Another Porthkennack installment! I am strangely addicted to this series. I think it's the foreign flavor that the authentic Cornwall setting brings to these stories. The language, the accent, the climate and terrain all come together to give the reader a realistic travel experience.

You don't really have to read these books in order, but I think you'll get more out of this particular one if you read at least the previous J.L. Merrow ones. This story continues to follow the Roscarrocks introduced in book 1.

It's a compelling story portraying the life of the current head of the family. Heir to the name and customs as well as the family's industries, Bran was groomed from an early age to eventually assume the reins. We get pieces of his childhood in brief flashbacks throughout the book. I don't generally enjoy flashbacks, but in this story they were necessary to convey the emotion and tension of those past instances that made Bran into the man he is today.

We don't get quite as personal a look into Sam's background. It's revealed as conversations among the characters. We get to enjoy mentions and scenes with previous characters from this series.

The romance aspect was understated. It mostly served to allow both MCs to overcome their pasts and find the courage to face their future.

If you follow this series, this is a must read as it brings many previously unknown secrets to the surface.

3.5 stars!

I read [book:Wake Up Call|34093960] and enjoyed that book and getting to see this place they called home. I haven’t read [book:One Under|35598278] yet and maybe that is another reason I didn’t care for this one. Also, it took them to over half way through the book before they even kissed. I really didn’t feel the romance in this one. I liked Sam, a lot, he was so sweet. I felt he deserved someone better and more loving. Maybe I’ll come back and read it again once I read the one I didn’t.

Another engaging entry by Merrow in the Porthkennack universe, one stronger on character development than on hotness. Bran Roscarrock, who featured as unkind uncle and brother to protagonists in Merrow's two previous Porthkennack books, here gets to play the title role. At the start of the story, white Bran is attacked and hospitalized, making it impossible for him to oversee the final few months before the opening of the new exhibition and museum his group has funded, a museum devoted to Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, one of the key figures in the Hundred Years War. Edward is a hero of sorts to Bran, and he hates that the man's public reputation is so "black"; the museum is intended to right this wrong.

Bran's younger brother, a former academic, asks an old friend, Sam Ferreira, to take over the project—but without informing Bran or Sam about the other. Given Sam's more modern take on history (there isn't one "true" version of history, and the good historian should present different possible interpretations and allow readers/viewers to choose), it's inevitable that he and stick-up-his-butt Bran will clash when they finally meet ("this was revisionism gone postal," thinks Sam). And clash they do, over and over, not only because of their different views of history, but because Sam is open about his homosexuality and Bran is decidedly in the closet.

Merrow is great at getting inside the head of even the most difficult of characters, and making those characters sympathetic. Bran's memories from his teen years show the deep roots of his shame and humiliation, helping us understand why he's become so committed to tradition and so closed off from other people, especially men to whom he is attracted. Sam (a working class Catholic whose family emigrated from India) is less well-developed, although still engaging; his past wounds may be more recent than Bran's, but they're still riding him almost as hard as Bran's are. The two have real reasons for fighting, reasons based in differences of opinion and belief; their slow-build attraction makes their intellectual confrontations all the more emotionally compelling.

Bran's recognition of his privileges (gender, class, and, since he's stayed in the closet, sexuality) towards book's end feels a bit more like wish-fulfillment than actual possibility. But it's the kind of wish-fulfillment I can totally get behind.

Fav line: "Bran might be in the closet, but apparently he liked company there."

Another visit to Porthkennack on the Cornwall coast in England, this time guided by the inimitable style of JL Merrow, who not only lends British authenticity to the tale, but who has a wonderful, understated sense of humor that creates multiple moments of quiet laughter throughout the story. Number eleven in this series that’s written by various British authors, this is one of three that focus on the Roscarrock family—founding members of the community, complete with the snobbery that goes with the bragging rights.

Bran is the patriarch, a man in his thirties, of diminutive stature, who’s lived in the closet all his adult life. His father drilled responsibility and the ideals of duty to their legacy into him since childhood, and though he is a twin, his sister knew it would be Bran who took over the estate when their father passed on. Now he’s got a reputation the community of being tight-fisted, uncaring, and uninterested in the working man. He’s creating an exhibition—a tribute to Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince—and he’s doing it to bring attention to the town, but he’s also doing it to pay homage to his hero, and he’s a bit prejudiced in that regard.

Sam Ferreira holds a doctoral degree and has curator experience and is the first person Bran’s brother Jory (One Under) thinks of when Bran is attacked and hospitalized and needs someone to take over the exhibition. Sam jumps at the chance, after assuring that Jory knows about the disgrace he suffered at his university post which resulted in him being fired. He’s doing a great job with the exhibit and is removing that slight prejudice that seems to make the Black Prince look like a hero, when Bran is released from the hospital and finds out what Sam is up to. And then the sparks fly.

A great enemies-to-lovers story, this truly was first hate before the two decided to compromise and get to know one another. After that, the sparks were flying for a different reason, and it looked like Bran might finally decide that the closet is too small to live in. Of course, that’s when he finds out what happened at Sam’s previous job and creates such a ruckus about it that Sam flees both the job and their budding relationship.

JL Merrow wrote the first book in this series, Wake Up Call, and though I know this is not the last, this is certainly one of the best. The whole series is terrific, but these tales of the Roscarrock family have been among my favorites. Now I’m hoping we’ll get one about the illegitimate son of the family, Devon Thompson, the boy that Bran’s twin, Bea, gave birth to and who was turned away, rejected and dejected, when he found out who is mother is. That would be top of my must-buy list. In any event, in a roundabout way, I’m trying to say that I highly recommend this series, and most definitely this story. Yes, it can be read as a standalone but I think that at least reading One Under would make this more meaningful.

3* A tale of an ogre who's not really an ogre, but perhaps has held too tight a rein on himself for too long.

This is another tale in the Porthkennack, multi-author series, and can be read as a standalone. I believe the ogre character lead's brother has his own tale in the series, which I've not read, but I had no issues picking up on his tale and his past. I liked this one as there's an ethnic minority lead and an upper class one, and normally never the twain shall meet, but when they do, sparks fly. Not because of sexual attraction, which I was very glad of, as this kind of sparks has been done to death, but because the ogre-type was a bit of an arse and rather up himself, due to his upbringing. Unfortunately, despite the latter, I didn't warm to him at all, and I actually wanted him to end up with egg on his face.

This is an understated, very British tale that is worth a read, but there's nothing exciting or memorable about it, though I like the author's works as a rule. I'd recommend her Plumber's Mate series as her best efforts, and I'm hoping there'll be another soon. This one was to instantly forgotten and had a hint of 'haven't I read a similar blurb in this same series already?' to it.

ARC courtesy of Riptide Publishing and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

This book should be subtitled The Reform of a Roscarrock, as J.L. Merrow tries but not quite succeeds in redeeming Bran Roscarrock, who was mean and spiteful in Porthkennack #1, Wake Up Call and slightly less horrid but still homophobic in Porthkennack #9, One Under. Turns out the poor bloke was just closeted all of these years, and all torn up from the pressure from his cold, demanding father. Merrow even throws in several flashback scenes to key episodes in Bran's youth and early adulthood to show those turning points that shaped him so we'll feel extra sorry for him. Maybe readers unfamiliar with earlier books in the series will buy the turnaround, but as a reader who had experienced the full extent of Bran's awfulness, I needed to see a lot more groveling and apologizing than he displayed here.

The man who sees through Bran's hard shell to the decent guy underneath is Sam Ferrreira, disgraced academic and recovering gambler who went to school with Bran's brother Jory. He has come to Porthkennack to serve as curator for an exhibit on a 14th century prince, who just happens to be Bran's idol. Sam is desperate to experience some redemption himself, and he wants to portray Prince Edward and his time realistically, warts and all, but not surprisingly Bran wants nothing to do with anything that suggests his beloved prince was anything less than a hero. After all, he did everything, good and bad, for his Daddy, just like Bran did...

Sam is a nice guy who has made some bad choices (mostly in trusting the wrong guy), and while it's refreshing to see him stand up for himself in arguments with Bran, it's hard to see why he falls for the lout at the same time, other than some strong physical attraction. So both the romance and Bran's transformation are less than convincing. Still, I enjoyed being back in scenic Porthkennack, visiting with Jory and Mal (from One Under), and experiencing Merrow's dry British wit. I hope that if she provides more entries for this series, she chooses to do so with a different family; I think this one is all tapped out.

ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for honest review.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5



Bran Roscarrock has been living in the closet all his life. As heir to an expansive family legacy in the town of Porthkennack, old-fashioned ideals of respectability and duty were drummed into him since childhood, and he’s never dared to live—or love—openly.

Sam Ferreira, an old friend of Bran’s brother, Jory, is a disgraced academic desperate to leave his dead-end job. When Jory asks him to take over as curator of a planned exhibition on Edward of Woodstock, the fourteenth-century Black Prince, Sam leaps at the chance to do what he loves and make a fresh start.

But Bran’s funding the exhibition, and though sparks fly between the two men, they’re not all happy ones. Bran idolises Prince Edward as a hero, while Sam’s determined to present a balanced picture. With neither of them prepared to give ground, a hundred years of war seems all too possible. And if Bran finds out about Sam’s past, his future may not be bright, and their budding romance may be lost to history.

Bran Roscarrock has been a troublesome, complex character, along with his twin sister Bea, in all his appearances in JL Merrow's previous Porthkennack stories.  Stern, righteous even in his belief about the Roscarrock position in the Porthkennack at the top of the  community and keeper of its  history, Bran has not been one that the reader sought to connect with.  Same with with his sister.  We knew there were reasons for their remoteness and often troubling behavior towards others (younger brother, Jory's upbringing underneath them bordered on the horrible).  But the narrative walls remained high around these characters and the readers  feelings stood well back from any emotional connection.

Now with Love At First Hate, JL Merrow starts to bring all those narrative walls she has constructed over Bran and Bea the last two tales down and it's an arduous journey.  Hundreds of years of Roscarrock upbringing and tradition stand in the way of both Bran and Bea's freedom from their pasts,  and the stasis of their present behaviors.  They aren't even aware of how totally mired in just how much the past has cost them until an attack on Bran brings a crashing halt to the routine of their lives.

That's the startling introduction to this story.  An assault on Bran.  A shocking event that rattles the lives of everyone in the Roscarrock enclosed circle and without in Porthkennack, a clannish and tight-knit village culture that has existed for hundreds of years.  As chief landowner and landlord in town, Bran is not well liked for his policies of business first, people second or even third.  So the fact he can't remember who attacked him, puts him at risk of another assault from any and everyone around him.

It also opens the door for a young historian to step into job of Curator of a project close to Bran's heart.  That of an exhibition of the Black Prince.  Enter Dr. Sam Ferreira, someone with his own demons to fight and a past that follows him.  Sam is in need of a new start in life and Bran's fight with the last curator has left the job open for Sam.  Because Jory is a friend, that let's Sam glide right into the job he needs desperately and starts to love.

JL Merrow, understandably gets the every day inner workings of museums (see JL's bio), their staff, the politics of the curating big exhibits and manages to make it all so lively, informative, and entertaining.  But even more, something I became totally invested in, was the passion and enthusiasm of the historians and Bran for their subject and era.  And the need to see it conveyed in a truthful and wide ranging manner for the public.  JL Merrow uses her characters arguing...madly, wonderfully, loudly...about the inclusivity of women, the poor, the middle class vs knights, the Black Prince perception, homosexuality, carnage vs taxation....just incredible well researched discussions...to illuminate her character's personalities.  Merrow brings them closer together, makes them re-examine their own thought processes and emotions through the very way they look at the Black Prince's exhibits and interpretations.  And in the journey through sifting out the "old" preformed ideas they  now realized were based on their pasts, the men become closer and find common  ground with each other.

It's amazing to watch, it's intimate and joyful in the change that occurs with Bran and yes, Sam as well.  In a way history was setting the men free of their pasts by loosing old preconceptions and providing paths for new ones.

As Bran and Sam hesitantly make their way through the Black Prince exhibit, others are also being affected. That includes Jory and Mal (and his son heir to Roscarrock), Bea who has been just as stock as her brother in that great grey rock of a hall of a house, bound by the sea and haunted by the ghosts of their parents.  So many lives get tossed about here, upset, and finally freed.

And yes, the mystery of Bran's assault is solved as well.  I can't help but feeling we haven't seen the last of that one as well.

Love at First Hate demonstrates why JL Merrow and the Portthkennack series are a must buy for me.  The writing is superb, the characters are memorable (two characters who found redemption after being some of the least liked  people going), history made lively, vivid, and incredibly important in how its presented, and a whole HEA that made my heart sing.

Plus another visit to Porthkennack, a place that's found a permanent spot deep in my heart.

There are 11 books now in the Porthkennack series, three of them by JL Merrow.  I have listed them below.  Real them all, I highly recommend them, starting with the first one and working your way here to Love at First Hate.

Cover art: Garrett Leigh @ Black Jazz Design.  That is a gorgeous design.  Both men work for Bran and Sam, plus that tone and design is great for the story and a place by the sea.  Love it.

Love at First Hate is the eleventh book in the Porthkennack series, which I didn’t realise and, considering I haven’t read the other books in the series aside from A Gathering Storm #2 (which I ADORED), at times it was as bit confusing as the MCs in another book are very strong secondary characters. That didn’t affect my enjoyment of the novel – I think this was a pretty good novel – but it definitely doesn’t work as a standalone … that being said, it’s just made me more excited to go back and read the rest of the series so I can know more about the Roscarrock family!

I love how much this book brings English history into the plot, as I love history. Bran adores Edward the Black Prince – has spent most of his life admiring the man – and doesn’t take too kindly to anyone who tries to paint him in a bad light. Enter Sam: a disgraced historian and academic who gets a job working on an exhibition of Edward the Black Prince and who wants to show both sides of this historical figure … which angers Bran.

I really liked Bran, despite how cold he could be at times, although we find out why. I feel like I wouldn’t have liked him had I read the other books, so this worked out well. Sam was a sweetheart and I enjoyed his banter with Bran and all the ways they butted heads. The romance was a bit muted: it’s definitely a slow burn (which I love), but sometimes the romance between the men worked well and sometimes it was a bit lacklustre.

Little disappointed in the HFN ending, but I’m hoping in the next books in the Porthkennack series, we get to see more of Bran and Sam.

DNF at 25% - Slow and confusing start despite my familiarity with this series including one of Merrow's previous titles set in Porthkennack. I disliked Bran and was bored by Sam and the exhibition did not spark any interest in me whatsoever. Thank you for the opportunity, I will continue to look out for other books in this series.

Love at First Hate is set in the P{orthkennack universe and features some of the characters from the previous books. however, it isn't necessary to read the previous books to fully enjoy this installment. I've read a few others, not in order, and I wasn't lost at any part of the book.

The is the slowest of slow burns. It took until about two thirds of the way before the characters kiss. I loved the build up to that moment. The book kept me riveted and not just for the potential love connection. The author delves into Bran's complicated family history and ties into the exhibition of the Black Prince (an ancestor) that he is funding. Sam has his own troublesome history that he's trying to work through and get past. .

While I enjoyed the history lessons interwoven into the story and the development of the characters, I was disappointed with the resolution of one of the points of conflict. I believe the author intended to use this as an example of the character's evolution, but it was far from a reality I could easily accept. This particular event left me perplexed.

Overall, I really liked all facets of the story and the characters.

I loved this! I was not a massive fan of Ms. Merrow's previous book in this series because I thought it referenced the first one too much, but here the relationship works on its own. Previous characters appear, but they're explained. I think a reader could read this as a standalone and not miss out on anything or feel confused.

Sam is a very sweet character whose career has been ruined because he made a stupid mistake. Bran is a more complex character who's been a "bad guy" in past books but redeems himself with Sam. I think the relationship works so well because they both understand shame and the need for forgiveness. It may take others longer to accept Bran, but with Sam at his side I have no doubt he'll be fine and can be trusted now :)

All in all I highly recommend this book. If it's the last in the series (which I don't know, but I see no more listed) it makes a great finale.

Love at First Hate  J.L. Merrow

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  Romance, LGBTQIA

Porthkennack and Garret Leigh - real treat to read.
Like the Bluewater Bay series, also from Riptide, Porthkennack covers books written by different authors about the same place.
For me it means even when books are approaching double figures they still retain that freshness first books in a series have, as each author puts their own ideas and spin to the stories. 

I didn't connect this book with Wake-Up Call at first, Dev and his story rang a bell when it was mentioned, and I had to flick back and look it up. Its really interesting to see it from the other side, and I understood so much more about bran's awful reaction to Dev in that book.

I felt for Bran here, he'd had a tough upbringing, just duty, duty, duty really, and he comes over as quite aggressive almost, very taciturn, and not an easy man to get along with. Yet when we learn more of him I felt I understood him, and that the front he presented too often was just that, almost as if that he makes himself dislikeable then he's controlling others reactions, not them disliking him when he's trying to be nice, but in an almost unconscious way. Well, that's how I see him, garbled though that explantation is...
The plots were as always very intriguing and multi layered. The romance though, well, here it fell short for me. Bran and Sam don't even meet til a good way into the book, and its as the title says, hate at first sight, and second and third. Slowly though that changes, but I found the slip from dislike to lets get together didn't really give me the feelings they were invested in more, they could have just been a one night hook up, and then suddenly there's indications for a future...possibly...maybe...when the stars align, then a big blow-up and its all off.
They do get past that and have a possibly HFN but I didn't ever get that sense of passion, of emotions other than lust, and I needed that for the five.

Stars: four, fabulous plot(s) but somewhat understated on the romance side

ARC supplied by Netgalley and Publishers

Love at First Hate gets 4+ stars for character development, atmosphere, and mystery. Merrow continues the story of the Roscarrock family, which began in Wake Up Call, the first book of the Porthkennack series.

I didn't connect the dots initially, but Bran is Devan's uncle, and he was positively cruel to Dev when Dev came looking for his birth mother. In this book, we find out why.

The story has several moody flashback scenes that explain Bran's rigid personality, his unwillingness to consider other points of view, his personal sense of shame.

Bran's father was not an easy man, and he always made Bran feel like he wasn't good enough. Bran found a hero in Edward the Black Prince, and he'll be damned if anybody paints the prince in a bad light.

Sam, a good friend of Jory's (Bran's brother and one of the MC's in book nine, One Under), is drowning in gambling debt and wasting his life working at a pub. Once a historian and academic, Sam was fired for a sin that wasn't entirely of his own making.

When Jory offers Sam a job as head curator of an exhibition on Edward the Black Prince, Sam readily agrees. But Sam wants the exhibition to feel balanced and portray the prince as both a hero and a villain. Bran isn't fond of Sam's opinions, and the two butt heads almost immediately.

At the beginning of the book, Bran is attacked. He doesn't remember the attack; who attacked him and why remains a mystery until the end. Likewise, why Sam lost his job isn't explained until the end. Unfortunately, Bran finds out before Sam can come clean and accuses Sam of being a liar and cheater.

This book worked on many levels, but the romance was quite understated and muted. I didn't feel the passion between the men. I've recently complained about books including gratuitous sex as plot filler. Love at First Hate has the opposite problem: it oozes plot but lacks steam. There's one brief sex scene; the second one fades to black (one sentence, and it's over).

I liked the slow burn, but there was never a moment where I thought, Wow, these guys are hot for each other. The romance failed on an emotional level too; the books ends with a HFN (no words of love are exchanged).

I want to add that this book doesn't work well as a standalone. There are many references to Merrow's previous books in this series, and Jory and Mal from One Under play a fairly big role as secondary characters.

This was a quick read for me. I enjoyed the writing, the setting, and the deft portrayal of the complicated relationship between Bran and his twin sister, Bea. I'd argue, however, that Bran's relationship with Bea, and even his nephew (Jory's son), was far more interesting that his relationship with Sam.

J. L. Merrow writes some of my favourite slowburn romances, so I was really excited about this one, especially as it involves one of my favourite tropes ever: hate to love. And it definitely was a good hate to love romance. It just lacked a bit of tension, if I'm honest. There was a good period where they didn't like each other, but it kind of slipped straight into "oh now I like you, let's have sex" after one interaction that didn't end up in an argument. There wasn't really a part where they started to realise they were attracted to one another, so it was a bit of an abrupt about-turn with how they felt for one another. On the whole, though, it was a solid slowburning romance, with some really good characters.