A review by siria
When to Hold Them by G.B. Gordon

3.0

A slightly odd book. G.B. Gordon does a fairly good job at sketching out the two main characters—Doran, newly arrived in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, alone and struggling with overcoming his gambling addiction; Xavier, a biracial park ranger who's somewhat of a loner. I bought their chemistry together, and liked that Gordon set up a dominant-submissive power dynamic between them that wasn't particularly stylised or centered around pain. However, I didn't buy the speed with which the relationship progressed—the ending in particular felt unearned. Since Doran often reads a lot more like a teenager than a guy in his early twenties, I really wanted someone to tell him to back off and slow down when he proposes moving in with an older, dominant guy whom he's known, what... a month? Two? Especially when Xavier is at times weirdly demanding in ways that don't quite feel in character or like how most people would behave in a given situation.