Lenni Reviews: 'Just A Sketch' by A. J. Marcus
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Leo Caldwell leads a mundane life as a tech support operator at a call center. He doesn't date much and spends most of his time with his two best friends; Julie and Felix. The three of them decide to change things up by taking an art class together and that is where Leo meets Aud Sorenson, artist and owner of the Bright Thoughts Gallery. The two have an immediate attraction and under the guise of Aud wanting to sketch Leo, they begin to date; touching off a whirlwind of drama that tests their budding relationship to the limit.
This is a cute little love story but when I say whirlwind of drama, I am not kidding. The moment these two meet you are rooting for them but Aud gets a stalker who threatens their lives and causes so much trouble, Aud and Leo simultaneously question if it's all worth it and knuckle down to stay together. It's all very sweet but as a reader, I had to wonder if these two got hexed or something because so much goes wrong so quickly. This male/male romance does end in a happily ever after (noted because some readers prefer their romances that way) but I think I would have liked to see the sketching featured a little more. It is in the title after all and that initial reason for them to meet up got lost a bit in my opinion. But that's me being very nit-picky.
In the end, this is a cute little story that was fun to read. Aud and Leo are almost too adorable and the smutty scenes aren't over done or silly. It's just spicy enough to make the book interesting but not tawdry. If you like your overly sweet couples in a tidy 200 page romp, Just a Sketch is worth the read.
This book will be available from Dreamspinner Press on December 4th, 2015.
