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Review

Amberly Smith's Rinse and Repeat's is part romance, part mystery and all enjoyable. Peat the Repeater is a repairman of sorts, fixing lives that are headed off a cliff. If he doesn't get the job done just right the first time, he becomes stuck in a temporal loop, reliving the day again and again until he does. It's an intriguing premise for a gay romance.

Peat's latest task is to undo and prevent the murder of handsome young skateboarder Jake, who is himself attempting to solve the murder of his best friend. Some aspects of the novel frustrated me a bit. Early on, it is established that Peat begins a repeat in whatever condition he ended the previous one. If he ends the day naked, he begins the next repeat naked. Yet, he ends at least one repeat dead, but begins the next cycle alive and kicking. Admittedly, a deceased protagonist would bring the story to a screeching halt, but rules are rules.

And it appears that someone or something is overseeing all of Peat's repeats, resetting them when they aren't done the way the overseer wants. But Peat has to figure all this out through trial and error, which means that the poor guy repeats the same day for two months in this instance. Wouldn't it save all concerned a lot of time if the overseer just gave Peat a freaking instruction manual?

But those are quibbles. The author made me care about Peat and Jake, two sympathetic, lonely hotties who are hot for each other. The repeating time loops are used effectively to create sexual tension between said hotties, as well as providing a suspenseful framework for solving the murder mystery. The sex scenes between Peat and Jake were steamy enough to fog my contacts, so you may rest assured that the writing is good.

 -- Gilbert Williams