Review: Patience by Helena Stone

Title: Patience (Dublin Virtues: Book One)

Author: Helena Stone

Length: 170 Pages

Category: Category

At a Glance: Patience is a lovely romance between two rejected men searching for that elusive someone to build a life with.

Reviewed By: Sammy

Blurb: Patience is a virtue. But what if you wait too long?

While Xander Ekman’s dream of becoming a successful artist has come true, his love life has gone from bad to worse. Sick of the endless string of one-night-stands, he accepts the challenge when his best friend, Erik, bets him that he can’t be celibate for a month. Now all he needs is a reminder to keep his distance in the heat of the moment.

Troy Moriarty doesn’t have time for love. He’s too busy trying to keep his recently opened tattoo parlour afloat. Besides, ever since the man who was supposed to be his business partner abandoned him to run the shop on his own, he has a hard time trusting others.

When Xander turns to Troy for a tattoo that will remind him to be patient, the attraction is instant. But faced with Xander’s month of celibacy, Troy’s trust issues, and a nemesis lurking in the background, their relationship may be doomed before it has a chance to begin.

Review: What happens when your love life turns into a series of forgettable one-night-stands, even though what you really crave down deep is the start of a lasting relationship? Poor Xander has had more than his fair share of pick-ups, which have led to his best friend and roommate suggesting he has become a bit of a whore when it comes to meaningless sex. When his roommate, Erik, challenges him to remain celibate for a month, Xander is in a place where he is willing to give it a go. But he knows how much those empty sexual encounters have become routine, and so he decides to try and give himself some sort of physical reminder of the goal—no sex for a month.

Little does he count on an almost instant attraction to the tattoo artist he goes to see for his new tat, which he hopes will be a visual stop sign when he starts to lose sight of the goal. Troy has had a rash of bad luck recently, which started with his business partner and secret crush leaving him high and dry just as the new contract for their storefront was all settled. When Shane left Troy holding the lease to a business that now had no one to draw the art some customers would desire, he not only had to sell his apartment and move into the back of his store, but it also led to the determination that he would never trust another guy with his heart again. Now, Xander is there challenging every decision he has made not to give his heart away so easily—but, can he even consider dating someone who unknowingly had something to do with his broken heart?

Patience (Dublin Virtues: Book One) by Helena Stone is really about two men who had the same goal in life, discovering that the trust needed to establishing a relationship comes at a high cost. Both Troy and Xander want the same thing—someone to love—but both men have been burned in the past, interestingly by the same guy. This story is a slow burn romance with a few twists and turns. The way in which author Helena Stone builds her characters and allows them to fumble makes for some really good reading. This is no insta-love situation, but there is definitely instant lust. By tempering that with the need to go slowly and try to discover if they can actually build a foundation for something more than a quick hop into bed together, the author gives us insight into how much danger there is to opening your heart and allowing yourself to really invest in another person’s happiness.

I really enjoyed the interactions between Xander and Troy. There was just enough mistrust on Troy’s part to make his angst and fears believable. His former business partner had majorly burned him, and the fact that it was also an unrequited crush meant that it was more than just a deal gone wrong. For Troy, Shane’s betrayal was life changing in many ways, and when Xander seems to occasionally fall into similar patterns that Shane once had, it is everything Troy can do not to run for the hills. But he really likes Xander, and his heart is in tune with his body—both wanting this man who seems to be the guy he can finally settle down with at last. Xander needs to not only regain respect for himself but also come to terms with the fact that empty sex is not the way to go about finding a good guy to date. These two find each other at just the right time—now, if they can let down the walls and let each other in, things could really begin to change for them both.

Patience is a lovely romance between two rejected men searching for that elusive someone to build a life with. It was well paced and had a secondary cast that so obviously would be the basis for the next installment in the series. If a good romance with a bit of angst on the side is what you are looking for, then look no further.

You can buy Patience here:
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