Book 624: Save the Date – Annabeth Albert & Wendy Qualls

So instead of taking a break after realizing I probably shouldn’t read six romance novels in a row by the same author I pick one up that they co-wrote. I really am a masochist right?

Well good news for me, this one took the best parts of Albert’s and Qualls’ writing and put them together. The bad news is that it basically was like and these two characters are crossovers from these three series (Quall’s Heart of the South – yay read it already, and Albert’s Out of Uniform and #Gaymers). Well guess what, On. My. List. Now. BWHAAHAAHAAA.

This is a book that is a made for TV movie script waiting to happen. I mean it could easily be a full feature release in the rom-com category, but I won’t get too far ahead of myself. Virginal Randall, bride’s man to his sister for her wedding and ravenous Hunter, meet unknowingly days before the wedding and have a earthshaking time. And then, they “meet” for the first time at the wedding and sparks continue to fly.

Of course there’s drama about Randall being a virgin, and there’s drama about Hunter’s being a ravenous player in the past and that he’s set his sites on the bride’s perfect rocket-scientist brother, and of course there is some hot and heavy sex (at some point of course referred to as making love).

Albert and Qualls both have humorous styles and I found myself blazing through this book often times re-reading a line twice to laugh:

“So face of a movie star, body of a World Cup champion, voice of a rock god, and the brain of Alan Turing. Got it.” (Loc. 58)

“His biceps were standing out in full relief, and Randall’s brain suddenly needed whatever blood his dick wasn’t already hogging to keep himself from literally drooling at the sight. Bicep porn had never really been his be-all-end-all in the past, but that was before he’d gotten such a close, in-person look at a pair like Hunter’s. Damn. (Loc. 457)

I’m not so sure about the meet-sleep together-have major disagreement-make up-fall in love-get together over the span of a long weekend, but you know what it made me smile and I enjoyed it. I know I’d be even more pissed if they ended up broken up and moving on to their next person at the end of the novel so I guess I just have to accept the accelerated pace and happily ever after provided.

Recommendation: I am here for this. I love me a nerd and jock love story. And that is what this is: rocket scientist meets army man and they have hot steamy sex while navigating families, friends and their mutual discovery of each other. I was impressed at the copy editing with it being self-published, but I guess both authors were known entities. Unfortunately, this does mean I’m going to have to check out Albert’s Out of Uniform and #Gaymers series because these were mentioned as being similar. Oh darn 😀

Opening Line: “I’m really here.”

Closing Line: “This was his chance, and he wasn’t going to let it go.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Save The Date
“Tonight was his opportunity to de-grouch from his funk of the past several months, and he had a plan to make it happen by trying a bit of the local flavor. He’d gladly trade his usual gym bunnies, spray-tanned twinks, and fast-talking fuckboys for bearded hipsters, goth types, tattooed bears, and oh yes, the more than a few professor-looking types he’d spotted here. Those were the best. Meant that he’d have a better chance at living out a certain fantasy he’d entertained for years but had never managed to execute.” (Loc. 90)

“It wasn’t that he was scared of heights, not really. Randall just had a healthy appreciation of what, exactly, inertia could do when a body changed velocity abruptly.” (Loc. 409)

“Lonely might suck donkey balls but at least it was a predictable pain, unlike the uncertainty of a relationship.” (Loc. 795)

“‘What does one quantum physicist say before fighting another quantum physicist?’ Randall looked at Hunter expectantly. ‘Uh. . .’ Hunter was lost. ‘Let me atom.'”(Loc. 1,296)

“It had taken Autumn some looking to find a caterer in Portland who was capable of doing the ‘right’ kind—apparently there were all sorts of regional barbecue styles—but it was going to be interesting no matter what.” (Loc. 1,631)

“Love isn’t a risk. It’s not an equation to be weighed or a gamble to bet on. It’s a chance, one that not everyone gets. And when you get that chance, you should do everything possible to go for it…” (Loc. 1,666)