Review: True North

Title: True North
Series: Lost Boys and Love Letters
Author: Bethany Brown & Ashlyn Kane
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication Date: 12 January 2009
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 240 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review: The last thing Jack expected to see when an injury at the worksite sent him to the clinic was Dr. Julian Piet, a new arrival to the small community. The attraction sparking between them was equally surprising, especially given how gun-shy Julian is and how closeted Jack is. Between plotting family, good news, bad news, and a medical crisis, will they be able to find a happy future together?

Jack is a teddy bear, cuddly and loveable. He's also not afraid to go after what he wants, despite his concerns of being outed to the small conservative backwater in which they live. He's one of those almost-too-good-to-be-true characters, though he does have just enough flaws to keep him believable.

Julian has baggage but isn't overwhelmed by it. He's sweet and considerate, will do anything for his family, but also has a mischievous side that's fun to experience--the initial hockey scene made me smile a ridiculous amount. I enjoyed how his history comes out, in dribs and drabs as is appropriate, rather than an information dump.

The chemistry between Jack and Julian is perfect, developing nicely from flirting to tension to consummation. I was actually almost sad when said consummation came around, as I was enjoying their will-they-won't-they so much. (I'm a sucker for unresolved sexual tension, really.) The sex was hot enough to be worth it, though, and just frequent enough to be satisfying without taking over the story.

The supporting cast is strong and appealing, with the natural highlight being Roz, though there is enough variety in the others to be interesting without being too much. They have their own subplots that move the main story along nicely.

Although the story itself focuses on the relationship between Jack and Julian, there are, as mentioned above, enough subplots to keep things going forward without dragging. The writing was solid, too, with few enough editing errors that I completely disregarded them, which was lovely; it gets tiring reading with a red pen in my head.

All that being said, for some reason this story just didn't stick with me. For the purpose of typing this up, I had to practically reread it as I went. I remembered reading it and enjoying it, but the specifics completely eluded me. I'm not sure if it was something in the story or something in my mindset as I read it, but it was a little odd. Still enjoyable, just not particularly memorable for me.

That being said, also, I did enjoy this quite enough to pick up the sequels. Memorable or not, it was still quite a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, and a world that I look forward to delving into again.