Tattoos & Teacups by Anna Martin
Dreamspinner Press
Gay Contemporary
ISBN: 978-1-61372-591-7
Reviewed by Cassie




Professor Robert McKinnon has lived in the United States for years, but he still feels like a bit of an outsider.  He’s got a settled routine, teaching literature, spending time with his best friend, and going home to his cat, but he’s lonely.  Then on a night at a bar with a friend, he meets sexy younger man Chris Ford.  Their first encounter is only a brief meeting, but Chris gives Robert a card and invites him to call.  Robert tells himself he won’t call, but he does.

Chris couldn’t be more different from Robert.  He’s a professional drummer for a rock band, as well as for symphonies and other groups when they need him, and he’s nine years younger than Robert.  The two men share an attraction that slowly deepens into something more.  With so many differences and a professional opportunity of Chris’s standing between them, can they find a way to stay together?

Tattoos & Teacups is a sweet tale of opposites attracting.  Robert is, in his own words, a “static, stoic bachelor.”  He doesn’t think anyone would want him, and tries to be content with his books, his friends, and his cat.  Meeting Chris throws him for a loop.  Chris is young, sexy, tattooed, and outgoing.  It doesn’t seem like they should work, but somehow they do.  Chris helps Robert have fun, and Robert seems to ground Chris in a way nothing else in his life does.  Both of them have to find ways to work together, and they both have moments of insecurity.  Their relationship progresses slowly, with both sweet and hot moments.

Of course it’s not all smooth sailing.  Robert has a huge secret he’s afraid will scare Chris off.  Chris’s age sometimes worries him as well.  The biggest obstacle of all is Chris’s job.  Most bands tour, and Chris’s is no exception.

Tattoos & Teacups is told entirely through Robert’s first-person point of view.  This helped me understand Robert’s feelings, and sympathize with him a lot, but kept Chris a bit of a mystery.  I enjoyed the secondary characters, and the plot kept me entertained with its realistic conflicts.  Overall  I enjoyed Tattoos & Teacups a lot, but I would have liked to see part of the story through Chris’s eyes.  Still, fans of opposites-attract stories will find a lot to like here.