I’m desperately attracted to my husband.
Which wouldn’t be a problem, except he’s straight.

What happened is, my longtime crush/hero got badly injured saving me from my evil ex-boyfriend. When I found out he (my hero, not my ex) didn’t have health insurance, I did the logical thing: I proposed. To my surprise, he said yes.

I knew that Camden wasn’t interested in me like that. This deal was always meant to be temporary—just until he healed and could get his own insurance and I found a place to stay, since I’m not moving back in with my ex. No feelings involved.

Except Cam kissed me at our wedding ceremony, and ever since, we can’t seem to stop kissing. He says he’s curious what sex with a man would be like, but I don’t want to be another straight guy’s experiment.

Still, Cam is so kind and beautiful, with his dark eyes and tousled curls shoved into a backward baseball cap. His patience makes me want to throw out all my carefully crafted rules. And don’t get me started on how his first instinct is to protect me …

But I’m scared if I open my heart, I’m going to get hurt. Again.

Can I risk telling Cam how I feel before our deal ends? Or should I let him go and lose the best (fake) relationship I’ve ever had?

Curious is a stand-alone contemporary M/M romance novel with a marriage of convenience and bisexual awakening. It features Shelby, a receptionist who’s never met a vision board he didn’t like; Camden, an internet-famous contractor; and a hasty wedding for medical insurance reasons. Happy ever after guaranteed.

Review –

Leave reality at the door if you read this. Parts aren’t even remotely realistic.

Cam, 31, is a contractor. He and his brother Charlie have a popular DIY channel. He’s about to leave the home of his latest customer when he hears loud screaming coming from the house next door.

Shelby, 24, the flamboyant receptionist at Weston & Ramirez law firm, has just discovered that his boyfriend is married to a woman. To make the situation worse, the boyfriend was on the phone with the wife who heard Shelby’s voice. So not only did Shelby learn that his boyfriend is a bastard, his wife also learned that he was a cheating bastard. The boyfriend turned on Shelby and, to be blunt, beat the hell out of him. It was his scream that Cam heard.

Cam rushes over and ends up getting punched a few times by the now-ex. When he realizes Shelby has been beaten up, who he knows through his siblings who work with him, he gets all protective and ends up seriously fighting the guy. Unfortunately, Cam steps wrong and ends up breaking his ankle, though he didn’t know it was broken at the time.

Shelby is now homeless, having let his place go when he moved in with the cheating bastard. Cam, being the good guy he is, offers to let him stay in his recently remodeled pool house. The rest of the house isn’t close to being completed, but the pool house is ready.

Once they arrive, Shelby learns that Cam doesn’t have health insurance, which makes him hesitant to go to the doctor for his ankle.

If you’re not American, I doubt you know the extent of how if you don’t have insurance here, you’re screwed. Even with insurance you’re screwed, but at least you can get in to see somebody in an emergency. Not to mention the ridiculous cost of care here.

Long story short, Shelby offers to marry Cam because the insurance through the law firm goes into effect immediately for spouses, and covers pre-existing conditions.

Cam surprisingly agrees, and they have a rush, rush wedding at the courthouse with Alden (from Studious) and Charlie (from Ferocious) as witnesses. When it comes time to kiss his husband, Cam – the only straight one of the siblings – lays one on Shelby. We’re talking a real kiss, not some quick peck on the lips.

The straight guy may not be so straight after all. 😉

The above statement is proven when he wants more kisses. Kisses lead to cuddling and sleeping in the same bed together. This then leads to them playing around sexually, with Cam feeling like it’s right, not weird, even though he’s always identified as straight. Later they do end up having penetrative sex, though everything is rightfully freaking Shelby out. He’s been the ‘experiment’ for bi-curious guys all too often and been devastated as a result. He doesn’t want to be that with Cam. Only to Cam, it’s not just wanting to experiment with a gay guy. It’s wanting to keep the marriage going forever, not just until his ankle is better.

I’ve loved Shelby since the first time I saw him in the series. I fell in love with Cam while reading this book. He was just so… I don’t want to say perfect because he wasn’t. But he was protective, sweet, and only cared about making Shelby happy. He was so determined to show Shelby that he’s worthy of love. There was also a little help in that regard from the folks at the law firm.

Cam also had a bad relationship experience before Shelby. His fiancee literally left him at the altar a year prior. You’d think he would be the one iffy about love and marriage, but no, that was all Shelby.

This is such a sweet story. Shelby is such a sweetheart, and you’ll just want to reach inside the book and hug him. I adored Cam’s protectiveness, and his lack of shyness about what he was learning about his sexuality. In public, he proudly introduced Shelby as his husband, and would show a little PDA. He had no qualms about hugging and kissing him, no matter who was around.

This is not gay-for-you, something Kazza and I have discussed recently. Cam is described as never hooking up with a guy before, but he’s also described as someone who always felt that if he was attracted to a man, he wouldn’t have an issue with it. That was proven with how he was with Shelby from the very start. He and Shelby barely knew each other when everything – abusive ex, the broken ankle, the fake marriage, etc. – went down, yet he was immediately attracted to Shelby and had no problem showing it. There was zero hesitation when it came to sex, and no guilt afterward. He wanted Shelby and that was that.

This is a really good book, definitely one of my favorites in the series. I enjoyed watching these guys come together, and I enjoyed watching Shelby finally realize that he was worthy of love.

4.5 stars.