Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

Home Grown Talent by Joanna Chambers &  Sally Malcolm

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Joanna and Sally announced they were collaborating on a contemporary romance series I was delighted.

When I read Total Creative Control, the first book in the series it was a fabulous 5* read and now, with their second entry, they’ve pulled it off again.

In fact, this would be a 5+* review because I loved it even more than grumpy Lewis and sunshiny Aaron’s romance.

Book one exposed a lot of the fakery and queer baiting with the TV industry, this one runs with a similar TV theme but adds in a whole side-swipe at the unrealistic portrayal of “Instagrammers” and their supposed lifestyle.

And I loved it, every #hashtag, every carefully selected selfie, every conversation between Mason and Owen which showed up how people get drawn into showing a perfect face to the social media world while behind the scenes they’re making a total mess of things.

I’m not going to give away anything about the plot twist here, but let’s just say it’s pretty believable and it didn’t surprise me one bit how things went down.

The book follows the usual pacing for any dramatic telling, we get the big Act Three “break up” but here it’s resolved in an interesting way which moves the narrative along pretty rapidly and in a way which I very much appreciated.

Both Mason and Owen are compelling characters, each has faults and both of them are to blame for different difficulties that bring tension points to the plotline.

The dialogue throughout is sharp and witty, it flows beautifully between the funny exchanges which settle Mason’s fears and the incredibly hot, mildly kinky passion that sparks each time the two men meet.

With a suitable “villain” to dislike immensely, a heroic act to save the day, and an honest piece of conversation that allows each man to lay their hearts on the table, Home Grown Talent delivers on all counts.

Now I’m dying for book three which will be all about…

…wait and see if you can guess who!

#ARC kindly received from the authors in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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