Recent Release Review: Happy Place by Jay Northcote

27 March of 2020 by ButtonsMom2003

Reviewer's Rating: 5

5.0Overall score

A great addition to this series!

Happy Place By Jay Northcote

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Released: March 19, 2020

Publisher: Jaybird Press

Series: Rainbow Place, Book 5

Length: 61,000 word approx.

Cover Design: Garrett Leigh @Black Jazz Design

Synopsis

A first kiss from a younger man leads to a sexual awakening…

George’s strict upbringing has left him ashamed of his sexuality. In his forties now, he’s yet to come out or even kiss a man – until he meets Quentin.

Quentin has had enough of bad relationships with men who won’t commit. Still raw from the last one, he’s not ready to try again. But George is sweet, and helping the older man get some experience might be a fun diversion.

Swept rapidly into a deeper connection than they bargained for, they face a dilemma. George isn’t ready to come out, and Quentin wants a boyfriend who isn’t afraid to be seen with him in public. Can they find a way to navigate the unpredictable waters of their new relationship and find happiness together?

Contains: Age gap, gay first times, sexual exploration, out for you.

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

A great addition to this series!

All of the books in the Rainbow Place series can be read as standalones. I have read all of them and highly recommend this series. Happy Place is a coming out story about a man in his forties who has hidden his sexuality all of his life; no one knows, not even his ex-wife.

When George unexpectedly comes out to the younger man who interviewed him for a magazine piece his life begins to change. When Quentin finds out that George has never been with a man before he offers himself to George. Before long things turn into something that neither of them expected

Although their relationship starts out as strictly a couple of hookups, the more they see each other the more their feelings change. The first sex scenes between them seemed pretty realistic to me as George has never been with a man before and only knew what he’d seen in porn. Also, his nerves caused him to have performance anxiety and that also felt pretty realistic to me.

Happy Place really tore me up in places. I was so sad for George that he hasn’t experienced romantic happiness in his life. His strict upbringing by his fanatical mother pretty much scarred him and caused him to be ashamed of his sexuality; it has prevented him from living openly as a gay man. There were many places in this story that brought me to tears but I knew that Jay Northcote would give George and Quentin a happy ending.

Quentin is falling for George but he just can’t handle the pressure of keeping George a secret and it’s causing a strain in their relationship. Quentin doesn’t want to force George to come out because if things don’t work out between them, he doesn’t want to be responsible for forcing George to do something he wasn’t read to do.

I loved that George’s job was restoring boats and that he lived on a sailboat. I’ve never been on a sailboat but have always wanted to experience that. The scenes on the sailboat were really beautiful. They allowed me to imagine that I was on the boat and being comforted by the gentle rocking when the boat was anchored.

I think Rainbow Place is a fantastic series and I hope Jay continues to write more books set in this world.

♥♥♥♥♥

O Factor: Scorcher

Rainbow Place Series

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About Author

Jay Northcote

Jay lives just outside Bristol in the West of England. He comes from a family of writers, but always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed him by. He spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content.

One day, Jay decided to try and write a short story—just to see if he could—and found it rather addictive. He hasn’t stopped writing since.

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