The Distance Between Us by L.A. Witt

Title: The Distance Between Us
Author: L.A. Witt
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Length: Category
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Blurb:

From money pit to windfall…or is it a pitfall?

After ten years together, Ethan Mallory and Rhett Solomon are calling it quits. They’re more than ready to dump their heavy emotional baggage. The only thing they can’t seem to unload is the house. They’re stuck living as roommates with a hefty mortgage hanging over their heads…at least until they can bring in some extra money to pay it down. Solution: rent out a room.

Enter Kieran Frost. Suddenly, the only thing Ethan and Rhett both want more than getting away from each other is getting close to their single, young, hot roommate. Complicating things is the fact that Kieran doesn’t mind the attention from both, and he certainly doesn’t mind sharing.

Their combined chemistry ignites something else that Ethan and Rhett had thought was long dead—the mutual attraction that drew them together in the first place. Except bitter jealousy over Kieran could only push them even farther apart…

Review:

I’m interested in reading books about relationship dynamics – of course I am, I read romance.  More than that, I like reading books which examine a relationship in free-fall, and how circumstances can make or break a relationship.  When I saw this book at Samhain, I was drawn to the initial premise and interested to follow the journey of these three characters as their actions affect the delicate balance of what was once an established relationship.  Whilst I enjoyed reading the book, I was slightly disappointed that the focus was more on sex, than on examining the cause and effect of relationship dynamics.

The story begins when we meet our estranged heroes, Ethan and Rhett.  They’ve been together for ten years, but the day to day minutiae of living together, job and money stress, and getting into a rut with sex has got in the way of their love and attraction to each other.  Both men want to call it quits, but they’re tied down to a house they can’t sell, and neither man has the money to pay extra for their own place or buy the other out.  This leaves them living as strangers in a house once filled with love, sniping and bickering at each opportunity whilst Rhett also privately grieves for the breakdown in the relationship.   In order to bring in more income, the two men bring a room-mate, Kieran, into the house, only to find themselves competing over Kieran’s hot body.

The story is written from Rhett’s first person point of view, which worked quite well in that I initially felt quite sorry for Rhett, and frustrated for him at the turn of events in the book.  However, as the book progresses it became clear that things are not quite so clean cut as Rhett seemed to find them, and at those times I longed to know exactly what Ethan and Kieran were thinking too.  What I found most puzzling was the way that both Ethan and Rhett have just given up on their relationship and also how they have absolutely no qualms at seducing their room-mate under the nose of the other person.  It seemed deliberately cruel, especially as they are purposely loud during sex.  I know that the seduction of Kieran, and the way it made the two men re-think their relationship, was the main point of the plot, but their callousness towards each other during those scenes did not endear either character to me.

Another point that made me uncomfortable was the way that the book suggested that sex was the main healing factor in their relationship, and that it was the lack of sex, or physical interaction, which was the main underlying cause of their break up.  Even I could see that having sex was good for them, but it wasn’t the root cause of their disagreements which stemmed more from stress over jobs or money or not taking quality time with each other (apart from the bedroom).  Those root causes had not really been addressed by the end of the book sufficiently to make me really believe that once the shiny renewal of sexual activity had abated that they wouldn’t be dragged back down by those problems.  Another frustration throughout the book was the couple’s inability to talk to each other about anything.  Even after they’d had sex together with Kieran, instead of clearing the air and allowing an opportunity to discuss what had happened, the men resort to angry, sullen silence like a pair of teenagers rather than grown men.  At several points during the book I wanted to tie Ethan and Rhett to chairs facing each other and force them to talk over their issues rather than hiding them with lustful encounters.

As I said at the beginning, there’s a lot of sex in this book, and much of it is used to shown a progression in the feelings of the men.  Whilst this was well written (if a little heavy on the shower sex scene), I wished there had been more interaction between the men outside the bedroom as that would have made me more optimistic for their relationship by the end of the book.  As it is I was left feeling sorry for the ill-used Kieran – who I hope will get his own book – and only vaguely convinced that Ethan and Rhett’s relationship will continue to work.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, the writing is good and the characters, if a little frustrating, are well rounded.  The sex is very hot, and the ménage scenes worked well.  This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I liked it enough that I would consider reading more L.A. Witt books.  As I said, I’m hoping Kieran gets his own book because if anyone was a victim of the relationship between Ethan and Rhett, he was, and he deserves his own HEA.

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