Beautiful tale of discovery. Of feelings and sexuality. Of love and companionship. Of family and friends. Nice read. Will was amazingly sweet towards Jack from the start and Jack was so brave trying to get out of his comfort zone after a lifetime of repressed joy. They really did seem like teenagers from time to time. Super insecure. Completely afraid to become vulnerable in front of each other. Super cute. I really enjoyed watching them together. They were so adorable (probably weird saying this regarding a 40 year-old man right? It's true though). I specifically enjoyed their fumbling through things. Nothing is perfect when emotions are the heart of things and it was funny to read how panicked they became every time something new came up. I have to admit I laughed a couple times. Sorry. I decided to read this book because I liked the blurb of the story. It seemed rather predictable, but sometimes I don't want originality, I just want a nice, easy, predictable read. And this is mostly the right book for that.I liked the characters, especially Jack. Jack is an 'older' guy (actually 44 years old doesn't seem old to me, but it's older than most characters in romance fiction tend to be) who's been married for 24 rather passionless, but loving years and widowed for 2. He has had exactly one homosexual, on his side rather passive encounter that happened 26 years ago - and he managed to make himself forget about that pretty easily.Will, on the other hand, has always been gay, always known it, and lived it to the fullest - if that is what you call a countless string of one-night-stands and non-relationship encounters. He has sex, but he has no idea about love. But Will has just turned 30 and also considering his high-stress job he suddenly notices that something vital is missing in his life. So he takes a sabbatical, buys an old house in urgent need of renovations and hires Jack as his handyman. And despite Jack being everything he hasn't looked for so far (older, not GQ-handsome, etc.) Will falls promptly in love. But Jack is straight, right? Or not? ...So, generally I liked this book, Jack was great and a very believable character. He needed time to deal with his feelings for Will, for coming to terms with the change in his view of himself and the world in general. That makes sense and was actually refreshing. And I liked how sweet Will was and how patient (mostly). So that is a definite plus.However, I had two issues with this story. The first one is actually a rather huge one and that is the writing style. It felt... stilted to me. Unnatural. A bit corny. I cannot imagine people really talking that way, especially to friends and peers. Well, not in the 21st century in the younger demographic anyway. It made me feel uncomfortable from the very beginning and although I got used to it to a certain extent it always put a damper on things. The second issue was the mushiness. Don't get me wrong, I like sweet, tender stories. But the way Will and Jack talked sometimes... well, it was more than sweet. It was red-candy-coma-sweet. Maybe that would have been okay, but together with the stilted language... it seemed too much for me. I'm not saying people cannot have tender moments. But the degree of tender moments in this story was immense. And slightly unbelievable to me.Still, altogether a nice, easy read, especially if you don't have too high expectations. Reading it was generally time well spent, if only to get to know Jack and Will and to accompany those two for a while.
What do You think about Herz Nach Maß (2013)?
A short, sweet MM book, just what I have been looking for
—Mert
Characters were great together. Sweet story.
—Aliciasxy
