Starfish and Coffee by Kele Moon

 On the island where they first met two lovers from opposite sides of the tracks are reunited. Now jaded and broken, Alex and Matt still can’t deny their sizzling connection or the memories of one perfect, uninhibited year together.

At twenty-two, Matt Tarrington is rich, good-looking and destined to be powerful, but behind that confident exterior lurks a man who resents the life his family thrust upon him. Desperate for an escape, Matt heads to Mirabella Island off the coast of Florida for a year of relaxation and some wild nights with vacationing party-girls.

Matt never expected to find real passion in the arms of Alex Hunter, a handsome, laid-back local.

Alex is gay, but closeted. Matt should be completely off limits, but Alex finds the deeply in denial rich boy too tempting to ignore. Especially when a bet has them working together, fighting the heat in the rundown, beachside cafe where Alex sweats for every dollar.

Their love felt inevitable until youth left them vulnerable to hatred and greed. Now after six years of hating the lies they live, Alex and Matt will have to risk it all for the second chance they both desperately need.

I have heard a lot about this book from various reading groups that I’m in, so when I finally had the time and chance to read it, I couldn’t start quick enough.  I can say that I don’t feel disappointed in the slightest after finishing this story because it completely went beyond my expectations that I had set when I started it.

I enjoyed how the main characters, Alex and Matt, were so much alike, yet also so different at the same time.  While Alex was secure in who he was, to a degree, Matt was still unsure of who he was.  But they both knew how they felt about each other.  I did enjoy how even though the story starts in present time, Ms. Moon did go back and give us the history of Alex and Matt.  We were given enough information about what they had went through, while they were going through it, but we also weren’t overloaded with a lot of information that we didn’t really need.

I did enjoy how even though this was an insta-love to a degree, it was also full of drama and anguish that kept me turning the pages, hoping that they would work things out.  And on the other hand, hoping that they wouldn’t because of how they were both acting.  Ms. Moon even thought to add the secondary characters that did have such an amazing role in the story.  They didn’t take it over, but they added to it and made it that much better.

Overall, this book did catch me off guard of how well it was written, attention grabbing, and just overall goodness of a read.  I couldn’t recommend it enough.

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