The Half of Us by Cardeno C. Series: Family, #4
Publication Date: October 13th 2015
Pages: 249
Also in this series: Strong Enough
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If short-tempered Jason can open his heart and life to optimistic Abe, he might finally find the family he craves.
Short-tempered, arrogant heart surgeon Jason Garcia grew up wanting a close-knit family, but believes he ruined those dreams when he broke up his marriage. The benefit of divorce is having as much random sex as he wants, and it's a benefit Jason is exploiting when he meets a sweet, shy man at a bar and convinces him to go home for a no-strings-attached night of fun.
Eight years living in Las Vegas hasn't dimmed Abe Green's optimism, earnestness, or desire to find the one. When a sexy man with lonely eyes propositions him, Abe decides to give himself a birthday present—one night of spontaneous fun with no thoughts of the future. But one night turns into two and then three, and Abe realizes his heart is involved.
For the first time, Abe feels safe enough with someone he respects and adores to let go of his inhibitions in the bedroom. If Jason can get past his own inhibitions and open his heart and his life to Abe, he might finally find the family he craves.
This review is overdue. I’m sorry about that. I’m not usually this flaky, but along with all the other holiday stress, I had a hard time deciding how to write this one. Cardeno C has become one of my favorite authors. The books are consistently awesome. The characters are rich and real. The romance is sweet, and the sex is off the charts, but “The Half of Us” left me a little out of sorts. I usually fall head over heels for the MC’s in Cardeno C’s stories. Here, I only fell for one of them. I wanted to love Jason. He’s flawed…a surgeon who saves lives, but he’s divorced because he just couldn’t stay faithful to his wife because of his attraction to men. He wanted a perfect family life, and it didn’t work out according to his plan. He only does one night stands and seems to accept that is how his life is going to be. Enter Abe. I did love HIM. He’s a soft spoken and sweet teacher who never does one night stands…except it’s his birthday, and he’s lonely. Of course, you know he’s going to wind up going home with Jason, and the story takes off from there.
Frankly, I didn’t really care for how Jason treated Abe through most of the book. He was standoffish and somewhat rude. I felt like, even though they were a “couple”, it felt like he was using Abe for convenient booty calls. His kids know he’s gay, but he doesn’t want to introduce them to Abe. I know it’s because he’s nervous about what they’ll think. However, it seemed to me that it was because he was ashamed. At times, he was so self involved, he didn’t even notice that Abe had slowly moved in with him! Abe was taking care of him, and he didn’t seem grateful. I did enjoy how his relationship with Abe finally crashes into his closely guarded family life, mostly because he needed a kick in the butt to bring him to his senses.
Yes, yes, yes…as the story was coming to it’s climax and closing, Jason was finally getting with the program, but it was kind of an uncomfortable ride for me. I’ll say that the sex scenes were off the charts amazing. The men have chemistry to spare. It’s clear that they’re made for each other, in that portion of their relationship, anyway.
All in all, I will recommend “The Half of Us” because of how it all worked out at the end, and because sometimes you have to endure some discomfort before you can have an HEA.
