Concourse (Five Boroughs, #5)by Santino Hassell
Published by Riptide Publishing
eARC (received via NetGalley)
Adult, LGBT, contemporary, romance
Ashton Townsend is the most famous celebutante of Manhattan’s glitterati. The black sheep of his wealthy family, he’s known for his club appearances, Instagram account, and sex tape. Most people can’t imagine him wanting for anything, but Ashton yearns for friendship, respect, and the love of his best friend—amateur boxer Valdrin Leka.
Val’s relationship with Ashton is complicated. As the son of Ashton’s beloved nanny, Val has always bounced between resenting Ashton and regarding him as his best friend. And then there’s the sexual attraction between them that Val tries so hard to ignore.
When Ashton flees his glitzy lifestyle, he finds refuge with Val in the Bronx. Between Val’s training for an upcoming fight and dodging paparazzi, they succumb to their need for each other. But before they can figure out what it all means—and what they want to do about it—the world drags them out of their haven, revealing a secret Val has kept for years. Now, Ashton has to decide whether to once again envelop himself in his party-boy persona, or to trust in the only man who’s ever seen the real him.
Concourse was an engaging read and true to Hassell's style with flawed, real and truly fleshed out characters. The main characters Ashton, who's a sweetheart who wants to be accepted and loved but never gets it from his family, and Valdrin, who's always had almost crippling sense of responsibility of his family and Ashton. In that sense of responsibility, Valdrin was very easy to relate with. Ashton and Valdrin were friends even though they were from very different upbringings, Valdrin coming from Bronx with little money and Ashton being socialite and heir from Manhattan. However, they have been friends for years, although sometimes their friendship was quite sexual, almost bordering friends with benefits type of situation.
Concourse was engaging and hard to put down because Valdrin and Ashton had this connection that was very magnetic and there were a lot of push and pull. There were plenty of emotional turmoil with drama and angst because of their life situations and feelings for each other which they battled a lot. I have to admit that some moments were just a bit too dramatic, and I wanted to slap both Valdrin and Ashton because most of the time, they made the situation way more hard than it had to be. But it also showed how messy and scary love really is, and sometimes you are the biggest object to overcome the difficulties that lie before the possibility of relationship with someone.
There were plenty of characters, some of them who were interesting and downright delight such as Nunzio and Matt, and some who I just couldn't connect with any level and was left more irritated than anything else. Anyway, Concourse was entertaining read with truly fleshed out characters, and I really liked the boxing aspect even if I'm not a big sports fan. Ashton and Valdrin were just so cute together, too, so I enjoyed it a lot.
4 of 5 stars
Thank you, Riptide Publishing, for giving me a chance to read and review Concourse!
(A copy of this ebook was provided in return for an honest review.)
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