Claire Thompson brings a lot in this new gay romance: the "menage a trois" (fortunately with all male participant), the only "gay for you" attitude of one of the lovers, and finally the all too evident, but seldom faced, problem of the jealousy inside a menages.

Tuck is in love with Brendan: the first time he realized it was a year before when both of them where in a research camp with other researchers. But Tuck and Brendan had a special alchemy, something that Tuck finds again one year later when both of them are involved in another research project in Antarctica. But Brendan is straight, he even had a girlfriend or two in the past, and other than seems quite comfortable around Tuck, he never lets it go anything to allow Tuck to imagine that he is gay or at least curious. So now, their six week project is almost finished and once again Tuck is letting Brendan go without saying anything.

Enter Jamie, the young researcher in the same project with Tuck and Brendan. While Brendan is straight, and Tuck bisexual, Jaime is all gay; he doesn't flaunt his preferences, at least not inside his work, and till now he has only fantasize about Tuck and Brendan. They are both very handsome man, and for 25 years old Jamie it's impossible to not imagine an hot threesome between them. But probably he wouldn't do anything to make it happens, since as Tuck, he is not sure that Brendan could be interested, and even if he suspects that Tuck could be, they live and work in the same University town, and it would be embarrassing once they are again at home if things go wrong.

But fate plots to help all of them: a sudden snow storm traps the three of them in Antarctica, will all their fellow researchers gone. At first the charade plays only for two: Tuck and Jamie, the simpler pair, Tuck and Brendan, the romantic pair, and finally Jamie and Brendan, the unlikely one. Why this last pair is unlikely? Since where Tuck and Brendan are obviously in love, and so Brendan has at least an year to realize that he is interested in another guy, he approaches his interested to Tuck as something born from love; the "gay for you" definition applies correctly to this relationship, since Brendan loves Tuck despite Tuck being a man. And then the fact that Tuck is bisexual, in a way helps Brendan, since Tuck is not so "different" from him. Instead for Brendan to admit that he is interested also in Jamie means for him take a bigger jump: he is not only interested in a man, he is interested in a openly gay man and to worst things, he is interested while he is apparently in love with another one.

It would be not simple for the three of them to reach a balance, and strange thing, even if Tuck is the mainstay between Jamie and Brendan, who ignites everything and also who has the more active role in the menages is Jamie, the young one, the "freshman" in their work field, but probably the more experienced in dealing with a gay relationship. Tuck and Brendan have both nice roles, but for me the one who comes out better is without any doubt Jamie.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/polar-reaction

Amazon Kindle: Polar Reaction

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Cover Art by Anne Cain