Falling In Love Is "Better Than Chance" And Less Than Simple

“No one ever fell in love gracefully.” ― Connie Brockway

Title: Better Than Chance

Author: Lane Hayes

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Pages/Word Count: 200 Pages

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb: Jay Reynolds has a crush on his project leader at work, but an office romance with Peter Morgan isn’t likely to happen since Peter is straight. Worse, Jay soon fears Peter is homophobic, and his initial infatuation turns to loathing. But one fateful night, Jay is forced to acknowledge things aren’t quite as they seem with Peter. Suddenly, his crush is back and unbelievably, Peter is interested too.

They begin a friends with benefits arrangement, which becomes difficult for Jay when he starts falling for his sexy boss. Peter’s past issues keep him from committing, and Jay has to decide if he can be satisfied with friendship if Peter isn’t ready to take a chance on anything more.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Review: In Better Than Good we met Jay and Peter, Aaron’s best friend and his partner. In Better Than Chance we get to see how they became Jay and Peter.

Jay Reynolds is happy with his job, he is happy with his best friend Aaron, and he is happy with the no strings attached status of his love life. When Jay is assigned to work on Peter Morgan’s project, he is pleased if for no other reason than the eye candy. Peter Morgan is six foot four inches of male perfection. Jay is happy with the scenery even though—he assumes—Peter is straight. This happiness lasts right up until Peter starts nit-picking Jay’s reports and singling him out for what Jay believes are homophobic reasons.

Once the months’ long project is done, Jay is so over Peter Morgan and after a few cocktails, he lets him know in a not so nice manner. Luckily for Jay, Peter has to travel with his job more often than not, and there is no immediate backlash from his personal attack on Peter. After weeks of no contact, Jay realizes that he is in the clear, and he is relieved.

A few weeks later, while out dancing with Aaron, the two men are in trouble at a local club when their unlikely white knight comes to their rescue. Jay can’t believe it when Peter shows up right on time to save he and Aaron, but he isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. This contact leads to Peter and Jay spending more time together, and the two men realize they are both very attracted to one another and decide that if they just give in this one time, they can get it out of their systems. This plan doesn’t work out like they believed it would. They end up in a “friends with benefits” arrangement that seems a whole lot like dating, but neither one of them wants that label.

Over time, Jay realizes that he is falling hard for Peter and right when he is ready to redefine their arrangement, to try to move into a real relationship, Peter makes it more than clear that he doesn’t want the same thing. Jay is heartbroken and he makes the difficult decision to move on from Peter before his heart is broken even more.

Jay and Peter’s friends all try to convince the men that they shouldn’t walk away, but Jay knows Peter isn’t ready for a real relationship, and Jay won’t settle for less. Jay leaves his job and moves on to a new company without telling Peter, and he does his best to get over the man who has stolen his heart.

Peter has to decide if he is willing to let his fears and family issues keep him from loving Jay, because the man has made it clear that he won’t settle for less than all of Peter’s heart.

This was a very cute story full of incorrect assumptions, white knight moments, and some very hot bedroom scenes. I would have to say that my favorite character was Jay, though. This man knew his own mind, knew what he wanted, and wasn’t willing to settle for anything less than everything.

Lane Hayes has written a wonderful series, and I can’t wait for the next book. I am hoping that Curt may get his HEA if there is another book. I think Ms. Hayes has a great thing going here. The MCs are all very well fleshed out and believable to the point that you find yourself rooting for them. I highly recommend this book. It is the second of a series but could be read as a standalone.

You can buy Better Than Chance here: