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![Out! (ShamwellTales Book 3) by [JL Merrow]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51z5SoWx83L._SY346_.jpg)
Out! (ShamwellTales Book 3) Kindle Edition
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Mark Nugent has spent his life in the closet — at least, the small portion of it he hasn’t spent in the office. Determined to make amends to his neglected teenage daughter from a failed marriage, Mark swears off work — and love — so he can give her a stable home environment. But Mark’s resolve to keep his heart under wraps is tested when he meets an out and proud young man he’s instantly drawn to.
Patrick Owen is a charity worker with strong principles. He doesn’t trust easily, but he’s blown away by his attraction for the older man who’s so new to his own sexuality. Yet Mark is adamant he’s not coming out to his daughter — and Patrick refuses to live a lie.
What with Mark’s old-fashioned attitudes and his flirtatious ex-colleague who’s determined to come between them, Patrick begins to wonder if they’ll ever be on the same page. And when Mark’s career as a tax advisor clashes with Patrick’s social conscience, sparks really start to fly — in all the wrong ways.
NOTE: This is a revised second edition, originally published elsewhere.
* * * * * * *
Word count: 81,700; page count: 305
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJune 25, 2017
- File size2929 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
I appreciated how the book incorporated several aspects of gay life that aren't necessarily discussed - the "it didn't work" marriage, children from the marriage, and being closeted to your own kids - Gay Book Reviews
JL Merrow's talent for mixing humour and fun with the more serious storyline is wonderful...an emotional, funny, sexy romance - Claire Margaret Potterton, Divine Magazine
I could so understand Mark and his attitudes it was uncanny...No chance of being carefree and out without facing a whole load of bigotry and the rest... I just loved how JL Merrow deals with the whole subject. Realistic, compassionate and endears the reader to her characters immediately - Mark Wills, Sinfully Gay Romance Book Reviews
I'm still smiling. This is one of those stories that just make me all warm and fuzzy. It's like hot cocoa (with tiny marshmallows) on a cold day - Gay Guy Reading
A marvelous addition to the series! It had its moments of hilarity, but also bittersweet times, and I rejoiced in each of them in equal measure...Thank you, J.L., for more from my favorite village - Rainbow Book Reviews
Product details
- ASIN : B073BLP6QC
- Publisher : Riptide Publishing; 2nd edition (June 25, 2017)
- Publication date : June 25, 2017
- Language : English
- File size : 2929 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 286 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 1626496102
- Best Sellers Rank: #998,830 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,312 in Bisexual Romance
- #19,606 in Gay Romance
- #29,207 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again.
She writes (mostly) contemporary gay romance and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy, and several of her books have been EPIC Awards finalists, including Muscling Through, Relief Valve (the Plumber’s Mate Mysteries) and To Love a Traitor.
JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, International Thriller Writers, Verulam Writers and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: https://jlmerrow.com/, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow
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Top reviews from the United States
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By J.L. Merrow
Five stars
This third volume of J.L. Merrow’s <b>Shamwell Tales<b> is, for me, the best of an excellent series so far. Once again we’re in the quaint, green country village of Shamwell, within easy reach of London and all its big-city problems. And once again Ms. Merrow takes a setting worthy of Jane Austen and spins a tale of social mores and romance that is fully invested in the modern world.
Mark Nugent is a not-yet-forty father of an angry fourteen-year-old daughter. Patrick is a local boy who lives with his mum and has never had a serious relationship. At twenty-five he’s not young enough to be Mark’s son, but his mother is only five years older than Mark is. And that’s just the first complication. Patrick and Mark meet at a local men’s organization, the Shamwell Spartans. The absurdity of the group is balanced by the male camaraderie and local fundraising they offer.
Mark is a single father because he broke up his fourteen-year marriage by coming out to his wife. He’s one of those men who married because he was just bisexual enough to get his girlfriend pregnant while on what he assumed was a friendly holiday. I put it this way because Mark identifies as gay, in spite of the marriage and the child. He embodies what I think of as the Kinsey 5, mostly gay, but not entirely. Tricky part is, he’s never had any sort of relationship with a man (the sad reason for which we find out in due course).
Patrick, on the other hand, is a comfortable bisexual, finding potential attraction in men or women without prejudice or preference. I’d say he’s a Kinsey 3 or 4, fully bisexual and content to be so. He’s never had a longterm relationship, made wary of the very idea for reasons that are also revealed to us as the story unfolds.
If I make a point of this, it’s because the author herself does so. The gently accepting atmosphere of Shamwell is punctuated with crusty old heteros as well as more hip younger ones—who nonetheless find the whole bisexuality thing confusing. Patrick and Mark seem to be offered up as exemplars of bisexual diversity, while Mark’s adorable former assistant David—dismissively known at their London office as Camp David by their homophobic boss—is pretty and fey and not at all Mark’s type. Don’t get me wrong, Mark actually loves David, but is not attracted to him.
Add to this mix Lex, Patrick’s assistant at the local charity organization he runs. Lex is gender fluid, something that puzzles Mark, but is fully understood by Patrick and by Mark’s daughter, Fen. Lex is also (to my American ear) very working class in speech and completely hilarious and smart. All of my out-loud laughs were wrung out of their banter in the course of the story.
Class plays an important role here as is Ms. Merrow’s wont (and as it was for Miss Austen). Mark left a hugely lucrative career in London as a tax man for corporations, while Patrick works for a local charity that raises funds to help disabled adults. Mark is trying to make up for years of neglecting his daughter (hiding, one suspects, from his marriage in relentless workaholism); but he is determined not to let his gay side out, because he wants to protect his daughter from such unpleasant realities.
So it’s not just bisexuality and class but internalized homophobia that Merrow throws on the table for our amusement and edification. This fits right into the age gap issue, because 39 and 25 are not so far apart in years as they are in terms of life experience. Patrick and Mark have grown up in two different worlds in terms of attitudes toward homosexuality. Mark learned lessons very different from those that Patrick has. (This, I confess, was a wee bit of a stretch for me, since I came out at 20 in the 1970s, and seem to have existed in an entirely different world.) Their outlooks on their sexuality as well as their perspective on the ethics of work are the core hurdles to be jumped. Merrow makes the most of it, giving her readers the most complex and thought-provoking book of the series.
Patrick is a hold over from the second book--the guy who stepped in a rabbit hole during a cricket match and snapped his leg. Mark is new to town, escaping from his job and ex-wife to try to start anew with Fen. You can read all about it in the blurb, which really gives too much detail.
My job is to tell you if the blurb is really spot-on, and whether you will enjoy this additional little romp through the village of Shamwell. The answer is an emphatic "yes!"
Though both Mark and Patrick are pigheaded, author Merrow puts them in enough credible situations so that their romance blossoms, crashes, and refreshes, lovingly. Rather like a nice cuppa.
I think the ancillary characters were much more interesting than the main characters. Fen and Lex and David, even Rex were more believable than Patrick and Mark. And if Mark interjected just one more "God yes!", I might not have been able to finish reading it.
I continue to love the village setting,
The story meanders a little and struggles to get started.
Chapter 5 could have been chapter 1 without losing anything of major relevance. The biggest disappointment, though, was the handling of David's character.
Treating less than overtly masculine queer men as "other" and "unattractive" is a common trope in gay romcoms and one I've grown thoroughly sick of. There was no reason for David to even be in the book other than to establish the main character's standard for masculinity, which David fell far short of. Mark's internal monologues on the topic were difficult enough to read, but when he actually went so far as to state this to David's face in the name of "honesty," his social ineptitude went from endearing to off-puttingly callous in a couple of lines. I had to leave off reading for a couple of days after that scene and I had to make myself finish it.
The inclusion of a non-binary character was refreshing and the author's flair for creating a community setting served as saving graces, but if I ever had an otherwise enjoyable read ruined by one bad trope, it's this one.
The most intersting part of me, aside of the setting and the cast of characters in the series which I like very much, was the aspect of the story that dealt with what it meant to be queer and coming of age in different decades. This conflict between the heroes was meaningful and compelling.
There is a lot of fun and dashing around and push and pull.
It make me happier this book need to be longer. I wanted much more couple time after Marc and Patrick were all sorted out and really together. I wanted to see them in a full on relationship to earn the I love you
Top reviews from other countries

rather predictable.
shame its so ageist, banging on about grey hair and bodies sagging.
seems if your past thirty your ready for a retirement home and a sexless existance.
all the dancing around each other like silly school girls is a bit unrealistic.
its an ok read if your a soppy romantic and not looking to stretch yourself.



