Review: Closing the Loop by Jane Davitt

Author: Jane Davitt

Pages/Word Count: 150 Pages

At a Glance: An okay story of a ship board romance that was a near miss for me.

Reviewed By: Sadonna

Blurb: A week on a tropical gay cruise is just what Lee needs after a bad breakup and a Canadian winter. It’s a shame his ex is on board, but Lee is sharing a cabin with Cole, a hot lawyer who—as luck would have it—is actually from Lee’s city. So when Cole unexpectedly awakens Lee’s kinky side, Lee begins to dream that they can actually take their shipboard romance home with them.

But Cole is keeping secrets involving a troubled young man on board the ship. And Lee, after his recent brush with betrayal, finds it difficult to trust Cole when he says Justin isn’t a rival.

Then he learns the truth and is also drawn into the tragic story. His dream vacation is in danger of turning dark, but he’s determined to navigate Cole and himself to a safe harbor before their blisteringly hot romance is lost at sea.

Review: Lee is a travel agent who’s having a particularly boring day, when a lovely gentleman comes in, wanting to book a gay cruise—one that Lee happens to know is sold out since he’s on it. He gets the man on the waitlist and thinks that’s it, which is too bad. But Lee has a boyfriend, so nothing to be done about it anyway.

Except that later that night, Lee doesn’t have a boyfriend anymore. He throws his cheating BF out with his belongings, and does what he can to change his accommodations on the ship since he booked the BF’s ticket in the BF’s name and can’t change it. Of course, when he upgrades to the open suite, his roommate turns out to be none other than Cole—the gentleman he’d got on the waitlist. Hot damn, Lee thinks! This could be a great vacation.

But things get off to a bit of a rocky start, and then there is some sort of secret that Cole is hiding. I don’t want to spoil, so just suffice to say there is a lot going on with a family situation that Cole has to deal with, and that Lee is suspicious of Cole along the way.

As Lee and Cole get closer and explore their kinky sides, the family drama heats up as well. This drama takes center stage and upsets the rhythm of this newfound relationship. When Cole has to focus on his family situation, Lee is quite unhappy.

Closing the Loop was a pretty interesting story, although I felt the relationship developed a bit faster than normal—but vacations where you spend so much time with other people can be very intense in the moment, for sure. I did enjoy Lee and Cole together, and liked watching them work through the issues that came up, but I would have liked a little more of the story after the cruise because I didn’t fully connect with Cole. He’s definitely reserved, but I would have liked to see more of his personality and how he and Cole related in the real world.