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Cherry Pop (Samantha Kane)

Cherry Pop (Mercury Rising Book 3) - Samantha Kane

3.5 stars

Ben Heston (no relation to Charlton Heston *lol*) is 'dragged' into Mercury because his boss Brian Curland asked him to help set-up the new data center of the company. In the beginning Ben is determined not to fall in love with the small-town's charm -- including in form of born-and-raised young Tripp Lanier. For Ben, he is Los Angeles. He is just waiting to go back to L.A. after finishing his job at Mercury. But Ben slowly realizes that maybe he doesn't really have anything to go back to, and that Mercury is giving him what he has been missing all this time....


I devoured small town romance in MF Contemporary - along with the quirks of the people, even if I know that it might be romanticized for the same of the genre. However, I didn't find it as much in MM romance. Maybe because small towns are usually painted as full of homophobic and bigots, and the gay MCs ended up leaving the small town to flourish in the bigger city.

So I truly welcome what Mercury, North Carolina offers in this series. Here's a small town that ends up attracting the rich men from the big cities. I LOVED Tripp's family and friends -- Tripp's parents are the best! I loved the gossipy diner, where news came down the vine as quick as the speeding bullet. I loved that people could be nosy about Ben's and Tripp's not-really-boyfriend relationship :)

To be honest, some of the arguments/topic here sounded, well, outdated for someone who have read so many MM romance stories like me. The whole "how do you know you're gay, maybe you just haven't found the right woman yet" or "you have not done anal sex, so you're not gay" or "you're still young, maybe you're still discovering sexuality" yada yada yada.

I can imagine this story might frustrate readers (or at least a couple of my friend), though. But maybe I was in a good mood because I found these discussions between Tripp and his best friend, or Ben's reluctance to define his relationship with Tripp mostly as amusing. Besides, I loved it when the younger man was the one wearing the older man's personal armor down *lol*.

So yeah, bring more stories from Mercury, please. How about Trey the Hollywood hottie with Carver the single Dad?? Because you know, Hollywood Star and a little girl sounds fabulous, right?