A highly enjoyable story about Paul, a closeted professor working at a very conservative Christian college who, after ten years, accidentally reconnects with Brandon, the man who made him realize he was gay.

I noticed "Worth Waiting For" mostly because of the cover, which I like even more now that I have read the book because it captures the story and its atmosphere perfectly. Despite the subject matter and while there were some angsty moments, overall it had a lighter feel than I had expected, which was a pleasant surprise. It doesn't work so well if you're looking for realism - some things work out a bit too easily and there was one thing I wish had been handled differently- but as a romance book it worked splendidly for me. (I saw other reviewers had more problems with those issues, however.)

Even though I had intended to take a short break from the genre, I found myself unable to stop once I started reading. That is almost always a sign that I will end up loving the story, and it was true in this case as well.

While it's told solely from Paul's POV (in third person, which I tend to prefer), I loved both him and Brandon. I also found the non-romance part of the plot surprisingly engaging and I absolutely adored the romance. To be honest, I don't need sex in my books to enjoy them, but for me Wendy Quails found the right balance between steaminess and sweetness here.

As for the closeted-because-Christian part of the story, it's something that feels very far from my own circumstances, but it was interesting to read about. The closeted aspect comes up a lot in the Japanese BL that I read and I always like to see how similar tropes play out im different cultural contexts.

The setting did remind me of the first of Annabeth Albert's gaymers books a lot, so much so that in the beginning I had the worst sense of déjà-vu, but it turned out differently enough that I didn't mind at all in the end (I just wouldn't want to read them right after another).

I really liked this one and recommend it to everyone looking for a sweet and mildly angsty romance.

Paul and Brandon's story is a blend of sad angst and near-perfect romance. I have many questions about characters' actions and authenticity, and when I find myself second guessing like that I know I am thrown out of the story.

Paul's boss, for example. Why does he dislike Paul so much? How does the mystery stalker get away with as much as he does? And Paul's parents? Are they believable?

I did like Brandon, but he was a saint for putting up with as much hot and cold from Paul as he does.

Overall, the story is okay, but I wanted to enjoy it a lot more than I did.

I'm really sorry but having tried to finish this book a couple times I just couldn't connect to the story. Rather than giving it low-rating I decided not to finish instead.

I was introduced to this author via Save The Date, which was cowritten with Annabeth Albert.
I was looking forward to this story as the blurb sounded interesting.
Unfortunately, the book fell short of good for me. There was so much promise from the blurb for a deeply closeted Paul who works at a conservative, Christian college who reconnects with an old flame who happens to be at the same college for a consulting job.
The book as a whole was banal. Cliched. I feel like I have read this story before. Working in a Christian college, on track for tenure, not wanting to rock the boat by exploring sexuality, little sexual experience, closeted. I can stand to read the same storyline, we all do, but this story just didn't work for me. Even the mystery/suspense aspect fell short. It was never fully fleshed out so it just felt like something that was thrown into a relationship focused book to add tension (which it didn't) and length.
I did like Brandon in the beginning. He was understanding and patient...until he wasn't. And his reactions to Paul toward the end made Brandon less likable for me. I wish the author had delved a bit more into Brandon's feeling for Paul and what Brandon had shared about Paul with his brother before they reconnected. Brandon's brother obviously knew of Paul long before Paul made a reappearance in Brandon's life, but this was never explored.
Paul is closeted. He has kept the one "relationship" he has had a secret from just about everyone. And that partner was in denial over his sexuality. That experience was not an enlightening one for Paul and has affected how he views himself as well as his sexuality. Plus, he has always struggled with his sexuality considering his conservative family and his current work situation. The only people who even know that he is gay is his twin sister (who is pretty supportive), the ex and Brandon.
Of course, Paul was also hesitant with every aspect of a relationship. Even when he was thinking he had serious feelings for Brandon, his actions and words never seemed to take Brandon into account.
And though their sexual encounters were hot and interesting, most of the story fell flat.
I am still not sure what Brandon saw in Paul or what made Paul so interesting or even worth the effort in the first place.

Oh, and this didn't affect the rating, but the formating will need to be fixed before the final version is rolled out. This was a PDF for Kindle (the only option through NetGalley was PDF) and the formatting was abysmal. Words ran together, breaks in the sentence, extra lines, and so many spaces. It was difficult to read, especially considering it was a story that wasn't working for me anyway.

The one thing I found myself liking about this book were the characters, but even they couldn't save the book from the writing. I don't know what it was but I can typically get over writing if the story is good but that was not the case with this book.
Honestly, I stopped reading it about halfway through...even though I tried really hard to stick with it.

✩ ✩ ✩ THREE-STAR ✩ REVIEW ✩ ✩ ✩
> > Judging a Book by it's Cover < <
Two men holding hands in an awkward position while sitting on a bench. Nothing overly eye-catching. Weak title font for the room provided. Nice placement of Author name. The synopsis was not something that would normally draw me in either, however, I'd read a book by this author when she paired up with Annabeth Albert and really enjoyed that book, so I was intrigued how well this author would do on her Solo Debut!

> > Looking Deeper < <
POV ~> Third-person

Ten years ago, Paul and Brandon shared a moment. Now Paul is a Psychology teacher aiming for tenure at a strict college and Brandon is an IT wizard based out of Atlanta, sent to the very same campus that Paul works. Brandon is out, but Paul had pushed himself deeper into the closet in fear of retribution from the department head that seems to dislike him for no valid reason already. Can these men find closure for a time that ended too abruptly and without a goodbye or will they dare to pick up where they left off and risk everything?
Brandon was experienced and wanted to teach Paul a few things that he'd been missing out on. Paul wasn't totally a virgin, right? It was really hard to tell with all the simpering and ninny-like behaviorisms. They may have had a vague, fleeting moment of shared history, but the chemistry was lacking and the compatibility was off-balanced and almost felt unnatural. The secondary characters: a clueless, cliched co-worker with a useless crush on Paul, an ex, a stalker/creeper/hacker, a disgruntled "boss", some family and other minor miscellaneous cast. The dialogue was often-awkward and painful to read. Their interactions were just as bad with Paul becoming the blushing, stammering virgin-esque type and Brandon adopting the suave, coaxing, "seducing" one - one minute he was chanting the "I'm not going to pressure you" mantra and the next he was talking dirty and trying to coerce Paul into something he'd already said "no" to only moments ago. Ugh, no means no. Let it go, move on already! Too many games being played. The plot fell flat, unfortunately, and I found myself disinterested. I wish I could have liked the story more, but even after setting it aside to read a few other ARCs that were due before this one, I was not excited to pick it back up.
After six weeks of struggling to find a connection and the desire to finish this book, I've concluded it just was not going to happen. I wish it were otherwise, but at 53%, I've stopped reading this to move on to more enjoyable books.
.
Rating: [R] ~ Score: 3.285 ~ Stars: 3
==========================
⭐ ⭐ **** Disclosure of Material: I received a copy of this book from @Netgalley and the Author/Publisher with the hope that I would voluntarily leave unbiased and unsolicited feedback. I was not asked, encouraged, or required to leave a review - nor was I compensated in any way. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising". ***** ⭐ ⭐

This was a touching story of two men who were given a second chance to find happiness after a long time apart. Neither knew they'd find one another again and thought their past was just a great memory and also a great secret. With a lot to lose, they take a chance. Unfortunately, other people do whatever they can to tear them apart.

The way they find resolution was a bit over-the-top as well as the big forced reveal, but their chemistry was there. Something that was not so awesome was the lack of depth for either man. We have reason to be interested in these men but they're not truly flushed out, they're basic and have superficial reactions to everything.

There's also a hint of chemistry there, both are obviously attracted to one another, but as for actual passion that connects the two men and makes me believe in a future? Nah, not so much. Paul is a bit schizophrenic with his reaction to intimacy and sex and Brandon swings from being understanding to pushy. Both of them needed to find some kind of happy medium and I feel like neither of them do by the end of the story.

And then the stalker thing was predictable and was more build-up than anything else. This could have been given more thought and execution because as it stands, it feels like trumped up drama to bring interest to a very simple story. The story needed interest, but I don't feel the stalker thing was it. It wasn't even a good way to bring the two MC's together.

Overall, this was an okay book that could have used a crap ton of editing and formatting fixes because my copy (as well as lots of others, it looks like) got stuck with some huge errors and issues that distracted me while reading. It also needed more polish and thought as to what could really drive and keep Paul and Brandon together.

Sorry, terrible format to read. And when I forced myself to actually read it, the plot is pretty dull :(. Cannot force myself to finish.

Would love to read something by this author again! The story was well thought out and the characters were very likable!

This story was beautiful. A true love story in every sense. The Christian aspect of it was very well done. The writing was excellent and the love between these two inspiring. I would recommend it and enjoyed it very much.

This is technically my second read by Qualls but as my first exposure to her was a co-written effort -- with one of my favourite m/m authors -- I'm going to count this as my first true Qualls' experience. And honestly, in all probability, it's likely going to be my last.

I don't know if it's because I now associate Qualls with Albert but this read more or less like the discarded plot to one of Albert's books. And definitely echoed some of the backstory of one of her <i>#gaymers</i> characters (STATUS UPDATE happens to be one of my top top faves of hers, so I'm definitely biased) so I was already not feeling too kind towards WORTH WAITING FOR. I appreciate the inspiration and homage but it was hard not to make comparisons and how painfully this one just didn't measure up. Not to mention it was easy to see why the aforementioned co-written book wasn't my favourite, either. I just don't think Qualls' writing style works for me.

Ignoring previous works and other authors for a moment, though, I will say that the biggest problems I had with this first book in the <i>Heart of the South</i> series was that I guessed the "villain" of the piece by about.. 30%? Maybe earlier. I thought some of the main protagonist's conflicts around his sexuality.. confusing. But considering the impact of the church on his closeted self I let the wishy washy contradictory stuff go because there were worse things. Like : I found the overall plot dull; I put this down so many times, I was so tempted to DNF at 50% but I heroically pushed on, and it was only the 'you have [..] time remaining' that kept me going. Which unfortunately exposed me to more endlessly articulated sex scenes (seriously, everything is described, everything is dialogue) made worse by a terribly formatted file.

"<i>I want to watch you come apart -- see those blue eyes go to almost all pupil and then slam close as you come. Want to feel your breathing stutter and freeze and then all the air escape you lungs at once as you finally collapse on top of me.</i>"

Seriously. That's just <b>one</b> example of some of the 'paint by numbers' dirty talk in this book. I found a lot of oddness in the dialogue, actually. Things that didn't need to be said, things that didn't need to be described.. just awkward.

There was only one thing I liked and it was the epilogue. And even that had an element that felt.. borrowed by Albert. I don't know. Maybe I've read too much m/m (not possible), maybe I'm just looking for the similarities (they are glaring), but compounded by everything else, my boredom, the obvious plot, the unsexy sexy scenes.. sorry, no thanks. Nothing drew me in, nothing kept my focus, and I disliked both of the MCs; one was duller than a plain rice cracker and the other came off as the gay whisperer. Even though.. he was as inexperienced.. as.. the.. other.. MC?

I also didn't like the criticism regarding queer stereotypes and doing 'manly' things. I realize these characters don't speak for the author but.. while all representation is important, I still think you have to be aware of your audience. It felt a little shame-y towards people who like the drag scene or, heaven forbid, put glitter in their hair. It just felt unnecessary to focus on (this was brought up a few times) considering all the other homophobic elements already at play in the community <b>and</b> at the church and college.

Anyway.

This wasn't brain-bleedingly terrible, it didn't make me rage or hulk out, in fact this is probably one of the more ambivalent one-stars I've ever given, but, sorry to say, there was really nothing to recommend it.

1.5 stars

DNF AT 12%

I was quite excited about this after reading the blurb as it is my type of book. However I am disappointed to say that the expectation didn't meet the reality.

Firstly I found, what I did manage to read, incredibly difficult due to the formatting issues within the kindle edition. For example the end of the first page read as follows:

"There have been some complaints
about you," Dr Kirshner announced. "Sorry?"
he slid a stapled sheaf of papers across his
desk toward Paul. "Employee
codeofconduct-
youmayremebersigningit whenyouwerefirs-
tired. I gather its been giving you trouble
recently."

I also felt that the story didn't flow as well as it should and the writing was quite stilted. I feel that it would have worked better if it was written in the first person as some parts of the book felt very much 'and then and then and then' when describing things the character was doing/thinking. Similarly as the story began to unfold, certain things were almost over explained (e.g. when describing physical attributed of characters). Moreover I just felt that there was no real chemistry between the characters and the conversations they had were quite awkward in places. I also didn't really like Brandon very much and found him quite annoying as well as pushy towards Paul at times.

All in all I have to say that as much as I loved the idea of the story line, the book just didn't work for me. I can honestly say I was disappointed as I really did want to like it.

Worth Waiting For,by Wendy Qualls,
I must say that the formatting is a nightmare,very unpleasant to read.
I missed the posibility for an epub.
the story about coming out,second chance was a nice one.
a bit rushed,I kept feeling that I was missing out on the guys.
it was a bit chunky,the mistery was not a mistery at all.
but I liked the story enough,Too bad I could not give a 4/5 star
rating.
Wendy Qualls has talent,but it need more bite..for my taste.
this is not a book I will be re-reading.
but I was happy with the change

1.5 Stars

I was really keen on reading this from the blurb. I was hoping for a great "Out For You" story about a second chance love and reconnecting with first love...and I sort of got it?

Told from the single POV of deeply closeted Paul, his very carefully ordered life is thrown upside down when his college freshman crush, Brandon, is hired as an IT Security consultant for the college and Paul is ordered to work with him. Brandon immediately comes on to Paul and offers a no-strings-attached affair, which Paul eventually agrees to and doesn't because Paul is the king of mixed signals. He doesn't really know what he wants or how to communicate anything and Brandon is left to constantly encourage or push Paul to ask for what he wants.

There's a secondary plot involving a cyber crime mystery that I wished were more interesting than it turned out to be. It had a good premise, but fell apart for me in the follow through.

While the story has some positive elements, along with some nice passion and dirty talk once Paul lets down his guard, the writing is not what I'd hoped it would be, the plot was clunky and obvious without the benefit of being sweet enough to overlook it, and I just didn't enjoy it.



The final nail in the coffin for me was the formatting of the copy I received. Now, by no means is this the book's fault, but when a reader is struggling with elements of a story that might not be working for them, the last thing you want to do is make it difficult for them to actually read the story.

I received a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for review. When you request a book it gives you (usually) two choices to download the book: in this case I chose between "Send To Kindle - Protected PDF" or "Download Protected PDF". I actually used the Send To Kindle feature first, which should have been properly formatted by either the author or publisher BECAUSE THEY KNEW IT WAS GOING TO A KINDLE. Instead it showed up with horrible formatting problems. For example:

You walked in
and you were
wearing this T-shirt that— I don’t even
know what it was abouttheshirt, honestly, butitfityoureallywell.AndIhadabitofasilent freak-out
right
there
in
the
middle of everybody

Then, when I went back to NG and I tried to download the PDF, I couldn't even open it. I found out later I would have to download a special program (because even though it's a "PDF" it won't open in Adobe PDF Reader) and then a Calibre plug-in just to open it. WTF?

Anyway, it made an already not-so-enjoyable read much, much worse and put me completely off.

Obviously, your mileage may vary, and hopefully when they start offering it for sale they will have fixed the terrible formatting.

I received an ARC from NetGalley. Not a big fan of this book or writer who I've not heard of before. The writing was really boring and awkward. I did not feel a real connection between the two main characters like ever throughout the book which was sad because I think it could be a better book, maybe ion first person? Not sure. The plot was really blatantly apparent to me and easy to figure out, the more I read. Paul and Brandon had no chemistry which, along with the fact that I figured out the end in the middle, made this book hard for me to read and finish. Seriously not a fan of the writing....

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC.

There were formatting problems which I hope will be sorted out before publication. I eventually read mine downloaded via Adobe Digital Editions which was relatively error free,

However, I had other issues with this novel.

The premise looked good- Paul and Brandon renew their friendship after a ten year gap and with unfinished business hanging in the air. Brandon has avoided commitment and Paul has had one failed relationship. Unfortunately the book did not live up to expectations.

The writing is particularly clunky and the author has a tin ear as far as dialogue is concerned.People talk AT each other not TO or WITH.

I do not have problems with stories about men who are in the closet but when it came to Paul choosing to lose the love of his life rather than open the door, he deserved to be outed which is not something I normally approve of. Neither do I have problems with stories having a Christian element but this was so heavy-handed in its endorsement of a liberal-Christian Church where EVERYONE accepted gay people.

I appreciate that as a Scot I probably do not understand fully what the fundamentalist South is like but
even in Calvinist Scotland you would be hard put to find as many intolerant and bigoted people as there were in this book.Paul’s “ex” Christopher was an unpleasantly extreme example of a closeted and controlling bigot.Paul’s colleague Grace could not possibly have been so dim as to have gone all that time without a glimmer of the truth about his sexuality.

The sex was another issue with me.There was way too much in too much detail and of course every gay man has got to really like penetrative sex!!

And the conclusion. Is it now obligatory for every m/m to end up with a proposal/wedding/baby scenario? There are plenty of other happy outcomes for gay couples.

There were lots of important and interesting issues in this book such as the relationship between faith and sexuality, and the importance of living as your true self. Unfortunately the writer was not up to handling them.

Sadly, two stars.

I enjoyed Save the Date, Wendy Qualls' collaboration with Annabeth Albert. Unfortunately, sans Albert, Qualls' writing sinks into the trite and awkward.

Worth Waiting For is told from the perspective of Paul, a professor at a Christian college who's in the closet and wants to stay there. When his college crush, Brandon, arrives in town to work as an IT consultant on campus, Paul can't stop thinking about him.

Brandon suggests they get together, for dinner and more. But Paul is scared and gives off mixed signals. He's not a virgin (he was with his ex for a couple years), but he sure acts like one.

While I understood why Paul worried about coming out, I didn't get his schizophrenic outlook on sex. One minute kissing is too much; the next, he's all hot and bothered. Brandon tries to be patient, but he's quite pushy.

There was little tension in the story, despite the stalker/blackmail plot, which was clunky and obvious.

I felt no connection between the MCs; I was so bored with the relationship, I skimmed through the steamy scenes. I don't know what the hell Brandon saw in Paul, but both men were one-dimension and wooden. The dialogue made me cringe.

I liked the Southern setting and the sparkly HEA, but the story lacked oomph and polish.

P.S. This in no way affects my rating, but my ARC was a formatting FAIL: hard breaks in sentences, typos, andwordsthatrantogetherlikethis.