But I did not think that his backstory was developed enough to explain why he was a loner before the problems with his mom started. Once he was confronted with his mother’s illness, I could totally understand how he initially did not want to accept help and pushed people away. I had more trouble buying Kellen’s not having any serious relationship, only casual sex, before he reached the age of forty. I easily bought Mark’s not having a boyfriend before because he was so painfully shy and often could say the “wrong” thing in the social conversation.

Yes, your supposed friend on the Internet can turn out to be the creep of the highest order, as Mark thinks about at some point, but the person may become a great friend too (I can certainly relate, having made some friends on the Internet who have become real life friends, not just email friends). Mark and Kellen are chat buddies on the internet first and they realize that they have a love of reading in common I felt like they became friends first and lovers second. I enjoyed how slowly the love story between Kellen and Mark developed. Warning: Contains an emotional love story between a too-proud-for-his-own-good writer with allergy to the L-word, and a painfully shy scientist who takes his sisters’ nagging to “get out there” literally. Yet as his elderly mother wanders deeper into senility, Kellen wonders if it’s better to lean on Mike rather than fall. Meeting Kellen face to face is the biggest risk of his life, and he wonders if they’ll get more body parts together than just their faces.įirst meeting leads to first date-first everything for Mike-and soon Kellen’s faced with breaking his just-friends-with-benefits rule.

Mike considers himself a nerd of the highest order-short, bespectacled, prone to blurting out the wrong thing at the worst possible time. Shaky finances and ailing mother aside, self-sufficiency is Kellen’s prime directive. Though he manages to coax the shy, socially inept pathologist into a real-time meeting, Kellen has no intention of letting his new friend become more than a casual lover. For that he turns to IM chats with Mike from his online book group. None of them, unfortunately, share his love of books.

Kellen is short on cash-at least until his first novel starts to sell-but he has plenty of friends. He can find a use for his lover’s hands…except when he needs help the most. Sirius B Reviews Contemporary romance / m/m 16 Comments

Changes Going On by Kaje Harper