Book Review: Caught by A.B. Gayle

Title: Caught 
Author: A.B. Gayle
Genre: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: September 2010 by Dreamspinner Press

When Daniel's invalid landlady asks for his help preventing a possible suicide from the clifftop near their home, he doesn't want to disappoint her. So he grits his teeth, picks up his camera, and goes out to play the Chinese tourist. He's done it before: befriended the lonely, lured them away from the danger zone, acted as a safety net. This time, the figure staring out to sea is way out of his league, his complete opposite, the sort of man Daniel's always admired from afar. Then the attractive Taylor turns the tables and lures Daniel out from behind the safety of his camera, and as Daniel finds himself fighting off an attraction he can't deny, he realizes he's in danger of being caught. Will the camera expose truths about himself that he wants to keep hidden?

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: As I was fumbling in my attempts to explain this book to Brianna, The Book Vixen, she succinctly summed the book up, “too much story, too little pages.”

The Set Up: Daniel and his landlady attempt to get help for people who look as if they’re contemplating suicide off the cliffs near their home. Daniel isn’t sure about his latest assignment but agrees to play the Chinese tourist to learn about the man’s mental state. What Daniel doesn’t expect is that the secretive and attractive Taylor wants to spend the night with him.

Why I Read this Book: This is another of those books that is on lots of MM lists as a great read so had to try it.

What I Liked: The set up for this book was unique and compelling. This is told first person by Daniel so readers are just as unsure of Taylor’s mental state as Daniel and this makes the tension more than just sexual. The men bond over their mutual joy of photography and readers know Taylor isn’t being totally honest with Daniel but since Daniel isn’t either, it’s a complicated situation full of emotional perils. I like that the men’s initial romance is meandering as the men takes pictures together, have dinner and return to Taylor’s house where the emotional and sexual intensity spike.

What I Didn’t Like: So this novella had a deeply troubled Taylor (though readers don’t know why exactly) and the emotionally vulnerable Daniel fumbling toward sexual and possibly emotional intimacy…enough for a 122 page novella, right? Not so! Suddenly after the men go through an extremely vulnerable photo shoot together, Daniel morphs into Dannii, his cross dressing persona, to defend Taylor to an uninvited guest. This totally derailed the romance for me instead of enriching the romance. This entire romance takes place in one day and these are complicated men so it all seemed too much story to attempt to tell in so few pages.

IMO: This was a great idea for a romance but wasn’t told as well as I wanted.

J9’s Rating: