Available @
A divorce lawyer with a romantic spirit. A cynical television executive who thinks commitment is for fools. They can’t fight their attraction, or their affection. Can they find a way to reconcile their vastly different needs, or will each of them walk away from the best thing they’ve ever had?
Jordan might be a divorce lawyer, but he’s a hopeless romantic. He doesn’t see the two as incompatible, either. He’s never had a relationship last long enough to be with someone on Valentine’s Day, but he’s still hopeful he’ll find the one out there somewhere.
Sam is an executive vice president at a major television network. He spends his days managing programming, much of it centered around romance, and he knows exactly how fake television romances are. His own background of rejection only cements his views on the fleeting nature of affection.
They meet by chance, when Sam’s sister and best friend file for divorce. The divorce is messy, and Sam and Jordan are thrown together often enough to try to make a relationship work. When the winter holidays roll around, the difference in their expectations comes to the fore. Can Sam overcome his fear of commitment – and rejection? Can Jordan get over his need to define their relationship? Or will they both lose the one thing in their lives that made them happiest?
Reviews
This was very nearly a 5-Star read, missing out because of the slightly unsatisfying ending.
I think this is my first book by this author, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading more. This is also the first non-sappy Valentine’s tale I’ve read. I liked how refreshing it was to have a guy who was a divorce lawyer and yet still believed in love, in celebrating love, commitment and being together, though not in a soppy way. Just in the right way – with his feelings and commitment and without any tropes or anything faux. I liked that the guy he met felt the opposite as it made for a tale that had organic heartache, not fabricated heartache.
The tale had a couple of really decent leads in Jordan and Sam, and on top of the guys’ relationship, we got to see the breakdown of Sam’s sister’s marriage. That kind of was and wasn’t part of the tale – sorry to be confusing. I mean, it was part of the tale, but it didn’t feel as if it sat nice and neat in a tailor-made little spot. I wondered why the author included the subplot, which yes, did introduce the leads, but we didn’t really need to see it playing out. The reason for the breakdown was very sad, and I could picture it happening. The author made it feel real, and tbh, I wondered at her motivations, because… it felt a little personal. I did appreciate that part of the tale, and I did think she did well with her Asian American lead. I thought it was so refreshing to portray a non-Caucasian American in such a positive, inclusive way, because Dinesh did seem like a great person, and I loved his relationship with his BFF and soon-to-be-former brother-in-law, Sam.
The book was great right up until the Valentine’s day ending, when it lost 1 Star for me because of how abruptly it ended. I appreciate that it would have been wrong for there to be a total about-face on Sam’s part, and I think it’d have felt faux to have it all hearts and roses and cupcakes. But, it was unsatisfying that the guys agreed to try again, and the tale ended there and then. It feels like it lacked realism, lacked a little respect for readers’ minds and commitment to reading the tale. I think it felt a little like both guys had… sold out and were back on without a guaranteed HEA in sight.
Still, it’s the author’s book and she can write it as she likes. I would read more, because generally, the quality of the writing was good.
ARC courtesy of JMS books/the author, and Bayou Book Junkie, for my reading pleasure.
–Bayou Books
Jordan is a divorce lawyer, and a good one. While he’s seen couples who loathe one another and couples who can’t stop fighting, he’s also seen couples who still love one another, and it’s couples like those who help Jordan hold on to his romantic side. Every Valentine’s day, he decorates the office with paper hearts and cupcakes to remind his staff and his partners that there’s still love in the world. Even now, entering his mid-thirties, Jordan still holds out hope that one day he’ll find a love of his own.
Sam, as Vice President of Programming, is familiar with the ways in which television manipulates its audience’s emotions. The cloying music and saccharine smiles lure people into a world where the wedding matters more than the marriage, and the lie of a happily ever has greater importance than the romance ever could. It doesn’t matter if one character betrayed another (or stabbed them a little with an ice pick), it only matters that, at the end of the day, they say “I do.” And he hates it.
Sam accompanies his friend, Dinesh, to Jordan’s offices for moral support as Dinesh seeks to divorce his wife, who just so happens to be Sam’s sister. Ida has recently found a new religion, a religion in which her gay brother is an abomination, a religion in which her Hindu husband is unforgivable. It’s a cult of hate, and as much as Dinesh loves his wife, it’s time to let her go. Sam knew he’d have to be strong for his friend, but he hadn’t expected to be so smitten by Dinesh’s new lawyer.
Jordan is a successful lawyer, already a partner at his firm, and has been struggling when it comes to dating. He doesn’t want a casual fling and he doesn’t want to settle. What he wants, what he really wants, is his own happily ever after. He wants someone to love, and someone who will love him. He wouldn’t mind kids, trips to the country, or big family holidays, but in order to have those things, he needs someone to have them with. When he sees Sam and gets to know him as a boyfriend, a lover, and the warm, loving uncle who dotes on Dinesh and Ida’s children, Jordan’s heart melts a little. He feels something real when he’s with Sam and sees a chance for a loving relationship with him.
Sam was kicked out of his house when he was 15 for being gay, and since then he’s learned that love is something manufactured rather than the magical fairy tale his shows pretend it is. And seeing his best friend and sister go through an acrimonious divorce only enforces the idea that relationships don’t work. Better to have a good time and part as friends than to try for something you can’t have and have it end so badly that both parties are left broken.
The paper hearts refer to Valentine’s day — both the decoration and the fragility of the human heart. Paper isn’t meant to last forever, after all, no matter how much you want it to. Jordan and Sam struggle to come to terms with what they both want, as opposed to what they thought they wanted. Jordan wants that perfect love so much he’s willing to let Sam go, and Sam is so sure that love doesn’t exist that he’s willing to watch Jordan walk away. The two of them have very different approaches to love, but they both want it. One of them just has to open his eyes, and the other has to open his heart.
This is an adorable little story, for all that it’s a divorce that brought them together. Jordan and Sam are a charming couple and Dinesh and his children aren’t simply there as set decoration. Dinesh’s story works well as a contrast for Sam, and to explain how and why Sam came to the conclusions he did about romance and relationships. Dinesh’s wife was the only sour note, being the only character with neither growth or personality. She and her religion were conveniently bad and wrong without giving her any humanity, but that’s a small quibble.
The story takes place over seven months, from October to February, and keeps the romance at a slow simmer for much of the book. While the two men get each other’s numbers quickly, this isn’t an insta-love story. It’s a holiday story, culminating in the expected and cute Valentine’s Day celebration that isn’t the artificial, merchandized happily ever after but is, instead, the start of a loving relationship.
–Joyfully Jay