Genre: Contemporary
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Jay
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About The Book
This was always meant to be a marriage of convenience. It just wasn’t supposed to involve two grooms.
Julius Rivier didn’t object when his parents arranged his marriage along with his career. All right, he wasn’t exactly happy about the prospect, but he accepted marriage with Genia Lang as part of the new partnership between their families, just one more step in the pursuit of money and power. He had never intended to come out, and love was a fairy tale for children, anyway. But his prospective bride thought otherwise, and now Julius has been sent out of town to avoid scandal while the families sort things out. Along with his new husband.
Teo Lang loves his sister. He’s happy Genia escaped the loveless marriage their parents planned. He just wasn’t expecting to get stuck taking her place at the altar! Now he’s on honeymoon with the hot but surly Julius, who seems determined to dislike Teo. A week on a private island leaves the two men with little to do but get to know each other. Too bad they have nothing in common except for the fact that they’re both keeping secrets.
The Review
Honeymoon Hate is an interesting short story which turns the arranged marriage trope inside out.
Julius and Teo are pushed together by their families who need a ‘business’ marriage contract. At first they are strangers and neither is particularly happy about the situation, but towards the end they are wondering how to tell the families that they don’t want the planned divorce.
I really wanted to see the fallout from that problem and the solution. But the tale is well written and well structured in other respects, so I would recommend it.
4 stars.
The Reviewer
I’ve been doing book reviews on my website, crossposted or linked to various social media, for a few years. I read a number of genres but I really enjoy all kinds of speculative fiction so thought I’d like to share my views with you. I love sci fi and other speculative fiction because of the way it can, at its best, make us see ourselves in a new light. Quite apart from the exciting stories, of course! I used to be an English teacher, and I’m a writer (fantasy) so I can be quite critical about style etc. but I hope I can also appreciate properly some books that don’t appeal to me personally but might be simply perfect for others. I have, obviously, read widely, and continue to do so.
