This review is from 2014 and is kept here for reference. Titles, prices and availability may have changed.
Indra Vaughn
Book ArchiveContemporaryGayMolten
Pastry chef and bakery owner Jason Wood bakes a mean chocolate soufflé, yet his love life keeps falling flat. He’d blame his past if he wasn’t trying so hard to avoid it.
When his family’s farmhouse burns to the ground, he’s summoned to identify a body found in the ashes. Jason returns to Hancock, Michigan, and reunites with a childhood friend, small town vet Henry McCavanaugh. After fifteen years apart, their rekindled friendship soon develops into much more. But Jason’s baggage threatens their blossoming romance, and he leaves town unannounced to escape his feelings—and Henry’s feelings for him. He has learned the hard way if something seems too good to be true, it’s best to run for the hills. Jason stress-bakes more confections than he knows what to do with before wondering if he’s running in the wrong direction.
When you want a quintessential romance book, you pick up a book like The House on Hancock Hill. Full of everything that makes up romance—unrequited love, history, mystery, sexual tension, loss—this book is different from the typical romance novel in that it is about two men rather than a man and a woman. For anyone who has not read an M/M story, this book is an excellent one to start with. The buildup is great, the self-discovery is not overtly filled with angst, and I wasn’t left with the feeling that any part of the story was left behind. The House on Hancock Hill is a definite must-read! [January 2014]