Review: Harley on the Rocks

Reviewed by Shelly
 

I was going through my TBR list and decided to give this one a go. It turns out that I should have read this one way sooner that I did, because it was good. After meeting her new neighbors (Davis and Koijirou), Harley’s develops a growing friendship with them. Davis and Koi are two fellas in love and happily committed to each other. There are no car chases or run away bad guys, just a very sweet story about friends with benefits.

The way that Harley meets Koi had me cracking up – what falls out of her bag is almost as embarrassing as female products falling out. What a great ground-breaker it was! After finding out that Davis and Koi are married and technically ‘safe’, Harley finds a comfort in their friendship that rivals any friendship she could have with a girl. After some time passes in their relationship, the guys jokingly suggest that they could be friends with benefits and Harley enthusiastically decides that’s a great idea. She forgot the rule about being careful what you wish for because then she has to decide which is more important – the friendship or the sex. Oh yeah, the angst begins.

I liked all three of these characters, but my favorite was Koi. Not that he was the glue, because I think that Harley did a fine job with that. He just seemed to pop off the page a bit more to me. He works at a dojo as an instructor (not sure which martial art form he specialized in) but the contrast between structure and poise and the boyish enthusiasm that he exhibits around Harley was infectious and sweet.

Davis is the muscle of the two; he’s a redhead with the temper to match and very much a joy to get to know. Although he’s bigger than Koi he still can’t beat him in a fight and the exchanges about that are some of the funniest moments in the story. What I liked a lot about this story was that the focus was primarily on Harley and the issues and hurdles she needed to get over to make all three of them a family. The guys were already ‘out’ per se so Harley was the wild card. One of those hurdles was her family, especially her mother – oh what a waste of human flesh she was. Her grandmother was completely adorable and provided the driving force for Harley’s upbringing and, in turn, her morals and sense of being comfortable in her own skin. Well done there.

The chemistry and sex between these three was definitely present. Actually there wasn’t a lot of action between the two guys -- it was largely between the three. The only complaint I had was that the end seemed a bit rushed, but thank goodness that didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment I had reading this.

Happy Reading Folks!

Rating: B-

Click to purchase: Amazon

Harley on the Rocks

by Zenobia Renquist

Release Date: February 3, 2011

Publisher: Changeling Press