Bad Boyfriend by K.A. Mitchell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Quinn Maloney spent ten years in a monogamous relationship with a straight man. Well, at least Quinn was monogamous. Peter? No, Peter was just an ass who’s “not gay,” and who used Quinn until something different came along; then he made like Houdini and performed an escape act without so much as a thanks for the memories. Upstanding guy, that Peter. Not.
The problem with Peter Laurent is his family. No, that’s not right. The problem with Peter is that he’s a selfish jerk who can’t admit he prefers men to women. So, let’s say the problem with Quinn is that the Laurent family became his family over the course of fifteen years, and Quinn can’t give them up, even if it means being forced to spend time with Peter, his wife, and his infant son. Yeah, it’s like that.
Quinn’s having a difficult time moving on.
And now he’s been asked to be Peter’s son’s godfather. More salt in the wound and more ties to the man who isn’t terribly acquainted with the words honesty or loyalty or honor. So, what’s a guy to do when he’s stuck between the rock and the hard place that is his past and his present? He brings a sexy and gorgeous date to the baptism just to rub a little of his own “take-that-ha” in Peter’s deceiving face.
Eli Wright is young; quite a bit younger than Quinn, in fact. They meet at a nightclub and are kind of caught off guard by the intensity of their sexual attraction to each other. It’s like when a positive and a negative charge meet; then K.A. Mitchell took that charge, which already crackled, and transformed it into a lightning storm of erotic goodness. I sat up and paid attention, that’s for sure, when these two men met. And I didn’t relax again until The End.
There were times when Quinn and Peter ran neck-and-neck for the title of “Bad Boyfriend” and poor Eli’s heart got trod on in the process. He was a tool in Quinn’s game of revenge until the rules changed and the game became complicated by feelings. That’ll happen to a man who opens his eyes one day and suddenly realizes that the world is a much more colorful place than the monochromatic little corner he has painted himself into, and it’s all because someone has come along and changed the palette through which he sees his life.
The sum total of Bad Boyfriend is that it’s one of those books that makes me really, really glad I love to read.