Title: ⟫ Waiting For You
Author: ⟫ Cora Rose
Rating: ⟫ 4.5/5
Blurb: ⟫ As a divorced man in my thirties with a throwaway job and very few friends, I admit that I’ve made a lot of bad decisions over the years. Rounding out the top of that epic list was allowing my son’s best friend, Quinn, to talk me into taking him on a two-week summer road trip…alone.
What was supposed to be quality father-son bonding time before Joshua goes off to college has somehow transpired into a battle of wills between me and his nineteen-year-old best friend.
Quinn may be young but he genuinely seems to enjoy spending time with me, something I’ve never experienced before, and it feels nice to finally have someone care. I mean, being friends with the kid wouldn’t be so bad, right?
But Quinn suddenly seems hellbent on flirting with me, and the way he looks at me is anything but friendly. My will to stay away from this sweet, attractive, and persistent young man is waning. With the two of us alone in a camper, in the wilds of Michigan…Christ, this is bad…very, very bad.
Waiting For You is a low-angst and spicy MM age-gap, son’s best friend romance.
Review: ⟫ In a way, this is a very different book from Cora Rose. All of the other books by this author I have read have been college age men, just beginning life and not as beaten down. Grey has been beaten down – by life, his ex-wife, by the lack of relationship with his son.
This trip is his last chance to spend some quality time with his son before Joshua goes off to college and he has put so much hope into the trip, it actually hurts when Josh lets him down.
Then we meet Quinn – Josh’s best friend – who volunteers to go on the trip with Grey and everything changes. Suddenly, Grey isn’t travelling as someone’s Dad, playing catch up with a bitter ex-wife, or just trying to be someone he’s not. Quinn sees Grey – more clearly than even Grey realises.
As a character, I had the utmost respect for Quinn. He was willing to put his feelings out there, let Grey know what he wants and just go for it, even knowing he’s risking rejection. And as their relationship builds – and from the very beginning, it IS a relationship, not a hook-up – my respect for Quinn grew. He’s had to be so self-reliant, with his parents erring too far on the side of ‘letting him be his own person’ from too young an age, and as such, even though he’s 13 years younger than Grey, he’s more than capable of holding his own and taking control.
The physical connection between the two of them is undeniable – hot, steamy, dirty in all the best ways – but it’s when they’re hiking, eating or just talking to each other that everything becomes so much sweeter. I loved the possessiveness that Quinn displayed, his willingness to be a sulky teenager if it suited the circumstances, but the way he took control of Grey was absolutely epic.
My feelings towards Grey were more mixed. I could see just how/why he was beaten down – he married young, stuck by his wife and child until he couldn’t any more, and instead of the amicable relationship they agreed on, he was quickly made out to be the enemy. It was easy to see how he fell into the role of silent provider, never taking anything for himself.
Until Quinn. I wanted Grey to stand up to his ex-wife, to tell his son the truth, to reach out for Quinn instead of letting Quinn make so many of the moves. It was fascinating to see his character grow and begin to realise that he wasn’t a bad person – that, yes, some people might have an issue with the age gap but as long as he and Quinn knew nothing inappropriate had ever happened, that was what counted.
There was some drama – to be expected with a best-friend’s-dad scenario – and it was heartbreaking to see it from both angles. However, I really appreciated the way that it wasn’t drawn out artificially, and I really loved the way that Grey finally stood up for himself. I was practically cheering when that happened.
All of the hallmarks of a Cora Rose romance are here – possessiveness, hot sex, deep, abiding love – but there feels like there was a maturity in this story that I found missing in a couple of the recent titles. I literally read this story in a matter of hours – I was completely engrossed and needed to see how things played out, and I think there’s no greater compliment that I can pay than that.
I received an ARC from Indie Author Creative on Booksprout.
