Book Review by DMac: Deeds & Confetti, by Brandon Witt

Deeds & Confetti, by Brandon Witt
Series: Mary’s Boys, Book Four
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 27, 2017

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Steven Conley loves the excitement of owning his own Hamburger Mary’s restaurant in Denver, Colorado, and his chosen family of coworkers makes life even better. Steven never regretted leaving the corporate grind behind until his father’s harsh deathbed words leaves him doubting himself.

Ryan Fuller abandoned a lucrative career to start his own party-planning business, but he keeps afloat by coordinating funerals for the local mortuary. When Ryan bumps into Steven—his best friend’s uncle and the man Ryan has secretly crushed on forever—the attraction explodes into a night of passionate abandon for both men.

Steven is blown away by the care and deep connection he feels for the hot young mortician—until Ryan admits who he really is. Reeling from the recent upheaval in his life, Steven must decide whether to give Ryan a chance. To find love, they must risk it all….

M/M Pairing
Gay Characters
Contemporary Romance
Age Gap
Novella

Content Warning for: Homophobia (homophobic parent, not an ongoing part of the story)

Deeds & Confetti was hard to review for me. It doesn’t have a bad plot nor was it badly written but it wasn’t my thing so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I think other people would. Part of the reason why I couldn’t get into this book was that there was a lot of sex. A lot of people really enjoy that but it’s not for me. However, the two characters had a lot of chemistry and the build-up to the sex was great. I liked these two together and Witt made their pairing believable despite their obstacles.

Ryan is Stephen’s nephew’s age and his best friend to boot. Ryan was the one crushing on Stephen when he was younger and so this was more of a teenage fantasy come to life thing than an older man creeping on someone he watched grow up thing. This is important to me because I’m not into any trope where someone in a position of power is the aggressor and pursuing a relationship unless the author makes it super clear that the attraction is mutual.

This book realistically deals with the age gap between the characters as well as some common family drama. Stephen went against his family’s wishes and became a restaurateur while Ryan became an event planner instead of an artist. That might not be very realistic, but this didn’t matter to me because of Witt’s great writing style. However, sadly I think the MC’s businesses were more interesting than their personalities.

I wish the characters had a more in-depth development, and even though we got more development for Stephen, most of his story was tied up in self-hate because of his dad. I also didn’t really connect with the other characters at Hamburger Mary’s but, to be fair, I think that may be because I didn’t read the rest of the series.

If you enjoyed the rest of the series, I think you will want to finish it. I might have some issues and reservations about it but it’s not a bad book and if you’re looking for a sexy romance with a well-done age gap relationship, you should check this out.

Brandon Witt’s outlook on life is greatly impacted by his first eighteen years of growing up gay in a small town in the Ozarks, as well as fifteen years as a counselor and special education teacher for students with severe emotional disabilities. Add to that his obsession with corgis and mermaids, then factor in an unhealthy love affair with cheeseburgers, and you realize that with all those issues, he’s got plenty to write about….

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