A Matchless Man (Ariel Tachna)
A Matchless Man is the latest part of Dreamspun Desires collection, as well as Ariel Tachna’s Lexington Lovers series. However, this book can be read as a stand-alone because the only thing that it shared with Unstable Stud (released in April) is the location: Lexington, Kentucky.
I kind of having similar issue with this book – just as I did with Unstable Stud – in terms of the romance between Navashen and Brent being quite underwhelming. I couldn’t even really think of their story as being a slow-burn relationship – despite them not starting to date until around 70% of the book – because most of the time, the story was about other things instead. For example, Navashen setting up his house, or Brent trying to introduce Navashen to his friends and to make Navashen have a social life, or even the progress of Navashen’s younger brother, Akshat, of becoming more independent.
In addition, the story is told solely from Navashen’s point-of-view. With romance that has a ‘matchmaker’ theme attached to it, usually we also get perspective from the matchmaker. Therefore, we know how the feeling starts to change, when they want to become the ‘match’ instead.
Here, I never really knew about or was convinced that Brent had the same romantic feeling towards Navashen. I couldn’t feel his jealousy when one of his friends showed interest in Navashen. I couldn’t feel him wanting more out of his relationship with Navashen than just friendship.
Heck, I got more conviction about the sibling relationship between Navashen and Akshat than Navashen and Brent. I did adore Akshat though; I thought he was a great secondary character. He was also great in championing Brent as Navashen’s boyfriend, which helped when their mother became quite annoyingly less open-minded.
It was a nice story, nothing too dramatic or angsty, with low steam level, but also rather lacking in the romance department.
A Guest Review for The Blogger Girls
The ARC is provided by the publisher for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.
I kind of having similar issue with this book – just as I did with Unstable Stud – in terms of the romance between Navashen and Brent being quite underwhelming. I couldn’t even really think of their story as being a slow-burn relationship – despite them not starting to date until around 70% of the book – because most of the time, the story was about other things instead. For example, Navashen setting up his house, or Brent trying to introduce Navashen to his friends and to make Navashen have a social life, or even the progress of Navashen’s younger brother, Akshat, of becoming more independent.
In addition, the story is told solely from Navashen’s point-of-view. With romance that has a ‘matchmaker’ theme attached to it, usually we also get perspective from the matchmaker. Therefore, we know how the feeling starts to change, when they want to become the ‘match’ instead.
Here, I never really knew about or was convinced that Brent had the same romantic feeling towards Navashen. I couldn’t feel his jealousy when one of his friends showed interest in Navashen. I couldn’t feel him wanting more out of his relationship with Navashen than just friendship.
Heck, I got more conviction about the sibling relationship between Navashen and Akshat than Navashen and Brent. I did adore Akshat though; I thought he was a great secondary character. He was also great in championing Brent as Navashen’s boyfriend, which helped when their mother became quite annoyingly less open-minded.
It was a nice story, nothing too dramatic or angsty, with low steam level, but also rather lacking in the romance department.
A Guest Review for The Blogger Girls
The ARC is provided by the publisher for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.
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