Four out of Five Stars
The Summary: Ronan Collins has spent most of his life in Dublin hiding who he really is. Coming out would hurt his mother, and Ronan isn’t going to be the second gay man to do that. When he receives news the father he has never known has died, leaving him both a house and a business in Amsterdam, he jumps on the opportunity to get to know the man who fathered him and to discover what he’s been denying himself for years.
Lucas Brandt thought he had it all when Paul Kelly offered him a job and rooms to live in. With Paul deceased he fears he may be about to lose both. He didn’t even know Paul had a son, and now this stranger is on his way from Dublin to pull the rug out from under Lucas’s feet.
The two men don’t expect to like each other, never mind feel attraction. With numerous reasons why hooking up would be a bad idea, why does giving in feel so much better? And is Ronan’s back story really as he’s always imagined it to be?
The Review
Amsterdam represents an opportunity Ronan never thought he would have. He’d get to know who his father was and he’s experience life away from his mother and a small town. He doesn’t expect the attraction to his father’s business partner and tenant, Lucas.
What I enjoyed about this was how much I could relate to Ronan. You live in the boundaries you think are set out for you. You do what you expect your parents expect of you. Ronan not only uses his time in Amsterdam to figure out his professional future but he starts to discover who he truly is.
The pacing of Ronan and Lucas’s romance and attraction is well done. It’s not a fast jump in to a relationship. There was an ebb and flow to it. I liked the internal thought process that was included for both characters. When something happened, Ronan thought it out to exhaustion. When you’re new and experiencing all these situations at a later age, you do that. Lucas weighed all variations of what could happen with Ronan. Would this be okay or would pursuing a romantic relationship with his business partner end up in heartache?
There were a few grammatical mistakes here and there. There was some terminology that felt a bit dated, which it could have been done on purpose. It didn’t take away from Ronan and Lucas’s story though. I read it in a couple of hours and it left me happy and ready to read more by Helena Stones.
This is a sweet, moving story and I enjoyed it every bit.
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