Seth Weston has had a difficult year. First, his sister was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and moved in with him. Then, his lover of five years left him. When his sister passed away a few months ago, Seth was left alone to take care of his six-year-old niece, Molly. To say he hasn’t had the easiest of years, is putting it lightly. What Seth didn’t expect was the small, long-haired, tattooed, hemp-pants wearing masseur with a toe ring to turn his world upside down. David Cooke was everything that Seth was never attracted to, but a one-hour massage with an unexpected happy ending helped to begin changing Seth’s mind. A few more chance meetings convinced Seth that David might be worth the chance.

However, Seth starts receiving strange phone calls from Molly’s biological father. After a spontaneous rendezvous behind a public restroom, pictures are delivered to Seth and he sees it as the threat it is. Trying to balance his new family bond with Molly and a fragile relationship with David is hard enough without these strange happenings, but with them the balance can be easily thrown off.

Men of Smithfield: Seth and David is the third installment in L.B. Gregg’s Men of Smithfield series that has been revised, re-edited, and re-published through Carina Press. It can be read as standalone as the plots of this series are not linked to one another, although characters from other stories do make cameos in this book. So far, Seth and David is my least favorite of the three. Not to say that I didn’t like it. I did. I just liked it a little less than the first two books.

Seth is one of my favorite characters in this series. His introduction in this story and to David was fabulous. The unexpected “happy ending” was priceless and had me trying to read through tears, I was laughing so hard. Seth is brash, disconnected, and hard at times. Basically, he’s an ass. He takes on a lot in his daily life, deals with a lot of personal and professional stress, and doesn’t know how to ask for help. And if he did know how to, he probably still wouldn’t. Seth and Molly have been without his sister, Nikki, for a couple of months and they’re still trying to find their footing with each other. David is Seth’s complete opposite. He is laid back, jovial, easy to talk to, and kid-friendly. He’s exactly what Seth needs in his life. David is Seth’s balance, his calm place.

I had to think a lot about the relationship between Seth and David because it seems to be a relationship based solely on sex, but then I realized that from beginning to end the book lasted a week, maybe eight or nine days. The connection between Seth and David was there. They were obviously attracted to each other. They had children in common – Seth as Molly’s uncle and David taking care of Katie and eight brothers and sisters. They tried to date, but things kept interrupting. They didn’t really have time to get to know each other. But then again I say it was only a week. This story was a great start to their relationship, and thankfully it was not an insta-love story. If the story would have ended without an epilogue, I probably would have been disappointed. But thank goodness for the epilogue and the glimpse into Seth and David’s future.

The addition of Molly and Katie to this story was a welcomed change from the previous two books in this series. The subject of families and the different views on families was a wonderful part of this book. I loved Molly and Katie’s little personalities. I wish we could have seen more of them in this story, gotten to know them better.

The opening few scenes and last few chapters and epilogue were great, but the rest of the story read a little slow. Again, it was a good story, but slower paced than I’m used to from this series. I can’t say that I was bored or disinterested, I just felt like there were parts to this story that dragged on.

Seth and David is definitely worth the read. It is another great opposites attract, adorable love story from this author. With great characters and a sweet family focus along with a little bit of mystery, this story was very entertaining.

Seth has had a hard year. His sister got sick and he was her main caregiver. His boyfriend turned out to be a complete ass and took off when the going got tough and now he’s parent to his niece and he has no clue what to do with her. The thing that keeps him on an even keel is control. As long as he’s in control of the situation he can handle anything.

Into his live enters David Cooke. Seth isn’t quite sure what to make of David. He’s a massage therapist and a waiter? Does the guy have no ambition? Little does Seth know that there are hidden depths to David and those depths will change Seth’s life.

Seth is such a control freak and David is so the opposite. David is a go with the flow, experience life, relaxed man. Seth doesn’t want to be attracted to him but yet he finds that he just can’t help himself. The two characters play off each other so well I really understood where each of them were coming from.

The story is told from Seth’s pov and I thoroughly appreciated that fact. There were a few times where I was wishing that I could see into David’s head but for the most part was completely satisfied with Seth’s voice. And let me tell you – for a girl who isn’t a fan of 1st person pov that’s saying something! lol I loved Seth’s humor. That dry, sarcastic, fuck off if you don’t like it sense of humor. He also didn’t hesitate (ok, maybe once) to tell anyone what he thought of them or how he felt. He was an up front guy and I loved that about him. One of my favorite scenes in the book is at the beginning when he’s at a day spa waiting for his massage and he’s checking out the room. His description of the room itself -whether it was the paint, the music or the scent of the room had me laughing out loud (and of course the rest of that scene which is fabulous). I think I smiled through almost the whole book.

There were issues that Seth and David needed to deal with together but there was also Seth dealing with the death of his sister, his niece, his ex and his niece’s dad. Seth, being the controller he was handled things well, but we also got to see Seth;s growth and his realization that the way he’d done things in the past may not be the best way. It was another great part of the book.

Oh – and of course there was hot man-lovin. Hot man-lovin. Yep – iz good.

Needless to say I loved the book and highly recommend it to anyone who will listen to me.

Rating 5 out of 5

2.5 stars

Seth's life has recently been turned upside down when his sister passes away and he gains custody of his young niece. Things become even more complicated when he finds himself attracted to masseur/waiter, David. Their romance is threatened by Seth's constant judgmental attitude and people from the past reappearing to stir things up.

I had a hard time feeling the connection between Seth and David. First of all, Seth was a very unlikable character, and I don't think I even liked him by the end. David was very nice and seemed like an all around good guy, flaws and all, but I just couldn't see what in the world he liked about Seth. The kids were sweet and their interactions with both David and Seth were cute.

Unfortunately, I could not fully get into this book because the romance seemed a little forced, and I didn't believe that these men cared anything for each other beyond the physical.