Tribute Act by Joanna Chambers

Nathan Bridges hadn’t intended to settle down in his hometown of Porthkennack—he just ended up staying after saving the family business from ruin. The truth is, Nathan can’t stop himself from stepping in when problems arise. He’s a fixer, the man everyone turns to. But even fixers can’t solve everything.

When Nathan’s sister needs an organ transplant, it’s his stepbrother, Mack, who the family turns to as Rosie’s only potential living donor. Nathan’s curiosity about the stepbrother he’s never met turns to shock when he realises that Mack is his latest—and hottest ever—one-night stand.

Nathan and Mack agree to forget their single night together, but that’s easier said than done. When Mack moves in to Nathan’s place to recuperate after surgery, it’s not just the sexual tension between them that keeps growing. Against all the odds, and despite Mack’s wariness of intimacy, the two men grow close enough that Nathan begins to wonder what it would take to mend the rift that’s kept Mack and his father estranged for over a decade... and whether Mack might consider staying with Nathan in Porthkennack for good.

Book 8
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
I enjoyed both the romance and the family drama in the newest addition to the Porthkennack series. This the story of two stepbrothers who meet for the first time as adults, only learning about their family relationship after hooking up together. And their family relationships are pretty messy.

I really loved Nathan. He knows his family’s weaknesses, but he holds them all together regardless. And when Mack enters his life, he can’t help but feel guilty about their very different experiences of the same family.

I wanted to love Mack, but I never felt like I had an opportunity to properly know him. His terrible experiences with his family have left him quiet, closed off, and afraid of intimacy. I feel like I needed Mack’s first-person narration to help me understand his thoughts and feelings – but we don’t get Mack’s perspective until the epilogue. This is Nathan’s story. His is the narrative voice (and I loved his narration), but we only ever see Mack through Nathan’s eyes, which doesn’t completely work for such an insular character.

As this book focuses on a liver transplant and complex family estrangement, it is an angsty story and it isn’t always an easy read. The situations and emotions aren’t quite as dramatic as those in the Garrett Leigh books in this series, but the more ordinary family tensions work well against the small town Porthkennack setting.

This story stands alone better than most of the other Porthkennack books. I didn’t recognise many of the characters from earlier books and there aren’t really any references to earlier events. There also isn’t as much of a distinct sense of Porthkennack itself in this story as there is in some of the other books. New readers may find this book easier to get into, but I missed some of the overlap I’ve come to expect in this series.

Joanna Chambers always wanted to write. In between studying, finding a proper grown-up job, getting married, and having kids, she spent many hours staring at blank sheets of paper and chewing pens. That changed when she rediscovered her love of romance and found her muse. Joanna’s muse likes red wine and coffee and won’t let Joanna clean the house or watch television.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Tribute Act (Porthkennack #8) by Joanna Chambers to read and review.