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REVIEW: Public Offering – Alexandra Caluen

Public Offering - Alexandra Caluen - The L.A. Stories

Genre: Contemporary, Gaylit

LGBTQ+ Category: Gay

Reviewer: Jo Rose

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About The Book

A M/M interracial romance novel about money, power, and risk.

Forrest Kim was a young, successful, single lawyer; he was adept at fielding the usual kind of pass. The text from venture capitalist Julian Sherwood was not that kind of pass.

It was, however, irresistible. Get picked up by a billionaire: was that a bucket-list item? Whatever it was – even if all it amounted to was dinner – Forrest was up for it. By the end of dinner, he was up for a lot more.

It wasn’t going anywhere. It couldn’t possibly go anywhere. Forrest lived in Los Angeles, and ‘successful’ meant ‘third-year associate carrying five figures of student-loan debt.’ Julian lived in London, plus there was the billionaire thing.

But Julian kept coming back to L.A., and every time he did they saw each other. Until they didn’t, and then they had to decide. Were they going to take this somewhere after all, or was this really the end?

Adult situations, themes, and language; 73500 words and a happy ending.

The Review

This was an unexpected pleasure. Not because I had any specific expectations, but because I haven’t read anything from this author before and I have only read one other book in this sub-genre.

The Billionaire Boyfriend trope is not one that I automatically choose. I feel I will choose more in the future – I enjoyed reading this very much.

That said, at the beginning I was jarred by the constant head hopping. I’m not a fan of head hopping. It’s confusing and feels wrong. I have always been of the school that head hopping is simply an error that needs to be edited.

However, some defend it as a style and in this case, after the initial jarring I got used to it and was never overly confused about whose head I was in. Whether this was my own brain making the adjustment or the fact that both characters have such different personalities and strong voices, I’m not sure. I am leaning towards the character voices.

This is a well written, pleasing story, a comfort read, with just the right amount of angst to make it interesting without me wanting to stop for a breath.

The final section of the story might have been concluded with less words. There was some repetition, but at the same time the ending seemed rushed. Despite that, the ending was satisfying, and I left the story feeling quite smiley.

Forrest Kim and Julian Sherwood (the names were a source of amusement since I read this story whilst camping in Sherwood Forest) will stay in my head for some time.

This story might very well become a comfort reread. I give it a resounding 4 stars. 

The Reviewer

 

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