GA Hauser - Man to Man

When lifeguard in training Josh Elliott is assigned to Tanner Cameron during his mentorship program, Josh instantly falls for the tall, handsome guard in the red swimsuit. The only problem is, Tanner is straight. Very straight. And constantly reminds Josh of that fact when Josh's flirting gets carried away.Tanner Cameron made a career out of life-saving and being a paramedic. Divorced, Tanner tries to be content with his job and stays away from the advances of women he works with. It seems to Tanner that all the young ladies he meets want marriage and babies, two things he no longer feels as essential.Can Tanner get over the terror of the label he fears the most and open up his heart to the right partner? Or will he be unable to rescue his heart from a charming lifeguard whose idea of bliss is working it out, man to man?

Comment: This is the first book in a trilogy about heroes, people who work for the benefit of others, jobs in helping people.
This first book is about two lifeguards, Tanner and Josh and how their relationship evolves from just work partners to full time partners in everything.
Josh started a lifeguard program and is now working foe real in a beach. His mentor is tanner, the person who helps him before he can be on hos own on the job. tanner is divorced and states from the start he's straight but Josh doesn't give up and sets on seducing Tanner...but his seduction backfires, because the more he knows tanner, the more he feels attracted and even falls in love with him. So he has a problem, tanner is straight and he knows the situation won't bring him any joy. Tanner, however, starts seeing Josh through different eyes and he finds first a work partner who has a good sense of responsibility and later a friend. All of Josh's insinuations and seduction moves start getting to him and in the end he has to figure out if love is worth it.

I liked this story, it's much better than the last one I've read by the author. Although one can't really trust the whole straight turned gay, there's a kind of forbidden fruit appeal in it. I liked the fact we have many scenes where the characters think about what the other means, about what it means to be in that situation..it's about sex, but not all of it, I'd say 35% is sex. Good odds for me, because I prefer the romance in my stories.
Tanner presented interesting thoughts as a straight man feeling attracted to a gay one and his fears of coming out felt real. More so when he says at some point that he felt the attraction for Josh (interesting how most this cases the attraction is only for one person, thus not making them exactly gay, just almost gay...but anyway...) and how he knew Josh foe a short period of time and Josh wanted him to come out so soon after they started being together. I get this, we can't be expected to change our minds and live according to it in such a short period of time..it takes years for the human being to know what and how he is, how can someone be at ease changing their mind in the space of a week or two? This was my only issue with the book, I knew eventually Tanner would see he loved Josh to, but if we could have gotten the idea it took them longer...I don't know, even fast people must take some time to think, no? Specially in an important thing like gender sexual preference...I think.
Basically this is the story, they meet, they doubt, they fall in love, yay. Still, an entertaining story, not the best ever, but with interesting scenes and situations and I'll be eager to read the next one in the following month.