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gabi90's review against another edition
3.0
There was a quiet humor to the narration, which I liked a lot. The story was progressing surely but really slowly. Nothing really happened other than Cam trying to live a new life in a small town after he abandoned the evil ways of living in Atlanta, and he didn't want to go back to jail a third time. The townspeople were very neighborly, and welcomed him with open arms, - not that he deserved it since he tried to con them and steal from them - except one sexy police officer, who had his suspicions.
A two-time ex-con and a police officer. They hated each other at first, and for obvious reasons, they didn't trust each other. I guess it's safe to say this fits into to the enemies-to-lovers category.
Up until around the 60% mark, I loved it, and I thought once we get to the romancy stuff it would be mind-blowing and worth the wait, right? Wrong! One minute they were sucking each other off casually, the next...
"Are we okay?" Cam asked.
"I... I-I don't know"
They were acting like they were together for some time now, but excuse me, no. That didn't happen, they skipped some steps.
And I didn’t even get to enjoy that part when all of a sudden the shit hit the fan with Cam's past knocking on the door and it turned into a crime-fest. And I could've accepted that (though I'm not a fan), but the lack of romance killed it for me.
And then at the end there was all kinds of topics: about coming out and the church, about settling down.
One highlight of this story for me was Grant, the town's snobby gay guy with a wife and 2.5 kids. Everyone knew he was gay, but no one really talked about it. He didn’t really serve a purpose other than, but he was kinda hilarious. He got exactly one chapter where we got his POV, but it was fun. He's an ass though but I liked him as a side character.
Trigger warnings: rape (Cam talks about it in a memory, so it's not very detailed), angry sex (after some hand to hand combat; not penetrative), stealing from old people, mention of child abuse, also !spoiler!.
A two-time ex-con and a police officer. They hated each other at first, and for obvious reasons, they didn't trust each other. I guess it's safe to say this fits into to the enemies-to-lovers category.
Up until around the 60% mark, I loved it, and I thought once we get to the romancy stuff it would be mind-blowing and worth the wait, right? Wrong! One minute they were sucking each other off casually, the next...
"Are we okay?" Cam asked.
"I... I-I don't know"
They were acting like they were together for some time now, but excuse me, no. That didn't happen, they skipped some steps.
And I didn’t even get to enjoy that part when all of a sudden the shit hit the fan with Cam's past knocking on the door and it turned into a crime-fest. And I could've accepted that (though I'm not a fan), but the lack of romance killed it for me.
And then at the end there was all kinds of topics: about coming out and the church, about settling down.
One highlight of this story for me was Grant, the town's snobby gay guy with a wife and 2.5 kids. Everyone knew he was gay, but no one really talked about it. He didn’t really serve a purpose other than
Spoiler
outing Jackson, the deeply closeted police officer and Cam's love interestTrigger warnings: rape (Cam talks about it in a memory, so it's not very detailed), angry sex (after some hand to hand combat; not penetrative), stealing from old people, mention of child abuse, also !spoiler!
Spoiler
killing and death (on-page)jpjackson's review
5.0
I loved this story! Cute charming, some intrigue and a great cast of small town characters, all of whom I could relate to having lived in a small town! Fully encourage anyone to read this story.
ariadna's review
1.0
NGL, I wavered between giving this book a lower rating or leaving it at 2. In the end, I decided to give it 1 star for the plot and 1 star for the gorgeous cover.
ETA: on second thought, I decided that the story only deserved half a point so the new rating is 1.5
I was all for an Enemies to Lovers story set in a small town. Sadly, what I ended up getting was a small town story with a sprinkling of barely!enemies to lovers. :(
Also, even though the book was published in 2016, there was something in the writing that made it look like it'd been written at least a decade (if not two) before? I was close to DNF'ing a few times but kept hoping (like a fool) that the book would move past the original bland vibe. (I'm facepalming myself, y'all).
The romance was there...I guess? Honestly, I was Team No One as both MCs were more of the Any Two Guys variety than actual!characters with complex personalities. Also, the secondary characters grated my nerves.
TL;DR: One of the worst M/M books I've read in a long while. Uninspired writing, weird takes on queerness, extremely bland characters, and a story that never took off prompts me to not recommend this book to anyone. Thankfully, I'd gotten it at half-price when it was published. I can't even recommend it as a library loan. :(
ETA: on second thought, I decided that the story only deserved half a point so the new rating is 1.5
I was all for an Enemies to Lovers story set in a small town. Sadly, what I ended up getting was a small town story with a sprinkling of barely!enemies to lovers. :(
Also, even though the book was published in 2016, there was something in the writing that made it look like it'd been written at least a decade (if not two) before? I was close to DNF'ing a few times but kept hoping (like a fool) that the book would move past the original bland vibe. (I'm facepalming myself, y'all).
The romance was there...I guess? Honestly, I was Team No One as both MCs were more of the Any Two Guys variety than actual!characters with complex personalities. Also, the secondary characters grated my nerves.
TL;DR: One of the worst M/M books I've read in a long while. Uninspired writing, weird takes on queerness, extremely bland characters, and a story that never took off prompts me to not recommend this book to anyone. Thankfully, I'd gotten it at half-price when it was published. I can't even recommend it as a library loan. :(
swamphag's review
5.0
In this book we get a retired criminal trying to make a new life for himself and a cop who is utterly suspicious of him. I was worried that I wasn’t going to like it (who knows why) but I really enjoyed it. Black’s writing was really good and he did a good job of pacing the book and developing the characters. It didn’t devolve into stereotype vs stereotype like some other opposites-attract books tend to do.
The people in the small town were numerous and charming. It was nice to see Cam interact with them and grow because of his relationship with the people in the town instead of just his interest in Jackson. Black did a good job of showing Cam’s growth from criminal to a charming small town local and making sure it wasn’t an instant change.
It was a slow burn type of romance so we really get to know both Cam and Jackson as they get to know each other. Jackson was sooooooooo reluctant to get involved with Cam because he saw him as a criminal, but also because Jackson is closeted as all hell. The pace made it easy to root for them and made their eventual relationship more believable.
The only two things that I didn’t really like about it were Grant (gay townie) and the ending. I don’t know why Black included a random section with Grant’s POV in the book, but Grant was really useless in general and did nothing for me. It just added random drama when there was already enough going on.
The ending was just kind of abrupt: sex bye! The rest of the book was really good though and I read it in a hot minute because it just sucked me in.
review originally posted over at Just Love Romance https://justloveromance.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/snakes-among-sweet-flowers-huffman-black/
The people in the small town were numerous and charming. It was nice to see Cam interact with them and grow because of his relationship with the people in the town instead of just his interest in Jackson. Black did a good job of showing Cam’s growth from criminal to a charming small town local and making sure it wasn’t an instant change.
It was a slow burn type of romance so we really get to know both Cam and Jackson as they get to know each other. Jackson was sooooooooo reluctant to get involved with Cam because he saw him as a criminal, but also because Jackson is closeted as all hell. The pace made it easy to root for them and made their eventual relationship more believable.
The only two things that I didn’t really like about it were Grant (gay townie) and the ending. I don’t know why Black included a random section with Grant’s POV in the book, but Grant was really useless in general and did nothing for me. It just added random drama when there was already enough going on.
The ending was just kind of abrupt: sex bye! The rest of the book was really good though and I read it in a hot minute because it just sucked me in.
review originally posted over at Just Love Romance https://justloveromance.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/snakes-among-sweet-flowers-huffman-black/
calila's review
5.0
Loved this for the most part. I feel like the ending kind of went out with a whimper, but other than that this was a pretty amazing read. I loved Camden and his sense of humor was GREAT. I liked how he was so annoyed that he was genuinely being a good guy to the townspeople. I liked Jackson and how he saw through him, but owned up enough to stop judging and learn about the man Cam is now. The supporting cast was lovely. Ida and Dottie and Charlie and the kiddos. All love. I like that everyone had shades of grey to them. No one was all good or all bad(expect the BAD GUY), they were human. I'm so glad this lived up to the cover!
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