synopsis:
eric is a gay paramedic fireman. collin is a mostly closeted senior in college. they meet when eric goes to the scene of an explosion at his alma matter fraternity. the attraction is pretty much instantaneous for both of them.

what i liked: the coming out scene. the fact that his whole fraternity knew that collin was gay, and then felt like they had to let him know that he was...that whole scene was hilarious. can't-breathe-i'm-laughing-too-much hilarious. also, the scene where collin is trying to make the fraternity understand exactly what it means to be gay, and that "penis is not disgusting" to gay guys was really funny.
the relationship that developed between eric and collin was really quick, but it didn't feel rushed. it felt like a natural progression between to two guys. also, the fact that they didn't bemoan their age differences was refreshing. i also liked the relationships between the guys and their friends.

what i didn't like: everyone was so accepting of collin and him being gay, except his uncle. it felt like his uncle was just thrown in there to balance the good vibes, rather than portray an actual response that some members of some families might have to finding out that someone is gay. it was such a stereotypical reaction that it didn't feel real or natural. ( )

I absolutely love Anne Tenino’s works. I’ve still not read all of her stuff, but I already know that I will soon run out of her stories, and then I’ll be a very whiny and very impatient Ludo. Tenino just has this ability to combine hilarious humor, gut-wrenching drama and smoking hot sex into stories that grab you by the neck and pull you all the way through them.

Sweet Young Thang is the third book in the Theta Alpha Gamma series I’ve read, and I honestly think that it’s the best in the series so far. Though I might be a bit biased here, because age difference in M/M romance is kind of my thing, and it’s done absolutely beautifully here. Eric is just the kind of caring, sweet older guy that I adore in this kind of romance, and Collin is so full of energy and potential even though his self-esteem has been eroded by a childhood and youth spend under the influence of an extremely controlling authority figure; they just seem to be what the other needs, and I love this kind of relationship in my romance novels. Of course they have some hang-ups – but they also both know when to apologize, even when they weren’t outright being dicks, just disagreeing on something that’s an important part of the life for both of them.

It’s just this beautiful, sweet relationship that starts with a bang and keeps smoldering until both Eric and Collin are burning for each other for good. Both the romance scenes and the sex scenes are absolutely lovely, if a little on the vanilla side (if you read books from Riptide Publishing regularly you might know that this is definitely not true for all of their books), and it’s just incredibly cute how they keep discovering new things about each other. For example, Eric lives in a little house with a working fireplace, and he keeps stoking the fire before Collin comes over so that he can just feed it a log or two and have it going in a minute or so for that extra romantic touch, and it’s just such a cute detail??? I loved this so much. Also, Collin sometimes teasingly calls Eric his cuddle bear, which is just, god – my heart basically melted onto my bedsheets whenever he’d say that.

But even though the romance is awesome, we all know that there has to be conflict in any story. And if the romance plot itself doesn’t give enough conflict, there have to be outside forces. Which leads us to…

THE HOUSE FIRE MYSTERY

The setup for Eric and Collin to meet is a house fire at the TAG frat during which one of Collin’s frat brother’s is hurt. They basically meet over a bone sticking out of another guy’s leg, which is not very romantic. The house fire also isn’t exactly romantic, especially because it is very likely that if somebody started that fire, it was because of homophobic resentment against the TAG’s new member policy of allowing openly gay, bisexual and questioning members into the frat (they’re still working on the trans part of that equation). They already had gay frat members before – the protagonist of the first book in this series, for example, or Eric, back when he was at college – but through this new policy, they have not only become the place to go for queer boys who want to rush for a fraternity, but also a target not only for the other frats, but also for their own Alumni Association, which is headed by Collin’s own homophobic uncle, Monty.

Now, Monty is not your typical kind of homophobe – I guess he doesn’t really care about gay people as long as they don’t affect his career – but he is very displeased by the fact that TAG has now become the ‘gay frat’, which might have a negative impact on the reputation of the Good Old Boys of the Alumni Association. If the fire actually is a result of homophobia, Monty tells his (closeted) nephew that the Alumni Association will stop paying for the frat’s cook, internet, cable and – worst of all – kegerator. So Collin tries to find out who actually started the fire.

Anne Tenino definitely doesn’t just know how to write a good romance novel; the mystery part of this book was quite a bit of fun too. It’s not exactly the kind of mystery that makes you go ‘OH MY GOD’ and reread the entire book, but it is solid and has the kind of surprising solution that makes you think back to earlier parts of the book and think ‘Oh yeah, I should have noticed that, that makes sense’. It also leads to a really cool and really climactic ending for the book, and I’m just SUCH a sucker for well-written endings.

SENSITIVITY-TRAINED FRAT BROTHERS AND INSENSITIVE UNCLES

Romance and mystery aren’t even the extent of Anne Tenino’s bag of tricks. This book made me laugh out loud with all the shit the fraternity brothers get up to (especially when they are trying to prove just HOW acceptant they are of queer people and how well they were listening during the sensitivity training class they all took last year), but it also made me fume in silent, impotent rage at the utter shithead that is Uncle Monty.

Collin’s big internal struggle is to get out of his uncle’s controlling clutches and find out what he actually wants to do, since he never even thought about that before he met Eric. And it’s a good thing that he finally started struggling against his uncle, because Uncle Monty is an unfeeling, self-righteous, homophobic, narcissistic piece of shit. He might have raised Collin, but it is very obvious for the reader (if not for Collin) that this was definitely not a selfless good deed. He has molded the poor baby in his image, but of course he didn’t think about the possibility that his nephew and hopefully heir to his company would be more into hot, prematurely grey firefighter paramedic bears than into sweet high-society sorority sisters.

Collin’s story also includes his mother and his sister, and his relationship, memories and feelings about his dead father, and it’s an absolutely beautiful and heart-wrenching story of letting go of what you always thought was true and right and fighting for the things that you really want, even if you’re not quite sure whether you will be able to get them. Eric, who, at 36, has his priorities pretty well figured out, is a rock in the turbulent sea of Collin’s emotional life, and their relationship eventually helps Collin to stand on his own feet – because suddenly there is somebody else in his life beside Uncle Monty who will make sure he won’t crash if he tries to fly, which is just what Collin, who is so used to solving everybody’s problems but his own, needs in a relationship.

I just really liked this book, like I’ve liked all of Anne Tenino’s books before, and, honestly, if you like fluffy, funny, steamy M/M novels, you really should be devouring her books. Collin’s and Eric’s story was just all I want from a gay romance novel. I felt that this story was a little more serious than the former two books in the series, and I do have the feeling that Tenino is developing a lot with every book she puts out, so I will definitely keep an eye out for the next book she publishes.


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The third installment in the wonderful Theta Alpha Gamma series, this book features Collin, a current TAG senior and liaison to the Alumni Association, and Eric, a fireman, part-time photographer of male nudes, and alumnus of TAG who is fifteen years older than Collin. The focus of the story is their developing relationship, which has its own challenges due to Collin being in the closet and Eric being so much older and wanting to settle down. Not only that, but the arsenist/bomb maker who targets the TAG frat house and makes them all homeless, Collin's overbearing uncle, and the increasing pressure for Collin to come out and stand up for himself make this a gripping read that took hold of me and wouldn’t let go. I was happy to see the writing to be as filled with humor, in places, as in previous books, despite all the serious events, and it provided the occasional, and very welcome, comic relief.

Collin may be a privileged kid, but he hasn’t lead an easy life. His father dies when he was very young, and his uncle, Monty, took over his life. The man is very controlling, all in the interest of the family business, of course, and Collin never really minded – until now. He is planning to come out, and his way of preparing the road, so to speak, was to get Monty to agree to change the fraternity's policy toward gay and bisexual students was his first step. Only things don't go as planned, and Collin finds out a few truths about his uncle that make him reconsider his opinion of the man. He soon finds out that he'll have to grow up a lot faster than he expected. Luckily, he has the support of his new boyfriend. And even though the budding relationship is sometimes rocky and not exactly easy either, the moral and emotional support he gets from Eric is far more helpful than even Collin understands in the beginning. It takes another crisis for him to wake up to reality and see what's really important.

Eric is a firefighter paramedic, but he sort of ended up there by mistake. He wanted to be a photographer, but a few classes in physiology led him to an interest in first aid, and the rest is history. His "wild days" are behind him and he's ready to settle down. Once he meets Collin, he knows he could love the "sweet young thang" but is hesitant because he's not sure Collin is ready for the domesticated idyll he's hoping for. In the end, his desire wins out, but he still questions the wisdom of what he's doing on occasion. Most of those inner monologues are hilarious to read because the contrast between how active and passionate Eric is and how he sees himself as this "old guy" is huge and clearly more in his mind than real. Makes for some fun comments though.

The two of them are smoking hot together, but what I liked even more was the gradual building of intimacy between them. The supporting characters (among whom are Sebastian and Brad from book one) were also great, some of them hilarious as the straight members of the frat try to come to terms with their "gay brothers". The various discussions about the sensitivity training and it's usefulness, or lack thereof, were totally hilarious.

If you are looking for a passionate yet tender romance with significant internal and external obstacles, if you enjoy stories with a villain who is shrouded in mystery, and if you're looking for a read that is as hot as it is funny, then you will probably like this novel.


NOTE: This book was provided by Riptide Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
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"Sweet" is the operative word in this third installment of the Theta Alpha Gamma (TAG) fraternity series, and not in a good way. In fact, the love interest of the protagonist calls him about every possible variation of "sweet" there is, proving why at age thirty-something he's unattached until he meets a sweet, young college boy.

After fraternity brother Brad came out at the end of Frat Boy and Toppy, TAG is the only fraternity to accept gay and bisexual members. As alumni liaison, Collin Montes is having trouble persuading his alum Uncle Monty that this is a step in the right direction, especially after an explosion and fire that levels the frat house.

Since Collin hasn't told his family he's gay yet, he's sure Uncle Monty will be even less pleased to find out his sexual orientation and that his boyfriend paramedic Eric Dixon was a frat brother of Monty's way back when. A bear-in-the-making, Eric's only non-working pursuits are having sex with Collin and taking photographs of nude males for his online site, two other things Uncle Monty would abhor.

As the police and fire inspector try to find out who torched the TAG house and why, Collin runs interference as the alums, headed by Uncle Monty, and the frat brothers try to balance the house's finances and to find place to live on campus. Oh, yes, and constant sex with someone who calls him "Sweetness" and every other nickname using the word "sweet" seems to be a bonus Collin loves.

Read the rest of my review at AAR / All About Romance: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=9743 ( )

3.75 stars ( )