Romance and other things

I do not do this often anymore, but at times I will take a chance at the new to me writer based only on the blurb and cover of the book. This blurb sold me at the mention of hero's age. How often do we see the hero who is about to be 57 years old in m/m? Rarely? Try never, therefore I was so happy to see this book for this reason alone - 25 year old hunks are not the only one who want and need love.

And it sounded so poignant - regrets of the dreams that went nowhere, spending life admiring the celebrity instead of pursuing something more real. I was sold.

Well, the main character certainly shows that he has regrets and regrets AND REGRETS. Now, do not get me wrong - it did not read as angst to me (although I can totally see it as such). It read as non stop grumbling, and pretty much besides prologue that shows our hero in high school he was grumbling for the first 60% of the book. I wanted to throw something at him and tell him to shut up NOW NOW NOW. And I did not even mind reading some of it - especially since some of his actions definitely showed that despite all his grumbling he cares about folks around him and folks of the small town love him too. Yes, there is a homage to "Its a wonderful life", but I did not feel it was anything more than homage, at least I hope not. The hero compared to George Bailey at some point and he realizes that despite what he thought of as loss of his dreams, he made a lot of friends during his stay in town.

I just thought this book was horribly paced - atrocious even, which was too bad, because idea was so very nice.

Boom, love interest appears at 60% of the story (officially anyway - no not telling what it means). Boom, they love each other (after several conversations) - I mean they met before, but to me it was kind of silly. I liked the whole twist on "I am your hero, you were my hero", but I wished second half was moving slower pacing wise.

Really disappointed because I wanted to love this story so very much.