Review: Facing West by Lucy Lennox

Facing West (Forever Wilde #1)
by Lucy Lennox

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MM

Blurb:
Nico:

I left my family and tiny Texas hometown fifteen years ago to escape small-town gossips and to give my mom and sister the chance at a better life. But when a phone call from an attorney back home informs me that my sister passed away, leaving me custody of her newborn baby, I’m shocked out of the steady life I’ve built for myself running a tattoo shop in San Francisco.

The thing is: I don’t do babies. And I don’t do small towns. Or commitment. And I especially don’t do family. My plan is to go back to Hobie just long enough to sign adoption papers, giving my niece the kind of stable, loving family I could never provide.

But the moment I meet my niece in the arms of Weston Wilde, my sister’s best friend and the town’s handsome doctor, my plans begin to change. Because suddenly, I see a different future. One with the very thing I thought I never deserved: a family. If only I can convince West that I’m not the same good-for-nothing kid ready to bolt when things get tough.

Weston:

There’s one thing I know for sure about Nico Salerno: he was a good-for-nothing as a kid and judging by the purple-haired, tattoo’d punk who shows up at his sister’s funeral, he hasn’t changed. There’s no way I’m letting him take custody of my best friend’s baby.

But the more time I spend around him, the more I realize that his rough exterior is just a shell and that beneath all the tattoos is a scared, insecure man searching for a place to belong. And pretty soon I know exactly where he belongs: in my bed and by my side.

The problem is, he abandoned his family once before, how do I know that if we become a family he won’t do it again?

Facing West is the first in the new Forever Wilde series about the huge Wilde family from Hobie, Texas, whose patriarchs aren’t above a little meddling if that’s what it takes to help their grandkids find true love.

My Review

This series has been on my to-read list for a while now. I bought Facing West a while ago when it was for sale and only got around to reading it now when I was in the mood for a MM romance. While I enjoyed the book, there were also plenty of things that didn’t quite work for me. But even with the plenty of small issues I still had fun reading this one as well.

Facing West is told from dual point of views of both West and Nico. Nico gets a call his sister has died and he returns to his hometown which he left when we was 15 years old. West just lost his best friend and is taking care of her baby for now. Nico doesn’t so babies and has no interest in the infant, West is determined to not let him get his hands on the baby at first. This gets resolved quite early in the story. Nico stays in town while settling his sister’s affairs and Wets stops by to check on the baby and they slowly grow closer.

This book has 3 things I don’t really care about in books; babies, pretending it’s just sex when it’s obvious both have deeper feelings and romance with a expiration date(namely Nico has to move back to where he lives). This made it hard for me to get into the book at times.Also it was so obvious how this would all get resolved and it bothers me when the characters go through the whole book never even considering another option.

Add in a multitude of small things that didn’t quite work for me. Some plot lines were reserved till the very end to make an appearance or get reveals. So you have these big pieces of back ground and history that don’t really get to be part of the story as they got revealed so late. Lots of issues between the two guys and things they deal with that aren’t addressed at all. No communication and just staying on the same track and then these things get miraculously and easily solved at the end of the book. A lot of sex scenes, but not enough sweet and bonding scenes. The book also felt a bit long probably due to the heavy focus on sex and how most of the other plot liens just got dragged along without progression till the end. Some things got resolved so easily while other things dragged on for most of the book. Some plot lines were set up early, but then rarely got attention or progression throughout the book. Some progression of characters and their opinions and belief etc weren’t done as subtle or in a way that made sense to me. They seemed to change their mind without a lot of set-up or because the other guy was hot or judged for no reason or jumped to conclusions. Some character behavior that seemed out of characters. The prologue that was frankly just a weird start of the book in my opinion with a cringe worthy teenage sex scene, it has relevance to the story, but I think not including the scene would’ve made for a stronger start of the book in my opinion.

And even with all those issues I mostly still had a fun time reading this book. It probably helped that I specifically was in the mood for a MM contemporary romance book. It was one of those easy reads that I kept reading even with all the issues I had about plenty of things. It was fun to see Nico and West fall for each other, although I would’ve loved some more sweet bonding scenes to counteract the plenty of sex. I would’ve liked actually seeing their relationship progress throughout the book and not just them having sex.

I also liked the small town setting and the tight big Wilde family. While the small town setting doesn’t fully come alive, it still had that small town feel where everyone knows everyone. And al the benefits and less ahead things that come along with that. I also liked what we saw of West’ family, he comes from this huge family and they are quite the tight bunch. This obviously will form the basis of this series with each book focusing on a different Wilde. We mostly get a bit about Felix and Hudson in this book, just enough to make me curious, but not enough to really get a feel for them. And I am just not sure if I want to continue the series because of all the troubles I had with this one.

The two family side characters that we did see a lot of were Doc and Grandpa and those are probably my favorite characters from this book. They were just so fun to read about and they obviously cared a lot about their whole family. They were a bit much at times, but overall I liked them and how they could add some comedy to scenes. I liked how they always were ready to help West and Nico too. And there are some fun scenes with them in it.

While Nico and West seemed nice enough, there just was something missing for me to really like them. I also felt like their personalities weren’t worked out as much as I would’ve liked. Nico is this hurt and scared guy who is used to running away and is covered in piercings, tattoos and has blue hair. He doesn’t talk about his feelings and hence we don’t get to know a lot about his feelings as he pushes those away. West seemed like a good guy, but he just wasn’t really interesting. He’s a good doctor, does his job well and loves his family. There wasn’t anything really intriguing or interesting about him. He was a quite judgemental about Nico at first even while finding him hot, but I do like how he was open minded enough to change his mind. I also found his sex behavior to not fully mesh with the rest of his personality somehow. This book mostly deals with West blaming Nico he left at age 15 and him wanting Nico to stay here and knowing he wouldn’t. While Nico thinks he doesn’t deserve more and wants things to just be sex.

These two started off with mutual lust from the start. They hate each other, but lust about the other’s body. Then they slowly get to know each other a bit and eventually jump in bed. While I liked they don’t jump in bed right away it also didn’t feel like there really was a lot getting to know each other. There mostly is a bit of sexual tension, some resolving of initial plot lines and then West deciding to go for it. After that there is a lot of sex scenes, but not as much of them being together and bonding without that. There are some sweet scenes where they connect, but I just wanted to see a bit more of that and really feel why they fall for the other. I also felt a bit off how West is always the one to try and get information out of Nico instead of Nico volunteering the information. It becomes clear they care about the other a lot, but I didn’t fully see or feel that happening. They do make for a great couple and the epilogue was nice to see how they make things work, although I wouldn’t have minded seeing some of those scenes play out.

To summarize: This was a steamy romance read. While I had fun reading this one there were a bunch of things I didn’t really care for. There were some of the main plot lines for the book I didn’t care for like the baby focus, both guys pretending it’s only sex and the clear expiration date for their romance. And some smaller issues I had with things that happened. I liked the small town setting and the big tight Wilde family. Doc and Grandpa were two fun side characters and I really liked them. Nico and Wets were nice enough, but I never fully warmed up to really liking them or finding them interesting. West just wasn’t as interesting and Nico was so defensive and used to running and hiding that you don’t get the chance to really explore more of his personality. They did make for a good couple somehow, the attraction between these two was obvious and there is plenty of sex once they decide to jump in bed together, but I would’ve liked some more relationship building/ connection and sweeter scenes to really feel why they fall for one another. All in all this was a fun steamy read and I am curious about the other family members, but at the same time there were plenty of things that prevented me from liking this one as much as I had hoped.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.