Some novellas, especially in the romance genre, fall flat for me because I don’t get a complete sense of character development. In this case, however, Coyne uses carefully placed sentences to evoke a deep history between all three characters without ever “info-dumping” the nuts and bolts of their origin stories.
Coyne also builds the comfortable yet sexy tension between Ella, Austin, and Daniel across minimal scenes, both between Ella (the point of view character) and the men and using Ella’s point of view to good effect to portray the changing dynamic between Austin and Daniel. It all comes to a head on a literal stormy night but presented as romantic and inevitable rather than contrived.
This detail verges into minor spoiler territory, but I find it important to note: I especially appreciate that not once are we subjected to any internal monologue of Ella agonizing over choosing one man over the other. It’s an easy, if predictable, source of conflict in ménage books, and I didn’t realize how nice it was not to deal with it until I finally read a story without it.
I’m disappointed to find that this author has no other works available. I hope to read more by this talented writer someday.
Rating: 5 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.