RELEASE DAY REVIEW: 'Fool of Main Beach' by Tara Lain
Title: Fool of Main Beach
Series: Love in Laguna #5
Author: Tara Lain
Published: August 21, 2017
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 274 Pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; Humor; Animals: Dogs; HEA
About Fool of Main Beach
Merle Justice wants to reach for the stars, but it’s tough to get respect when playing a teeny bopper vampire on TV. Then he meets a famous director anxious to give him all he thinks he wants—and maybe a bit more. Everything’s looking up until a life-threatening encounter with some homophobes on Main Beach puts Merle face-to-face with a Sasquatch-sized hero in a pink puffer coat.
Tom Henry defies description. As unsophisticated and simple as an angel, he walks through life content with who he is and asking for very little except to care for his sister, Lily, and the dogs he loves. Then he meets Merle, the embodiment of dreams he barely knows he has. Merle knows the people who hold his future in their hands might love Tom—but they’ll never understand Merle and Tom together. Tom knows it too. With lives this far apart, who’s really the fool of Main Beach?
5 HEART READ
REVIEW:
Author Tara Lain has done it again with the heartwarming read, Fool of Main Beach. Book five in her Love in Laguna series, Fool of Main Beach can be read as a standalone but I would highly advise you read this series in order as many beloved characters from each book are featured in this installment. For example...
Readers first meet Merle Justice in book three, Prince of the Playhouse. He is an actor who plays a vampire on TV. He wants to be taken more seriously in his craft and when he’s offered a role in the play Hamlet he jumps at the chance. In Prince of the Playhouse Merle becomes close to his co-star, the wildly famous Gray Anson, and the two strike up a friendship while competing for the fabulous Ru Maitland’s affections. Merle loses out to Gray and decides to buy a house in Laguna after falling in love with the beach town.
Merle hires Billy Ballew to renovate the house. Reader’s initially meet Billy in Knight of Ocean Avenue, the first book in the Love in Laguna series. See...in my opinion it’s best to read this series from the beginning. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
In Fool of Main Beach Tom Henry is an electrician who works for Billy. He’s currently working on Merle’s house and that’s how our two boys first meet.
Merle’s friends throw him a party one night and after escaping away down to the beach Tom comes to his rescue when he’s accosted by some homophobic jerks. He’s not sure what to make of Tom but he’s definitely attracted to him.
I love Tom. By 19% I was a goner. I wanted to grab Tom and hug him tight and never let go.
He makes me think of fluffy kittens and puppies. I adore the way Tara Lain writes and describes Tom. He’s like a gentle giant who, although a little slow, is really smart. He has a way of being funny without even realizing it and has a big heart. He was kicked out of his home at a young age for being gay and has learned to live and make it on his own. He’s fiercely loyal (he sends money to his teen-aged sister) and has a love for dogs. There’s something about his innocence and earnestness that tugs at my heart and had me falling in love with him from beginning to end. At times Tom reminded me of his boss, Billy Ballew, and I had stars in my eyes as Billy is one of my favorite characters ever.
Merle and Tom act on their attraction and enter into a friends with benefits relationship.
Throughout the story the author keeps the readers on their toes.
Tom and Merle both waffle between wanting more with each other and also knowing they come from two different worlds, but they can’t deny their attraction. Merle doesn’t want to take advantage of Tom and Tom feels like he can never fit into the “Hollywood” crowd.
The writing is humorous and heartfelt and this is where Ms. Lain excels, because I could really feel the emotions and how much the two men grow to care for each other but how each man has their doubts about how they fit into the other’s lives and how their differences could tear them apart..
Throughout the story there are quite a few reference to characters from within the series (which I absolutely loved) and in this installment the secondary characters are just as amazing. Tom’s little sister comes off really bratty at first but by the end she redeems herself in my eyes. She’s fiercely loyal to her brother and has a smart mouth. She is Tom’s number one defender and for that I really love her.
Merle’s parents are equally frustrating at first but by the end their relationship seems to be on equal ground and their pride in Merle is revealed. Mrs. Allison is a winner as well, Tom shares a house with her. And of course the dogs…if you love animals, especially dogs, they figure prominently in this story as Tom volunteers at a local shelter. I wanted to adopt them all!!
Fool of Main Beach by Tara Lain is a fun and engaging read.
The characters are well written and the story itself is amazing. I think it has a nice message about being true to yourself and not changing who you are to please others. And it doesn’t hurt that the chemistry between Merle and Tom is off the charts with scenes together that are fun and sexy. I highly recommend it!!
A copy of Fool of Main Beach was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by Dreamspinner Press, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
Meet the Author
Tara Lain never met a beautiful boy she didn’t love – at least on paper. A writer of erotic romance, mostly ménage and male/male, Tara loves all her characters, but especially her handsome heroes. A lifelong writer of serious non-fiction, Tara had the first novel she ever wrote accepted for publication in 2011. She’s now on book 27 and counting. After an exotic life of travel all over the world and work in television, education and advertising, Tara settled in Southern California with her soul-mate husband and opened her own small marketing business. She paints, collages, and started practicing yoga “way before it was fashionable”. Passionate about diversity, justice, inclusion and new ideas she says on her tombstone it will read, “Yes”.
For more from Tara be sure and visit her website.
