Elaine White's Life in Books

Book – Delicious (Sequel to Someday)
Author – Sierra Riley
Star rating - ★★☆☆☆
No. of Pages – 256

Cover – Very nice.
POV – 3rd person, dual POV
Would I read it again – No.

Genre – LGBT, Gay For You, Contemporary


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **



*Warning: this book, for some reason, made me really snarky. So be prepared for SPOILERS, snark and some bitching ahead.*


So, it happened again. I will never understand this need to start a book with a) a sex scene and b) a sex scene between characters we don't yet know, care about and who haven't even met each other yet. It makes no sense to me. The whole point of a romance novel is to figure out, along the way, whether they get together or not. Yet, unfortunately, each Sierra Riley book I've read follows the same pattern of having a smexy prologue that ruins the entire story for me. There is no longer any “will-they-won't- they” because we're told in the Prologue that they get their rocks off together. Worse still is that, after finishing the book, it's obvious that the author picks the most important sex scene for the prologue, which just makes me even angrier.

I like a little mystery in my romance and, sadly, Sierra Riley can no longer offer that.

I really loved Someday, which was refreshing, light, fun and had a touch of a crime element to it. Although it was slightly predictable, I passed that off, because I'm a crime nut and I've learned to see the signs of whodunits early on.

Sadly, Delicious didn't live up to Someday's standards.

Gavin was a too-rigid character, lacking the playful spontaneity and feistiness that Danny had in Someday. Ben wasn't much better. A banker and business owner are kind of fitting for a relationship, as they both understand long hours and hard work, appreciating and understanding each other's dedication to the job. But, despite attempts to make Ben seem more fun (organising fun runs, charity and advertising events) it didn't really work. He was a possessive, judgmental Alpha mate. And not in the good way, either.

So...the formula stuck straight and true. We started with a steamy Prologue of explicit gay sex, between Ben and Gavin. Two people I don't care about in the least, because I don't know them. (Gavin wasn't exactly memorable from Someday, when Danny stole the spotlight) I have no emotional interest or investment in either of these characters, so why do I care that they're knocking boots on page one? It means nothing to me, because they mean nothing to me.

And then – whoop – start of Chapter 1 confirms my theory of the formula remaining firmly in place. Ben rolls out of bed with a woman in it. Instant GFY and not a very captivating one. I hate to keep making comparisons to Someday, but this is a sequel so it's inevitable and you're just going to have to deal with it. In Someday, the GFY was believable because it was done gradually and the MC had a real emotional crisis over it, gradually noticing Danny and figuring out what it meant along the way. There was always the very clear assumption that he was bi from the beginning, therefore making the GFY much more believable. The chemistry was also much more believable and real, whereas there was no chemistry, that I could see, between Ben and Gavin.

From even before Ben meets with Gavin for the first real time (after only ever passing by and seeing him around the bank) he's practically drooling over him. The dimples, the jealousy over the ex, overreacting whenever he comes into the conversation...it's a little too much for me. It's not natural or logical that Ben is changing his entire nature (which we're told numerous times) just because he's met Gavin and he's apparently so hot that a straight guy can't walk past without feeling a sizzle of attraction.

Normally, I make notes as I'm reading, with highlights on my Kindle. But I was just too frustrated for that this time around. For me, Ben was a class A jerkwad. He got all pissed at his brother Will for a homophobic, presumptuous response to his high school best friend coming out to him, which was definitely a shitty thing to do, but isn't that unusual, sadly. Most teenage boys have the kind of ego that flashes to “does that mean he fancies me” and “was he watching me in the shower”. It's almost natural for the idiots to jump to the wrong conclusions, but it was years ago and his over-reactive response to the confession was shitty for a big brother.

Not to mention that he flew off the handle about Will assuming Gavin had been hitting on him, just because he was nice, now that he'd found out that Gavin was gay. Yet, that's exactly what Ben just did, as well. On their lunch meeting, after finding out Gavin was gay, he responded with an attempt to let him down gently, because he wasn't interested in men, when it was clear that he was talking about the business opportunity.

Frankly, I guess that whole scene at the lunch table was to emphasise that Ben was having lusty thoughts about Gavin because, ta-dah, he was suddenly gay and into men, so it's obviously the first place his mind should go. *rolls eyes* However, it just came across a little lame.

Also, this line really got under my skin:
“Like he'd told Gavin, he'd never been interested in men that way, but hearing another man talk about Gavin as “good in bed” had been...startling. It had drawn his attention to things that he wouldn't have otherwise noticed.”
That's just not true. Men joke with each other about bedroom prowess all the time. It doesn't suddenly make a straight guy think about that guy in bed or how good he'd be, even if that guy is gay. This is just another attempt to make us think that Ben is interested in Gavin. But, frankly, I don't want him to be interested in Gavin. He's a douche and already showing signs of homophobia by 15%. The constant insistence that he's flat-out, helplessly attracted to Gavin – after ONE meeting and just casually seeing each other around the bank – is a little ridiculous. And this line doesn't make it any better, because they don't know each other, so it doesn't work as a justification for Ben's “feelings” (which, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not buying):
“Anyone would be curious when presented with new information about someone they thought they knew.”

I didn't get Will's complete turn around, either. One minute he was a judgy prick about Gavin being gay, then he was pushing Ben to go out with him. Honestly, he was the most memorable of the side characters (other than Jeremy and Danny, who we already know) because of this. I didn't care about any of the others – Em or James or any of the other unimportant people in the story. Cash was about the only one with personality and, although I assume his story will be next or at least a separate standalone, I'm not interested enough to care. And – quite frankly – I didn't like the way James was treated like a villain, for reasons that were never explained to us. We were just expected to hate him on sight, just because he was snarky and pissed at Gavin working too much during their relationship. I don't see why that's a reason to hate him, so the hostility towards him just read as false.

There was no real “danger” or “difficulty” for the couple to fight through. It was just Ben and Gavin meet, Ben becomes miraculously gay after being straight his whole life, and the end. It was all a little cookie-cutter, too easy, not that interesting, for me.

I also found it really shocking and unbelievable that in only the second sex scene of the entire story, Ben bottomed. I mean, he's been straight his whole life. No dilemma, no second-thought, no questioning his decision or anything. They just jumped right in there, the minute Gavin's cast was off.

~

Overall, there were just way too many issues with this, story wise. I didn't believe the chemistry, the love story or the timeline that it all happened in. I didn't believe that they loved or even fancied each other. And I didn't really care if they got together or not, because the Prologue basically told me they did and Gavin was in love with Ben. I didn't really need to read much after that, to figure out how it was going to pan out.

Sadly, I have to assume that the same author who wrote Someday, under the Sierra Riley umbrella pen-name, didn't write Delicious. It's the only way I can account for the complete lack of synchronicity between the two stories that are supposed to be in the same universe. Gavin didn't feel like the same guy at all and, although it was nice to see Danny and Mace again, they were much more “add on” characters than Gavin ever was to their story.

I'm sorry to say that it just didn't work for me, for far too many reasons.