Blog Tour and Review: Cloud Ten by Fearne Hill

02 December of 2022 by ButtonsMom2003

Cloud Ten By Fearne Hill

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Tropes: Workplace romance, bi-awakening

Released: November 28, 2022

Publisher: Self-Published

Length: 254 pages

Synopsis

Frankie Carter lives and breathes PA work. Becoming indispensable to a top exec is all he’s ever wanted, even if he is repeatedly overlooked in favour of other less well-qualified applicants.

The problem? 94% of executive PAs are women.

But resourcefulness comes with the territory. As does a pinstriped skirt, killer heels, and enough chutzpah to blag the interviews… conveniently passing as a woman instead of a gay man. Egged on by his friends, Frankie lands himself his dream job working for Lysander St. Cloud, a senior exec on the board of the family firm.

On the outside, his boss has it all. Or does he? Before long, Frankie discovers Lysander’s looks, money, and status mask a shyness and humiliating past he’d like to forget.

Lysander is straight, and he believes Frankie is a woman. A close bond develops between them. A bond increasingly in danger of slipping from professional into something else.

Frankie needs to set the record straight before he hurts not only Lysander but himself. Will he choose his career, his friendship, or his heart? Or is he brave enough to fight for them all?

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

Great start to a new series!

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Fearne Hill and now I can add Cloud Ten to that list. This is a more lighthearted story than other’s I’ve read by her but it still contains the same descriptive writing and the occasional witty banter.

Frankie poses as a woman in order to land a job as a PA. Most PA’s are women and he knows that he’s lost out on several jobs because he’s a man; his brother and sister convince him to pose as a woman. Lysander is an Olympic medal winning swimmer who now works for his family’s company. He shuns publicity because of something that happened in his past. He’s not happy when his sister assigns him a role that will force him to become the public face for his company’s endeavor to become more eco friendly..

Frankie turns out to be the perfect PA for Lysander. He helps keep him grounded and eases his nervousness when faced with tasks that he’s uncomfortable with. He’s also beginning to have feelings for his new PA. He has no idea that Frankie isn’t a woman and when Frankie comes clean, Lysander feels betrayed.

It’s not hard to figure out where this story is going but I thoroughly enjoyed getting there. It’s a romance so there was no doubt in my mind that Frankie and Lysander would work things out but finding out how they did that was so much fun.

This quote from Frankie was just one of the places where I actually LOL’d:

“I am finding myself increasingly attracted to a man about as cishet as a 1970s James Bond, and he’s started looking at me like I’m Pussy fucking Galore.”

There were several interesting secondary characters in this story that I wouldn’t mind reading more about. Since this is the first book in a new series, I can only hope to hear more from them, but even if the author goes in a different direction, I know that I won’t be disappointed. I’m looking forward to the next book!