Author: Jacob Z. Flores
Narrator:: TJ Jamesin
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Run Time: 7 hours, 32 minutes
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb: Brody O’Shea isn’t looking for much, just a hot guy with a decent job, who is sane and doesn’t have kids. The son of a former rock star, Brody has lived through the pain of bankruptcy and bad parenting, and he doesn’t want to experience it again. As a reformed horndog, he wants the security and stability of a relationship. But almost every guy he meets seems satisfied with Mr. Right Now, and he wants to find Mr. Right – now!
The only men Eric Vasquez chases are criminals. As a deputy and single father, he has no need for a relationship after his last one ended disastrously. He lives for and through Maddie, his nine-year-old daughter. Everything else is a needless distraction, but distraction is what Eric gets when he comes to Provincetown to attend the wedding between his cousin Van and the man of his dreams.
When Brody and Eric meet, what they want and what they find conflict. An ocean of expectations separates them. If they cannot move past their reservations to reach each other’s shores, they might miss the boat when love comes to town.
Review: How do you find love in Provinctown, MA during family week, especially when you don’t like kids?
And what do you do when the man is sane, single, hot, employed, a nonsmoker, has humility and originality, and is not a whiner but has a precocious young lady named Maddie who steals your heart ? First, you mourn the loss of your list of requirements for a partner. Second, you volunteer to take above mentioned child and hot man on a guided tour of P’town, and third, you fall in love.
Jacob Z. Flores seems to like lists, rules, or guidelines, at least in the Provincetown Series. In When Love Takes Over, the first book in the series, Zach Kelly told us about his ex-boyfriend Ben’s rules, and Tara told Zach that “in P’town, there are no rules.” Dr. Gil Kelly, in the second book of the series, Chasing the Sun, is so wrapped in what he perceives to be societal norms that he isolates himself from his family and friends for over five years. And what are societal norms but another name for rules? It wasn’t until both Zach Kelly and Gill Kelly realized that they needed to make their own rule that they found happiness.
In When Love gets Hairy, it’s all about the rules that Nino has made for himself and with amusement, we get to watch him break them all with Teddy. What a delight that was.
And now to When Love Comes to Town, the audio I am supposed to be reviewing. In this book, it’s all about criteria, or standards, if you must call them something. Brody wants to fall in love, with some expectations, and Eric has no expectations to ever fall in love again. Maddie and the rest of the cast of characters from the series have other ideas, though, and that is the journey we get to read—Eric and Brody falling in love—and it’s so worth it.
The writing is excellent and the narrator is, again, TJ Jamesin. He does a great job giving each character their voice. He especially gets Maddie—just a hint of sarcasm sprinkled with a touch of insecurity. I am not sure how he does it, but that’s the magic of a good narrator and an excellent author.
You can buy When Love Comes to Town here: