Review: Starfish and Coffee by Kele Moon

Title: Starfish and Coffee
Author: Kele Moon
Release Date: February 28, 2013
Pages: 302
Read: January 2-4, 2014

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):

On the island where they first met two lovers from opposite sides of the tracks are reunited. Now jaded and broken, Alex and Matt still can’t deny their sizzling connection or the memories of one perfect, uninhibited year together.

At twenty-two, Matt Tarrington is rich, good-looking and destined to be powerful, but behind that confident exterior lurks a man who resents the life his family thrust upon him. Desperate for an escape, Matt heads to Mirabella Island off the coast of Florida for a year of relaxation and some wild nights with vacationing party-girls.

Matt never expected to find real passion in the arms of Alex Hunter, a handsome, laid-back local.

Alex is gay, but closeted. Matt should be completely off limits, but Alex finds the deeply in denial rich boy too tempting to ignore. Especially when a bet has them working together, fighting the heat in the rundown, beachside cafe where Alex sweats for every dollar.

Their love felt inevitable until youth left them vulnerable to hatred and greed. Now after six years of hating the lies they live, Alex and Matt will have to risk it all for the second chance they both desperately need.

My Thoughts:

Ohhh. I have my first very favorite for the year 2014.

A new favorite for all-time.

This, for me, was pure magic. I loved every word, every page. I was enraptured by Alex and Matt’s story. By the end of page three (according to my phone), my heart had broke into a million pieces. I got a little sniffly, a little teary eyed, and I was already demanding that this Alex and this ‘Matty’ have their happy ending; I wouldn’t accept anything less.

I honestly can’t explain why this story affected me as profoundly as it did or what it was about it that made me love it so hard. Something, whatever it was, just clicked.

While I had wanted to write a rational and thoughtful review that would clearly express just how much I loved this book, it’s been three days since I completed Starfish and Coffee and I know that such a review will not happen. What will happen is me fangirling. (To be fair, I did warn you that this would happen.)

And I’m going to fangirl the hardest way I know how . . . also known as Star Trek style, so heads up, I’m about to get really geeky here.

This is what the prologue did to me:

This is how I felt when Alex and Matt see each other after six years:

Oooh, I’m gonna like you two . . .

This is how I felt when I realized that this book had a GFY vibe (also known as my crack):

Mmmm, yes, please. Carry on.

This is how I felt every time Alex and Matt were heading toward kissing, having sex, fucking, or making love–whatever you want to call it:

Please . . . ?

And this was me because of the last couple of chapters:

And, finally, this is what the epilogue did to me:

Awwww . . .

I really do wish I could put all the feels that I had because of this book into words, but I can’t. All I can say is that I wanted to turn into a puddle of mush every time Matt called Alex “Lex” or “Lexie” or Alex called Matt “Matty”. I sighed dreamily as I watched two men who are so far a part in likes become friends, then friends who had really hot sex, and finally into friends who had fallen in love with the other and wanted to be together (and had really hot sex).

I seethed when Matt’s mother does what she does, which makes Alex become afraid, and when Matt just leaves. I understood why Alex became afraid, and I understood why Matty left, and I knew that, in some ways, this separation had to happen, but damn it! That doesn’t mean I wanted it to or that I accepted it.

As I stated previously, I don’t know what it was exactly about Starfish and Coffee that made me fall in love with it as completely as I did (Catherine happened to be reading it at the same time I was and while she liked it, she didn’t love it to the level that I do, so there you are). I just know that it gave me this sense of calm while I was reading it (except when it pissed me off those couple of times). It’s like it cleansed my soul for the new year, getting me ready for all the shit that could happen; it gave me a safe haven for a couple of days that, in the long run, will surpass the number of days it took me to read it. And I’m thankful for that.

Now you should give it a chance. Maybe it might offer you the same calm it offered me. You never know.

Quotable Quotes:

“Holly thinks I should tell you I love you,” Alex whispered once he caught his breath. “At a time when it actually counts.”
Matt’s chest tightened, and he had to clear this throat. “Now would probably count.”
Alex reached up and brushed at Matt’s wet hair; then he pushed up and whispered into his ear. “I love you, Matty.”

My Rating: