Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Fantasy
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
A Frost spirit who runs a coffee shop. A Cupid who works as a divorce lawyer. And magic in the air …
Raine’s never been a conventional Cupid. He likes organization, his job as a successful lawyer, and black coffee, and he dislikes messiness, physical and emotional. He tries hard not to use his powers, because he’d rather not manipulate anyone’s desires, and he’s not planning to fall in love himself — and he wouldn’t trust it if someone fell in love with him. But the owner of Raine’s favorite coffee shop is endlessly patient, kind even in the face of sarcasm, and an artist with flavors and window decorations … and he could even challenge Raine’s resolutions about love.
Don enjoys his life. Even though he’s a Frost, he finds comfort in giving people warmth: good coffee, a cozy refuge from the rain, holiday decorations, and overall cheer. But one gorgeous Cupid seems immune to Don’s cheerfulness — and he keeps coming back, day after day. Fortunately, Don’s always liked a challenge, and now he’s determined to make Raine smile at least once … and he’s discovering that Raine’s sarcasm hides a generous and lonely heart, keeping the world at bay.
And if Don and Raine can learn to trust each other — with new coffee flavors, with their hopes for the future, and with their hearts — the Frost and the Cupid just might find their own magical happy ending.
The Review
Don Frost is the owner of ‘Uncommon Grounds’, a coffee shop, and a magical being, or a ‘personification’ as they are called here. Don is a Frost, as in Jack Frost. A Frost with a warm heart.
His coffee shop is getting more popular by the day, due to Don’s skill at blending flavours and giving people the coffee they ask for, even those who are not sure what they want or need. He’s a good guy with a smile for everyone. His staff loves him. He likes people and he tries his best to make their day better. He especially likes Raine, but does Raine like him?
Raine Amari is a divorce lawyer, a very good one. He’s another magical being, a Cupid. A Cupid who does not really like being a Cupid. As a Cupid working in the legal world, he faces a certain amount of prejudice and accusations that his abilities give him an unfair advantage. They don’t, but such accusations make him question himself.
As a result, he often appears an unsmiling, snarky, cold professional. He never seems to smile and keeps others at a distance.
Don is drawn to him for reasons he himself is unclear about. Mind you, Raine is a beautiful creature, so that may have something to do with it.
To be honest I struggled to get through the first two chapters, but it it was well worth the effort. Why the struggle? The writing was the issue for me, with over-long, convoluted sentence structures and too much dependence on semi-colons. It was trying too hard at being conversational and ending up parenthetical in a clumsy way, along with an over use of the word ‘and’ with too many sentences starting with ‘And’.
But once you get beyond Chapter 2, everything becomes hunky-dory – all of those issues disappear and the characters start to breathe.
The whole story is written from Don’s point of view, with a lot of the time spent inside the coffee shop. The interactions between the main characters are both heart warming and, occasionally fraught with emotions. I’m not going to give any spoilers other than say, clunky sentences and conflicted characters aside, this is a brilliant love story. Give it a go!
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.