The Burnt Toast B&B: A Bluewater Bay Novel

By: Heidi Belleau, Rachel Haimowitz

Narrated by: Dorian Bane, Tobias Silversmith

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

After breaking his arm on set, Wolf's Landing stuntman Ginsberg Sloan finds himself temporarily out of work. Luckily, Bluewater Bay's worst B&B has cheap long-term rates, and Ginsberg's not too proud to take advantage of them.

Derrick Richards, a grizzled laid-off logger, inherited the B&B after his parents' untimely deaths. Making beds and cooking sunny-side-up eggs is hardly Derrick's idea of a man's way to make a living, but just as he's decided to shut the place down, Ginsberg shows up on his doorstep, pitiful and soaking wet, and Derrick can hardly send him packing.

Not outright, at least.

The plan? Carry on the B&B's tradition of terrible customer service and even worse food until the pampered city boy leaves voluntarily. What Derrick doesn't count on, though, is that the lousier he gets at hosting, the more he convinces bored busybody Ginsberg to try to get the B&B back on track. And he definitely doesn't count on the growing attraction between them, or how much more he learns from Ginsberg than how to put out kitchen fires.

Bluewater Bay stories can be read or listened to in any order - jump in wherever you'd like!

©2015 Heidi Belleau and Rachel Haimowitz (P)2016 Riptide Publishing

quirky fun with dual narrators!

I love it when a book surprises you, and this definitely did!

What better way to make someone confront their gender issues than make them attracted to someone who is transgender! Excellent plot device! Ginsberg thinks bottoming is not masculine. He thinks cooking and cleaning is not masculine. So… his job, his sexuality, his desires… all not masculine – so he hates himself and his life.

The dialog is great, the emotions are really poignant without being uncomfortable, and I (for one) learned some things about being transgender.

The storyline is not typical in that it covers a less often discussed part of LGBTQ – transgender. It’s quirky and sometimes dark and painful. Though we have seen storylines where gay men who hate themselves, I haven’t seen it quite this fiercely before.

Anyhow, when our MCs do finally connect physically, it’s amazing and awkward and funny and tender … again not your typical hot and horny man on man action. (I, for one, would have liked to see some more of this – if only to really emphasize how love and sex are unique to each couple and not constrained by society’s “normal”. I love the “bonus hole”! and wish it could have seen more action ;)


All in all I thought it was a great book, a lovely continuation of the Bluewater Bay Storyline (we get to see some of the old characters like Eli and Carter), and a really nice look at subjects not normally seen.

4.5 of 5 stars

Audio

I love dual narrations! Though they didn’t do a strict duo – there are times when Dorian has to do both MCs as well as Tobias, but they separate them by POV. Dorian has this great deep “western” feeling voice that matches Derrick superbly and Tobias’ higher, more feminine but still very masculine voice and pacing is wonderful for Ginsberg. I really loved listening to these guys take turns and highly recommend this as a way to enjoy this story.

4.5 of 5 stars

Sweet story with trans MC

This is a hard book to review. I am generally not a fan of dual narrations, but these were two great narrators, so I thought I'd give it a try. It didn't work out for me. I would have loved if either of them narrated the entire book, both would have done a great job. But their voices are so different, that it was jarring for my tiny brain and I never really got into the story. Which is too bad because it was my first mm romance with a trans MC. The story was a sweet romance with a little drama. My main issue with the story was all the talking about the mechanics of having sex with a female to male trans partner occurred during sex. I really thought the author should have had the couple discuss that BEFORE jumping into bed because it was not sexy.

NO

Terrible I could not even finish! Total yawn...
The story seemed like it would be different and interesting, but just could not get into it...

Sad lack of heat

My (FTM) partner and I had high hopes for this story but were disappointed by the lack of heat in the story. The sexual encounters lack any real heat and are shockingly short without enough development before or during. Also, it was disappointing that there was not more chemistry between the characters. The narration for the FTM character was high pitched and whether intended or not came across as stereotypical. Bottom line, we were happy there was a FTM character but disappointed in the execution.

Help Up

It was interesting to see how Ginsberg is able to bring Derek out of his funk and actually start to get the BB back on track. But fear gets in Derek's way and he just about tanks it all. Gingsberg has to be strong enough to forgive but also strong enough to make Derek work for it.