Book Review: Getting It Right by A.M. Arthur

Title: Getting It Right
Series: Restoration, Book 1
Author: A.M. Arthur
Genre: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: March 16, 2015 by Carina Press

Detective Nathan Wolf might just be a junior detective, but he tackles every case with the passion that he lacks in his personal life. A series of failed relationships with women has left him still single at thirty-four—because he's too scared to admit to his longtime crush on his best friend James.

Dr. James Taggert likes to keep his profession as a psychiatrist separate from his party-animal persona. Known around the gay clubs as Tag, he's the guy who screws them, leaves them, and never looks back. But James's drinking is getting heavier, and when bad memories from the past resurface, he's close to becoming the worst version of himself.

After a drunken blackout ends in a hot and heavy make-out session with his very straight best friend, James has no memory of the steamy affair. But Nathan isn't sorry for the kisses that James can't remember. Nathan finally musters the courage to tell James how he really feels, but a life-altering event might force them apart before they can ever be together.

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Reviewed by: J9

In a Nutshell: I loved the leads and the friends-to-lovers trope. This was a 5 frog read until the end, when the leads get into a very real fight about their relationship and the danger plot reconciles them instead of having the men return to the issue and talk it out. I was so mad about that!

Why I Read This Book: I adore gay romance with the friends-to-lovers trope so I had to read this book.

What I Liked: I loved both Nathan and James but the beauty of this novel is in how they grow as individuals and a couple. I can’t spoil how they grow but James and Nathan both have things they need to work on themselves before they can be a couple. How they do this and in context of their relationship, is romance gold.

The emotional intimacy between Nathan and James is intense. They know the others vulnerabilities but they still remain emotionally open. It’s rare in this trope for the leads to talk about how adding romance changes their relationship but Nathan and James have to address this and it’s messy—just as I would expect from these two. The sexual intimacy was meaningful and fit with both Nathan’s new-to-gay-sex and James’s playboy sexuality. This relationship is less about the big I-love-you and more about how do we make this work; I adored this!

What I Also Liked: James and Nathan have friends who play important and complex roles in this novel. I so enjoyed getting to know them all and desperately want to read all their HEAs so the author better follow through!

What I Didn’t Like: This novel was on pace for a 5 frog read for me until…I hate to be vague but don’t want to spoil it. James and Nathan have a critical fight at novel’s end that really epitomizes a chronic problem in their relationship and the men each go to their own homes. Instead of this issue or fight coming back up in the novel, a danger plot is used to reconcile the men. I HATE THIS! I DETEST THIS IN ROMANCE! If the fight/issue was big enough that the leads left each other, then as a romance reader I need that resolved. But I didn’t get the resolution of the issue. Sure, the end is clearly a HEA but the issue that was raised was never brought up again and IMHO this issue had been building the entire book and was just left unresolved. I was HOT!

IMO: I still recommend this wonderful friends-to-lovers romance because of its wonderful nuanced characters and intense relationship, even if I didn’t like the use of plot to resolve the leads’ relationship issue.

J9’s Rating: