Puzzle Me This by Eli Easton

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Date published: October 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62798-162-0
Genre: Contemporary, M/M
Book format: E-book
Obtained via: Publisher
Reviewed by: Marieke

3 Hearts 

Luke Schumaker is a game designer. He works from his home in Pennsylvania for a big company from California.

Suddenly this local newspaper is starting getting delivered to him. He finds out that an anonymous person has gifted him a subscription. And then the crossword puzzles start. They all have a hidden message that is clearly made for him.

Sending a letter to the paper, he sets up a date. Turns out his mystery admirer is his disabled neighbor.

Alex Shaw is a professional crossword puzzle designer. He’s born with Spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair all of his life. He’s insecure and doesn’t dare to believe this relationship with Luke can actually work.

Then Alex’s sister talks to Luke about the future and living with a disability. Luke starts seeing all these bears on the road and starts distancing himself. But when he hears Alex is leaving the apartment he knows he needs to act.

The relationship between these two men starts wonderful. Luke is great with Alex’s disability and doesn’t care about the wheelchair. They get out and have fun. I loved that part of the book. It gives people hope that love can overcome anything.

But when he starts doubting, he immediately screws up and that feels a bit unnatural to me. In my mind people take longer to distance themselves and let the doubt slowly take over.

Alex’s sister is trying to be helpful but she’s actually very negative. I know lots of people think that being the advocate of the devil is helpful, so that part was very realistic to me even if I wanted to slap the woman.

I enjoyed this book immensely and I wanted to give is a five heart rating, until I came to the ending. That was a bit of a disappointment. It was hurried and unrealistic. Very sad, because the story itself was fantastic. I do have to recommend it because of that, but be warned, the ending is very short.

This is not an endorsement of this book, this is an unbiased, objective review.