Title: Easy Evenings (Mangrove Stories #4)
Author Name & Publisher: Mary Calmes (Dreamspinner Press)
Publication Date & Length: November 18, 2015 – 77 pgs
Lazlo Maguire doesn’t do relationships—he does transactions. Six months of the year, he’s an expensive rent boy in Manhattan, and he moves so fast that settling down could not, would not, ever enter his mind… except for once. Britton Lassiter he meets man to man, not as hustler and mark, and it’s too good to be true when the lawyer wants to keep Lazlo even if he has to share him with the job.
But Lazlo has his reasons to walk away from the man he’s grown to love. The other six months of the year, he is laid-back Laz, a shopkeeper in the sleepy coastal town of Mangrove, Florida, where the artist he never allows himself to be in the Big Apple shines through. He lives for his time by the ocean, the place he hides his secrets and nurses his broken heart.
Then fate intervenes, and Laz gets the surprise of his life when he spies Britton in Mangrove—but it’s not meant to be… not until Britton sees the change in him and wants to be a part of Laz’s new life so that every evening can be easy… together. Hopefully the secrets that tore them apart won’t come back to haunt them.
So having not read any of the previous books in this series I will admit to being a little lost but I rolled with it.
I really liked Lazlo’s character and felt bad for him after having a mom and sister like he does…
What I was not a fan of was the misunderstanding that broke up Lazlo and Britton then the way all was just forgiven like no big deal you got a restraining order out on me I still love you. That made no sense to me at all and then everything moved so fast after that and they are living together it was really just honestly crazy to me.
So while I liked Lazlo’s character and some of this story I was not a fan of Britton and how fast everything moved after that. So I am sad to say as much as I have love Mary Calmes books this one was just not for me..
Kara
I was sure that if anyone could make rent-boy meets lawyer work as an m/m romance, it would be Mary Calmes. Having finished the story, I’m not quite so sure.
I fell for Lazlo at the start. I loved his refusal to apologise for working as a prostitute. I enjoyed his relationship with his friends. But in trying to make Lazlo a sympathetic character, I feel like the author went too far into daytime drama mode and made his backstory too terrible to be convincing. I believed in the fifteen-year-old sent out to sell himself by a mother with addiction problems. What I failed to believe in was the hold Lazlo’s mother still had on him as an adult.
In contrast, Britton is just a little too good to be true. The suave lawyer is patient with Lazlo, great with kids and able to overlook Lazlo’s job (although it did break them up once).
The connection between the two men confused me while they moved past misunderstandings and a restraining order at warp speed before the relationship became so sweet it made my teeth hurt.
After the author added a convenient child for instafamily charm I was ready to put the book down. I’m not sure which is more implausible: the easy adjustment of a grieving child to a new home and new parents or the two young, single gay men thrilled to be her daddies.
I’ve loved Mary Calmes forever so I’m going to give this a pass and pretend it hasn’t happened. Too convenient, too sweet and far too easy, this definitely isn’t my favourite of her books.
Sarah
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Mary Calmes lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and two children and loves all the seasons except summer. She graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Due to the fact that it is English lit and not English grammar, do not ask her to point out a clause for you, as it will so not happen. She loves writing, becoming immersed in the process, and falling into the work. She can even tell you what her characters smell like. She loves buying books and going to conventions to meet her fans.
