3.5 Stars

Whelp. There’s not much to say here.

I’m going to deem this another “cozy” Mary Calmes. I was pleasantly stoked to find this loosely connected to the A Matter of Time series, intermittently featuring supporting character Duncan Stiel, but that’s beside the point.

Here, Nate doesn’t even know he wants his handsome neighbor until said handsome neighbor makes it known. And in grand Mary fashion, things move hot, wet, and fast. Literally.

Totally absurd in that you know there’s going to be a little drama, there’s going to be lots of oohing and ahhing and “I love you’s”, and there’s going to be some insta-love with very nice smexy.

So if you know that going in, there shouldn’t be any surprises or disappointments. Go forth and enjoy! ( )

Nate is a cinnamon roll with something to learn, our sole point of view character, and this is a deceptively clever novel because of it. Some reviewers missed the point entirely, having never caught on, I guess, to the fact that each of us is an unreliable narrator about ourselves. I suspect it would've been clearer in first person, but that's an author's personal choice.

We all have blind spots, aspects of ourselves we are incapable of seeing without help, and we all too often reject that help as silly.

Nate is in that camp. I have met a person or two like Nate - very likable, intuitively helpful, deeply caring and accepting, refusing to play the verbal/emotional games many people mire themselves in. It's hard to believe they miss things, but they do. We all do. So even though I think the ending could've been a little more concise, I loved this story very much. Writing such a likable character and yet lovingly revealing his biggest flaw takes real talent. His blind spot is huge, shocking to him. But his reactions are all Nate.

This is a very good single POV romance with a cast of characters second to none and a slow burn to smokin' hot sex scenes. Recommended. And thank you to my library for having a digital copy I could borrow! ( )

This was the first time I have read anything by Mary Calmes. It was a lovely read. She really knows how to write low angst while keeping the reader interested. Hot, loveable, humorous characters and steamy love scenes. There weren’t enough love scenes for me but the quality of the writing made up for it. ( )

There are some books I have wanted to read forever, yet somehow never got around to them. ‘Acrobat’ is one of them and I am both sorry it took me so long and happy. Happy only because reading an amazing story about wonderfully complex characters like this for the first time is a treat, and I got to have my treat now. Sorry – I can’t help but feel that I should have gotten around to it closer to its publication date. Be that as it may, if you haven’t read ‘Acrobat' yet, maybe you should consider it. It’s emotional, has quite a few surprises, and the differences between cool and collected English lit professor Nate and hot-blooded Italian-American mobster Dreo added a lot of spice to their romance. They don’t have an easy time of it, but with how much they are clearly meant for each other, I kept hoping they’d get the message. Actually it was Nate who needed to wake up to the truth more than Dreo, and he sure took his time!

If I had to describe Nate, I’d probably say he is like a rock in a stormy sea – no matter how high the waves that batter him, he remains quiet and stable. Partly that is because he can be a little clueless about people and their emotions, but mostly it is because that’s just the way he is. Considerate and always ready to help, mostly logical, and very forgiving. He also doesn’t scare easily, and that comes in handy when the sh*t hits the fan and Dreo’s boss and most of his friends get shot in some sort of a mafia feud. Nate has no idea what it is all about, doesn’t think he is involved, and where others would panic, he shrugs and keeps going.

Dreo is tall, dark, and handsome. He is of Italian descent, and probably involved with the mafia. Nate isn’t sure – not before the events in this story - but the fact that Dreo carries a gun at all times speaks volumes. Dreo is deep and mysterious, and the truth about what he is planning only comes out about halfway through the book. I was impressed. So was Nate. But getting out of the mafia is not a small feat, and there are complications. Dreo may be determined to keep everyone who is important to him safe, but others clearly don’t agree, and that kept me in suspense.

Nate and Dreo’s relationship is interesting – and not just because of the hit men who suddenly appear out of the woodwork. Nate and Dreo have been neighbors, then friends, for four years. Nate loves Dreo’s nephew, Michael, who is sixteen at this point, and watches over him as if he were Nate’s own son. There is some bonding over Michael, but Nate is too busy to try to find his Mr. Right to see Dreo as anything but a friend. When that finally changes, boy, do these two burn up the sheets. Nate really comes into his own for the first time in his life – he stops analyzing everything about Dreo - and finally understands what it means to love someone. In his words: “There were no tricks needed, no midair trapeze work, no acrobatics without a net to impress and keep Dreo Fiore. I could do it without theatrics, with just me and my heart.” Simply beautiful, and a great explanation for the meaning of the title.

If you like complex, real characters who have all kinds of issues to work through before they can get together, if you think the combination of a cool English professor and a hot Italian-American sounds interesting, and if you’re looking for a read that is spellbinding, sometimes heart-wrenching, and always fast-paced, then you will probably like this novel as much as I did.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )

Story: 7
First MC: 8
Second MC: 8
Secondary characters: 7
Mystery: 6
Sexual tension: 6
Humor: 5
Hotness: 7
Product placement: 5
Ridiculousness: 4
Annoying: 2
Suspence: 4
To re-read: 8
( )