When Love Takes Over

By: Jacob Z. Flores

Narrated by: T.J. Jamesin

Zach Kelly's life is a shambles. His boyfriend of three years dumped him, and his writing career is going nowhere. On a whim, he heads to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to nurse his broken heart and figure out his next step. He's expecting to find rest and relaxation on the sandy beaches of Cape Cod. Instead, Zach meets a hunky porn star during a chance encounter at a leather shop he mistakes as a place to buy a belt that is definitely not for whipping.

Van Pierce is smitten when shy and inexperienced Zach crashes through a shelf of fetish gear. Though Van's got an insatiable appetite for men on and off the set, his porn persona, Hart Throb, hides a broken heart. He's struggling to find the reality the porno set doesn't offer, and Zach is fighting to find the fantasy that will set his writing on fire. The odd goofball and the suave beefcake may either find love amid Provincetown's colorful pageantry where summer never seems to end-or more heartbreak than either can imagine.

©2013 Jacob Z. Flores (P)2014 Dreamspinner Press

I wanted to like this...... But

I don't know if it is because I just finished The Something Like series by Jay Bell or what it was ? But I felt that the book was too cliché and way too predictable. I read the reviews and wanted to like it but I just couldn't get into it.

Saved by the narrator

Despite what it says in the product page about who narrated this story, as soon as I listened to the sample, I knew that was Tristan James. And since he's on auto-buy for me, I got this despite never having heard of the author before.
The narration was perfect as usual. I wasn't expecting anything less from one of my favorite narrators. But the story was sort of a mixed bag.
Zack and Van spend a huge chunk of this story apart. Interacting with a multitude of side characters instead of each other. As a result, I wasn't as invested in their relationship as I might have been otherwise. There's also the element of insta-love, and I found the sexual tension between the characters prior to them
consummating their relationship via a sexathon to be somewhat lukewarm.
There was some humorous dialogue which I found amusing, but then again, there was also purple prose which threw me off.
This was a decent story with an excellent narrator. I'm hoping the rest of the series will be better.

Provincetown PR or fantasy?

Someone commented that the stories centered around provincetown was Pr for the vacation spot. And it might be (since im not a gay american, i had to look it up an YES it exists) but i liked the story. There were moments i had to laugh (the meeting in the leather (belts?) store was really funny) and the town kinds of gives the story a "year round" gay pride background but also tells the story of someone who have to live in gay pride land all year round - and find love and commitment in spite of that.

Really enjoyable

Good plot, good writing, good narrating. Enjoyed the heat going on with the characters. I plan to read more by this author. Enjoyed feeling like I was part of the characters lives.

This book didn't work for me but it might for you.

*Audiobook edition*

Okay, I'm just going to come out and say it: I hated this book. In fact, the more I listened, the more infuriated I become.

Zach was a weird character. He oscillated between this clueless, dorky, clumsy (BTW, I'm so sick of "clumsy characters" that trip like, once, and then are labeled as "the clumsy one" to be cute) character and this user, judgmental man-whore. Now, I'm all for sexual freedom and, well, man-whoring, but Zach was this strange mix of liberated and self-loathing. He would be like, "yeah, I can have sex right on the dance floor!" and then would whine, "oh, that's really not me! I'm not like that." He was supposed to be shy but then was sometimes this exhibitionist... it went back and forth and didn't mesh well. Zach was annoying and made no sense to me as a character.

Also, like I said, he was sooooo judgmental! GAH, I wanted to nads punch him sometimes. When Zach hooked up with a guy with a third nipple, he went on and on about how gross the guy was and how much he repulsed him, and then banged him anyway. He was a user and not very nice, in my opinion.

I also hated the whole "She's All That" makeover scene. Supposedly Zach and his ex-boyfriend had issues because his ex tried to change him, but five seconds later he is willing to embrace the skimpy P-town clothes and go hog wild? I don't think so.

I didn't like the insta-love (one meeting and the guys barely talk yet they want to change for each other... bleh), I didn't like the side characters, I didn't like Van, I didn't like the cheesy dialogue... this book made me so crabby!

The only think I liked about this book was the narration. It says that the narrator is T.J. Jamesin but I could have SWORN it was Tristan James. Whoever it was, he did a very nice job with the different voices and styles. The narration was the only thing allowing me to continue this story.

I don't know if this author and I don't mesh well together or it was just this particular story, but I'm going to avoid all things Jacob Flores for the time being. Maybe it's just me and my tastes but this book and I were not compadres.

*Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*