The day Enzo Chevalier lost his hearing, everything changed. Forced to rebuild his future and fight for his dreams, Enzo refused to let anything take him down…until the man of his life walked out on him and shattered his heart.
Florian Beaudry had his whole life figured out. His business was flourishing and everything was settling down at last. Or so he believed…until he walked in on his girlfriend and best friend.
Still on the rebound and unable to trust another man, Enzo never expected a chance encounter with Florian. The one person he thought he would never see again. The one person he missed the most.
Were they truly meant to get a second chance or were they doomed from the start?
REWIND is an MM romance novel set entirely in France. Though part of a series, it is a standalone story without a cliffhanger.
Book Title: Rewind
Author: Rowan Shaw
Publisher: Self-published
Cover Artist: Molly Phipps
Genre/s: MM Romance
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 73 350 words/ 343 pages
Release Date: March 18th, 2019
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“You gave him your phone number?” Patrick asked, crashing on my couch later that night.
“You’re so curious. And please don’t rip the fabric with your keys. Thanks.”
He shifted around and pulled the chain to the front of his pants. “Aww, come on! Did you or did you not?” he signed, crossing his legs at the knees.
“Maybe.”
His arched brow never fell. “You still haven’t told me who he is.”
I let myself drop into the armchair closer to the entrance and placed my feet on the wooden coffee table between us.
“So who was the blond guy at the club? He had eyes to die for—as blue as the Mediterranean Sea. You missed your chance to get laid. He wouldn’t stop ogling you.”
I raked my mind for a reply. “I didn’t tell you who he is because I know you’re gonna judge.”
Patrick raised his hand to his chest in a feigned hurt movement.
“You know you would. You do that all the time.”
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do.”
“The only one I ever judged from the start was Cyrille, and I was right about him. If you had listened to me, it would’ve spared you a whole lot of heartache.”
He was right about that, but I wasn’t about to acknowledge it. The last thing Patrick needed was for me to inflate his large ego.
My conversation with Florian at the bar had lasted for hours. He hadn’t left his stool to dance at all, even when a couple of guys came up to flirt with him. He brushed them both off and stayed with me.
“Did you see the look on Cyrille’s face when he spotted you with him, though?” Patrick let out a laugh that was silent to me, his Adam’s apple dancing in his throat when he tilted his head back.
I had hoped my ex wouldn’t show up at all, though. Florian and I were laughing so hard remembering our teenage years, Cyrille’s presence was a slap back to reality. I was thankful he didn’t talk to me.
“Honestly, I don’t get that guy. He dumps you, then he can’t stand seeing you with other men,” Patrick signed.
I had a hard time with this one. While the story itself is good, and I enjoyed the romance aspect between Florian, who just finds his girlfriend in bed with his best friend, and she’s so catty about it, it’s disgusting… and Enzo, an ex from high school who’s still hung up on his emotionally and verbally abusive ex boyfriend who both work at a school for the deaf, since Enzo himself is deaf… they meet again in a club while both are trying to lick their wounds and move on.
The way in which their friendship/relationship ended back then was kind of hidden and little bit confusing to me. I don’t understand why it was something that wasn’t talked about more, but, it didn’t take away from the story, other than it caused a little bit of friction I guess.
The two of these guys were cute together. I enjoyed watching them get to know each other all over again and reminisce here and there about the past…. But what irritated me to no end, is the terrible terrible terrible people that just kept getting away with being terrible people!
Enzo’s ex who was so awful… I’m not kidding, he turned my stomach. He was so condescending and belittling to Enzo, and nobody ever done anything about it. He’s a sociopath who lacks any kind of emotional or moral compassion.
And Florian’s ex literally ruins every part of his life, with his ridiculously ignorant friends, his job, and eventually his relationship with Enzo, which also irritated me to no end, because why not lean on your man when you need him? Why let anyone take your relationship from you… that’s exactly what everyone wanted. Ugh, I just couldn’t with that.
So, definitely frustrating for me, especially because although Florian’s ex has somewhat a nice change of decency when she feels badly about all the havoc she inflicted on his life, only slightly, because she didn’t stop it, OR the ex best friend of
Florian’s that went so far beyond any type revenge that he had no right to… she was just a disgusting person, and Florian didn’t karmically kick her in the teeth, he just ran to her when she summoned him, because why? She didn’t deserve that…. As a matter of fact, the things she deserved I won’t even mention because I’m having a hard time remembering that she’s a fictional character and I don’t know if I wanna acknowledge that level of craziness from myself.
So, yeah… it was a hard read for me. Angsty and just ridiculous in some parts that I never felt were justifiable…. And I just have such a pet peeve for people who get away with being terrible people. We have enough bad in the world, I don’t wanna read about it too, and these people were the worst!
Apart from that, it did have a happy ending for the couple and I was glad for that. They really did make a cute couple, and I love second chancers. I feel like Raphael is going to be just as angsty, so I might skip the next one… but if you like a realistic, angsty read, don’t pass this one up. It just sadly wasn’t my kind of read, and that’s on me.
3 Pieces of Eye Candy
Rowan Shaw is a human being from Planet Earth (originally from the country of France). She’s also the queer author of Rewind, an MM romance series set entirely in her home country.
Addicted to reading and writing, Rowan can usually be found with a book in her hands or sitting in front of her computer typing some kind of story while listening to music from the 80s.
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Thank you for the excerpt!