eBook Review - Illegal Contact

"Two adult LGBT romances in one week? Andrew, are you feeling well?" I hear you ask. Well, yes. I have been hammering out reading in the past few weeks (I found my groove again - only for it to be ruined in the next few months by Fate of the Tearling, Origin and La Belle Sauvage!) so I wanna share the reading goodness while I can!

Anyway, I have been trying to get my NetGalley eProofs under some control (got over 60 still to read) and this called to me. And after reading Foxglove Copse (review for that is here, in case you're curious), I fancied some more man on man kissing (don't give me that look!) and this called to me. I remembered requesting on NetGalley because I liked the sound of the story.

Nothing to do with the hot cover. Nope. Not at all. *shifts uncomfortably in my chair* MOVING ON!

Gavin Brawley is star tight end (Who sniggered?) of the New York Barons's American football team. And he's got himself a six month house arrest because he couldn't control his temper. This temper is well know both on and off the field and now, because of his house arrest, he needs a personal assistant who can stand up to his temper.

Enter Noah Monroe, a guy who needs a job - any job. With student debt, his father being sacked and leaving his last job under a cloud (thanks to his boss/ex), he thinks taking this job will be easy. It's only for six months. What's the worse that could happen?

So, out of the Foxglove Copse and Illegal Contact, I prefer this one a little more. I still whizzed through them both within four/five days (which, as you know, is fast for me!) and they both were fun, addictive reads. But Illegal Contact had a little more meat to sink my teeth into, and for that, I liked even though it did take me a few chapters to switch my brain to.

Also, I liked that, even though the timeline was six months and the story jumped forward a few weeks every now and then (and sometimes, that did annoy me), I liked that it was a slow burn romance. It wasn't insta-love (a troupe I am slowly growing to dislike) and it did have a level of snark that I warm to. Plus, I liked reading from both Noah's and Gavin's points of view (though I do wish that, when this happens in books, each character has a different font so readers can go "Oh, am reading Character X or Character Y).

Before I go into my nitpicking, just wanna say that, unlike Foxglove Copse where the sex scenes were more "Fade to Black", we saw the sex scenes in Illegal Contact. So, if you are not a fan of sex scenes, you might want to fast forward these chapters.

There are one or two things I want to nitpick over. The first is that, at times, there was a few troupes and cliches that I saw and went "... really?" over. I know that this is going to happen with romance novels - I know this, I accept this - but am always a fan of a surprise twist or someone taking a troupe and turning it on its head. Plus, there was one or two moments I thought "I wonder if this is going to go Scandal and we have Noah doing the "If you want me, EARN ME!" scene [probably the best in Scandal from the little I have seen - plus, if anyone fancies writing a romance with a gay/bi/pan president or Prime Minster, please do and shout at me! I will read the heck out of it!)

The second nitpick is the pacing. Most of the time, I was on board with it. The romance is a slow burn and I like a nice slow burn. But then, with the last 20% of the book, things happened which felt a little fast. I get why, but there was a moment I went "If this had a extra few percent, this could be dragged out a little more". Maybe I like the angst and the heartbreak and I wanted to see the fallout.

I liked this (though adult romance is outside my comfort zone) and am tempted to see what happens in the next book in the series, Down by Contact, which follows another character who I really loved reading. As long as it's just as fun, sexy and addictive, this series and me should get on...