LGBT Monday: Sleeping 'til Sunrise by Mary Calmes

Author: Mary Calmes
Series: Mangrove Stories, #5
Released: December 16th 2015
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 72 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon
         Dreamspinner Press

Everyone in Mangrove, Florida, knows Fire Chief Essien Dodd is a saint. He took care of his ex-wife until she died, is raising his teenage daughter alone, and is the kind of man who pulls kittens from trees. All in all, the man’s a catch. But Roark Hammond has sworn off getting involved with a man who’s been hurt before because he can’t guarantee he won’t hurt his prospective love again. If only he could get Essien out of his mind long enough to focus on anyone, or anything, else.

Strong emotions are in play. Essien is lonely but determined to focus on Ivy; Ivy wants her father to have a new life so much that, to his horror, she’s trying to find him a man; and Roark is so scared of the present and past, he won’t allow himself to commit. To have any chance of sleeping ’til sunrise and greeting each new day together, Essien and Roark will have to rethink how they’re living their lives and focus on what’s most important.

No matter how many versions of the same story Mary Calmes writes, no matter how many times she gives different names to almost the same characters, no matter how often she re-uses the same plot, I will always buy her books the second they come out. Whatever the woman did to make us all addicted to her stories worked like a charm. I need her books like I need air to breathe and chocolate and coffee to be a functional human being.


Sleeping ‘til Sunrise is the fifth in Mary’s successful series of contemporary novellas set in Mangrove, Florida. Mangrove is a small community obviously brimming with gay people, all of them hardworking, honest, and head over heels in love. In Sleeping ‘til Sunrise, we finally get a better look at Essien Dodd, the new fire chief and his teenage daughter Ivy. Essien has been avoiding dating ever since he moved to Mangrove, despite enormous pressure from Ivy and his many meddling neighbors to finally get a life. Most men just aren’t worth the trouble, but Roark Hammond isn’t most men and Essien is well aware of it.

Roark has been consistently losing his power of speech ever since he first ran into Essien Dodd. As a well educated, rich pediatrician he should be polished and smooth, but all his upbringing and charm fly out the window whenever he’s around the gorgeous fire chief. But gorgeous or not, Essien is not meant for Roark, no matter how persistent he might be.

As always with Mary’s books, there is an insane amount of chemistry between the characters. You know from the very first minute that the two are simply meant for each other. There is no middle road, there is no other option. I love this about Calmes, this absolute certainty that someone was born for someone else. That is most likely the source of her amazing popularity, the crack cocaine that she sprinkles between the lines of her books. It is the very simple idea that there’s a perfect person for each of us, someone desperate to be near us as much as we are desperate to be near them. Same stories, same characters, same plots… none of it matters. I close these books with a silly smile, already planning when I might reread them. What could possibly be better than that?

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.