Rum and Ginger by Eon de Beaumont
4 Hearts
The Connection 01
Review written for MM Good Book Reviews
Ben is the manager of T.C. McFlannigan’s, it isn’t a job he ever aspired to have but he followed love back home, now though even his relationship seems to be strained and opening up about his dreams doesn’t get the support he hoped for. With Chance seeming to drift further away Ben makes new friends who he doesn’t have to hide his sexuality with and one of them, Brodie, encourages Ben to seize his dreams. When Ben discovers Charlie’s betrayal Ben also discovers that he has more support than he realized, he draws closer to Brodie and the dream of opening his own gay bar.
This is a great story of fading love and discovering new love, of following your dreams and making new friends. Ben has never been happy hiding his relationship from the world, but Charlie is too scared of his family to admit to being gay so Ben is forced to live in the closet if he wants to keep his lover. Now though, years later, there seems to be something wrong with their relationship and when Ben discovers what one of those things is, he walks. Meeting Brodie sparks something in Ben that has been missing for a while and resurrects the dream he once had of opening his own bar.
I was pleasantly surprised with this story because it has two relationships in it, for the first half of the book it is Ben and Chance and how they have drifted apart and mistakes being made and the relationship failing, and then the second half of the book is Ben getting his life on track and the budding relationship between Ben and Brodie. Even though there is a break up it isn’t too angsty or heartbreaking, there are hurt feelings but it is more the realization that they had fallen into a rut and something different tempts them.
While both Charlie and Brodie play large parts in this story we still only know the basics about them, we don’t get to understand why Charlie did what he did and we don’t get to know Brodie as well as we could have. The secondary characters really add something to this story, Lena with her party-girl attitude who always has a drink to hand and Derek with his newly bachelor state trying to fill his time with drinking and girls and not wanting to be alone. We see more than just a romantic relationship being built, we see friendships new and old and family ties being strengthened, we see a man finding he has more than he thought he did and his hopes for the future. The new relationship between Ben and Brodie starts off as friendship and because of that their relationship when they get together doesn’t feel rushed.
I recommend this to those who love moving forward with your life, developing new friendships and relationships, forgiving the past and embracing the future, some hot sex and an ending that is a beginning.
