ARC Review: Jeremiah by Jayce Ellis

Blurb:

Jeremiah Stewart’s sexuality is no one’s business. Not that he’s hiding it. When—if—he finds the right one, he’ll absolutely introduce him to Mom. But a late-night brush with a sexy stranger in too much lip gloss has him rethinking nearly everything…

To Collin Galloway, direction is a four-letter word. Sure, he hates his job, he hates living with his parents and he really hates watching everyone move on without him. But he doesn’t know what he wants to do, long-term, and he won’t figure it out by thirsting over Jeremiah, the superhot, superintense paramedic who is suddenly everywhere Collin looks.

When Jeremiah’s faced with losing all he’s worked so hard to build, he reluctantly accepts Collin’s help. They’re both determined to stay professional…which works about as well as either would imagine. But Collin only does closets with clothes, and Jeremiah has to decide if he’s finally found the one worth bringing home to Mom.




Sandra's review:





This was my first foray into the writings of Jayce Ellis, but likely not my last.

It took me a little while to get into this book, and I'm not really sure why. Possibly because nothing much happened for some time, and the two MCs don't spend a lot of time together on page initially. We get to see them with their respective friends/family, and we spend quite a bit of time in their heads as they deal with what's going on in their personal lives.

Jeremiah Stewart is a paramedic and lives in a high rise building in which our other MC, Collin Galloway, is renting and sub-letting an apartment he doesn't live in but his two friends Lizzie and Ryan do. Jeremiah has direction and a fulfilling job where Collin has none. Collin doesn't like his job as a temp secretary in a law firm, and he doesn't like living with his parents because he can't afford the high rise apartment, which is why he's sub-letting it to his two friends. There's history with these two friends, and lately Collin has felt left out. He's not desperately looking for a boyfriend, but it sure would be nice to find someone.

Jeremiah is also gay, but not out to his family, telling himself that he just hasn't found the right one worth coming out for. I didn't like that too much, but I could certainly understand that he was reluctant to tell his mama about his sexuality unless he had to. He's out to his friends, and even a few co-workers, but that's about it. He's not actively looking for someone either, but a chance encounter piques his interest.

When the two men finally spend more and more time together, due to what's going on with Jeremiah's job, I could really see their romance grow, even if it was often at snail's pace. I liked Collin's sense of humor and was happy that he eventually found what he was passionate about, something that finally gave him the direction he so needed. I thought that they were well suited to each other, and Jeremiah became someone that Collin could lean on, and vice versa. He was an intriguing character, to be sure, and I enjoyed finding out more about him.

Both of them are treated rather horribly by those they love, whether it's family in Jeremiah's case, or his friends, in Collin's case, and I was a bit upset that neither of them got much in the way of apology for that. Sure, the situations are resolved, but Collin and Jeremiah both were quick to forgive the transgressions, too quickly for my taste. Especially Jeremiah's homophobic brother needed to say sorry a lot more than he did, IMHO.


This book's cover matches what's inside, and I was thrilled to read a book with diverse characters, something we don't find enough of in M/M Romance books. The women in this book are also pretty diverse in how they are portrayed, and do not simply exist to be plot points. I would have liked to find out a bit more about Collin's background and his odd relationship with his parents, and why he is the way he is. There are a few things we're told, and perhaps I'm greedy, but I wanted a bit more to fully understand the character. It seemed that there was more about Jeremiah, and perhaps that was the intent as this book's title is named after him.

Four solid stars for this book. I am looking forward to the next one in this series.


** I received a free copy of this book from its publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **

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