ODE TO LOVE by Derrick Webber
Fiction, M/M Contemporary Romance
4****

Blurb: Braeden Byrne is starting his career as a third-generation art detective. The owner of Briarvale Estate in Surrey, England hires him to search for her great-granduncle’s missing poetry. Cyrus Pemberton, following in the footsteps of Oscar Wilde, dared to write of his love for another man. Imprisoned in the house by his brother in 1905, the question was his missing poetry hidden or destroyed? Dr. Anton Smythe, noted Cambridge literary scholar, is also keen to track down the lost work, but not keen to work with this young American upstart. He fights to resist his attraction to Braeden, only to discover that the attraction is mutual. Though they strive to remain professional, nights alone in the decrepit manor house ignite passions the two men cannot ignore. Will they discover lasting love alongside the missing verses of the Ode to Love?

THOUGHTS: At only 115 pages, this is a relatively quick read. Braeden Byrne and Anton Smythe are well-done characters who are on the search for the answer to a decades old mystery. For me, their hot romance was a little too quick, especially after the initial animosity between them. They are looking for the lost stanzas to a poem written decades ago by Cyrus Pemberton, the great-granduncle of the owner. Anton is a professor at Cambridge who specialized in Pemberton and Braeden is an art detective. Together, the two of them find a way to work together to not only find the missing poetry, but pieces of Pemberton’s life that have been missing as well – and save the estate in order to turn it into a museum. It’s a lot to take on, but they manage to do it and find themselves as a couple as well.

A nice romance, but as I said above, it was a little too rushed for me. But it is a good story with a great outcome.

Recommended.