Title: Charitable Giving
Author: Heidi Champa
Length: 17,000 words
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: m/m contemporary romance
Grade: B
Blurb:
In his job as a fundraiser for Diggerson college, Mitch Harmon hears the word “no” a lot. Getting people to part with their hard-earned cash isn’t easy, no matter how good the cause, and the constant rejection is starting to wear on Mitch. The only bright spot of his job is Cal Marlow, a successful software developer and alum of Diggerson College, who has been generous with his donations.
When their relationship goes from strictly business to physical, they agree it should remain no-strings-attached. But, Mitch finds himself falling for Cal, despite his vow to keep things simple. When he finally gets the courage to tell Cal how he feels, Cal has an announcement of his own—he’s met someone, and wants to put an end to their fun and go back to being “professional.”
Has Mitch missed his chance at happiness, or can he find a way to get the love and the life he wants?
Review:
This is part of a set of books at AA, all on the theme of office based romance. In this case it’s between Mitch, who works as an alumni fundraiser, and one of his best donors, Cal. The pair have a no-strings sex agreement every few weeks, but Mitch finds himself falling for Cal. After careful prodding by a friend – who managed not to seem interfering – Mitch resolves to tell Cal how he feels, only to find that Cal has met someone and wants to end their arrangement.
The story is set around a series of missed opportunities. I liked Mitch and understood his fears of showing his feelings to Cal. He’s not great at talking about his feelings or explaining himself so it seemed natural that he would hang back and maybe wait for Cal to make the first move, especially as it was Cal who originally made the move from a business to pleasure. My heart ached for Mitch when he finds out that he’s lost out and the scene at the restaurant almost moved me to tears, showing how invested I felt in the story.
The second part of the story was still good, but I found myself getting rather impatient with Mitch who wavered between contacting Cal again or putting it all behind him and moving on. There was a predictable scene where Mitch goes out to forget Cal and then bumps into him in a club, which is the sort of thing that crops up all the time in m/m romance, but that was balanced out by a couple of perfectly written awkward scenes between the two men, showing their confusion about their feelings.
Overall, I enjoyed this story which managed to successfully pull off a miscommunication story. These can be tricky to do and still keep sympathy with the characters so I applaud the author in this case. I also liked the parts with Mitch and his boss which were rather amusing. If you are looking for a nicely written contemporary with some tense scenes and a decent camaraderie between Mitch and his female office friend then I would recommend this one.
