ARC Review: A Bolt of Blue by Nicky Spencer

From The Blurb:

Ian Golinski has been in love with his best friend since he was fourteen years old. When he finally decides to confess his feelings, he finds that his perpetually single friend isn't so single anymore. What’s a boy to do when he has to share the love of his life with someone else? Especially someone so damn hot? 

Dusty Smith has finally found The One. The only problem is The One clearly has feelings for someone else, even if he doesn’t realize it. Dusty has to convince his lover that they’re meant to be. But how does he do that when the other man turns out to be perfect for them both? 

Mitch Becker likes things nice and simple. But as his relationship with his boyfriend heats up, he starts developing feelings for his best friend. Suddenly his life is one big complication. How can he choose between two soul mates? 

Find out what happens when three men ask the question: What if we don’t have to choose? 

A Bolt of Blue is an m/m/m contemporary romance with a happy ending and no cliff-hanger. It is approximately 90,000 words and is a stand-alone. Coming November 10, 2017.

Karen's rating:

If loving one man's hard...is loving two even possible?

Ian and Mitch have been friends for most of their lives and for a lot of that time Ian's been in love with Mitch but to scared of losing his best friend to tell him. Mitch can't imagine his life without his best friend in it but it's only Dusty who makes him want forever...or at least that's what he thought until he finds himself face to face with Ian and thoughts of how his lips would feel and what it would be like to wake up next to him start creeping into Mitch's brain.

But he's so sure about how much he wants Dusty...so how can he want Ian too...it's not possible to love more than one person, right?

I'm more than a little impressed with this one. Nicky Spencer isn't just a new to me author...she's a new author and while there were things about this that weren't perfect for me there was a lot that I liked. I've read a few books where the author wrote each chapter from the POV of one of the MCs and yes, those books were written about traditional pairings of 2 people so I have to admit when I saw that this was done that way but alternating between 3 MCs my brain might have stuttered a little but when I took a deep breath and thought about it I decided that reading it certainly couldn't be harder than writing it and it wasn't...for me it actually worked well since I tend to enjoy stories told from alternating points of view. Spending too much time in one person's head space more often than not tends to be annoying, disconcerting frustrating or some combination of those things for me so alternating POVs usually works best.

I found the dynamics between these three men interesting...Mitch and Ian are both college students Mitch comes from a family that's fairly well to day. His parents pay for his schooling, his condo, provide an allowance and gifted him with a nice car, he's on a sports scholarship for baseball...yep, basically Mitch is one lucky dude and in a lot of ways I got the impression that he doesn't take this for granted, he knows he's lucky so I like that about him. But at the same time I didn't feel like I could relate to him. For me Mitch just seemed to wear his rose colored glasses too much when it came to how he viewed life in general and there were times when he was a little to quick to pass judgement on things when he didn't really know all the facts.


While Ian's had a very different life. He's studying to be a nurse and he works as a CNA (certified nurse's aide) to help pay for this, he rides the bus to get  where he's going. Ian's been raised by a single mom and an absentee dad that he learned long ago not to rely on. I really liked Ian, I'm not even 100% sure why I liked him so much but I did. He came across as cute and funny, a bit of a nerd but a sexy one and a really loyal friend.

Lastly we have Dusty. Dusty's a bit older than Mitch and Ian. He's working as bartender at 'Angel's' when he meets Mitch and they're one night stand turns into a relationship. Dusty turns out to be the grounding force for this trio. He's a little more mature and that's partially due to his age but it's also because of his life experience and yet, ironically in some areas of his life Dusty has definite issues with self-esteem and confidence.

I can't say that the dynamics between the three of them didn't work for me but more like...it wasn't quite what I expected. I was really surprised to find that when all was said and done I felt that while Dusty and Mitch seemed to still loved each other. The relationship that I really felt and bought into was Ian and Mitch. I just really, really liked and enjoyed the interaction between these two men, it felt more natural and realistic. Which also leads me to feel that Dusty was actually what pulled the three of them together and yet when I take everything into consideration logic tells me it should be Mitch or even Ian but when I break it down and look at Mitch & Dusty/Ian & Dusty/Mitch & Ian (and I have to admit I wasn't feeling this last pairing at all) things just kept coming back to Dusty.

The other part of this menage that strangely enough I was ok with was the fact that there isn't a perfect balance between these three...realistically even a relationship involving only two people doesn't have perfect balance at all times...it's give and take and when that happens quite often the balance shifts back and forth...that's just how it goes as long as one person doesn't always seem to hold the control in a relationship I'm ok with things shifting around.

I really enjoyed this story. While it wasn't perfect for me there was definitely more good than not in it. It held my attention and I had no problem with involved with the characters and the events of the story. There were some things that I would have enjoyed more of such as maybe a bit of Mitch and Dusty pre-Dusty-meets-Ian or a bit more Erik and Ian...just to be clear, we're talking a purely platonic friendship here. I'd love to see more of these two interacting and maybe even eventually becoming friends. I'm pretty sure the worlds not ready for that but it'd sure be fun. The one thing that I would have been ok with less of was April...but that's a very, very subjective opinion so we won't worry about that one.

Last but not least I really enjoyed the author's writing style it worked for me and I found myself easily about to re-engage with the story whenever I was able to resume reading...pesky RL is pesky.  I'm impressed with this author's first time story and I look forward to finding out what she has planned for the future.

If you're looking for something new...check it out, it's being released today...'A Bolt of Blue' by Nicky Spencer...curled up in a comfy chair with 3 hot men...it's definitely my idea of a good way to spend a cold winter's day.

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A copy of 'A Bolt of Blue' was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

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