The Subtle Build of Perfection, by LM Turner

TITLE: The Subtle Build of Perfection
AUTHOR: LM Turner

COPYRIGHT: 2010
PAGES: 50ish in my ebook reader
PUBLISHER: Cobblestone Press

SETTING: Contemporary (I kind of assumed it was set in the US, but the bio at the end says the author is English and lives in Ireland, so it might be set elsewhere)
TYPE: M/M romance
SERIES: Not that I know of.

REASON FOR READING: This review at Dear Author.

Connor Morgan lives a life of mediocrity. Hopelessly single, he spends his time working at the video store with his insane friend Boyd. But Connor gets the distraction he needs in the form of his newest customer: beautiful, green-eyed Dane Masters. Before Connor can wrap his mind around their instant connection, he's dealing with the kind of obsession that can only lead to disaster.

With Boyd's dubious help, Connor manages to get Dane on a date, and soon they're racing towards something that looks like a relationship. But fate has no intention of letting them find happiness so easily...

This was a really cute short story. Connor works in a video store. He and Dane meet when the latter comes to the store to return some DVDs. The attraction on both sides is clear straight away, and after dancing around each other for a little while, they start dating.

And that's really pretty much it. No big conflicts, other than Connor (from whose point of view the story is narrated) feeling that Dane, a social worker, is too intelligent to really want to go out with someone who never even went to university and works in a dead-end job. In a full-length book this might have been a bit boring, but at this short length, it worked perfectly. They really do talk to each other before anything really happens (the telephone conversations about nothing were an excellent illustration of just how much they clicked and felt comfortable with each other), and by the end of the story, I really believed there was something strong there

Best thing about the story: How both were a bit unsure at the beginning that their advances would be welcomed, and so kept (usually quite unsubtly, despite the title of the story) testing the waters and then nervously withdrawing. I found that really sweet.

Also liked: There wasn't a lot of sex. Not that I have anything against sex, but I've found way too many M/M romances that go a bit overboard and it gets boring. It was just perfect here. The one sex scene comes quite late in the story, so it a) allows time for the actual romance to develop, and b) there's very nice sexual tension leading to it, so the scene was great payoff.

Needing improvement: At some points Dane and Connor sounded exactly the same. It would have been good for each to have a more distinct voice.

I'm very glad I bought this one, and I'm going to seek out more books by this author.

MY GRADE: A B+.