Review: David and Andrew Book 1: One Night in December by Terry O'Reilly

I've read a few Terry O'Reilly books and find them often to be quite sweet reads but with stories which don't shy away from the harsher realities of life. That was certainly the case with this book. It begins with widowed school PE teacher, David, who has been in a bit of a funk since his wife died. He loved her dearly and had a good life with her, enjoying many aspects of being a family man but he is also gay and had a number of 'friends with benefits' outside his marriage. Now he's not interested in anything any more until he decides to come to the rescue of a homeless man, Andrew and discovers that there is such a thing as love at first sight.

Now I know what you're all thinking, yes this is an insta-love story, and yes it did work for me this time. Don't faint! The reason it worked is because the instant love at first sight happens right at the start of the story when the men meet and then the book follows the men over several years of their relationship. I have to admit that I was a little taken aback in the first few pages because the period of time between the men meeting, declaring their love and David coming out to all his kids and proclaiming he's with Andrew is less than a week. I stuck with the story though and the rest of the book shows them living together through many problems, as Andrew gets back on his feet and David copes with being newly out to the world. This meant that we get to see them being together over a sustained period of time and as such made me much happier with the way their relationship first developed.

The story is structured in such a way as it jumps forward in time, often by months and highlights certain major conflicts and milestones in their relationship. This was both a plus and a negative for me because it made the plotting a little choppy and episodic whilst allowing us to see a fairly quick progression through the years.  My favourite parts were those that related to David's family. He obviously adores his children and grandchildren and I liked that they had different reactions to Andrew. It wasn't all plain sailing for them which seemed a more realistic scenario than everyone suddenly being OK to find out their dad was in a gay relationship.

I also liked that the story has an older man for a hero.  There's a gap of maybe 15 years between them and David must be somewhere in his late 50's early 60's (although I'm not wholly sure about this because their ages are never specifically mentioned).  The age gap was never overplayed and David often jokes about being a bit of an old man but you can tell that Andrew finds this attractive.

The parts that didn't work for me was in some of the sex scenes which were a little 'dry' at times and there was a distinct lack of condom use during their first few sex scenes. Plus I would have liked to have seen a little more of David showing Andrew 'the ropes' when it came to sex between men, as that is one of the areas where we jump forward in time, especially as the first sex scene together made me (and David) wince at Andrew's obvious inexperience.  I was also a little uncomfortable at David's thirty years of infidelity with his wife. It made him a less sympathetic character in my eyes and I was a little wary that he may do the same with Andrew.  Fortunately my mind was laid to rest with that one later in the book.

This book is supposed to be the first in a series, but I'm not really sure where else the story can go after this one, unless it was just more of the same.  This story ends happily showing the two men well into what I would consider a HEA and I'm not certain I would be that bothered about reading further books about them.  They were nice guys, their story was sweet and very touching in places, the writing was good, but the book didn't grab my attention in a big way.  I read on because I was interested in their story and the pacing was a gentle pull through their lives. I was glad to have read it and it gets a grade of 'Good' from me.  Those readers who like stories with older protagonists or who are looking for a sweet tale which revisits the Christmas season at several points in the book, should give this one a go.

Buy this book HERE.