Le résumé était prometteur et ce roman me faisait très envie, seulement, je n'ai pas du tout accroché à cette histoire.
J'ai un faible pour les romances sur fond de petit frère du meilleur ami, mais là, je n'ai pas aimé que la majeure partie du temps, Tobin soit considéré par Daniel (son mec) et Wei (le frère de Tobin) comme un gosse, sans parler du regard que sa famille pose sur lui. La romance est trop froide et distante à mon goût, l'autrice nous dit et nous montre des choses, mais je n'ai ressenti aucune émotion face à la relation entre les deux héros. Beaucoup de choses m'ont paru forcées et artificielles dans cette romance, j'ai vraiment eu le sentiment de rester à distance, et à 30 % et quelques j'avais déjà envie d'en avoir terminé. :/

Le contexte professionnel est très développé, et donne l'impression (renforcée par la lecture de la note finale) qu'Hudson Lin maîtrise son sujet et connaît le monde des affaires. Seulement, c'est trop froid et impitoyable pour moi, cynique aussi, et je ne comprends pas qu'aucun des personnages ne dénoncent les actes de Cyrus West. L'appât du gain ? Hé bien moi je trouve ça franchement honteux.

Bref, une lecture décevante donc.

welcome to this blog tour!!

Disclaimer: I received an ARC, but my thoughts are my own.

I ended up giving this a 3-4/5 stars (depending on the aspects I focused on).

So this is a second chance romance between a brother's best friend and best friend's little brother. One of them (the older guy) works for a company that buys companies in a way and the younger is an IT, sort of "fixing the company from a IT business point of view". I did enjoy their relationship and wished we had more romantic instances and conflict resolving scenes as both our MC's are adults, I wanted more realistic conversations in terms of their future and for them to talk about their relationship.

Our younger MC's brother was my least favorite character, he kept treating him as if he was a child and unable to take care of himself, he treats him as if he is his father. The pacing in the line of events does get weird at times, it is somewhat fast while also being simultaneously slow paced. After the main conflict, due to the older brother if we are quite honest (it was predictable), it is never addressed again, it happens because of a lack of communication and meddling from other people whom should have no bearings on the situation as our MCs are both full grown adults and it affects literally no one.

I was super annoyed at how the main conflict was annoyed & how the timeline for the epilogue was set up. We have no clue as when the epilogue is, how long after the main events did the epilogue happen ?

Overall when we let go of the small issue it is a pretty fun read that was floating between a 3 and 4 stars for most of it. In the end a 3.75 rounded up to a 4 stars.

4/5 stars Bookarina.

Hard Sell is an emotional, spicy, heartwarming, fun romance that is exceptionally written. I fell hard for our main characters, Danny and Tobin, and as much as I loved their romance, I also loved the personal journey they both go through. Lin seamlessly weaves all the intricacies of this story together in such a balanced way that every time I put this book down I couldn’t wait to pick it back up again. Danny and Tobin are both at different places in their lives due to their age difference which makes this story feel incredibly realistic. Their personal issues brought a lot of conflict but also understanding between the two of them and I enjoyed seeing it all play out. Also, the food mentioned in this book had my mouth watering and had me wishing I was eating at the same places as Tobin and Danny. The side characters all felt fleshed out enough to add to the credibility of the story and I am eagerly waiting for the second book in this series.

Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary finished copy and the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Sibling’s best friend is one of those tropes that really gets to me in a good way so Hudson Lin’s Hard Sell’s synopsis had me eager to dive in.

Danny Ip is a private equity investor who visits a tech start up so he can make his offer. When he arrives he realizes that Tobin Lok, one of his closest childhood friends & also the brother of his best friend, & *also* the man he hooked up w/ 7 years ago & hasn’t talked to since, is working w/ the company as a consultant instead of a potential buyer.

Danny knows that nothing can happen between himself & Tobin. Nothing. Can. Happen. *pause for smooching.

Simply put, there are some things that work & don’t work for me about this read.

The chemistry between Danny & Tobin is intense & the ways they’re also tender & nurturing are lovely. There’s a real sense for me that they’re special to each other & that their bond is both enhanced by their long history together but that they both respect each other now (thanks to Alexandria Bellefleur’s Hang the Moon for helping me see that part of this trope in a new way).

But some aspects of the way the sibling’s best friend trope are done here don’t totally work for me. It’s a little strange how Danny refers to Tobin in his head at the beginning of the book. Maybe “kid” or trying to think of Tobin as a sibling are distancing mechanisms but also Danny hooked up with him 7 years ago so I think that ship has sailed...

In addition—& this is something I’ve benefited from in reading other people’s commentary on the trope—Tobin’s brother’s extreme agitation at their relationship doesn’t feel fully nuanced to me. I needed more from that storyline if that’s the direction this trope is going in.

& in general, some of the humor just doesn’t work for me.

The backstories are engaging, I rooted for both leads, & I definitely wanted their HEA. Moreover, I’m really looking forward to checking out another read from Lin; I just have some quibbles with this one.


3.5 ⭐️ . Release date: 5/25.

CW:

​Tobin is outed by the tech start-up owner. Tobin hooks up w/ someone else when they’re on a break—I know that can be a dealbreaker for some.

3.5🌟🌟🌟🌠 While this was an enjoyable read, it wasn't as good as I was expecting and it jumped between a 3 star read and a 3.5 star read through most of the book. I enjoyed the relationship between Danny and Tobin, I enjoyed the struggles they both had trying to figure out how it was all going to work, there was definite chemistry between them, but I felt the getting to know each other was all a bit surface level, there was a lot of angst and a lot of miscommunication or lack of communication between them. I really didn't like Danny's best friend, Tobin's brother, Wei, he was just a selfish, overbearing older brother who gave me nothing until right at the end. The finance world is a bit over my head, but I was able to understand enough of what was going on that I didn't need to understand all of what was said about both sides of the business.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Carina Press for a digital copy in return for an honest review.

This is Hudson's hottest title yet.  It's all the more hot because both Asians are attractive and attracted to each other. Oh, and they're in North America, in Canada and not Asia!  Two childhood friends, family friends, reunite as adults when their respective jobs bring them together on the same project.  The story is swoonworthy and romantic.  The men are sexy AF!  I very much appreciated the emotional journey the book took and I can't wait for the next installment in this series.  Yah, another sexy Asian man is to center the next title!

Importantly, there is no orientalia.  This speaks to the importance of #ownvoices and representation!!!  Lin consistently gets two major things right: the portrayal of Asian men and the romance between men. The stories are uplifting and creatively "real."

I've read 5 titles from Lin and I would readily read more!  Each title has been uniquely different and immersive.

Thanks to NetGalley and Carina for this Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It started off so strong that I thought it might be a 5 star read, but then it didn't end up living up to its potential for me. This was mostly two-fold: I thought I would love the main characters, but I didn't really end up doing so, because I don't feel like I got to know them that well beyond the few characteristics they're given. Then I also feel like the conflicts weren't developed enough to fit seamlessly into the story - they felt a little forced. There were parts I really liked though - mostly the dynamic between the main characters - and I think I'll still want to read the sequel. I was just hoping to love this instead of just liking it.

First things first: I read this book in a bit of a funk, so my reading mood may have intruded on my reactions to it.

I was taken in by the cover (look at it, it's great!) and the best friend's little sibling plot. Danny is a super successful venture capitalist who's in a bit of a professional slump. Tobin is an accountant who helps struggling businesses examine their options, and he's Danny's best friend's younger brother. Tobin and Danny had a one night stand seven years ago and reconnect when they're both involved with the same flailing tech company.

There's a lot to like in this book - the MCs are both driven and building their own lives. (and they both have hang ups around money). They have a strong physical connection and Danny's friend relationship with Wei feels real.

Unfortunately (and this may be the funk), I didn't always understand the jumps between Danny and Tobin's interior emotions to their physical interactions. It was a little disjointed to me. Danny thinks about wanting a family fairly frequently, but it's not a conversation he ever actually has with Tobin, if I recall. My impression is that they had a lot of silent communication, which, okay, they've known each other since they were kids so they've got that history, but my preference is for clearer verbal communication.

There are also some odd moments that caught me off guard - for example, drunk Tobin mentally refers to his lesbian roommates as "the lezzies." Maybe more importantly, both MCs learn that the CEO of the company they're working with has had an affair with women who are either young looking, or are actually underage girls (which would not be an affair but a crime). Neither goes to the authorities about this because the CEO's soon-to-be ex-wife wants to use it as leverage in the divorce? And neither is as conflicted about this as they had ought to be.

I think there's a lot of potential here, but ultimately this particular book wasn't working for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love this book!

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of MM romances, they're some of my favourite books to read, and this book did it all for me. It had the grumpy/sunshine, childhood crush, I'm not good enough for you kind of tropes going and it was the best thing to read.

Daniel and Tobin are just the most amazing and heartfelt characters. You feel the connection while reading, you feel like you know them and are right there with them as the story progresses. Anyone who is an MM romance fan needs to read this book! I'll definitely be checking out more books from Hudson Lin.

Let's not forget it's based in Canada, Go Toronto!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin - Carina Press for the earc in return for an honest review.

I enjoyed the workplace setting for this story, and all the professional and romantic complications that that entails — probably because I met my spouse at work! While I found some of the conflict kind of exasperating (just have a freaking conversation!) I really felt feelings when the two main characters sat it quiet togetherness thinking that it wasn’t going to work out for them. That sad, quiet, stillness isn’t something I encounter often in romance, but it just felt so real to me.

Hard Sell is an LGBTQ+ best-friend’s younger brother romance. I gave this one four stars but it was more of a 3.5 for me. I liked it more as the book went on and I got to learn more about Danny Yip and Tobin Lok. It deals a lot with business – Danny and Tobin reunite because they are both working with the same company in different capacities. I found a lot of the business details to not be as interesting, but I know it’s based on the author’s own experiences, so some might find it more intriguing than me. I did like the actual characters though.

Hard Sell by Hudson Lin is a DNF for me.
I wanted to love this story but the writing style isn't for me.

This book was so awesome. I loved the Asian-Canadian family. I enjoyed the High Finance setting that was just enough to drive the story, but not so much that I felt like I was reading someone's homework. The sex parts were really good, without many of the usual M/M sex tropes. However, I do wish they'd stop saying prostate. Can you work on your metaphors, please? Anyway, awesome book and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

First off I want to say a huge thank you to the publisher Carina Adores- HARLEQUIN - Carina Press , the author Hudson Lin , and to NetGalley for inviting me to join the blog tour for this book as well as letting me read and review it.One other thing I want to say before I post my thoughts is that Carina Adores- HARLEQUIN - Carina Press is doing an amazing job with their LGBTQIA Romance especially their gay romance ( m/m ) , which is one of my all time favorite romance to read , thanks to them I've found and discovered quite a few new authors and series to read just like this one and others that I've read and loved in the past. Now on to my thoughts: What a great start to a new series ,that ist every thing I love in story which is that its addictive,has all the angsty and swooning I could ever want and that its a second-chance as well as a forbidden love m/m romance.

Loved the insight into the Taiwanese-Chinese-Canadian family dynamics.

This tale hit a note with me, as I'm from a family of immigrants into the UK, much like the leads here, and some of the dynamics were something I clashed with my family over. But, at times, I did think Tobin was immature and acted like the baby the family insisted on treating him as. Yes, I got that he wanted to do things independently and be his own man, but he could have meshed his culture a little more with his Canadian upbringing and compromised - I found the part where he complained about phone calls from his mother and brother being too much for him, going to the point of blocking them, a little too much to take. Had that happened in my own family, it would have caused much upset. Tobin came across as rather selfish at times, but I suppose his Westernised upbringing would have influenced him, as did mine. I thought that the Aunt Grace portrayal was excellent of someone of her culture and generation, and how some of that bled into her older son, Wei, who looked out so much for his baby brother. That's something that I don't think will ever disappear in ethnic cultures, though yes, it'll mellow in time. I could see Wei looking after his kids with the same devotion as his mother, tempered by his wife's more relaxed attitude.

As to the tale? I'm in finance and I had a decent enough grasp on it, but I couldn't get past the conflict of interests between Danny and Toby/Tobin and how they failed to deal with it. Where was the duty of care to one's client? Where was the client confidentiality? What happened to the dangers of companies using insider information? Where were the business ethics that banks and financial companies have adopted in the last few years? Where were the Yes checks? Neither lead took the right stance and even when Tobin blabbed something to his boss that should have prompted more questioning and an investigation, nothing happened, which wasn't believable. I found the use of dirty tactics and the collusion of Danny and his colleague with his mark's soon-to-be-ex-wife to be pushing the bounds of credibility a little too much. I found his tracking down and persuading someone who'd signed a NDA to breach that NDA underhand - it wouldn't happen in the UK with people getting away with it. There's a culture of doing the right thing and whistleblowing if needed, something that's happening more and more in finance, so this part of the tale entirely didn't work for me.

What did sound a little strange is that this tale seemed not to feature anyone who wasn't from an ethnic background, which I thought rather unreasonable, seeing it's set in Canada. Were both leads' firms only intent on employing people from Chinese-Taiwanese origins? I'm all for inclusion and diversity but there seemed to be a bit of a role reversal of that here, and it jarred a little, especially as the UK is all for equal ops in employment. It was interesting that both Danny's boss and Tobin's were female, but I'd have liked to know a bit more about Tobin's flatmates, as though a couple, one seemed a bit hardcore feminist and the other a lot more chilled - maybe they'll have a tale of their own?

Danny's colleague Ray (Roy? I can't recall) did at times start to overshadow him and I suspected he was being bigged up for a tale of his own, which it turns out is the case. His MO seemed to contradict a little with his Eastern upbringing, as he dug the dirt in ways that some in his culture would consider was going against the principles of said culture. It'll be interesting to see how he comes across in his own tale.

Danny wasn't as strong a lead as the blurb would have you have, or was that the author deliberately doing away with any hint of toxic masculinity? If the latter, kudos, but he didn't seem the portray the description attributed to him. He didn't act or sound like the driven, ruthless, suave, successful man the cover and the blurb portrayed, but perhaps that was because he was at a bit of a crossroads in his life. For me, it was his interactions with his best friend's extended family that made me like him - he loved Wei's twins, he was a solid friend and he was a respectful adopted son. He respected the sacrifices his late mother had made to better their lives and he channelled that into ambition, but sadly, none of that ambition showed in where he was professionally.

So, for me, this tale was all about seeing more into a cultural dynamic from an insider's POV and it made me go nosing about the author, who seemingly has based some of this tale on her own personal and professional past. I look forward to reading more from her.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Carina Adores, for my reading pleasure.

Interesting Dichotomies. This book, for me, was more about the interesting dichotomies than anything. You get a MM romance... with both an FF couple as side characters and set within the Asian community, which isn't overly common. (Maybe not as hyper-macho as wildfire firefighters, but seemingly near that level in rarity.) You get a hyper successful financial type... who isn't being his normal hyper successful self, and in fact is desperate for a win and who comes from... less successful... beginnings. You get a black sheep who feels he must prove himself apart from his ultra-successful family. And you get the particular blend of tech and finance that I could have felt was a bit too close to my own "real" world (where I work in IT for a Fortune 50 financial firm) that it could have been *too* real. And yet it all worked. And worked well in fact. On the actual romance side, you get a fairly standard will they/ won't they / this is a freaking romance novel so you know they do. You get the whole "best friend's sibling" dynamic, with its usual problems and resolutions. And you get a *crap ton* of angst. If you want your romance novels bright and breezy... this aint it. But if you want a romance novel unlike most you've ever seen before... this one is probably *exactly* that. Very much recommended.

*Thank you to Carina Press and to NetGAlley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This book was such a delight. It was a second chance at love. Childhood friends to lovers and brother's best friend. This M/M romance was everything I needed in a weekend read. Tobin and Danny had me swooning from the start and that stayed true through most of the book.

Set in the business world of Canada, these two men who knew each other as children and once had a One Night Stand 7 years ago, run into each other over a certain project and get a second chance at love.

It was sweet, it was sexy, and I had butterflies the whole time. The 3rd act conflict was predictable but relatable and I understand why things went a little off the rails for them. When you have family and long-standing relationships at play, taking a risk on a new relationship can be hard.

The one part of this book that lost me a bit was the business part of it. There seemed to be more going on then I was picking up on. Maybe that will continue on in the next book, which I am all here for!

All in all, I give this a solid 4/5 stars. I can't wait to read more by this author.

I really liked this book and enjoyed the relationship between Danny and Tobin!! Did this book have me tearing up by the end? YES IT DID. Although I have a few comments regarding the story, overall, I enjoyed it and would definitely re-read it!

Trigger warnings include homomisia, transmisia, vehicular accident resulting in injury (not one of the MCs), blackmail, mentions of human trafficking, suggestions of sex with minors (not either MC), and lots of scenes/moments where MCs contemplate having kids someday.

I admit I knew nothing about this book before I started reading it. I like the author and have read her books before and was SUPER STOKED to see that Carina Press has TWO Asian models on the cover!!! That like, almost never happens?? And with m/m?? And in the age of illustrated covers?? I have never been more excited about seeing a cover! So of course, I was going to read this.

Soooo. Because I was so excited to read this, I may have forgotten what the blurb was by the time I started the book, so for a chapter, I mistakenly thought the MCs were Danny and Cyrus. Oops. Daniel “Danny” Ip (I don’t know why the blurb says his last name is Yip when the book says otherwise) is a guy who’s super intimidating and very good at his job. Or he was. At 35, he’s beginning to feel himself burning out but the money, the position is all he’s worked for and the thing is, he used to enjoy the grind that came with the job.

Cyrus West is the CEO of a company called WesTec and he’s the guy Danny has to convince to want to sell his company to Danny and Jade Harbour. HE IS NOT THE LOVE INTEREST. He’s also super awful. Danny’s job is buying struggling companies at a low price, do some restructuring, and sell high. I want to say this makes him a venture capitalist? The book never says the words, but, I think that’s what he is.

So, while Danny’s planning on doing his thing to win over WesTec, in walks his best friend’s little brother. Who isn’t quite so little anymore.

Tobin Lok is 26 and works at a company’s whose job is to help struggling companies find their footing again and make money. So he’s kind of like a consultant. I think. This puts Danny and Tobin at odds with what they’re looking to do with WesTec and they’re facing each other again after 7 years with basically no contact.

I admit that this book is WAY smarter than I am. I don’t really understand any of the business and finance aspects of this book and what was really happening so reading all of that was just vibes for me. No thoughts at all really. Except, I can’t say I particularly loved how quickly and neatly the book wrapped up the whole deal with WesTec at the end. It almost felt like a side note after all the stuff that the characters did the whole book to try to win over WesTec.

So let me talk about what I do know.

The tone of this book was a little strange. I think that had more to do with me going into this book not entirely knowing what it was going to be about. Because tropes like best friend’s sibling? It’s fun! Set amongst an Asian family?? DELICIOUS CHAOS.

But then there’s tropes like you have the millionaire, the business setting with a guy that’s supposedly competent at his job, and then the random human trafficking subplot that comes out of NOWHERE? It’s one step away from the dark romance vibe and it was just really weird to me. And I only say one step away because the sex in this book is completely consensual. And like, I read dark romance, but I guess I just wasn’t quite expecting this type of tone based on the books I’ve read from this imprint. The Cyrus subplot was...a lot darker than I would’ve expected. But high stakes and all that, I guess.

I will say there are moments that baffled me enough that this book is a 4-star book rather than 5 for me, and one of them is how much the characters want kids?? I think it’s because I read this too early, and the ARC I read didn’t come with any trigger warnings and I know the Carina Adores line is usually good about them so maybe they’ll be in the final version of the book? But yeah, I just had things catch me by surprise. And the kid thing is a big one for me.

There was a whole lot more going on with the contemplation and talks from both Danny and Tobin wondering if they wanted kids then I would have expected. I don’t love (okay, maybe closer to hate) books that talk about how much the MCs want kids and dreaming about having kids. And it just went on and on. I don’t know, I’m fine with kids in books? Like I loved Tobin’s niece and nephew just fine? But all the stuff that happens in the before stage where the kids don’t exist yet just super squeaks me out.

AND THEN. I think the weirdest part of the story was probably that Danny and Tobin BOTH had evidence that there was a human trafficking case on their hands and and they just...didn’t do anything with that info? They didn’t care enough to act on the info and that was a hard one to swallow.

Now, I don’t know if it’s because Tobin comes from a fairly wealthy family, and Danny himself is a literal millionaire, but there’s definitely a level of disconnect I had with the two characters that turned me off from them at times. Like doing nothing about a certain someone being a sexual predator.

There’s also offhand comments from Tobin that didn’t seem necessary (Tobin thinking that audiobooks didn’t count as reading??? or calling his lesbian roommate, Ayán, a “bleeding heart liberal” because she doesn’t like Danny’s VC job). It was just a whole lot of weird moments that came out of nowhere for me in this book that made me wonder at times if the author even wanted me to like Danny or Tobin.

I think both characters are a bit messy in their own way and OVERALL, I think I really like them both by the end? When it felt removed enough from the business drama and they finally got their act together. But it did feel like a long journey to get to that point.

I really enjoyed the parts that I could relate to: the big family get-togethers for the holidays with everyone your parents know, calling older women and men “Aunties” and “Uncles” even if you’re not related to them, and family feeling a bit overwhelming sometimes with their protectiveness. I’m Chinese American and this book is just *chef’s kiss* when it comes to how seamlessly it all gets weaved into the fabric of Danny and Tobin’s lives.

I think the only thing I would’ve wanted to know is whether Tobin’s parents only speak English at home or is that only with the kids? I think it was mentioned that Tobin and his family travels to Hong Kong to visit family so they might be Hong Kongers? Do they speak Cantonese at home and how much do Tobin and his brother, Wei, know of the language? Does Danny speak the language or even understand it? I don’t think it was ever mentioned. It’s not really all that important to the story. I’m just curious because I see that a lot with other Asian families I know where first gen parents speak English with their kids but their own language amongst themselves. And the kids might understand a bit of the language but definitely not a whole lot? So I just wonder how it is for Danny, Tobin, and Wei growing up.

There’s a lot of stops and starts to Danny and Tobin’s relationship. There’s certainly a hurdle to overcome with Danny and Wei being best friends and Danny having known Tobin for years and years, even though he didn’t start being attracted to Tobin until they were way older. I think there’s a fine line with this trope? I don’t usually read it because it can go so wrong. But I think it worked here since it was Tobin who was infatuated with Danny the whole time when they were kids, Danny and Tobin didn’t hook up until Tobin was 19, and then they didn’t even see or speak to each other for another 7 years after their one-night stand.

I am excited to return to this world with book two, which will star Danny’s wealthy co-worker, Ray Chao and I guess we’ll finally see why he’s working at Jade Harbour when it seems there’s gossip around their industry that Ray is technically rich enough that he doesn’t have to work at all. I’m also interested to see who his love interest will be!

I’m not seeing anything about this book or the sequel being made into audiobooks, BUT I WANT THIS TO BE A THING SO MUCH (and pretty please cast an Asian narrator).

I’m in love that we got a m/m book with SO. MANY. Asian characters in it. And they’re actually pictured on the cover!!! I hope the sequel’s cover matches this one and gives me a handsome Ray with his love interest modeled on the cover. I really did wind up loving Danny and Tobin by the end and the story had a lot more twist and turns than I would’ve ever expected. The family is endearing and kind of reminds me of my family. The epilogue was also really great and I even got teary eyed.

***Thanks to the publisher for approving me for this ARC on NetGalley***