This book was a basic read. Even with all that was happening, I couldn't care about what's happening. This book wasn't good nor was it bad, it was just basic.

Somehow my feedback for this title did not go through. I only just realized it as I was cleaning up my account and noticed Worth Waiting For was still listed as needing feedback.

Basically I had to DNF this ARC because of formatting errors. I didn't get far enough into the book to be able to say anything about the story or writing itself. I was too distracted by random sentences on every page being crammed together with no spaces between words.

I appreciate the opportunity to try this book and I apologize for the super late response but hopefully this time the feedback is actually submitted!

I absolutely adored this book, which was both a bit of a delightful surprise and the first step in laying a foundation of affection for everything that comes after this!

Probably a case of me not them but this one didn't work for me.

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this book due to the subject matter. It's a completely personal hold up and not a reflection on the author at all. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this one. Since I did not finish it I will not be leaving a review on any sites.

Reviews shared on Goodreads, Amazon, B & N and V's Reads: https://vsreads.com/2017/10/11/mixed-messages-worth-waiting-for-a-review/

Paul and Brandon connected in their freshman year of college. It was a conservative school, and Paul was scared into the closet, lest his secret attraction for another man cause him to be expelled for indecency and out him to his family–who he expected would disown him. He’s had one pseudo-relationship sicne, with a self-loathing man who was deeper int he closet than himself. Brandon moved on to a different college–one that was more open to diversity, and he’s been an out-gay man since.

Fast forward several years. Paul’s seeking tenure at the same university, and Brandon has been dispatched there by his IT company to manage some data security issues. Brandon thinks it’s an inside job, and recognizes that some important people at the university were terribly lax in their security protocols. Paul is assigned the task of helping him investigate the audit for the Psych department, and their camaraderie persists. Paul has long wondered what happened to Brandon, and how out gay men live in society. He’s not really ready to come out, but he has plans to do so when he gets tenure…if he finds another position.

But, the temptation to stay away from Brandon proves too great. Plus, Brandon is more that willing to keep it casual–or so he says at first. It seems as if he’s willing to extend their getting to know you times into, well, a lot more. There’s some plot shenanigans regarding the data breaches, peeping toms and nasty exes, which all lead to existential threats to Paul’s career. For his part, Paul begins to recognize that if he’s going to lose his chance for tenure, he might as well enjoy it. So he does. A lot. With Brandon.

For me, the book was okay. I didn’t hate it, and I wasn’t too challenged by the reading. I expected to be more engaged–I usually am enthralled with reconnection romances, and coming out stories, but this one fell a little flat. I did enjoy Paul’s wonder at “being out” in Atlanta, where his anonymity gave him cover, and wondered why he never really tried this before. Lots of folks do… His vulnerability with Brandon was also sweet. Though, it was a bit of a seesaw with the hiding and the being sure no one could possibly connect them romantically. Steam-wise there’s lots of sexploration going down, and I mean the puns, folks. The political machinations of the story, and the questions regarding who’s doing the spying, and who’s wrecking Pual’s professional chances, seemed a little out there. At least, considering Paul’s early perspectives. It wasn’t completely illogical, just complicated in ways that didn’t suit me. That said, I liked the story, and think it’s fine if you’re interested in a quick, and sexy, read. Expect an HEA.

3.75 Stars for this sweet second chance romance. I liked the reconnecting of Paul and Brandon very much. They'd briefly connected freshmen year of college, but once Brandon transferred to a less conservative school the two lost touch. When they meet again ten years later it seems neither forgot the other. I felt for Paul living in secret and almost trying to deny who he is. Being around Brandon again brought out feelings he'd tried to bury and new knew that begin to make him happy. The stalking Paul experiences and reactions of secondary characters were a bit predictable. I did like Paul's sister and Brandon's family. Overall the story was good and enjoyable.

I very much enjoyed this book. I thought the world building was great, and the characters were well rounded and realistic.

Just not an enjoyable reading experience. A lot of formatting errors. I couldnt finish the story.

2.5* Unfortunately the blurb was better than the tale and than its execution. Needed a competent content editor.

This tale had great blurb, but unfortunately Paul came across as really rather wet and indecisive, and his ex was so OTT that you just knew that he was being bad-bigged-up for more.

The premise of the tale sounded decent, but, it started off with bigotry and a '...hmm...really? Really?', which set the tone of the tale. TBH, it felt as if the book needed a competent content editor, as some of the stuff that was included were made out to be red herrings, but in fact were so 'in your face' that they made the tale predictable.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Kensington Books, Lyrical Shine, for my reading pleasure.

Oh God, I just can't with this book. It's so bad, so very, very bad. Bad as in boring, so boring! And that is why I had to FORCE MYSELF TO FINISH IT. I wanted to like it, and the blurb was good. It's just that its execution was sorely lacking. Lacking interesting, vibrant characters. Lacking entertainment. Lacking everything. Ugh. Just ugh.

Paul is a deeply closeted professor of psychology in the Bible belt. His boss constantly is on him about his morals clause and Paul knows he could be fired at any time if his boss even finds a hint of impropriety on Paul's part. That's why when an old "friend" of Paul's is hired by the university, Paul knows he needs to stay away from him. Because his job, his tenure track, it's all on the line. But, of course, he can't resist Brandon and soon they're steaming up the sheets, but not really, because they weren't really sexy together. I found Brandon sexy, but he and Paul together are not sexy at all because Paul is such a bland, cardboard, timid character. I honestly don't understand what Brandon saw in him at all.

As for the villain of the story? I saw them coming from a mile away. I wish their identity had been hidden better. I wish the suspense had been better plotted and paced. I wish everything were just better. Sigh...

Unfortunately, while Worth Waiting For had a ton of potential, it didn't reach that potential at all so I doubt I will be reading more of this author's work.

This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time I say this, but I’m not sure what sort of literary gem the readers of Goodreads expected when they picked up this M-M romance.

I know when I requested a copy from the publisher I wasn’t expecting this to be the next National Book Award winner.* I expected a somewhat light fluffy read with a bit of drama and hoped that it would pull at my heartstrings just enough to make me get that giddy feeling of a new-found/re-discovered romance and that’s exactly what I got.

Worth Waiting For is the story of Paul, a deeply closeted academic at a conservative religious institution and Brandon, an out and proud IT professional. They met in their first year at the same school they’re now working for and had their first forays into man-on-man action (yes I giggled when I wrote that) with each other, but haven’t seen each other since then.

The biggest gripe on Goodreads has to do with Qualls’ writing. There were definitely some odd choices (WTF is “twitterpated”?) and her characters weren’t the deepest characters to ever appear in a romance novel, but again let me repeat that last bit: ROMANCE NOVEL. Can you really hold that against someone in this genre?

I enjoyed the fact that Paul’s closeted state sort of stunted him as a person (he’s only ever been in the world of academia) and even though Brandon is in IT he’s actually the outgoing one (perhaps because he’s out and proud?!). Some of the odd/old language could be from Qualls’ attempt at setting this in the south and in the conservative religious south at this. There are pockets of the south that have their own language, their own use of words and that use old-fashioned words.

Do you know what yins means? What about the difference between yonder, down yonder and over yonder? I do because I’ve been there and done that – I can at the very least understand these because I grew up there. (Whether I choose to use the language now is a different story.)

What Quall did a good job, and most women authors of M-M romance do, was to drag out the intimacy of the two characters. The pacing was done in such a way that you got a little taste, then a little more, and then finally as the entire book comes to an end you get the full fireworks show. I really appreciated this, especially in comparison to some others where you have a full on orgy in the first chapter or two!

I also actually enjoyed the premise of the story Qualls chose to display her romance. One of my good friends (Hi C-trow!) fast forwards to the sex scenes in romance novels, and lets face it that’s why people read these. Unfortunately, in this genre, it’s less important what the package is and more about the sex scenes themselves. Some parts of Qualls packaging worked better than others, I definitely preferred the long-lost reconnection over the

I am still looking for a M-M publisher after the way Riptide treated me that has a decent catalog of contemporary works and authors. I read one from Loveswept (A Gentleman’s Position) a while ago, but haven’t seen much more that I’m interested in. Maybe Lyrical Shine will fill that gap, but I’ll wait until I read Qualls’ next book and perhaps another selection before I cast judgement on Lyrical.

Recommendation: If you’re looking for a fun and tantalizing beach read then this is a great option. Like I said in the opening I got exactly what I was looking for. Sure there were some weird choices, but the story was sound enough to make me blaze through it and wonder what Qualls will write next.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for my honest opinion, no additional goods or money were exchanged.

There's a surprising amount of substance packed into this little book; a lot of laughs, love and hot smex. I won't lie and say that Paul wasn't an asshole for the majority of the book but he was a lovable asshole and Brandon was an angel for not letting Paul's fears get in the way of their happiness. The story starts with the closeted Paul reconnecting with his first crush Brandon. When Brandon offers a no strings affair, Paul hesitantly accepts and from there they began to realize that may be temporary won't satisfy either of them.

Beyond their really sweet relationship, we also get a powerful message regarding Christianity and homosexuality. There's not really any preaching but it is nice to see Paul realize that he can be both Christian and gay. It's not so nice for Paul to realize that just because he learned to accept himself, doesn't mean that everyone else will get over their prejudice. Despite being heartbreaking, that is realistic and I liked that Brandon was there to support Paul the whole time.

The main conflict here revolved around the mysterious stalker and the computer crimes going on at the university. I thought that was a pleasant mystery and added to the plot instead of dragging it down by being too superficial. I also really liked the epilogue, it was a cute way to finish their HEA. I recommend this book for anyone looking for a short and sweet HEA that also has some substance and a good message behind it.

Normally when it comes to books I avoid other reader’s reviews until I’ve read the book by myself – mostly not to spoiler myself with details or opinions. This time though I took a look and was a bit biased by the reviews and the general ranking on Goodreads. Still, because I judge books and be able to value things by my own and maybe differently I started this book with ignoring/blind out the other reviews.

Whereas I don’t agree with parts of the other reviewers – I do it in detail in a minute – I agree that the book is in severe need of a better formatting. Words were clued together, sometimes it was hard to decipher the words right away.
This should be checked before the release. I’ll download a sample of the book to see if it was corrected. So, beyond this little jolting and unpleasant interruption in the flow of reading I don’t include it in my ranking.

When I first started the book one of the first things I wrote down in my notes was Paul’s character. Although he is pleasant and nice, he comes a bit dull and his life is pretty boring. I can relate when people say he didn’t catch the attention, still I saw something in him. He lives very deep in the closet, seems insecure but during the book you see it’s mostly involuntary. Paul doesn’t lack exactly of “action” or self-confidence, it’s more that is surpressed after all these years of being the “perfect” Christian son and member of the society. Working in a religious school isn’t the best place to confess he is gay but he isn’t eager to change his lifestyle.

Paul really touched me with his acceptance of his slightly boring, uneventful live. Until he reunites with Brandon, his college crush and one of his first sexual encounter. Brandon is everything Paul isn’t. He is smart and witty, a bit nerdy, and first and formost he is pretty outgoing. He works for an IT firm and is ordered to help Paul’s school to investigate in a security problem. Which leads to revealings of Paul’s past and to a surprising twist in the events.

I really liked how Wendy Qualls included the cyber-crime subplot. With interest myself in computer science and a loads of friends working in this field, it was really pleasant and neither boring nor incomprehensable what Brandon worked on. In fact he was really cool showing his skills off. 😉 I might or might not have swooned over it at bit. His hot appearance did the rest. 🙂
The revealings at the end and the solution of the whole mess was really great. I enjoyed it very much.

The sex is one of the things dominantly in the book but not the way you maybe expect. There are the encounter, there is the intimacy, of course, and the scenes are really hot and steamy. A lot of blowjobs and handjobs, dirty talk combined with banter. But due to Paul’s personal reasons to stay in the closet there is a hesitance in Paul to really open up first towards Brandon.
For me it was really plesant to see how Brandon gave Paul the necessary time, to adjust with the new situation. After a while both guys notice there were more things going on between them, and the tension was rising.

Some parts of the book were a bit bumpy, they could have been smoothed out, and a few times Brandon’s and Paul’s behaviour were at the border to get a little on the nerves (their both opposite character created a lot of tension), still I could relate to them, to their anger or hesitance. For maybe other reader this doesn’t work fine and especially Brandon’s behaviour at the end was a bit tough to accept. Still, I could sense there his hidden feelings, his hurt, I was not repulsed or annyed by his actions. Maybe they were imature, sure, but his actions weren’t done in malice.

This debut work was a good start and I first was devided in giving 3.5 or 4 stars. At the end it deserves the 4. Other might reduce the stars because of the bad formatting/editing in some parts of the book but this is only a thing I mention but it doesn’t dull the book’s content.

As a conclusion I’ve to say: don’t let yourself scare by other reviews. Download a sample of the book and read it by yourself. Also give new authors a chance. 🙂
The story plot and the execution of it was promising, the character lack sometimes of a few smoothen parts but all in all 4 out of 5 stars worth. 🙂

Review originally posted on my blog with added content on Mikku-chan / A world full of words

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆
I’ll get straight to the point with this review. Dr. Paul Dunham is one of the most tediously boring protagonists I have ever attempted to engage with. Even after finishing Paul’s story, I still have no idea why a gay man would spend more than ten years of his life studying then working at a conservative Christian college.

Paul admits several times in this book that he has no interests, hobbies, or friends. He lives for his work and his closest relationship is with his twin sister who lives on another continent. He has spent a nearly chaste life in the closet due to a combination of family expectations and religious guilt. Sadly, I’m sure there are many people like Paul in this world, but I’m also sure I don’t want to read about them.

Brandon is a much easier character to engage with. He is out and proud, engaging, and sociable. I’m not entirely sure why he allows himself to get entangled in Paul’s endless circles of guilt and shame, but I kept wanting to urge him to run away. Much like the rest of Brandon’s life, his job is much more interesting than Paul’s. While Paul conducts research into the impact of emotion on decision making (even Paul didn’t seem excited by his research), Brandon is sifting through the university’s IT system in pursuit of cyber criminals. I kept wanting more of everything Brandon in this book and less of Paul.

My response to this story feels quite personal and biased. As someone who quickly transferred out of a Christian university and ran far away from my Bible Belt home, I had very little empathy for Paul in this story. His cowardice makes him miserable and life is so much better on the other side. For the same reasons, I struggled with both Paul and Brandon’s yearnings for a traditional suburban happily ever after. This desire for a traditional family life draws these men together but for me, it felt like an ugly compromise still tainted by Paul’s Christian guilt and shame.

I know this is a more personal and more negative response than I usually have to a book, so I’d advise readers to make their own judgements about this story.

A new author for me and I liked this a lot.

Worth Waiting For is the first book I've read by Wendy Qualls where she didn't have a co-author. I liked this story very much and I'm a bit frustrated by the negative comments I've read in other reviews. Specifically, where people complained about formatting errors in the copy they got from NetGalley. Here's what NetGalley has to say about formatting errors:
<blockquote> Formatting errors are highly dependent on the formatting of the PDF - the fonts, margins, graphics, etc can all affect how it appears on an e-reader. If the formatting makes the file unreadable contact support and we'll take a look at it and let you know what we find.
Note: Remember, most NetGalley files are pre-publication "galleys," meaning they are not yet finished or ready for sale. In order to provide an early look to professional readers via NetGalley, publishers and authors often only have the option to provide a PDF. </blockquote>

For reviewers to complain about formatting errors in the Kindle format simply because they don't want to use Adobe Digital Editions to read a protected PDF or ePub just rubs me the wrong way. Publishers, via NetGalley, are allowing reviewers to read the book for FREE. I do agree that perhaps the publisher might have been smart to have not offered the book in Kindle format since the PDF didn't convert well but to complain about this in a review seems to be inappropriate to me. OK, rant over and now that I have that out of my system I'll continue with my review.

Worth Waiting For is a story about one man who is so deep in the closet it's almost unimaginable to me in this day and age, and him reconnecting, after many years, with the first man he was intimate with.

Paul Dunham is close to obtaining tenure at the conservative college he attended and now teaches at. He's never lived his life openly as a gay man because it would mean the loss of his job. He really doesn't know anything else and isn't willing to give his job up to live a life he was taught was wrong.

Brandon Mercer is out and proud. He knew Paul when they were freshmen at the school where Paul now teaches. He'll be in town for a while and is open to having a fling with Paul. Paul has thought about Brandon many times over the years and always wondered why he disappeared after freshman year. He somewhat reluctantly agrees to see Brandon as long as they are careful.

This story has a little bit of everything in it. There's a mystery – Brandon's company was hired to investigate irregularities in the school's computer files. There's a love story in the relationship that develops between Brandon and Paul. And there's suspense – who has been spying on Paul and took intimate pictures of him and Brandon when they were in Paul's home? There's also Paul's family story and his reluctance to come out to them.

Worth Waiting For brought me to tears in places. While I wanted to shake Paul at times my heart also hurt for him. It's impossible for me, a straight woman, to understand how he can feel that giving up love for a job is worth it. And I just cringed when Brandon finally couldn't take it any longer and verbally lashed out at Paul.

This book kept me engaged right from the beginning and I loved the epilogue that gives us a glimpse into Paul and Brandon's life together two years in the future. I will definitely be reading more from Wendy Qualls.

A review copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

3 Stars

Paul and Brandon met their freshman year at Saint Benedict, a strict Christian college both were attending. They skirted around their attraction for one another for quite some time, until eventually they shared a night together. When Brandon leaves for another school afterward without a word, Paul locks himself securely back in the closet. Now, ten years later, the two meet again when Brandon returns to Saint Benedict for a short time as an IT consultant. Brandon runs into Paul, who is working at the college as a psychology professor. Paul is also still planted firmly in the closet, while Brandon is openly gay. Will this be a second chance for them?

Most of the reviews for this book were really negative and while, yes, I agree with certain aspects of those reviews, I'll try to keep my review on the more positive side and give you what I liked about the story.

Paul and Brandon were very different in some ways, Paul is extremely closeted, shy and very inexperienced, while Brandon is out, open, experienced and a bit overbearing, but they complimented one another and Brandon's urging really helped Paul open up and try and explore and experience things he never would have without Brandon. They were both likable men and although they both irritated me for different reasons, I wanted to see them get their HEA.

I loved the slow progression of their physical relationship. Brandon was willing to wait and not push. He let Paul go at his own pace and only do what he was absolutely comfortable with. He was patient and understanding when it came to Paul's fears and lack of experience. I loved watching Paul open up and become more comfortable with himself.

I thought Paul's struggle with being a good Christian and a gay man was very realistic and I'm sure many will be able to relate to his fears.

The premise of the story was good, the writing was good, not great, but it was okay. The story itself was good and it held my interest. This was a sweet, angsty and a bit of a sexy read. While there were things I didn't like and frankly, dialogue that was cringe worthy at times, it was still a pretty enjoyable read.


**copy provided by author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

ARC received for an honest review. Picked this on NG bc I love everything Annabeth Albert, and they've done some duos. Not only was it not what I expected, but the plot and characters were just lacking for me. I will admit the ARC formatting was distracting to read. Will definitely continue to read Wendy's works and may even purchase this one too give it another shot with the final product!

Also posted on Goodreads

I enjoyed this book - it was a fast read and had a good amount of drama. I genuinely liked Brandon (especially) and Paul, but I think the secondary characters could have been developed more. Grace was kind of flat - I wanted to see more of her and Paul interacting (they are best friends but they really have very few scenes together). The ending also felt extremely rushed - the whole story is about Paul denying who he really is and struggling with himself, then BOOM! something happens and it's like he does a complete 180 and is all of a sudden fine with who he is. It just seemed a little unrealistic. But the sex scenes were pretty good.

A highly enjoyable story about Paul, a closeted professor working at a very conservative Christian college who, after ten years, accidentally reconnects with Brandon, the man who made him realize he was gay.

I noticed "Worth Waiting For" mostly because of the cover, which I like even more now that I have read the book because it captures the story and its atmosphere perfectly. Despite the subject matter and while there were some angsty moments, overall it had a lighter feel than I had expected, which was a pleasant surprise. It doesn't work so well if you're looking for realism - some things work out a bit too easily and there was one thing I wish had been handled differently- but as a romance book it worked splendidly for me. (I saw other reviewers had more problems with those issues, however.)

Even though I had intended to take a short break from the genre, I found myself unable to stop once I started reading. That is almost always a sign that I will end up loving the story, and it was true in this case as well.

While it's told solely from Paul's POV (in third person, which I tend to prefer), I loved both him and Brandon. I also found the non-romance part of the plot surprisingly engaging and I absolutely adored the romance. To be honest, I don't need sex in my books to enjoy them, but for me Wendy Quails found the right balance between steaminess and sweetness here.

As for the closeted-because-Christian part of the story, it's something that feels very far from my own circumstances, but it was interesting to read about. The closeted aspect comes up a lot in the Japanese BL that I read and I always like to see how similar tropes play out im different cultural contexts.

The setting did remind me of the first of Annabeth Albert's gaymers books a lot, so much so that in the beginning I had the worst sense of déjà-vu, but it turned out differently enough that I didn't mind at all in the end (I just wouldn't want to read them right after another).

I really liked this one and recommend it to everyone looking for a sweet and mildly angsty romance.