A Little Side of Geek

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
This is the story of the unlikely romance between a comic book writer and self-professed ‘geek’ and a chef running his family business.

Morris and Theo are both very likeable characters and I enjoyed learning about their lives and their jobs. But this is a much heavier book than the cover or the blurb suggest. Theo is the oldest of four siblings who have just lost their parents. When he meets Morris, he is already struggling to balance his restaurant responsibilities with his new role as his teenage brother’s guardian. Morris’ life is somewhat simpler but he struggles with his relationship with his large family, and running his own business takes a whole lot out of him.

This really isn’t a sexy read. Like most romance readers, I read to relax and to escape from the demands of my own life for a while. Theo and Morris’ struggles to find time for their relationship between family and work commitments is a little bit too realistic. There is one point when Morris reflects that he doesn’t think of Theo as sexy – more boy next door. Unfortunately, this comes across to readers in the way the two relate to each other. Morris and Theo build a friendship and a relationship but there isn’t ever much spark between them.

I like Morris and Theo and I enjoyed their interactions with family and colleagues. I like the relationship that builds between them, but this is a romance without much romance and there were times the story dragged some for me.

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of A Little Side of Geek (Geek Life #1) by Marguerite Labbe to read and review.

**Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by DreamSpinner Press for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.**

A Little Side of Geek is the first book in Marguerite Labbe’s Geek Life series. This is a new-to-me author that I’ll definitely read again in the future!

I really loved this story and its characters. Morris was a proud geek, comic book artist, kilt wearer with great friends and family. He enjoyed going to comic conventions, hanging out with his friends and playing games. He was happy with his life just the way it is. Theo’s life revolved around running and cooking at his family restaurant and raising his younger brother. Life had thrown him some curves and he had no time for anything outside of his family and restaurant. He was overworked, overstressed and too busy to mourn the loss of his parents and half his family. Both lives were changed when Theo met his neighbor and his legs. Turns out Theo really liked Morris in a kilt.

I loved the building of the relationship between Morris and Theo and their family’s. This story truly showed the entire build-up from the first meet to deciding their future. It’s rare to see the dating aspects in books; seeing two people with busy lives trying to make room and time to let someone else in but this author does a great job of showing the work involved in having a relationship.

A couple of issues kept this from being a 5-star review for me. There are random sections from POV’s not of the main characters of this story. I realize the author is setting up for the rest of the series, but I was not a fan especially because they just randomly appeared. And, I know this book has a lot to do with gaming, cosplay and all of this type of thing, but sometimes it was just too much detail and explanation which just made my attention wan. As I know very little about these things, I really just grew bored with all the information regarding it. At first, I enjoyed getting to know more about this life but it just became too much.

But, those were not enough to change my love of the story. I’d definitely recommend you read this book! This was not an easy HEA but it had two men who worked for it despite the obstacles. It had two MC’s that really grew throughout the story and you really saw them building a family. The author’s writing is fantastic, she certainly knows how to weave a story! I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

Rating: 4 stars!