Wild and Precious by CJane Elliott

 Aspiring writer Brent Granger has good friends and a great job at an arts magazine in DC, but he’s batting zero in the arena of love. Brent begins to get a clue why things aren’t working with women from his strong attraction to his gorgeous, gay, and already attached boss, Graham Stoneford. When he sees a personal ad from a man that quotes his favorite poet, Brent decides to do something wild and answer.

Enter Cody Bellstrom, easygoing bisexual musician, who is happy to initiate Brent in the ways of gay sex. Brent now has a new problem: he realizes he’s gay and no one in his life knows it. Cody tires of hiding their relationship, but Brent finds it challenging to come out to family, friends, and especially to Graham. In the end, Brent must confront the truth of where—and with whom—his heart lies.

Aww, I really liked this story. It’s an easy read with characters who you immediately connect with. It was nice that there wasn’t the resident ‘baddie’ – it made it all that more difficult to decide who Brent should end up with!

The story begins with Brent wondering why he keeps losing in the arena of love. His dates with women never progress past the first one, and when he develops a growing attraction to his handsome, older gay boss – the lightbulb goes off. He decides to throw caution to the wind and answers a personal ad from a guy named Cody because he quotes from Brent’s favorite poem (this is one of the ways the ‘wild and precious’ aspect ties in to the story). They begin dating, Cody shows him how good sex can be with the right gender and it appears they’ll dance off into the sunset together. Or not.

This novella length book worked for me on most levels. There’s a love triangle involved, and since the three characters are mentioned in the blurb, I don’t see it as a spoiler by saying it’s between Brent, Cody and Graham – Brent’s boss. For a brief moment while reading I thought the story was going to jump the shark and turn into a menagé, but I was quickly reassured.

Brent. Absolutely adored him. I actually would’ve preferred the entire book be in his POV due to the love triangle aspect and because I felt that the happenings in the book were his issues to work through. Not that everything didn’t impact the other characters, just that where and how Brent’s life was going to progress from him making the discovery he was gay to finding his true love was really more about his personal journey. When the POV left him, I felt it lessened the impact of his struggle and realizations about himself and his life.

I really liked both Graham and Cody and I agreed with the author over who should end up with Brent – I was rooting for him. I also thought it was a great move to make both of the men so different from each other. It made me run the pros and cons of them being Brent’s love match through my head as I read along. There were moments of angst in this book, but nothing too over the top. There’s an enjoyable sweetness to it and I think it’s the perfect read for a lazy afternoon when you just want something to make you feel good.

Overall, I really enjoyed Wild and Precious and give it 4 Stars. I also hope that the odd man out gets his happily ever after too – he deserves it!

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