Review: Matchmen, Ltd. by TC Blue

T.C. Blue is an autobuy author for me, and so I don't even bother reading the blurbs but get the books as soon as I spot a new release. I settled down to read Matchmen, Ltd. without having a clue what it was about and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the book is made up of three intertwining stories, all set within the back drop of the company Matchmen, which attempts to find true love for mostly gay men. The company is run by Trevor, who is one of the heroes in the first story, and assisted by Melody, his cross dressing PA and later partner in the business, who is the hero/heroine of the second story. Finally the new PA, William, features (along with Melody) as a secondary character in the third story which involves William's brother Adam as the hero.

Because this book has three separate sections which read almost like short stories, I shall take each part in turn to review.

Part One - Make Me a Match
Trevor and AJ have been friends for years and for a brief period eight years previously, lovers. AJ broke Trevor's heart all those years ago when he suddenly left him and moved right across the country. After that AJ became a successful businessman and all round man-whore, but after breaking up from a (for him) long relationship with famous gay pop singer, Parker, AJ turns to Trevor to help him get back into the dating scene.

This was actually the weakest section of the book and in some ways served more as a way of setting the scene for the other two stories than being a successful story in its own right. Personally, I'm getting a bit tired of ex-lovers/friends suddenly coming to the realisation that they love each other, so that could be another possible reason why this story didn't engage me as much as the other two. I liked Trevor, who I felt a great deal of sympathy for. He's trying to avoid getting hurt again, but finds it almost impossible to resist AJ. AJ was a less sympathetic character and in some ways I found it difficult that someone so rich, famous and charasmatic would find it difficult to know how to play the dating game. Where the story really dragged though was in the pages and pages of naval gazing introspection by both men. The story itself could have been half the length it was, if some of that had been cut and perhaps the story may have been better for it as much of it was just repetition as the men went over and over the same ground in their heads.

The highlight of this story was the character of Melody and I was delighted when I discovered that she/he is the focus of the second story.

Part Two - Little Match Girl
Melody is a cross dresser who is a woman during the day, but changes back into a man, Mel, when she returns to her apartment and to her lover Jackson. At the start of the story Mel has just been promoted by Trevor and now deals with her own clients, specifically that of Parker, AJ's ex-lover, who is a famous pop star. Melody finds Parker very attractive, as does Jackson, and Parker also finds himself having lustful thoughts about Mel and Jackson. All this is brought to a head when Parker and Melody are photographed together in a restaurant and the newspapers are printing stories gloating about Parker being 'turned straight'.

It was this story where the book began to pick up. I just loved the character of Melody and was fascinated by the depiction of her as a cross dresser. I felt this was handled well, in that it was addressed and explained but wasn't particularly made into a big deal. Melody's personality is rather larger than life and so did dominate the story slightly, but the other two men, specifically Jackson had enough detail to their character that they weren't overwhelmed by Melody. There was a lighthearted feel about the story as well with many amusing moments that made me smile and even laugh out loud and the lengthy naval gazing from the previous story had all but disappeared here. A slight warning in that this is a m/m/m story, so may not appeal to all of you, but I thought that it was actually done well, and I finished this section thinking that there was a chance that the three men would make it in the long run. Overall, this was my favourite section of the book and I was quite sad to move on.

Part Three - Mix and Match
This section involves another one of AJ's exes, Adam, who has just quit his job as a paralegal after being propositioned by the rather elderly owner of the law firm where he works. He is also a client of Melody's, and confesses all to her. On the advice of a friend of Melody's he accepts a month long position as a PA to a very rich businessman, Jeffery, who has a reputation for being difficult to work for. The two men get along fine, but both also harbour inappropriate lustful feelings for each other.

There was one slight niggle I had with this story, which was Adam's sudden transformation from paralegal to PA. He seemed to fit neatly into his new job despite never having done anything like that before. However, once I'd decided to set that aside, I greatly enjoyed this story. There was a lot of humour to be had from the two men who both fancied the pants off each other but were clueless to the other's attraction. It's not a new or original storyline, but there was enough freshness about the story, especially as most of it is set in a luxury boat, that I didn't get bored. Both characters were easy to like, Jeffrey wasn't too bad-tempered, and the story skipped along at a good pace. It was quite a static story with mostly just encounters between the two men, which fit nicely with the slightly claustrophobic setting of the boat. Despite a minor misunderstanding to add a bit of complication, I got to the end and was happy for the two men.

Overall, I really enjoyed Matchmen, Ltd. The first story was a slow start and I would urge you to push on past it to get to the really good stuff. Once the second story began, I was completely hooked and found it difficult to put the book down. I'd recommend this book, with a grade of 'Very Good' for fans of T.C. Blue, m/m/m menage and anyone looking for a set of romantic, lighthearted stories.

Buy this book HERE.

BTW, sorry about the lack of Saturday Shorts.  I've not read any other than the Mistletoe Madness stories.  It'll be back next week!