Despite multiple degrees and business success, in his heart Jeremy Strauss feels he’s never measured up. While he hasn’t lacked for men or women to share his bed, Jeremy has yet to find someone who sees beyond his muscles and perfect smile. Taking it slow with a lover isn’t how he operates, but something about the shy accountant he rescues in a snowstorm makes him want this time to be different. … different. So what if Blake drops little comments here and there about Jeremy’s pretty face? Their relationship is perfect.
Or is it?
Lonely most of his life, Blake Myers is as careful with his heart as he is with a balance sheet. The last thing he expects is for a man like Jeremy to fall for him, and he can’t help but wait for the bubble to burst on their relationship. When the stress of a professional crisis turns personal, Blake sees the perfect relationship he and Jeremy have built start to crumble. Caught in an ever-tightening web of lies, rather than wait for Jeremy to leave him, Blake breaks it off and vanishes.
Perfection is an illusion.
Jeremy doesn’t know which way to turn and for the first time in his life, he’s lost and uncertain. Believing he’s no longer the man Jeremy needs, Blake sinks deeper into despair. Both men struggle with secrets, lies, and hurtful memories until they are forced to look inside their hearts and learn the truth—that love is perfectly imperfect.
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Jeremy was a good brother in One Call Away, but I didn’t know just what a wonderful person he was until I got to read his story. While Noah was the one who had their mother pressuring him to fulfill her modelling dreams, Jeremy was the one who wondered why their mom couldn’t come to any of his sporting events or show pride in his achievements. Despite the problems that caused in Jeremy’s psyche, he grew up to become a smart and successful business owner, though he was still judged by many on his looks and assumed to be an airhead jock.
Blake was verbally abused by a father who didn’t find him manly enough, and his mind was constantly throwing that man’s words at him, even as he tried to succeed in life. Thank goodness these two found each other!
I spent much of my reading time yelling at Blake, telling him to stop sabotaging a wonderful relationship, even though he believed anything good in his life came with an expiration date. He looked at Jeremy and saw perfection, and he found himself unworthy. His own pain and fear of rejection had him hurting the best person who’d ever come into his life, and that broke my heart. I loved the people who encouraged these two to get over their own insecurities and make things right.
I loved Noah and Oren’s romance so much. It was beyond satisfying to learn more about Jeremy and Blake, while also seeing Noah’s story from his brother’s point of view. This talented author made me fall in love again, and I will always recommend her emotional stories.
I so enjoyed this well written story. Love this author’s books.
I was so excited for Jeremy’s story, I’ve been looking forward to it since meeting him in “One Call Away” in this same Soulmates series.
Jeremy is an independent gym owner, but he’s not just a great body and cute face. He has a fitness degree and his MBA and he’s no dummy about owning and developing his own business. He always feels like he has to prove himself because he’s never felt good enough in his Mom’s eye, who was so preoccupied with his brother Noah’s modeling success.
Blake is a CPA and Accountant working for a boutique firm handling the accounts and audits. Being successful at his job has always been important to Blake because his father has always told him he’s not good enough and never will be. He carries that in the back of his mind. An introvert, he never thinks he’s be good enough for anyone. Especially not Jeremy.
Blake meets Jeremy on a sidewalk in New York where it’s violently snowing, his umbrella is failing him and his hands are full of grocery bags. Jeremy invites him up to his nearby apartment to get out of the cold and dry off. After hitting it off from their first meeting, Blake still can’t believe someone as amazing and perfect as Jeremy wants to be with him.
After several months of dating, Blake is blindsided by his Accounting firm when they terminate him over a disagreement in handling of an audit of an important customer. The firing has left Blake reeling and has made his already low self esteem and self worth even lower. Blake is too ashamed of having lost his job to tell Jeremy and the stress of lying causes Blake to break things off with Jeremy. He is completely caught off-guard by Blake leaving him. Blake leaving has resurfaced old hurts in Jeremy of not being good enough. How can Blake and Jeremy put aside their old hurts to find each other again?
3.75 stars– PERFECT is the fourth instalment in Felice Stevens’ contemporary, adult SOULMATES erotic, M/M romance series. This is gym owner Jeremy Strauss, and accountant Blake Myers’ story line. PERFECT can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. Some of the events of PERFECT run parallel to the events of book two – ONE CALL AWAY where the reader was introduced to Jeremy’s brother, former model, and radio talk show psychologist Noah Straus.
NOTE: PERFECT is an M/M storyline with graphic sexual situations that may not be suitable for all readers.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Blake and Jeremy) PERFECT follows the building relationship between gym owner and businessman Jeremy Strauss, and accountant Blake Myers. An early snow-storm found CPA Blake Myers taking refuge with a stranger, a man who checked off all of Blake’s boxes but a man Blake believes is too good for a numbers nerd like himself. Jeremy Strauss likes what he sees when he first encounters the shy and sweet accountant, a shyness that only endears Blake to the man with whom he will fall in love. What ensues is the slow building relationship between Blake and Jeremy, and the fall-out as Blake’s professional life begins to implode, taking a toll on his personal relationship with the man that he loves.
PERFECT is a story of opposites attract. Blake has issues of low self-esteem, having been lead to believe that he will never be good enough by the father he has grown to hate. Jeremy is a man determined to find someone who will love him for more than his body and his looks, but for his mind and his heart as well. As Blake’s professional life begins to spiral out of control, the secrets and lies continue to build until he is forced to walk away from the man that he loves.
The relationship between Jeremy and Blake is one of immediate attraction but Blake isn’t one to fall immediately into bed. Jeremy must bide his time as his slow seduction of Blake brings him closer towards his happily ever after. Both Jeremy and Blake have issues stemming from their earlier years, issues that should have been resolved as they entered adulthood and matured but sometimes emotional, childhood scars have a way of causing permanent damage that may never be resolved. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
PERFECT is a sexy and edgy story line. Blake is an awkward numbers man who struggles to be accepted in both his personal and professional life; Jeremy is as laid back as Blake is intense but Jeremy hides a bruised ego as it pertains to his own successes in life. The premise is dramatic and edgy; the characters are realistic and animated; the romance is provocative and intense.
An enjoyable, well-written book
The great characters I’ve come to expect from this author were here, and the set-up was well thought-out. Jeremy and Blake appear very different on the surface, but each has his own insecurities, especially when it come to their perceptions of the other. I liked the growth of their relationship and also enjoyed Jeremy’s enthusiasm for expanding his business.
Besides Blake and Jeremy, there were family, co-workers, even the owner of a favorite restaurant all coming alive during the course of the story and adding wonderful depth. One problem I did have with the book is that I’m not a huge fan of plots driven by secrets. It’s one thing to have secrets in the beginning of the relationship when the partners are getting to know each other, but this was a big one in the middle of the book, and it just made me cringe knowing the whole thing was going to blow up. Really more of a personal taste thing and I did like the ending.
It was an enjoyable, well-written book, just not completely to my taste. 3.5 stars
B2B Kelly
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Ruthie –
3.5 stars of imperfect perfect
This is the fourth in a series of interconnected stories, which have overlaps, but also stand well on their own. We met Jeremy in Noah’s story, and he definitely deserved a happily ever after too.
There is a lovely story in this book, as well as one of men trying and failing to live up to the expectations that they believe others have for them. Inevitably this means that they both spend rather a lot of time in their heads, and not communicating very well how they feel. They do show their feelings with their bodies, but they do not trust that to be true and overanalyse everything. I have to admit that after a while, I did not need telling again about Jeremy’s belief that his mother favoured Noah, or that Blake’s insecurities were because his father belittled him as a child. They both had people on their side, in addition to each other, and as the story goes to show, maybe some of it is worth putting behind you.
As someone who has worked in that kind of corporate world, I did think it was horribly well written, as was the much lighter and fun work environment of Hard Core.
Thankfully, there is a happy ending to the story, and they both pull themselves together and redeem themselves in their own as well as each other’s eyes, which is good news. I think I would have liked it to have happened a bit sooner, and to have had the chance to enjoy them moving forward together.
Angie –
I usually enjoy books by this author but this one just missed the mark for me. I just couldn’t connect with the characters no matter how hard I tried. I was doing okay until halfway through the book and then I thought “is this book over yet?” I could just tell what Blake was going to do and I was screaming “don’t do it.” I felt bad for Jeremy and how everyone saw him as all muscle and no brains, it is something that happens a lot. I think both of these characters needed therapy and more self-confidence. I am sure others will love this book, it just wasn’t for me and I will still read books by this author because every story is different.
Sarah –
This was a painfully slow read for me. The plot structure and pacing felt off from the start. The romance between Blake and Jeremy happens early in the first quarter of the book. It’s a pretty conventional New York courtship – full of questioning and self-doubt. The next three quarters of the story is full of self-induced misery, messy secrets, poor communication, and a whole lot of sulking and brooding. And then there’s a resolution tacked on at the end.
Neither Blake nor Jeremy is a conventional romance hero. And while I usually enjoy quirky men in romance, I didn’t actually like either of these two men. Blake is geeky, unassuming, and struggling with a poor self-image. To compensate, he allows half-truths that make him feel more worthy – but the half-truths soon become complete lies… Urgh. Jeremy is a gym owner and bodybuilder who gets upset when people mention his looks. So he spends hours bodybuilding every day – perfecting his physique to help sell his gym – yet he doesn’t want anyone commenting on his looks and worries that the people around him think he’s a dumb jock. Urgh again. These guys just aren’t terribly sympathetic characters!
I had some sympathy for Blake and his grim work life but I’m not sure how he justifies keeping secrets from the people he professes to love. Because the courtship between Blake and Jeremy happens in record time, it is hard to know if there is ever actually anything more than sexual attraction and convenient proximity between them. By the end of this story, I was out of patience with both men and not completely convinced they were going to make it as a couple.
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Perfect (Soulmates #4) by Felice Stevens to read and review.
Perfect, just perfect. I have no other words for this story. I am a big fan of Felice Stevens, but I think she outdid herself with this one. If you’re familiar with her books, you know her writing is impeccable. I don’t have to tell that I was hooked from the beginning and that I couldn’t put the book down.
There are so many elements that make this story so very special, so perfect. The characters. No one-dimensional characters, but deeply developed ones. There are so many layers to uncover with Jeremy and Blake. Both men are flawed, self-conscious, a product of their upbringing, but they are human, broken and all. Not that they are alike, far from it. They are both unique in their own way. They keep saying the other is perfect, but that can’t see that, with all their imperfections, they are perfect themselves and perfect for each other.
How the way you have been raised can affect you is the common thread in this story. That it still affects you, even if you are in your midthirties. It can affect the way you see yourself, the way you think others look at you. It can let you make decisions you think are best. Decision made out of fear, out of pride or out of love, but in the end, leaves you alone and miserable, and are hurting the one you love.
Their problems and doubts are very realistic and recognizable. At times, I wanted to hit them on the head and yell at them not to be so stubborn, and then the next moment, I wanted to hug them close and never let go. When you’re standing on the outside, it is easy to say what Jeremy and Blake should do, but this author doesn’t do that. They let the guys make their own decisions. That is what it felt like when reading this story. That these two men came alive on the pages and wrote their own story.
It is not only the growing attachment or the hot sex, but it is also what they experience outside their love lives that makes this book a wonderful read. The struggles and triumphs in their professions next to their personal lives make this a complete story.
Felice Stevens approaches difficult issues from different angles and gives you thoughtful observations and such beautiful words. As a result, you keep thinking about the book long after you’re finished.
It is an emotional story; heartbreaking and soul-warming, funny and sexy. Just perfect.