Body Work by Nessa Vincent

Miles is too shy to ask his sexy personal trainer, Joel, out on a date. He thinks he’s never going to get any closer to Joel than a sweaty session at the gym, which means he’s unprepared for Joel to kiss him in the weight room. And kissing turns into so much more.

Joel’s been told he’s a big, dumb jock, so he’s pretty pleased to have landed somebody as smart and cute as Miles. But then they step outside, and it’s Joel who’s unprepared. There’s a fight between werewolves and a three-headed monster on the steps of the gym, and only Joel can see it.

There are other surprises in store—Miles turns into a glowing bird, Joel befriends a werewolf, and the two of them are soul mates. Joel doesn’t know which is harder to believe: that he’s worthy of Miles, or that he has a power beyond the ability to see the supernatural, a power he can’t control.

When the next wave of the supernatural battle separates the men, Joel has to learn to use what he’s been given or lose Miles forever.

This is a difficult book for me to rate. Even though I knew there were supernatural elements in it, I forgot about it as I was reading and then was smacked in the face with them 18% into the book. That's the best way I can explain it. I'm reading along and enjoying the little dance that shy Miles and sexy Joel are doing, especially enjoying the hot shower scene that just happened, when they walk outside and the entire world has gone mad ... at least from Joel's perspective and mine. If Joel would have had a stroke I would have understood because my brain began to hurt trying to process what was going on. Unfortunately we don't get an explanation until 45% in, so I spent the next 25% of the book wanting to stop reading it, and had I not agreed to review it, I probably would have. Thankfully, I didn't stop and found that I enjoyed the rest of the book. I was told that this book was a stand-alone when I agreed to read & review it, but I suspect that had I read the previous books in the series and had been familiar with seers, adepts, chimera, and the other creatures from this world, it would not have been so jarring when they were introduced.

I enjoy paranormal/supernatural romances and while this one didn't really do it for me, I will say it was a good, solid read. Ms. Vincent has great writing skills and the romance and relationship development between Miles and Joel was very entertaining, it was just the supernatural elements did not work for me personally. If you enjoy your paranormal romances with non-mainstream supernatural creatures (i.e., the werewolves aren't the shifter variety common in today's novels) then I recommend Body Work, but only after you have read the previous books in the series. If Ms. Vincent's writing style holds true to form, I doubt you'll be disappointed.