Watching and Wanting is the second book I’ve read by Jay Northcote. It is the fourth book of his Housemates series and works perfectly fine as a standalone—I read book one, Helping Hand, several months ago, but have not yet read the other two. In addition to being a well-composed and uncomplicated story, the chemistry between the main characters, along with the fact that it hits a couple of my particular kink buttons, definitely makes this a book I’ve now added to my to-be-reread pile.
Shawn starts the novel without much drive. He and his girlfriend split up in the first chapter. His friends have all moved on to bigger and better things after they graduated from university with him, but unlike them, he’s stuck working a low-wage, dead-end job and has no current prospects for anything more. He lives in a house that’s mostly full of queer men, but he’s straight. At least that’s what he’s always convinced himself he is until he walks in on one of the housemates, Jude, masturbating as the star of a live webcam show. Once back in his own room, he can’t resist the urge to log in and watch, and it ignites sexual feelings he realizes he’s repressed. After Jude agrees to Shawn’s offer to appear on camera with him, things quickly get complicated between them.
One thing I’ve learned by reading a couple of Jay Northcote’s stories is that he is very good about letting the story unfold without adding unnecessary things to add drama or make it longer while still giving the reader a complete and satisfying story, regardless of how long or short it turns out to be. This is a skill I wish more writers of M/M romances used more effectively, because the result is almost always a thing of beauty. In the case of Watching and Wanting, not only is the plot beautiful for its simplicity, but it allows the chemistry between Shawn and Jude to sizzle from the moment Shawn realizes he’s not as straight as he thought. Happily, this doesn’t turn out to be gay-for-you or some other bi-phobic crap. Shawn is bisexual, though very much repressed due to his being heavily in denial.
The blurb mentions the word “kinky,” but take my word for it that it’s nothing big: Shawn discovers that he likes it when Jude takes control during their sexual encounters, so at one point, he lets Jude tie his hands behind his back. Beyond that small bit of Dom/sub play, there is no kink, unless you count the exhibitionism/voyeurism factor of participating on one end or the other of webcam shows. Regardless of how you look at it, the sexual encounters here are some of the hottest I’ve read in some time.
Perhaps the only minor sticking point that I have about the plot of the book lies in the fact that the factor preventing Jude and Shawn from being together is that Jude refuses to date a closeted guy. When Jude addresses the situation with Shawn, it comes across as very much an ultimatum. Being of a generation where coming out was not as easy as it is now always makes me cringe when this situation occurs in a M/M romance. At least in this story, Jude brings it up before they get too deeply involved, so it didn’t bother me as much as the plot device has in some other books.
Watching and Wanting is an uncomplicated, quick, and sexy-as-fuck read. While the time span of the novel doesn’t last long enough for the guys to get a happily-ever-after, their happy-for-now ending is good enough, because they’ve already worked past their stumbling blocks and they’re obviously a perfect match for each other. Not much more I can ask for than that.
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- JanReviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2017
5 Stars**** Sweet mother of God
