The Mating of Michael

THE MATING OF MICHAEL by Eli Easton

 

Pages: 237

Date: 28/01/2015

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 3 Sex in Seattle

            Loaned from Jaycee Edward

Kindle

Blurb:

“Everyone admires Michael Lamont for being a nurse, but his part-time work as a gay sex surrogate not only raises eyebrows, it's cost him relationships. Michael is small, beautiful, and dedicated to working with people who need him. But what he really wants is a love of his own. He spends most of his time reading science fiction, especially books written by his favorite author and long-time crush, the mysteriously reclusive J.C. Guise.

James Gallway's life is slowly but inexorably sliding downhill. He wrote a best-selling science fiction novel at the tender age of eighteen, while bedridden with complications of polio. But by twenty-eight, he's lost his inspiration and his will to live. His sales from his J.C. Guise books have been in decline for years. Wheelchair bound, James has isolated himself, convinced he is unlovable. When he is forced to do a book signing and meets Michael Lamont, he can't believe a guy who looks like Michael could be interested in a man like him.

Michael and James are made for each other. But they must let go of stubbornness to see that life finds a way and love has no limitations.”

My thoughts:

The Mating of Michael surprised me in the most wonderful of ways. It is one of those books with the perfect balance between sweet, funny, angsty and thought-provoking.

Michael is adorable. It is impossible not to fall in love with him the moment you meet him. The truly amazing thing – and something I both appreciated and admired – is that Michael never comes across as too good to be true. He’s borderline close to being too sweet at times but Eli Easton manages to portray him as a fully fleshed and realistic character, as prone to less than sensible decisions as the rest of us.

James is almost the opposite. He goes out of his way to keep his distance from everyone who approaches him, and it would have been easy to dislike him except that his reasons for being stand-offish are plausible and he is totally aware of his shortcomings.

When these two men come together we’re taken on a slow, sensual, alternatively laugh out loud funny and angsty, romantic journey. Yes, the crisis in their relationship was predictable and unavoidable from the very start. It was also completely realistic and caused by an issue that makes you wonder what you might do under similar circumstances.

I always love reading a book within a book and to say I would love to read ‘Sentimental Cyanide’ - the book James writes when all hell breaks loose - would be a gross understatement. That story-line grabbed me as much as James and Michael’s romance did.

I am so glad Jaycee raved about this book on Facebook. I’m not sure when, if ever, I would have come across this book if left to my own devices and it would have been a crying shame to miss out on this well written, wonderful and uplifting tale.