Both Christopher and Lucas have had challenging lives, that they try to escape. These two find themselves unexceptional attracted to each other and began to dabble into a newly formed relationship. Will they let their past define their new experiences or can they overcome what the abuse and anxiety of past relationships in order to be happy? 

I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.  I would recommend this to anyone seeking a new thrilling love story book. I took a chance on reading this book and was not disappointed.

Two interesting men with drastically different occupations meet in the exotic local of Ibiza. How can this not be the set up for a hot steamy romance? Well, it's not really. It seems the author may have intended it to be a a sotry of escaping the past, healing and survival-- a journey to a new start. 

I found that Christopher and Lucas were constantly over shadowed by their absent but ever present ex-boyfriends, Dan and Pedro. At times I felt like I knew their characters (even though we only know them by second-hand description) better than Christopher and Lucas, the focus of the story.

Liam Livings is a British author-- and as I've found on other occasions-- sometimes the passion the British writers are expressing doesn't come through in their modern romance writing. Is it a conservative thing? Anyway, I never found the passion between these two characters-- more a sense of clinging to one another to survive. Just getting through the days one by one.

This story moves slowly, much of the time focusing on the repetitive re-sharing of their negative past and doubtful future. It's not unpleasant reading-- but one would hope for some ecstatic exclamation of hope and desire-- achieving some triumph over the past feelings holding C and L down-- but we only get a lukewarm 'maybe'.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2 1/2 stars

I struggled to finish this book.  At times I found it quite slow and boring.  The writing is definitely profficient but if the author had a message for the reader, I did not get it.  Sure, there’s the underlying theme of “take it easy, we’re all gonna die anyway so might as well enjoy the ride” but if that was it, he could have done it easier and in a much more concise way.

I had a difficult time empathizing with the characters and their motivations.  Lucas, a guy from Madrid, whose dream was to dance in a big club in Ibiza?  There was no mention in the book of whether Lucas had professional training, of how many years he studied, of whether he had worked as a dancer in other capacities (except for Go-Go Boy or gay club entertainment).  Basically, I could see a character who wanted to dance for money.  Someone who had a great body and wanted to use that as a means to earn a living.  He’s also shown as being shy about calling Christopher but then at the same time he’s inviting himself to stay the next day with a one-night stand when the guy obviously doesn’t want him there.  The personality drawn by the author just didn’t jive from one scene to another.

Christopher was the British expat who used to be a successful banker and was now a reviewere/writer for a tourism magazine.  At the beginning of the book I think his favorite word was “bored” and his favorite emotion was “boredom.”  Everything bored him, the people he met, the places he went, what he did for a living, etc.  The number of times he said he could have written his articles without even going to a place or interviewing someone made him sound quite obnoxious and full of himself.  

The chemistry between these two main characters didn’t work for me.  I also felt that the author forced the conflict in their relationship to fabricate angst and I simply wasn’t buying it.  Lucas was afraid to tell Christopher Pedro came on to him in Madrid... why exactly?  He had nothing to be ashamed of.  Christopher, a guy in his mid thirties, who had dated the same person for 8 years before, had performance anxiety as a top because he didn’t know if he could top Lucas?  The relationship issues that Dan and Christopher had simply did not sound convincing enough to create such anxiety.

Love story about second chance at love. It's good to see that people are given the chance to love again and be happy.

This book is about giving love a chance and accepting life and what comes.

Christopher moved to Ibiza to get away from a long term relationship and a fast paced life that was headed towards a heart attack. He's now a writer for an Ibiza travel magazine, mostly covering new clubs and nightlife. When he sees dancer Lucas at the club, he can't take his eyes off of him. 

Lucas was in an abusive relationship in Spain and moved to Ibiza to be free and to start his dancing career. When he sees Christopher, he hopes that he'll contact him. After a couple of weeks go by, Lucas finally get the nerve to call Christopher. 

I really got into the first half of the book. Both Christopher and Lucas had bad experiences in past with relationships and so they decide to take things very slow. That's fine and all, but somehow the way this was written there was no slow burn, which always adds something for me.

There was mention of Christopher having anxiety about a physical relationship and that thread returned a couple of times, but nothing was ever attributed to that, nor was it really ever discussed, which was weird to me.

I also thought the first half went at a good pace, but the second half was disjointed. It didn't flow at all. Months of time went by and nothing happened. Then an entire life changing event happened in the span of a couple of pages. 

I would have enjoyed it more if there was some sort of conflict in the second half, or at least something to keep me interested.

I enjoyed the premise of this book. Lucas, a dancer, and Christopher, a banker-turned-travel-journalist, meet in Ibiza and are instantly attracted to each other. Both had previous negative relationship experiences, and Lucas tries to help Christopher learn to live a little. Both experience insecurity in their developing relationship, but they end up getting through it. I do wish there were more love scenes; Christopher had an odd hesitance about it which I didn’t think was explained too well. I feel that the first half of the book was stronger but still enjoyed the second half well enough. I do wish the book was a little longer so we could see more of Lucas and Christopher’s relationship. Overall I enjoyed it and would recommend giving it a read.