2016 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Out! by J.L. Merrow (179-07-21-2016)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Out! is a love story told equally well from both sides. Each of the characters has his own point of view that the reader sympathizes with. Several of the other characters are fleshed out in more detail than often happens in stories of this sort. While the plot is predictable - there's never a point when you think they won't make it - it unfolds so charmingly and with such wry good humor, that you don't begrudge it that.

Out! (The Shamwell Tales) by J.L. Merrow
Bisexual Romantic Comedy
Paperback: 258 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (January 19, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1619233207
ISBN-13: 978-1619233201
Amazon: Out! (The Shamwell Tales)
Amazon Kindle: Out! (The Shamwell Tales)

When the costs are added up, will love land in the black? The Shamwell Tales, Book 3 Mark Nugent has spent his life in the closet-at least, the small part of it he hasn't spent in the office. Divorced when he could no longer deny his sexuality, he's sworn off his workaholic ways and moved to Shamwell with his headstrong teen daughter to give her a stable home environment. His resolve to put his love life on hold is severely tested when he joins a local organization and meets a lively yet intense young man who tempts him closer to the closet threshold. Patrick Owen is an out-and-proud charity worker with strong principles-and a newly discovered weakness for an older man. One snag: Mark is adamant he's not coming out to his daughter, and Patrick will be damned if he's going to start a relationship with a lie. Between Mark's old-fashioned attitudes and a camp, flirtatious ex-colleague who wants Mark for himself, Patrick wonders if they'll ever be on the same romantic page. And when Mark's former career as a tax advisor clashes with Patrick's social conscience, it could be the one stumbling block they can't get past. Warning: Contains historically inaccurate Spartan costumes, mangled movie quotes, dubious mathematical logic and a three-legged pub crawl.

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