Review: Worth Waiting For by Wendy Qualls

15 August of 2017 by ButtonsMom2003

Reviewer's Rating: 4

4.0Overall score

A new author for me and I liked this a lot.

Worth Waiting For By Wendy Qualls

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Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Released: 081517

Publisher: Lyrical Shine

Series: Heart of the South, Book 1

Synopsis

A small town in the Deep South isn’t where most gay men would choose to go looking for love. But open hearts will find a way . . .

Growing up in the Bible Belt, Paul Dunham learned from a young age to hide his sexuality. Now he’s teaching psychology at a conservative college in Georgia—and still hiding who he really is. If Paul hopes to get tenure, he needs to keep his desires on the down-low. But when an old college crush shows up on campus—looking more gorgeous than ever—Paul’s long-suppressed urges are just too big for one little closet to hold . . .

Brandon Mercer has come a long way since his freshman year fumblings with Paul. Now he’s confident, accomplished, proudly out—and the sexiest IT consultant Paul’s ever seen. When Brandon asks Paul to grab some coffee and catch up, it leads to a steamy reunion that puts their first night of passion to shame. But when Paul’s longtime crush turns into a full-time romance, he receives an anonymous email threatening to expose their secret to the world. If Paul stays with Brandon, his teaching career is over. Yet if he caves under pressure, he risks losing the one true love he’s been waiting for. . .

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

A new author for me and I liked this a lot.

Worth Waiting For is the first book I’ve read by Wendy Qualls where she didn’t have a co-author. I liked this story very much.Worth Waiting For is a story about one man who is so deep in the closet it’s almost unimaginable to me in this day and age, and him reconnecting, after many years, with the first man he was intimate with.

Paul Dunham is close to obtaining tenure at the conservative college he attended and now teaches at. He’s never lived his life openly as a gay man because it would mean the loss of his job. He really doesn’t know anything else and isn’t willing to give his job up to live a life he was taught was wrong.

Brandon Mercer is out and proud. He knew Paul when they were freshmen at the school where Paul now teaches. He’ll be in town for a while and is open to having a fling with Paul. Paul has thought about Brandon many times over the years and always wondered why he disappeared after freshman year. He somewhat reluctantly agrees to see Brandon as long as they are careful.

This story has a little bit of everything in it. There’s a mystery – Brandon’s company was hired to investigate irregularities in the school’s computer files. There’s a love story in the relationship that develops between Brandon and Paul. And there’s suspense – who has been spying on Paul and took intimate pictures of him and Brandon when they were in Paul’s home? There’s also Paul’s family story and his reluctance to come out to them.

Worth Waiting For brought me to tears in places. While I wanted to shake Paul at times my heart also hurt for him. It’s impossible for me, a straight woman, to understand how he can feel that giving up love for a job is worth it. And I just cringed when Brandon finally couldn’t take it any longer and verbally lashed out at Paul.

This book kept me engaged right from the beginning and I loved the epilogue that gives us a glimpse into Paul and Brandon’s life together two years in the future. I will definitely be reading more from Wendy Qualls.

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O Factor: Scorcher

Heart of the South Series

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About Author

Wendy Qualls

Wendy Qualls was a small ¬town librarian until she finished reading everything her library had to offer. At that point she put her expensive and totally unrelated college degree to use by writing smutty romance novels and wasting time on the internet. She lives in Northern Alabama with her husband, two girls, two dogs, and a seasonally fluctuating swarm of unwanted ladybugs. Wendy can be found on Twitter as @wendyqualls. She is represented by Moe Ferrara of BookEnds Literary Agency.

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