Louisa Masters - I've Got This

Derek Bryer loves his life. His job as an assistant director at Joy Universe, the second-largest theme park complex on the planet, makes him indirectly responsible for bringing joy (pun intended) to millions of people. So what if none of his relationships are that close? Everyone he meets loves him.
Except Trav Jones. For some reason, the visiting Broadway performer would rather Derek just go away. He appreciates Derek’s work ethic, though, and after Trav steps up when Derek desperately needs someone to fill in for his sick staff, Derek seizes the chance to convince Trav he’s not such a bad guy.
Falling in love while distracted by a murder at the park, food poisoning, and colleagues placing bets on their relationship won’t be easy, but between the two of them and with the magic of Joy Universe, they’ve got this.

Comment: I have no idea why I had this book in the pile, but it turned out to be a satisfying read, which means that, for whatever reason, I must have clearly guessed right this time!

In this story we meet Derek, an assistant director at Joy Universe, a very well known and successful theme park, which has several sections, and even an employees' village. Derek is very happy with his work, knowing he is part of something which is doing so well, but now, as a new day begins, things start to go into disaster mode, since a guest at their park allegedly killed her husband, and a big group of performers has food poisoning, making it necessary to request the help of available others nearby.

This is how Trav Jones starts helping out with the shows, and even though he is already a renown actor on Broadway, he prefers secondary roles, and this will be easy for him. He and Derek don't seem to get along right away, mostly because Trav has found boys and men like him before - confident, gorgeous, out of his league - and always felt inferior. But circumstances make them closer, could it be that something between them would actually work?

Even before starting, I was immediately taken by the premise of a story set at a theme park.The author also has an introductory note where she gives a context to her idea and that it's based on a real park, but that she tried to give her "world" a different take. I was quite interested in the set up and how the description of the several aspects of the park, with areas distributed into different locations, how there was this village for employees and temporary workers, the whole idea seemed interesting. As if it was a city within a city.

Although the beginning is chaotic, with two major problems happening pretty much at the same time, I could see right away that Derek is a very dedicated director and he wants things to go smoothly for everyone, not only the guests/visitors but also for those who work there. His professionalism made me like him right away, but the writing style did seem to focus a lot on the surroundings and the action, which means I still felt Derek wasn't as approachable as others claimed he was or by what we see him do. Still, he is a good person, wants success for everyone and it was easy to see why he was a director.

Trav is, nevertheless, an easier character to like (for me). He is a good guy, also professional and he seems to be happy he is doing secondary roles in his theater career. Of course that the reason why he has refused main roles is part of the mystery and we have him explaining later on but it's not that hard to guess when we have the chapters from his POV and he shares he prefers that the attention isn't only on him...

Trav works for a company which is temporarily nearby but he, along with other actors, accepts to do some fun playacting while the sick employees recover. It's certainly a strike of genius that an actor like Trav, who has done Broadway shows, is there and is humble enough to do some fun acting at a theme park, but aside from non existing reality checks, this shows us that Trav is a good person and that he does what he can to help others when possible. I connected with his personality more easily than I did with Derek's.

At first they don't seem to get along because Trav sees Derek as one more self confident guy who would bully him, and I could certainly see where he was at with this, and why he wasn't instantaneously happy to be around him. Of course, they eventually start talking more, there's the matter of Derek letting Trav borrow his old car and they realize they get along. Their relationship progresses slowly but in a sweet way and I was happy to see how this allowed to share some personal things too. The sex is closed door, which surprised me, but since the important parts are better seen while they are interacting with others, this wasn't a big deal for me.

When the plot reaches the conflict moment, this is due to the murder which happened at the park, and the fact both guys realize the other isn't as easy to read as they thought, we also get to see how Derek is so much more than his professional persona and Trav is more interested in evolving than what he said in the beginning. Since the story is so directly related to what is going on around the characters and it's not only aimed for their romance, I think this was achieved in a satisfying way, but perhaps for some readers the romance might seem a little underdeveloped.

There are also several secondary characters around and I'm now curious to read about the protagonists of the next books. In regards to the resolution of the plot in this one, I did like the clever ways thought to make things right at the park after the issues they had, and also a solution for Derek and Trav to be together when Trav's company was meant to go back to New York. I might not be explaining myself well, but I felt this was a very well achieved story and I'm glad I've read it.

Grade: 8/10