Book Reviews

Book Blurb

It was supposed to be the best night of Bastien Devaert’s life. The perfect stag night. A chance to blow off some steam with his crew, letting his hair down. Reconnecting with the people who had been there for him, all his life. Even though he’s finally marrying Juliet, building the life he’s always dreamed of. A nice flat. A dog. A couple of kids in the future. Everything so bright.

It wasn’t supposed to be the night he had sex with someone else. That was not part of the plan. He’s a decent human being, somewhere deep down. A straight laced bloke. Never even fantasised about doing anything with Jake. Never. WTF brain?

Anyway, he’s known Jake all his adult life. They lived together at Uni. Never even kissed when drunk and definitely never got naked.

Bastien is marrying Juliet. Well, he was. Until he messed up everything that was good and well in his life.

A stag night is supposed to be fun. A few drinks. A stay in a hotel. Some fun team building adventures. But now everything is not and Bastien has some hard truths to figure out.

Because whatever happened on the stag night? Shouldn’t it have stayed… on the stag night?

Bastien can’t even think about it without freezing up. And he definitely can’t talk about it. At all.

 

 

London's Square Mile is commonly known as "The City" and encompasses the historical core of the city while serving as a thriving centre for Finance, governance and professional services. It is also home to Delaware Financial, the one stop shop for all your corporate financial needs.
Here you will meet the men in finance, stone faced rogues with nothing to lose and find out that putting your heart on the line? Can be the most rewarding investment of all.

Square Mile Rogues are a series of standalone M/M romances with HEA's.

Book Review

Bastien is a genius in his job. One of the best financial analysts of London, a guy capable of transforming numbers into money through operations, he’s often the only person to understand. On the surface, his private life is peaking, too. He has been dating his boss for a couple of years—gorgeous, successful businesswoman Juliet. They’re even going to marry in a few weeks. That’s why Bastien’s best friend Jake—good, reliable, always-there-when-Bastien-needs-him Jakey—organises a worthy stag night in Scotland. But what no one knows is that Bastien is a hot mess on the inside (only Jake suspects it without being aware of the extent). Full of doubts and questions, given to bouts of self-loathing and depression, Bastien has self-destructive tendencies that can become all the more dangerous as he’s diabetic and needs to follow certain strict rules.

 

Well, the stag night turns out to be a medium disaster for Jake because the company is way too loud and straight for his tastes. Also, his bestie decides to completely let go and forget any boundaries. Meaning he drinks way too much, starts dancing on the bar, forgets to eat, until… Until it turns from medium to major disaster. Because Bastien kisses Jake. It could have been the other way around, too. Worse still, one thing leading to another, they end up in bed. Shagging, yes. That’s something Jake has been dreaming of ever since he met Bastien and fell in love with him (he never breathed a word about it, though, because you don’t tell your best friend those things). Apparently, going to bed together was something Bastien has been wanting in secret, too.

 

What happens at a stag do stays at a stag do. That’s what everyone says. And yet. Juliet knows her man and notices he’s a bit odd when he comes back from Scotland. And Bastien is too honest for his own good. He thinks he owes his wife-to-be total honesty and tells her about that one-night experience. A decision that totally upends his already messy life and makes him hit rock bottom. Maybe the only person who can save him now is… Jake.

 

Well, it’s difficult to sum up this book without giving away too much or without repeating the blurb. There are many, many things going on, because Sophia Soames—I’ve already stressed this in my previous reviews of her books—doesn’t do simple characters. She excels in complex, muddled and befuddled persons who all have one thing in common: they don’t know how to “adult,” if I may use this word as a verb. That’s the case in this book, too. Bastien has serious issues he needs to deal with but has refused to face so far. He craves a particular type of sexual activity he never dared admit to himself, let alone to someone else. His girlfriend guessed a couple of things and tried to help him find satisfaction, but only someone really sympathetic, someone who gets off on the same stuff can become his true partner. He loves Juliet, truly loves her, but she just isn’t that person.

 

That person turns out to be Jake. Jake, who has always been in love with him (deep down, he knew it, too) but has always kept a safe distance, not wanting to jeopardise their friendship. Only when circumstances they have provoked together force them to face the harsh reality do they finally find the courage to talk with each other. In shy, ashamed bits and pieces at first, but their exchanges find a better flow as they go on learning to know each other. That’s another constant in Sophia’s stories—her earnest, almost naïve belief that in relationships, everything can be solved if only you talk to each other (which is one of my personal creeds, too). Third mantra in the Soames universe: no one can make the chaos of another person’s life disappear. But they can provide a sympathetic ear, a warm hug, and genuine, unbiased love. And those go a long way.

 

I really liked this story, even if it included a lot of BDSM stuff I normally don’t dig. But Sophia has this ability to write about activities as far from my own preferences as you can get and to still make me feel involved, to still make me think I “get” her characters. Her sex scenes (and my, did I get my share of them, in this book) are never vulgar, never run-of-the-mill tiresome repetitions of the same things, never included to solely titillate the reader or fill the pages as required by a certain type of literature. They serve a purpose, inform us about the characters, why they act, react, interact in certain ways, and why she throws them together in her plots in the first place.

 

So, if you enjoy situations that at first glance seem inextricable and not conducive to a happy ending, if you love to turn the pages with bated breath because you know you will get one nonetheless and want to find out how the author reaches that stage, this is a book for you.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the author. This book has been provided by the author for the purpose of a review.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 414 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	30-May-2025
Price	$4.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback, $20.00 hardcover
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Forever-not-yours-steamy-romance-ebook/dp/B0F7G1JVZX