REVIEW: 'Wedding Favors' by Anne Tenino
Title: Wedding Favors
Series: Bluewater Bay # 7
Author: Anne Tenino
Published: April 13, 2015
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Cover Artist: L.C. Chase
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Erotic Romance
Length: 318 Pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; Standalone; HEA
About Wedding Favors
Lucas Wilder’s best friend is a traitor. First, Audrey moved back to their hick-infested hometown, Bluewater Bay, and now she’s marrying a local. His own brother, in fact. And as her man of honor, Lucas gets coerced into returning for an extended stay. Although, between his unfaithful ex-boyfriend and his artist’s block, going home isn’t the worst thing that could happen. Even if the best man is Gabriel Savage, Lucas’s first crush, first hookup, and first heartbreak.
The only reason Gabe hasn’t been waiting for Lucas to return to Bluewater Bay is because he never thought it’d happen. Not that it matters now that Lucas is back—Gabe’s still a logger who’s never been anywhere (Canada doesn’t count), and Lucas is now a famous sculptor who’s been everywhere twice. Plus, there’s that shared past.
When Audrey asks Lucas to make her wedding favors, the only place to set up a kiln is at Gabe’s tree farm. Soon, they pick up where they left off twelve years before, then blow past it, discovering why neither of them forgot the other. Now they have to choose how much of their history they’ll repeat, and what future they’ll make together.
4 HEART READ
REVIEW:
Anne Tenino manages to provide convincing parallels between love, horse training, and creativity in Wedding Favors. And she does so with equal finesse for all three topics, quite the feat!
In this seventh book in her Bluewater Bay series (which can be read as a standalone) Lucas Wilder returns to his childhood hometown in order to be the Man of Honor at the last-minute wedding of his best female friend to his brother. Their relationship was kept secret, and he’s not thrilled. Besides, he has an upcoming art show, a slump in creativity, and recently lost his boyfriend. Though perhaps the boyfriend’s unfaithfulness should have hurt more.
And then there’s another little problem. The hottest encounter of his life was twelve years ago, with his brother’s best friend and Best Man, Gabriel Savage.
Immediately after their encounter, however, Gabriel sent him packing to the big city and its vibrant art world. In turn, whenever he returned home, Lucas acted standoffish and rude, nursing a broken teen-aged crush.
Little did Lucas know the sacrifice Gabriel had made. Gabriel decides Lucas is as skittish as the new horse Gabriel’s been gifted. To break either horse or potential lover, he’ll need an open, fearless heart.
And Lucas learns that love, like clay, must be crafted with more than a little patience, great attention to detail, and all of one’s zeal. These attributes are painful when applied to love.
If the story were as simple as written above, it would be boring. But Ms. Tenino includes wonderful tips on horses and pottery, teaching readers her skills with other crafts. And in so doing we learn how quick, how easy it is to break something, and how slowly, carefully intensively we must apply ourselves to create – whether we are creating a relationship, a craft, or our highest selves.
Her writing is exquisite, clearly the work of someone who is applying the very processes she so artistically characterizes:
“As if life had removed the last twelve years and simply put an apostrophe in its place.”
“He needed to shut everyone out and let himself get totally wrapped up in his own mind. It wasn’t hard. Being totally self-absorbed was pretty much his natural inclination anyway, and he itched to get started making something. All he wanted was to get his hands dirty again. Shape things with them.”
“It was uncomfortable, like every other time he suspected someone saw his dorky, socially maladapted, hidden self. As if he’d left the fly of his soul unzipped, and this tighty-whities were exposed.”
“To make things worse, his embarrassment fed his lust, which fed the embarrassment. He was trapped in a desire feedback loop.”
When a writer exposes our souls by tapping on a keyboard, whets our minds about topics we didn’t know would interest us, and manages to create believable characters and an intricate entertaining tale, she must be lauded.
Ms. Tenino, thank you for your self-absorption's. May you benefit from them as much as we do.
If platforms would grant them, Wedding Favors would get 4.5 hearts from me. Go out and get it, or some of Tenino’s newer novels. One can only imagine her writing will deepen with practice.
A copy of Wedding Favors was purchased by the Contributor so that we might offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
Meet the Author
Catalyzed by her discovery of LGBTQ romance, Anne Tenino left the lucrative fields of art history, non-profit fundraising, and domestic engineering (in that order) to follow her dream of become a starving romance author. For good or ill, her snarky, silly, quasi-British sense of humor came along for the ride.
Anne applies her particular blend of romance, comedy, and gay protagonists to contemporary, scifi, and paranormal tales. Her works have won many awards; her novel, Frat Boy and Toppy, is frequently referred to as a gay romance classic; she’s been featured in RT Book Reviews magazine; she holds the position of VP of Programming at her local RWA chapter; and she’s achieved bestseller status on Amazon’s gay romance list.
Born and raised in Oregon, Anne now lives in Portland with her family, who have all taken a sacred oath never to read her books. When not crocheting genitalia, growing tomatoes, driving teenagers around, or cooking something obscure, she can be found at her computer, procrastinating. Possibly while also lying on the couch, eating bon-bons.
For more from Anne be sure and visit her website.
