Mr. Right by G.A. Hauser
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Blurb…
Twenty-five year old Shawn Valley loved the internet chat sites and hooking up with older men. When he met Glenn Avon, a man thirty years his senior, he thought his life had changed for the better and it was time to settle down. What Shawn didn’t expect was for Glenn to die after only living with him for three years. On the heels of his partner’s death, Shawn begins to slide back into his old habits until he is persuaded to seek counseling.
Elliot Downey worked in Vacaville, California as a therapist. When a woman leaves him a message, asking him to call Shawn Valley to make an appointment, Elliot never expected to become enamored with a patient. It was taboo, it was against the rules, and it was inevitable.
The first few moments Shawn and Elliot were face to face, Elliot knew he was in trouble, and Shawn wondered if he could rebound into a wonderful new man.
Once before Elliot had loved someone and ruined his career. Was history going to repeat itself?
How much is a man willing to risk when he thinks Mr. Right has walked right to the door? It’s Shawn’s job to convince Elliot, they were meant for each other.
So what did I think?
I enjoyed this book despite a couple of things that maybe didn’t sit perfectly comfortably with me. But I don’t necessarily need to agree with a characters behaviour to enjoy a book and I did get pulled into the story.
So what didn’t I enjoy? I was slightly unhappy with the therapist/patient relationship between Shawn and Elliot. Sure, it was only one appointment but I had a sense that Elliot may have been taking advantage of Shawn’s grief. After all, it had only been a week or so since the death of Shawn’s partner Glenn. I also didn’t like the reference to the slightly taboo relationship Elliot had in the past.
Shawn had just lost his partner of 3 years, a man 30 years older. I liked that the relationship, even with the age difference, was portrayed as one of true love and could understand the tremendous grief that Shawn experienced. His behaviour was also understandable – people react differently and can do strange things when impacted by grief. I didn’t necessarily warm to Shawn as a character, due to his actions and also finding him a bit shallow. He needed to grow up and find some sort of direction for his life.
The falling in love with Elliot so quickly seemed extremely unbelievable, as did Elliot’s choice of Shawn over his career, but hey, it’s only a story and I wanted them to have a happy ending so I didn’t think to much about it.
It was definitely an interesting portrayal of grief.
To find out more about G.A. Hauser and her books visit her website.
Buy Mr. Right from Amazon.