Review: Wicked Cool by Val Kovalin

I really liked this author's previous book Trinity Trespass which was an urban fantasy romance, so just after I read that book I bought this one feeling pretty secure in the fact that she'd passed that tricky first book stage and that I was in for a good read. This book is a contemporary and is part of a series at AA which deals with romance stories between blue and white collar men. I have no personal preference for this type of story, but I have noticed that most m/m romance involve white rather than blue collar characters, so again I looked forward to seeing what Val was going to do with such a set up. In the end, I didn't enjoy this one as much as Trinity Trespass, but it was still a very good read overall.

The story begins as we meet our third person narrator, Stu. He runs his own junk haulage business in Albuquerque. Whilst on a job he meets Brian who is the property manager at a motel which is in the process of being renovated. After a bit of dancing around they get together and Stu is happy to have found a guy he really likes. He's not so happy about the fact that Brian won't talk about his past and that he seems to be keeping a big secret from Stu.

I'll start with a minor disappointment. As the series is supposed to be looking at two characters from different social roles, I was expecting there to be a bit more of a gap between them in terms of ideals and education. In fact the two are quite close in their social positions. Stu owns his own business and although it's a junk removal business, it's still enough for him to match Brian's job as a property manager - which is almost like a glorified site foreman. Now, obviously this is not the author's fault as she wasn't the one to put the 'working stiffs' label on her book, but it still puzzled me as I was expecting one type of story and I got another - again not the author's fault, but mine for coming to the book with preconceived ideas.

Apart from that slight disappointment this was still a pretty great book. The characters are both very likeable men. Stu especially is a sensible sort who was willing to overlook some faults in Brian to make their relationship work. I did feel a little sorry for Stu as the book progressed. He seemed to be the one making all the effort in the relationship and also having to put up with Brian's increasingly erratic behaviour. I think I would have been much more alarmed than Stu was at Brian's secrecy, but I suppose the fact that Stu was willing to let things go rather than push Brian too much showed that is in general a laid back person and that he felt his feelings for Brian were more important than knowing the truth. Brian's secret wasn't too difficult to guess - in fact I'd worked it out long before the end - but that didn't detract from the story for me.

One thing I liked in particular about the book was the setting of Albuquerque. The city was well described and I got a realistic taste of what it must be like to live in that city. The desert setting, the heat, the houses and also little things like the layout of the city was interwoven with the story giving it a real sense of place. I love books where the setting is an important factor and so this book didn't disappoint in that regard. The setting was also used to show a difference between the men - mainly in the way that Brian speaks. Stu seems to be fascinated by his accent and comments on it a lot in his narrative. I had mixed feelings about this. Part of me thought it was a nice quirky way of showing characterisation and also a growing fondness for Brian on the part of Stu, and part of me found it a little distracting as it would pull me out of the story every time the author put in Brian's dialect.

The pace of the book is very swift and I read the book quickly, the pacing propelling me through the pages. There were a number of well written sex scenes which were also used to show something about the character of the men. There's hints that Brian likes his sex a little rough, and Stu worries about that and I thought that maybe this would be made more of later in the book. It wasn't and I wondered why not. I also found the sex scene in the garage a little difficult to concentrate on because they left the main garage door open. All the way through I worried about them being seen, especially as they had the lights on, and it detracted from my enjoyment of what would have been a very hot encounter between the men.

Overall I enjoyed Wicked Cool. It was a nicely written contemporary with well rounded characters and a tightly paced plot. I may not have liked it as much as the author's prvious book, but it still showed that Val Kovalin is an author to watch out for and I shall be picking up any of her subsequent books. Grade: 'Very Good'.

Buy this book HERE.