Book Review: Succumbing to His Fear

Reviewed by JustJen

Title: Succumbing to His Fear
Author: River Mitchell
Heroes: Alfie/Fear
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 185 Pages
Publisher: Via Star Wings
Release Date: February 26, 2016
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb:  After a life changing event makes Alfie the legal guardian of his estranged step-siblings, as well as a chance meeting one drunken night, he finds his world turned upside down when he discovers that everything he thought he knew about himself was catastrophically wrong.

Before meeting Alfie and his family, Fear was content with his casual hookups and one-night stands, purposefully keeping everyone at an arm’s length. As Alfie comes into his burgeoning feelings, a curveball shakes the two men, threatening to destroy Fear and his new found chance at happiness with Alfie.

With everything thrown into turmoil, Fear decides to fight for those he loves, Alfie and his family included. Will they be able to survive the collateral damage around them, or will they lose everything?

Review: The beautiful cover grabbed me right away on this one. I’m not usually a fan of children in my stories, but that didn’t bother me here.

Alfie is a young British guy who is somewhat prone to panic attacks, though he pretty much has them under control at this point. After finding out his father (who had basically abandoned him at an early age, with no contact since) has died and left his two young children to Alfie, he heads to the U.S. to step up and take guardianship.

I absolutely adored Alfie. He’s funny and cute, and takes on a lot of responsibility in a short amount of time. He meets Fear and the gang (takes a while to get past his name being Fear) while out dining with the kids (or nuggets, as he calls them). He and Fear feel an immediate connection, but misunderstandings keep that from going any further.

When circumstances put them in the same path again, and Alfie gets to know Fear and the guys, he is happy to accept such friendships at a time when he really needs them. He decides life is too short and to follow his heart and take a chance on being with Fear. Now, Alfie is British, so I found this a bit more believable knowing how much more open they tend to be where sexual matters are concerned. It really just worked here.

There’s a bit of instalove going on too, but again, it just seemed to work with these guys. There is a lot going on in this story, and it is the culmination of these events that somewhat forces these guys’ relationship on a fast track. Regardless, they were really good together. Fear is this big badass tattooed guy with a heart of gold, and Alfie is sweet, funny, also tattooed, and really easy to love.

There are some great side characters here as well. Alfie’s mom is a hoot, and the kids were pretty adorable.

I really do not like mentioning anything in my reviews about editing, as I often receive early, unpolished, versions. However, there were just so many typos, missing words, etc. that it continually pulled me from the story. One on almost every page is simply too much to ignore. There were also a few things that became too repetitive, such as “…like a girl” that were a bit bothersome.

Those issues aside, this was a fun, exciting story by a first-time author that shows a lot of promise. There was fabulous dialog and sexy/sweet sex scenes along the way. It was a fast read that kept me turning pages right up to the end, and I will definitely be looking for more from River Mitchell in the future.

Overall Impression: I liked it

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*