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About the Book: New York City FBI team leader Samuel Shaughnessy lives for his immediate family and his job. After a marriage gone wrong, he has stuck to a firm rule when it comes to relationships: he doesn’t have them. Sexually active and emotionally unavailable keeps him satisfied, especially now that he is in hot pursuit of a serial killer targeting gay men.
Former firefighter Machlan O’Bannon now manages a successful sports bar in Houston, and after years of waiting, he’s ready to stand up and be the man he always wanted to be: out, proud and drama-free. His politically-aligned family wants to keep him locked in the closet, but Mac just wants to meet the man of his dreams.
One man is as high strung as the other is laid back. A chance meeting brings them together, and one night of passion ignites a fire neither can fight. Their lives are not only miles apart, but as different as day and night. They don’t want to get involved, but they might not be able to keep apart.
By Degrees #1
M/M Contemporary Romance
Dreamspinner Press | January 2nd, 2017
Prior to reading Six Degrees of Lust, I’d only read one other Taylor V Donovan book and that was Disasterology 101. I really loved Disasterology, and counted it as one of the higher rated books of 2016. While it wasn’t quite as good, Six Degrees of Lust wound up being a really enjoyable read.
Initially my biggest problem was that there were too many points of view. I love large ensemble casts, but there has to be a good balance between characters and I didn’t feel like I was getting a good sense of Mac and Sam because the story kept jumping around. For instance, in Six Degrees of Lust, Mac and Sam are the “couple” but 40% into the book they’d only had 3 interactions. It left me with a first impression of how I probably wouldn’t connect with them as a couple as deeply as I should.
Despite my initial reservations, by the end I was invested. There was so much to love. I really appreciated that the author worked hard to develop Mac & Sam’s relationship realistically. There’s nothing even remotely insta-love, only insta-lust. I always appreciate when love doesn’t feel rushed. I also thought that the casual conversations between Mac and Sam were really cute. I caught myself smiling on far more than one occasion, chuckling over the banter. Even though I’m partial to Sam, because I love a territorial man, there was also something to be said about how charming, laid back, and clever Mac was. (I loved how Sam called Mac ‘Kitten’. It was completely ridiculousness and adorable.)
By the end I realized that, even though I do think there were too many points of view, I came to care about most of them. There was only one character that I felt didn’t grow in any way, and that was Sam’s ex-wife. I started off not liking her, and by the end my perspective hadn’t changed at all.
By Degrees is a series written in serial, meaning nothing really wrapped up in the end since the story arch will spread over multiple books. I’m hopeful that the characters will continue to develop. I’m really hoping as the story progresses I love the future books more and more.
Thank you to Dreamspinner Press for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Birdie Bookworm 
Great review!! I love your feather stars so pretty!!
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Thank you!!
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Multiple PsOV are the pits unless everyone’s POV feels essential. I recently read one where there were so many PsOV, and it felt like it was more to pacify the fans (the PsOV were from characters who were part of another series, and the book I was reading was a spin-off of that series) than a need to make the story clearer. The book suffered for it in my opinion.
I hope things are fleshed out the way you’re hoping for the rest of the series!
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That’s it exactly. I wish there had been less POVs so that more of a focus was on the main characters. Luckily I liked the main characters enough that it helped the story.
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[…] so glad I stuck with this series! As I said in my review of the first book, Six Degrees of Lust, the series start was rocky. I never thought that I would […]
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