE BLURB

Successfully repressed computer geek Avery Cole has been all too happy to take a moment from chasing down his energetic young nephew to lust after his gorgeous and very straight neighbor, Ethan—from a nice and safe distance over the hedges. Less chance of making a fool of himself in front of the man—again—by tripping over his own feet.

Despite his best intentions, however, Avery’s love life is about as low as a limbo champ can go, until “nice and safe” turns up on his doorstep, with Ethan bearing gifts and a few extra surprises. Suddenly “straight” makes about as much sense as a diagonal.

“Playing it safe” has always been Avery’s motto, but now he has to decide if taking a leap of faith is worth the possibility of not being caught if he falls

THE REVIEW

Avery was taking care of his 4 year old nephew Kyle while his sister Sarah was at a conference. 48 hours into his job of temporary parent there was a welcome diversion – the doorbell. He opened the door over Kyle’s protests and there stood a vision on his doorstep in the person of his next door neigbour, Ethan Rhodes, divorced father of teenage twin girls that Avery coached in softball. Avery was taken aback but pleased to see him, not only because Ethan had unknowingly starred in many of his x-rated fantasies for a year, but he was wearing the sexiest pair of teeny, tiny green cargo shorts and carrying Girl Scout cookies. Apparently Ethan had lost a bet with his daughters and now he had to pay up.

Avery had an out of body moment while they were chatting. Was Ethan flirting with him? How could that be – Ethan was straight, wasn’t he? It turned out that Ethan wasn’t straight after all, he was out but didn’t advertise it because he didn’t want any fallout to affect his girls. He had married very young and had divorced his wife a few years later when he was sure of his sexual orientation. This opened the door to all sorts of possibilities for Avery as it seemed that Ethan was definitely interested in him, and he proved it by kissing him on the spot.

Ethan was very different from the men Avery had dated in the past who were safe and boring. Not only was he was much bigger and better looking as well as very funny, but he made Avery feel wanted and needed, something he hadn’t experienced before. Ethan had not dated much since he moved to the neighbourhood just over a year ago as establishing his business was priority. By the time he noticed his sexy neighbour Avery he was dating someone else, so Ethan hadn’t pursued him. In addition he was 8 years older than Avery and didn’t know if he was into older men.

Their big date was everything Avery had hoped for and when it came time to get down and dirty he was up for it.

I really liked this story which was well written and the comedy had a lot of sparkle, not the falling down kind just smart and kick ass. The dialogue was very funny and I can see Riley writing a lot of romantic comedies in the future because she’s really good at it. If I had a concern it’s that there’s no conflict in the story, but if you like romances with smokin’ sex as well as likable supporting and main characters Catch Me If I Fall has a lot going for it.

As  for the protagonists, Avery was sweet as an indulgent uncle but then he changed into this hot guy you wouldn’t recognize, all wrapped up into the same package, which you wouldn’t think would go together but Riley Knox made it work even though this is her debut novella. I liked how much Avery loved his nephew who always seemed to be on a sugar rush because he could not say “no” to him. 🙂 Ethan who was the custodial parent of twin teenagers took his responsibility seriously, and his relationship with the girls was one of the highlights of the book.

The supporting characters were all fully fleshed out especially Avery’s sister and they added a lot of “moments” to the story. The kids were not brats and in fact they helped to flesh out the characters so that the book wasn’t all about the hot sex.

If I had one complaint it was that the book was too short because just as I was beginning to get to know the guys, the story ended. I thought that an extra 5K would have given the protagonists more depth. However, the romance worked for me and I could see our two heroes being together for a long time.

I think you will enjoy Catch Me If I Fall but if you can’t stand kids in romances you might not.

Recommended.