You Are Cordially Invited By Jay Hogan
Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM
Tropes: Opposites attract, Gay wedding, Humor, Sports, Medical
Released: June 17, 2021
Publisher: Southern Lights Publishing
Series: Auckland Med, Book 5
Length: 244 pages
Cover Design: Reese Dante
There’s a wedding in the air at Auckland Med, but Reuben wonders if they’ll survive the stress long enough to say, ‘I do’. Cam is directing the entire operation with his combat eyeliner in place, whilst the wedding party is doing its best to ignore him. The pressure is mounting and the cracks are beginning to show.
There’s a bachelor party to survive.
The paparazzi to outrun.
A wedding outfit to confirm.
A rugby game to win.
A jerk of a father to cope with.
A stunning opportunity to consider.
A relationship to untangle.
And a shocking event that could derail everything.
With the universe conspiring against them, Reuben and Cam will have to summon every scrap of belief they have in each other to make it to their vows.
Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003
Words have left me…what a wonderful ending for this series!
I read my first Jay Hogan book less than one year ago. At that time a book friend told me that all of Jay’s books were great and that I should read them. Well, it may have taken me nearly a year but I’ve finally read all of the Auckland Med books and I’ve made a good start on her other ones as well.
In a way, I’m not sorry that I didn’t read the Auckland Med series as soon as it started. That’s because I was able to read the whole series practically from beginning to end and not have to wait between books.
While most of the Auckland Med books can be read as standalones (I actually didn’t read all of them in order) I don’t think You Are Cordially Invited is a book you should read without having read the rest of the series first. At the very least, you need to read Crossing the Touchline, which is book two in the series. It’s the beginning of Cam and Reuben’s love story and you really need that background to understand the significance of You Are Cordially Invited.
Anyone who reads my reviews already knows that I’m a sucker for books that make me cry and boy did this one bring on the tears. Jay Hogan put Cam and Reuben through the wringer in a variety of ways but they survived (as I knew they would, but still…😊).
Other reviews will do a much better job of describing the story; I just want to shout out READ THIS SERIES! You Are Cordially Invited is the book I didn’t know I needed and am so glad that Jay wrote. I am now bound and determined to read everything else she has written that I haven’t yet gotten to.
Thank you, Jay, for giving fans of Auckland Med such a fantastic ending for the series. Now I just need you to write a follow up short story/novella to let fans know how Cam and Rueben are doing in a year or so. ❤
♥♥♥♥♥
O Factor: Spicy
Available to borrow with Kindle Unlimited.
“Kinky tricks, sixty-six.” Carmen Bendover’s sultry voice filled the crowded function room of Downtown G to a cacophony of hoots and hollers. Carmen’s gay bingo events were legendary.
Dressed in a red sequinned evening gown that was pretty much painted on her curvaceous figure; fuck-me black stiletto heels; an impressive cleavage that defied explanation; and a tiara that sparkled almost as much as the mischief in her eyes, the notorious drag queen had captivated the room from the minute she’d sashayed in and wafted her black feather boa seductively under the current, and very straight, All Blacks’ captain’s nose. To his credit, Andrew Simons had run with the challenge and got to his feet to waltz the notoriously sassy drag queen up to the front stage, and Carmen had appeared . . . charmed.
“Come on, you sexy young things.” She arched a brow at the crowd sipping on cocktails with enough alcohol to fuel the next landing probe to Mars. “Someone must at least have a line. If I have to come down there and check people’s cards, I’ll be paddling a bottom or two and leaving a mark. And don’t think I didn’t see the excitement in your eyes at the prospect, Roland James.”
The handsome Blues’ halfback blushed a deep red and everyone laughed. The room was loaded with enough glitter and rugby muscle to make any young gay boy weep, and quite a few of the older ones as well.
“Hey, Carmen.” I got to my feet a little unsteadily and waved my bingo, or rather my bingay card. “I haven’t won anything, and it’s my damn bachelor—”
“Our damn bachelor party.” Reuben’s hand glided over my arse.
“Our bachelor party,” I corrected with a bow to my fiancé, which was greeted with much banging on tables since everyone knew I was a bossy bitch, and yet somehow, Reuben had my sappy heart wrapped up in enough knots to make a Shibari convention ecstatic.
“Mm-hmm.” Carmen eyeballed me without an ounce of sympathy. “And exactly how many calls have you missed already?”
Most of them. My chin jutted. “Pfft. One or two at the most.”
A blatant lie, which earned me another round of mocking applause. Reuben and I were, in fact, sharing a bingay card—mostly because I’d given up being able to identify any individual numbers a few cocktails back or even hear the calls, apparently.
We were also sharing some increasingly indiscreet gropes, well, at least on my part. Reuben slapping my hand away probably didn’t count.
Carmen smiled like the shark she was. “I rest my case, sugar. Besides, I think you’ve hooked a big enough prize already.” She waggled her impeccably coiffed brows and nodded Reuben’s way, and yeah, it was hard to argue with that. “So sit that pert arse of yours back down on those impressive All Black thighs and let the rest of us drool in peace.”
I did as I was told, which, to be honest, was the least painful way to deal with Carmen. She returned to calling the numbers, and I turned and cuddled up to my fiancé and—fuck, I missed the next number as well.
I grabbed my card and eyeballed Sandy across the table. “Come on, Sandy, you have to be nice to me. It’s my party—”
“Our party.” Reuben bit my ear.
“Our party. Exactly what I was going to say, baby.” I turned and kissed him soundly on the forehead.
“I’m not telling you a thing.” Sandy side-eyed me and laughed. “If it’s another manicure coupon, I need that prize. Have you forgotten I work in a damn morgue?”
“A pitiful excuse.” I glared at him, which only made his eyes roll. I was clearly losing my edge. “And here I thought you were a friend.”
“Hey, you.” Reuben pulled me back against him in a transparent attempt to sabotage my epic board game skills. “How’s it hanging?” His hot breath brushed my ear, and my dick pinged to attention as best it could in its slightly inebriated state. Having said that, the persistent appendage was nothing if not determined, and Carmen and her bingay went up in a puff of inconsequential smoke.
His arm tightened around my waist, and I turned to place a reasonably well-aimed but sloppy kiss on his lips this time. Yeah, I might have had one or six more than I should have, but it was our damn bachelor party and Rube had my back.
With the rugby season still in process, albeit winding down to the end of year All Blacks’ tour to Europe, Reuben was nauseatingly sober, whereas I . . . wasn’t. And I also wasn’t about to miss any opportunity to get handsy with my own personal All Black booty, especially since all that glorious six foot three inches of rippling power was currently stuffed into a size-too-small—so sue me—black Henley and a pair of silk mix black slacks that fitted those drool-worthy thighs like a fucking glove.
Ninety kilos of eager-to-please hard muscle, and all mine for the taking.
I am a New Zealand author writing in m/m romance, and romantic suspense. I have traveled extensively and lived in the US, Canada, France, Australia and South Korea. In a past life I have been an Intensive Care Nurse, Counselor, and a Nursing Lecturer.
I’m a cat aficionado especially of Maine Coons, and an avid dog lover (but don’t tell the cat). I love to cook, pretty damn good, love to sing, pretty damn average, and as for loving full-time writing, absolutely… depending of course on the day, the word count, the deadline, how obliging my characters are, the ambient temperature in the Western Sahara, whether Jupiter is rising, the size of the ozone hole over New Zealand and how much coffee I’ve had.
Welcome to my world.
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