A review by lezreadalot
Going Public by Hudson Lin

3.0

“If you let me, I’ll take care of you.”

3.5 stars. A good office romance with a fair few bumps. In a lot of ways, I feel about this the same way I felt about Lin's last release. The romance was impeccable! It was so good! I was obsessed from almost the very beginning. On the other hands, the plot had hiccoughs and elements that I didn't absolutely love. But on the other other hand, I do think some kudos is due for the fact that the author takes on some things that not a lot of other romance writers would.  

So this is a boss/employee romance between a high-powered, very wealthy executive and his long-time assistant who comes from a much more humble background. Opposites attract, and all that. Elvin is completely devoted to Ray; he loves being his assistant and he's been pining for him for years. I loooove these sort of romances where one character has been silently devoted and super loyal to another one for years without them knowing. I also enjoyed how Elvin's demisexuality played into the romance and the plot. Ray was charming; a little obnoxious, but he was supposed to be like that. They complemented each other so well.

Just as in the first book, I appreciated the fact that the wealth gap was talked about, but I wasn't really satisfied with the conversations that we had. I definitely felt like more could have been said and done, and in a less simplistic way. The plot also lost me a lot because it was definitely very frustrating seeing Ray make decisions that we already know are bad decisions. I kept thinking a lot of the time that he just wasn't acting in a way a typical romance hero would. But the more I think about that, the more I appreciate it. Especially because he makes his mistakes and then we get to see the consequences roll out and it happens in a way that you wouldn't expect from a regular contemporary romance. Or at least, I didn't, and I do appreciate that... up to a point.  Some of the ways the plot fell together in the end were just kind of perfunctory and I didn't get the sense of mounting tension or expectation that I wanted, so that was a little bit of a disappointment as well. 

Listened to the audiobook as read by Tyler Tetsuda and he was great again, though not super polished. Despite my complaints, I really really enjoyed the romance between Elvin and Ray. They were so so sweet together and I just wish I could have read about them in a different sort of book, with a different sort of plot. I still liked this a lot overall and I know I'll be reading from Hudson Lin again.