Book Review: The South Side Tour Guide by Shelter Somerset

Title: The South Side Tour Guide
Author: Shelter Somerset
Genre: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: May 15, 2013 by Dreamspinner Press

Andrew Wingal’s life has become a farce. Unemployed for more than a year, he starts giving tours into the seedy parts of Chicago to tourists eager to witness real-life crime. The local media, politicians, the police department, and belligerent gang members don’t like him. When Andy’s job gets him into deeper trouble, his hotheaded boyfriend insists he flee town for a few weeks until things simmer down. With nowhere else to go, Andy heads for eastern Iowa, where his former brother-in-law, Harden Krane, lives on an idyllic farm with his two school-age children, Mason and Olivia.

Harden has his own specters haunting him. Left with his young daughter and son to raise on his own, he struggles to work full time and build a normal life for them. Yet when Andy shows up after a three-year absence, he hopes that the family’s hardships might ease up, if only temporarily. But during Andy’s stay, a common menace from Harden and Andy’s past appears unexpectedly—and Harden and Andy find solace in each other in a way neither imagined possible.

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: Excellent nuanced romance with fully developed characters I greatly enjoyed. I wish the ending had a bit more relationship closure but even I can argue it was enough for the characters.

The Set Up: Andrew lives hand to mouth giving rich tourists tours of Chicago’s seedy, crime-ridden neighborhoods until he’s forced to be a witness at a murder trial and his life is in danger. He decides to lay low at his former brother-in-law’s Iowa farmhouse. Harden is raising his two children solo but doesn’t have a life of his own. Andrew arrives in Harden’s life and the men become partners in ways neither expects.

Why I Read this Book: Chicago is the second city of my heart so I knew I had to read this book.

What I Liked: I love the characters of Andrew and Harden. They’re flawed men each trying to build a life in a hostile world. They do the best they can in difficult circumstances and muddle through even when they want to give up. Their reactions to each other and the children in their lives are believable and heartwarming. These aren’t two-dimensional characters that are placeholders but instead are full developed characters that I could relate to and root for.

This is a complicated romance between Andy and Harden. If you want an immediately erotic romance this isn’t the book for you; instead it has a relationship that develops over time as the men begin to rely emotionally on each other and this evolves into sexual intimacy. The sexual intimacy compliments the emotional intimacy and completed this excellent romance that I highly recommend.

What I Also Liked: I also like that the men have lives beyond each other. The specter of Andy’s sister and Harden’s wife is mysterious and provides excellent storytelling that captured my attention. Harden’s kids are more than plot moppets and are great secondary characters in their own way. Harden’s Bosnian housekeeper is another complicated character that rounded out this stellar cast of characters that were well written in their complicated humanity.

The plot serves to keep Andy and Harden together. First, Andy’s Chicago crime tours turns sour when he is required to testify in a murder trial and the criminals target him. This serves to make Andy choose Iowa to lay low and I liked this exploration of a city boy dropped in the middle of farm country (mmm…sounds a tad like my life!) Second is Harden’s zombie life where he goes through the motions but doesn’t enjoy anything, even parenting his children half of the time. He needs something to wake him up and Andy does that in an organic way.  The final plot thread is Andy’s semi-boyfriend who is a cold-hearted, closeted Chicago police officer who controls Andy instead of loving him. This plotline was the least original and hit expected points but it provides decent drama as well.

What I Didn’t Like: After all Harden and Andy go through in their romance I wanted a larger public claiming. I admit that’s because I desire the idealistic HEA that I’ve come to expect from romances but I should have known that wasn’t this novel’s way. This novel is a complicated with realistic characters so I should have known the relationship ending wouldn’t have an over-the-top ending with everything wrapped up neatly. The lover of great storytelling in me appreciates the ending but the hopeless romantic in me wanted just a tad more.

IMO: I highly recommend this romance for its great storytelling and compelling leads.

J9’s Rating: