Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Mano and Jake, friends since childhood, are each the brother that the other never had, hermanos. It doesn’t matter that Mano is gay and Jake is straight. They have each other's backs. When he grows weary of being used as a pawn by his parents as their marriage collapses, Mano moves in with Jake’s family.

Jake and Mano both need a chance to start over, so they move to Hawaii and work for Jake’s uncle, Mano working as a lifeguard. In his free time, Mano explores his sexuality and he finds he has no shortage of men in his bed. But after watching his parents' relationship disintegrate, Mano guards his heart and keeps it strictly sexual.

Determined to become self-sufficient, Mano returns to college while still working full-time. When he meets the man of his dreams, he’s too scared and unsure of himself to pursue him. For years he went out of his way to avoid getting close to a man, so now when he wants to, he doesn’t know how. With the encouragement of Jake and others, Mano searches for the courage to go after what he’s always really wanted.

First edition published by Dreamspinner Press, January 2015.

Book Review

While this sequel to ‘Little Squirrels Can Climb Tall Trees’ has some of the same humor, and it’s also about a man who finds his way in the world after being more than a little lost, the feel of it is very different. This time, it is the narrator who needs to learn about his own worth, and as Mano tells his story, a lot of his insecurities and fears are right out there. He is good friends with Kyle (from book one), and it was great to see how much Kyle has grown—to the point where he is now able to help Mano do the same.

Mano has been through emotional hell, and he wants a place to start over. Hawaii is exactly what he needs, a major break from Washington DC where he grew up, with a new set of friends (except for his closest buddy, Jake), and a new outlook on life and what he really wants to do with it. Some of his initial attempts to find the love he so desperately wants are less than successful, but Mano’s irrepressible spirit helps him recover and try again. I loved watching him gradually gain confidence in his personal life, but when his professional assurance grows, it all comes together.  

The strength of this novel, for me, lies in the emotions Mano experiences, and how he shares them all, good and bad, as he explores the options that come his way. Having front row seats to everything he feels was tough, since he got hurt quite a bit, but then it was also good, since Mano does eventually figure out how to get what he so desperately wants: a loving relationship with a man he trusts. Their romance is slow, and that makes the eventual physical encounters all the hotter.

If you like romances between very real men who have very real issues, if the emotional side is as interesting for you to learn about as the physical aspect of a relationship, and if you’re looking for a read that is as intense and funny as it is hot and fulfilling, then you will probably like this novel. I loved it just as much as the first book in this series, and recommend you read them both t get the full picture of these wonderful characters.

 

 

 

 

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Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novel, 216 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	22-January-2021
Price	$3.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Manos-Story-Michael-Murphy-ebook/dp/B08TV58Q66