Title: The Cowboy In Unit E
Series: A Mockingbird Place Novel
Author: Kris Cook
Genre: M/M Romance
Release Date: November 17, 2015
The good news is the most gorgeous cowboy I've ever seen is moving in next door to me. The bad news? He's not alone. Hanging on his arm is a very pregnant woman. Are they a couple? It sure looks like they are. So not only is he not gay, but he also has a girlfriend, or a wife, or whatever. Just my luck.
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21-year old Trace Cotton is an artist who never shows his paintings to anyone. When cowboy Luke Wagner moves into Mockingbird Place with a very pregnant Ava, Trace believes he must fight his attraction to Luke since he’s taken.
When Ava collapses outside Trace’s apartment, he comes to her rescue. Things aren’t what they seem on the surface, but when Trace finds out the truth will it be too late for a chance at something real with Luke?
Warning: contains hot showers with singing, two sexy men kissing, and sexual situations taking place in a 10-unit Mediterranean complex filled with college-aged hotties.
4 out of 5 stars
This is the 2nd book in the series and I read them back to back. The first book was good, but I had a hard time really loving it. This book was so much more better for me. The emotions were stronger. The relationships with the characters seemed deeper. The secondary characters felt more like people I would want to know.
I also liked that the relationship didn’t take as long to develop in this book. It was still 50% through the book before we really had any dates, but they connected faster and deeper than the men in the first book.
This book wasn’t perfect for me though. I still felt like the character’s self doubt is almost too much. Sometimes I feel like authors put too much weight in their characters doubts and then the story gets weighed down with too much drama. I did enjoy that Luke was able to help Trace overcome his doubts and the times when they were working through things were some of my favorite scenes.
Like in chapter 15. I don’t want to give much away, but this chapter really helped me bond with Luke...I felt like after the chapter, he was really a good guy for Trace and their bond seemed to really solidify for me. Then there are the the emotions in a scene with some of Trace’s old friends. This scene really got to me. Like I got goosebumps and everything.
Overall, this author is improving and his work is something I will likely continue to follow.
“Yes, I recommend the series. Smokin' hot and smart men who are not afraid to expose their feelings or get in touch with their emotional side. Well done, again, Mr. Cook! I look forward to the next book - impatiently!“ ~4 Star Review from Happily Ever Chapter
I stand by my front window, where the light is best this time of day, gazing at the white void, praying for inspiration. The blank canvas taunts me. Where to begin? It’s always like this when I start a new painting. It has to mean something. I need feeling and life. Right now, all I have is emptiness.
My roommate and best friend, Jackson, always teases me about my process—or in his words my “idiosyncrasies.” My last painting took me over a month to complete, but the first ten days was like this one, staring at the canvas before I pressed a brush filled with paint to its surface.
Out of the corner of my eye, through the window, I see one of my new neighbors walking up the sidewalk. Ava Stone is pregnant and is carrying a big box. In her current condition I wonder if she should be lifting heavy things.
She and her good-looking cowboy, Luke Wagner, are moving into the apartment next to Jackson’s and mine—Unit E. That leaves Oliver’s old apartment, Unit F, as the only vacancy at Mockingbird Place. I met the couple at the complex’s yard sale when they were taking a look at the apartment. They were living in a motel so that Ava could start her classes at the university on time until they could find a place to rent. Ava and Luke’s new home had been empty for quite some time. Until now. I’m glad it’s finally going to be occupied and hope the new couple will be good neighbors. And most of all I have to stop thinking about one of them.
I’ve never been attracted to cowboys before, but there is something about Luke that I can’t quite seem to shake. But I need to. He’s obviously taken and straight.
When Ava smiles at me as she turns to go into her apartment, I wave.
Glancing back at my canvas, I feel so frustrated. I’m no closer to an idea than before. Why do I do this to myself? No one will ever see this work when it’s completed. This painting is for my eyes only now that Malcolm is gone. He was the only one I was ever comfortable sharing my work with. He got it. He knew what I was trying to say with each piece.
Like everyone else at Mockingbird Place, I thought he would live forever, even though he was eighty-two when he died. In June, we had his memorial in the courtyard and planted a tree in his honor near the pool.
I see Ava heading back to the parking lot and wonder how many more boxes she and her boyfriend have to unload. I decide to finish my coffee before I put my brushes away and help them.
I step back from the blank canvas. Should I paint another portrait of Malcolm? No. I just can’t bring myself to paint him again. It hurts too much. I need more time. Right now, I could use an idea for this canvas, but I’m at a total loss. Damn it.
My art continues to be therapeutic for me. When I was twelve years old my counselor suggested art therapy and I found my passion. I can place myself inside my paintings, feeling the breeze on my skin or hearing the crashing of the waves on the shore. I’m there and I don’t feel the pain. Still, my paintings allow me to gaze into the darkness of my past. They also help me release the tension and anxiety.
Actually, I wish all of my paintings could remain private. Each is so personal and carries its own meaning. Whenever anyone looks at my paintings I feel exposed and vulnerable. Dirty. I wonder if people can see my younger self weeping from the despair in my brush strokes. I definitely can, no matter the composition I’ve created, whether beach or mountain scene, whether wild animal or newborn baby, whether impressionistic or realistic. Each painting carries drops of the pain from my past.
Two of my pieces were on display for my professors to judge. I wonder if it was worth the As I got on both, because it nearly wrecked me until I was able to take them back to my storage unit. That’s where I keep my completed paintings.
This semester is so much better than last. I have a fantastic schedule and only have to be on campus two days a week. The rest of the week is mine. All mine. And the classes that I am taking don’t require students to create and present a work of art, unlike last semester.
As I put my empty cup down, I see Ava collapse and the box she was carrying crash to the ground.
A blast of electricity shoots through my body, and I toss my brushes aside and rush out my door.
“Ava. Ava.” I lift her head off the ground and start shouting for her boyfriend. “Luke. Get out here. Ava has passed out.” Where the hell is he?
Her eyes open. “What happened?”
“You passed out and fell,” I tell her.
“Oh no.” Ava rubs her hands over her belly. “Thank God, I just felt a kick. I think the baby is fine.”
Kick or not, I know she needs to see a doctor. “Where’s Luke?”
Before she can answer, I see him running up the sidewalk.
He kneels down next to me and shoves a sack in my chest. “My God, Ava, what happened?” he asks in his thick West Texas accent. “Are you okay?”
Though starting in straight erotic romance, Kris's total focus now is on gay romance. When asked why recently, his answer was "My muse finally came out of the closet. Isn't it about time? I’ve been out since I was twenty-five." A voracious reader, Kris loves many genres of fiction, but this writer's favorite books are romances that are edgy, sexy, with rich characters and unique challenges. Kris' influences include Anne Rice, JR Ward, Lexi Blake and Shayla Black. Last year, Kris married the love of his life Stephen.
3 ½ out of 5 stars
Oliver is suffering the loss of the most important person in his life when a new tenant moves into his apartment complex. This new tenant just so happens to be an oh so sexy marine, Adam, who is hiding his true self in the closet -- in more ways than one.
Oliver and Adam go through some ups and downs in their friendship/relationship. There is a lot of drama and feelings that they share with each other and hide from each other. Oliver takes the high road and really tries to help Adam find his way in the new community and at the campus.
I enjoyed getting to know these two, but found the extra characters lacking a little of the spunk I have been reading in books recently. I wanted to love everyone, but I really just liked them.
I liked this story OK, but I felt like there was just too much lead up to a drama that then wasn’t really told as dramatically as I thought it would be.
I am looking forward to reading the next book and seeing how the author’s writing style continues this apartment complex’s residents’ stories.
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