Book 973: Stronger Than Longing (Chesapeake Days #3) – Katherine McIntyre

After enjoying the first two novels (Stronger Than Hope and Stronger Than Passion) I figured I’d give the newest in the series a go when it landed in my inbox from Gay Romance Reviews.*

This is the story of bad boy Silas who is back in town because of an uh-oh baby from a one-night stand who falls in love with Taran, the quiet little brother of Nico from Passion. It starts with a one-night stand after Nico gets dumped and Silas is burning off some energy and goes from there.

For the most part, nothing was surprising to me in this novel apart from Nico not throwing a shit-fit that his little brother is hooking up with the bad boy. The mom bailing, the grandparents attempting to take over, Taran being the sweetheart and finally standing up for himself, none of it was a surprise, but McIntyre did a great job of making most of those feel somewhat fresh. I really enjoyed seeing the characters from the first two novels and catching up with them even if it hadn’t been that long.

I’m not sure if McIntyre is getting better at writing sex scenes, but these definitely seemed more varied and more intense. Both characters walked the walk on verse characters and McIntyre did an excellent job of embodying both. She also took it outside which was different and a good change of pace, especially with the pretty vanilla and calm sex of the past few books.

If there was one part that didn’t work quite as well for me, it was Silas’ change of heart from bad boy to lover boy. It seemed to happen so fast with little regression, other than the one that contributed to the big crisis of the novel and Taran standing up for himself. It just felt like it could’ve been amped up a bit more, but maybe it’s a good thing it wasn’t.

Aside from that, the book could probably have used a good copy editor. The number of times McIntyre used “clove” to describe Silas’ scent is ridiculous, it appeared THREE times on ONE page. AND if she can’t come up with an alternate to “speared his fingers through his hair” there are some larger issues. That phrase appeared in some form or another FIVE times throughout the novel and it’s a great phrase, but the fact that it’s unique and distinct made it stand out to me. I honestly thought it appeared a lot more.

Recommendation: I thoroughly enjoyed this one. McIntyre writes a great relatively quick-read romance novel. This one felt a bit more labored than the first two, but I think that’s because the characters were dealing with an infant and all of the extra drama and exhaustion associated with that. I’ll keep an eye out for more of McIntyre’s releases but she’s not quite in my top tier yet.

*I received a copy of Stronger than Longing via Gay Romance Reviews in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “Taran had a bad feeling about tonight.”

Closing Line: “Taran had spent a long time dreaming of his future, but he’d found it at last.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)