Book 44, 2023

The Perfect Blend by A.D. Ellis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I finished reading The Perfect Blend last night. It's a male/male romance by AD Ellis, featuring main characters Justin Wade and Morgan Perry.

Tired of big city life, Justin moves to the small town of Briarton where he spent summers and holidays with his grandfather. There, Justin plans to buy the coffee shop and put his marketing and baking skills to good use. When the terms of the sale stipulate that the owner only wishes to sell to a family, Justin impulsively announces his engagement to the silver fox he's just met. They can pretend to be married for six months and then go their separate ways. The more time he spends with Morgan, however, the less Justin wants to end their temporary relationship.

After Morgan's husband passes, he knows he needs to make some changes to his life. He's enjoying his new job as manager of Piping Hot, and Morgan would like to purchase it. When Justin initially mistakes him for the owner and then impetuously involves him in a plan to buy Piping Hot, Morgan plays along. It's only for six months, right? He hadn't counted on falling for his fake husband.

Hm. The premise was a shade outside my wheelhouse. I've read fake relationships before, but usually the parties agree to it beforehand. I didn't like that the owner, Jo Ellen, was set on creating a family-owned environment. It smacked of discrimination. The story was mostly fluff, with some mildly angsty introspection thrown in, especially with Morgan dealing with his growing feelings for Justin and being afraid it made him disloyal to his late husband. We never learned much about Morgan's past life other than with his husband, while we do learn that Justin comes from a wealthy, elite family who look upon him as the black sheep since he prefers a quiet, laid-back life. The author threw in two surprise meetings: one with Justin's dastardly ex and another with his mother and sister. Neither added anything to the plot and seemed like time wasters in my opinion. Also, and I hate to say this, but once Morgan and Justin introduced sex to their "fake" relationship, there was far more sex than plot.

Favorite line: "Why do you look like you've come to tell me coffee has become illegal?"

The story was likable, but I'm not scoring it any higher than average. Three stars.