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A review by inmydreams
Heart First by S.B. Barnes
3.0
3.5 stars, might round it up later to 4. This book has a great premise, a murder mystery mixed with MM romance and slice of life style sounds nice. I enjoyed elements from it, but there are others I didn't as well, hence the rating.
First, the plot is about Daniel, a professor from a liberal arts college that suddenly has his life turned upside down when a fellow colleague appears dead one morning in the campus and people close to them, himself included, are involved in the case. On the other hand, Tony is a mechanic that helps Daniel with his car, whom he starts having a thing with, but Daniel feels conflicted about certain details related to Tony's life in the timeline leading up to said tragedy. This makes Daniel have to confront all the relationships in his life: a potential partner, his friends and his family.
The main thing I enjoyed about this was the writting style, which was well done, and the simplicity of the narration, which didn't make things tedious as can happen with a story about a murder. There were some paragraphs that could've been omitted since a few times it went too descriptive on unimportant stuff, but that still didn't make me bored. The mystery is what kept me going, and the most interesting thing in the book. I have to admit I didn't see it coming so it did come as a surprise to me. I sort of guessed it near the end before it happened, but I wasn't able to see it before so that was nice. I know it could've been obvious to others, but not to me.
Another aspect I enjoyed overall was the relationship. Notice how I mention overall, because while I liked Daniel and Tony together (they were adorable), I still would've liked that their development would've gone slower. I needed to feel the connection build up, instead of being mostly about sex and feelings later. This isn't to say I don't enjoy books with this type of dynamic, but I feel like it could've been done better. Besides that, I still believe they complement each other well, and I came to really like Tony. I also really love the realistic approach during the sex scenes between them.
Now onto the things I wasn't a big fan of, first is that this was a mystery and romance book, but both weren't executed the best. It felt like part of the mystery fell to the background because of the amount of sex scenes (which I'm not agaisnt, I just wanted a balance) while at the same time, the relationship felt a bit rushed in favor of the mystery at times.
Another thing is that there were some descriptions about women, especially at the beginning, that felt a bit judgmental, which was unncessary. Not saying this is outright misogynist, but there was a certain attitude that didn't sit right with me. I especially have mixed feelings about Collete and Stacy. Women in fiction shouldn't be portrayed as likeable only, but I felt at times that the narrative wanted me to dislike them. There were some dialogues that I felt like the book was trying hard at being socially conscious as well. Not exactly the worst thing, but I wished it was toned down a bit.
The ending also felt a bit lukewarming. I enjoyed the idea behind it, but it felt like something was missing. Instead, it just went ahead with the reveal, then the epilogue. Maybe this needed a few more pages to wrap up the story better.
I still appreciate the book a lot because it's not often we get murder mysteries in MM, or where the main leads are in/are near their 30s, at least in recent years. This felt refreshing in a way, because the plot does have nice ideas in it. I also adored the petnames that Tony called Daniel, it felt very heartwarming. I might try the second book someday.
-This was an ARC review.
Tags: (might miss some of them)
-POV: third person
-Content warnings:
-Elements:
-Kinks: none
-Sexual act(s):
-Dynamic:
First, the plot is about Daniel, a professor from a liberal arts college that suddenly has his life turned upside down when a fellow colleague appears dead one morning in the campus and people close to them, himself included, are involved in the case. On the other hand, Tony is a mechanic that helps Daniel with his car, whom he starts having a thing with, but Daniel feels conflicted about certain details related to Tony's life in the timeline leading up to said tragedy. This makes Daniel have to confront all the relationships in his life: a potential partner, his friends and his family.
The main thing I enjoyed about this was the writting style, which was well done, and the simplicity of the narration, which didn't make things tedious as can happen with a story about a murder. There were some paragraphs that could've been omitted since a few times it went too descriptive on unimportant stuff, but that still didn't make me bored. The mystery is what kept me going, and the most interesting thing in the book. I have to admit I didn't see it coming so it did come as a surprise to me. I sort of guessed it near the end before it happened, but I wasn't able to see it before so that was nice. I know it could've been obvious to others, but not to me.
Another aspect I enjoyed overall was the relationship. Notice how I mention overall, because while I liked Daniel and Tony together (they were adorable), I still would've liked that their development would've gone slower. I needed to feel the connection build up, instead of being mostly about sex and feelings later. This isn't to say I don't enjoy books with this type of dynamic, but I feel like it could've been done better. Besides that, I still believe they complement each other well, and I came to really like Tony. I also really love the realistic approach during the sex scenes between them.
Now onto the things I wasn't a big fan of, first is that this was a mystery and romance book, but both weren't executed the best. It felt like part of the mystery fell to the background because of the amount of sex scenes (which I'm not agaisnt, I just wanted a balance) while at the same time, the relationship felt a bit rushed in favor of the mystery at times.
Another thing is that there were some descriptions about women, especially at the beginning, that felt a bit judgmental, which was unncessary. Not saying this is outright misogynist, but there was a certain attitude that didn't sit right with me. I especially have mixed feelings about Collete and Stacy. Women in fiction shouldn't be portrayed as likeable only, but I felt at times that the narrative wanted me to dislike them. There were some dialogues that I felt like the book was trying hard at being socially conscious as well. Not exactly the worst thing, but I wished it was toned down a bit.
The ending also felt a bit lukewarming. I enjoyed the idea behind it, but it felt like something was missing. Instead, it just went ahead with the reveal, then the epilogue. Maybe this needed a few more pages to wrap up the story better.
I still appreciate the book a lot because it's not often we get murder mysteries in MM, or where the main leads are in/are near their 30s, at least in recent years. This felt refreshing in a way, because the plot does have nice ideas in it. I also adored the petnames that Tony called Daniel, it felt very heartwarming. I might try the second book someday.
-This was an ARC review.
Tags: (might miss some of them)
-POV: third person
-Content warnings:
Spoiler
mentions of homophobia, murder-Elements:
Spoiler
murder mystery-Kinks: none
-Sexual act(s):
Spoiler
protected sex, humping/grinding, blowjobs, handjobs-Dynamic: