A Guy Walks Into My Bar

by Lauren Blakely

[stacey_is_sassy]

Fitz and Dean came to life…

The talents of Lauren Blakely, Shane East and Joe Arden made A Guy Walks into My Bar a winner for me. With a multi-cast of narrators, the flow seemed effortless and I never struggled keeping the characters straight. It was a listening pleasure.

BUT…

While I thoroughly enjoyed the romance, storyline and character development, I felt like the author went a little too OTT with the amount of sex scenes. I even got to a stage where I’d faze out, not adjust the volume (if background noises were too noisy), and even just ignore the sex scenes. This had absolutely NOTHING to do with it being M/M, just that everything seemed to be around sex. I’m all for the sexy times to see a connection between the characters, it’s just that you don’t want it to seem that the relationship is only about the sex. Luckily, we get plenty of Epilogues to see they still have more than a spark down the track.

Besides that…

I absolutely LOVED that Lauren Blakely created this story without a hint of homophobia, bias, or prejudice. Both Fitz and Dean are out and proud with no hesitation in showing their love for each other. There was no judgement, family and friends were very accepting, and I came to accept that there would be no nastiness for them to deal with. I’m sure some readers will complain that it’s not realistic for them to not face bias. In my mind, there are a lot of romance stories that are unrealistic. *The young and extremely good-looking billionaire*, *Duke’s* on every corner, and *Plain Jane’s* catching the eye of the *Movie Star* are all romances I enjoy but I know are fairly unbelievable. Maybe it is a fairy-tale to believe we, as a society, can accept equality for all. It was just refreshing, and I hope to see more stories like this in my future.

I think Lauren Blakely has done a fantastic job writing her first M/M romance. The audio version was fantastic, and I really enjoyed the bonus chapters. As per usual, I was left extremely satisfied and looking for more from this author. I will definitely be checking out Thanks for Last Night.