Hi there! I’m so excited to share a review for a new release from Amelia Bishop. MORE THAN LOVE is a contemporary M/M second-chance romance between a small-town cop and the one who got away fifteen years ago.

Catch my review, the yummy excerpt and enter to win your own ebook below.

About the book:
Dan watched the people in his life settle down, get married, and have kids, while he cycled through a seemingly endless string of break-ups and disappointing relationship fails. From time to time, he thought about the one that got away: Ian. The college boyfriend he’d never quite forgotten.

So when Ian comes back to town and wants to get together, Dan jumps at the chance to see his first real boyfriend again. And despite his track record, he holds out hope that he and Ian might make it work the second time around.

While Ian is still just as sweet and sexy as he was back in college, he’s also harder, slicker, and more secretive than Dan remembers. As much as Dan wants to fall head first into their new relationship, he fears those secrets, and worries what Ian might be hiding. Left unchecked, Dan’s doubt and mistrust could threaten his second chance at happiness with Ian.

Sometimes, what destroys us are not the things we fear, but our fears themselves.

How about a little taste?

“Yep. Unless you want to skip it and go right back to your place. I could definitely be persuaded.” Ian raked his gaze over Dan slowly, then unlocked the car and ducked into the driver’s seat with a sexy grin.

“And how am I supposed to persuade you?” Dan buckled his seat belt as they pulled out of the lot.

“Use your imagination, it’s a half hour ride.” Ian shifted in his seat, pivoting his hips and drawing Dan’s attention to the bulge at his groin.

In the car, free from prying eyes and liberated by the cocktails he’d downed at dinner, Dan let his mouth do what it wanted. He licked Ian’s jaw, dragged his tongue down Ian’s neck, and sucked the hollow at his throat while running a hand over the front of Ian’s khakis.

“Careful, any more persuasive and I’ll run off the road.” Ian chuckled and leaned in to Dan’s mouth, a low rumble of approval vibrating in his throat.

“Mmm. I’m trained for that. We’ll be fine.”

Ian laughed and took one hand off the wheel, wrapping it around Dan’s head, holding him to his neck. “That feels great. God, I’ve missed you.”

Dan sucked up the skin under his mouth, not hard enough to leave a mark, but just until Ian moaned. He’d missed this, too. Somehow, no one had ever made him feel as sexy as Ian did, no one ever had given him the same thrill. For years after college, he’d tried to re-enact the frotting he’d enjoyed with Ian, but it never felt as fulfilling with anyone else. Most other guys expected penetration, which Dan was happy enough to partake in, yet somehow, even burying himself in someone else and pounding away wasn’t as satisfying as simply rubbing against Ian.

He was hard and Ian’s neck was damp when they finally reached his neighborhood. He managed to walk up the drive and into his house with some dignity, and even locked the door behind them. As soon as that was done, though, he went back to kissing Ian. Now he could freely take Ian’s mouth, which he did, and reached down to cup his ass for emphasis. Fuck, he felt good, all muscle and wiry strength.

Ian pulled back and pressed his forehead to Dan’s. “I want to be naked with you.”

Dan laughed at the blunt request, but he couldn’t deny he wanted the same thing. “This way.” He led Ian down the hall to his bedroom and undressed, throwing his clothes on the floor.

Ian did the same, and in moments they were both nude, standing by the bed. Dan was just drunk enough to not care about the slight padding around his middle, and Ian was sober enough to respond to Dan’s attention.

“Damn, you’re sexy.”

Dan burst out laughing. “Man, I’ve put on at least thirty pounds since college.”

“So fucking sexy.” Ian repeated, and punctuated his words with a two-handed caress down Dan’s torso.

A spike of lust shot through Dan at the words and the attention, and he urged Ian onto the mattress.

My Review:

I think the last line of the blurb for this books speaks absolute volumes about the story. Dan and Ian had a short love affair in college that ended when Ian took a job in Chicago and moved to take it. Dan felt abandoned and vulnerable–especially as he was still closeted. Still, he never forgot Ian and the closeness they shared.

Fifteen years pass. Dan is a police sergeant in the same town where he grew up. He’s out, and lonely. He’s had some rather serious relationships over the years, but none quite matches the intensity of his experiences with Ian. He often flips through Ian’s social media in order to keep connected, without giving his interest away. When a particular trigger catches him unawares, Dan reaches out and learns that Ian’s moving back to their college town–where Dan lives.

Ian asks for a ride from the airport, and Dan’s confused but willing. They strike a spark, and it seems things will be going along as if they never left off…except. Except Dan’s a suspicious cat. He’s never sure that he’s got the right read on things, and his cop’s intuition continues to batter at his mind as he watches Ian–who has a shady direct sales business–outspend any reason.

I’m not saying that Dan’s suspicions are unwarranted, it’s just that he can’t ever speak about them and lets them build up to a point that he reads as almost paranoid. Honestly, I was more than tempted to read ahead, because I was getting FREAKED OUT, for real. I’m not going to assure you that everything was just a misunderstanding, because that’s all shades of gray, to be honest. Ian is a guy after a quick buck and he does get mixed up in somethings he should not.

Does that mean the end for Dan and Ian? Uh…sorta. For a bit. Dan has some real growing to do, and being honest is one of the steps he takes. I loved how passionate he was, and also Ian–who is NOT a bad guy–has so much love and compassion. These guys never really wanted to step away all those years ago, and coming together now is so right and sweet and terrifying all at once. There’s a lot of sweetness in the book and that’s what had me so nervous. You never want to watch good people get hurt, and–like Dan–I suspected severe hurt on the horizon.

I do appreciate the author’s inclusion of a black MC, and I really enjoyed the flipped stereotype: Dan is a black cop suspecting his white boyfriend of criminal activity. I just wished I had a little more ethnicity to latch onto. Dan could have easily been a white guy. Apart from the cover photo if I hadn’t been told he was black (on page 42) I would have never once suspected it. I’m not about stereotypes at all, I just want to have a better sense of the black community when I read about about black people. I have tons of black friends and I know that there are some specific community issues that could have been highlighted here to engage readers in a way that surpassed the romance.

That said, it’s an interesting read, low angst, high suspense, with a second chance romance that really becomes a “three time’s the charm” situation.

Interested? You can find MORE THAN LOVE on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

****GIVEAWAY****

Clink on this Rafflecopter giveaway link for your chance to win an ebook of MORE THAN LOVE.
Good luck and keep reading my friends!

About the Author:
Amelia Bishop lives in New England, just a block from Narragansett Bay, where she walks almost every day of the year collecting shells, sea glass, and random pieces of garbage she considers “treasure.” Amelia believes there is magic to be found in almost anything if you look closely, and delights in revealing the extraordinary hiding within the ordinary. Her stories celebrate the most magical and extraordinary thing of all: love.
When she isn’t writing or walking along the bay, Amelia enjoys camping, hiking, painting, crocheting, cooking, and spending lazy days reading on the beach.

You can catch Amelia online on her website, Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, and sign up for her newsletter.