This is as tame as Jory's life ever gets. (Not very.) The last few lines left me teary-eyed and smiling. On to the next book! ( )

I have to apologize to Mary for giving the book three stars. It is a very good book, if you are looking for a family story. Kids are cute and adorable and there are a lot of them in more ways than one - a lot of kids going to school and on vacation and doing cute and adorable things with their friends and with their parents which takes up more than half the book. I guess it is necessary to show us how well everything worked out for Sam and Jory in the end. And I am very happy for them as well as Dane and Aja.

But this is not why I bought the book. I wanted more adventure, more scatterbrain Jory, I wanted to know what happened to Jory's friends who were no small part of the previous books (I am talking about those friends who did not end up having kids) - that sort of thing. But the only one who made it was Aaron, for the sole purpose of buying Jory a new car and doing a tiny bit of a background check on Kevin... oh, and fall in love with Duncan, who - surprise! - was gay and in the closet (this time the book could have easily done without Jory's attempt at matchmaking). Even Dane and Sam had very little presence throughout the book; they where popping in and out for a couple of pages here and there only to scowl or growl at domesticated Jory. By the way, does he even have a job anymore? I can't remember what with trying to keep track of all the kids and family members. Also, how many friends of his own does Jory still have? O.o

Everywhere Jory went, trouble found him, which I thought was a little bit on the "unbelievable" side. Even book 1 was not that bad. Now it seems that half the world is out to get him just because. Everyone of any importance turned out to be gay or have multiple kids or both. I was skimming through the book like crazy. :(

Still, I love Sam and Jory and would probably read the first 5 books again. Just not this one.
3 stars. ( )

I will say that after Sam's noticeable absence for most of [b:Bulletproof|12478639|Bulletproof (A Matter of Time #5)|Mary Calmes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347572746s/12478639.jpg|17461549] (I love Sam so missing him last time around sucked) it was nice to get more of him here in [b:But For You|16007018|But For You (A Matter of Time #6)|Mary Calmes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356199874s/16007018.jpg|21772346]. Unfortunately, that is really the only thing I enjoyed this time around.

[b:But For You|16007018|But For You (A Matter of Time #6)|Mary Calmes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356199874s/16007018.jpg|21772346] was not what I had hoped it would be. I understand the characters have grown and their lives have changed (most notably in regards to their children) but I really did miss the old Jory. This book was just one domestic scene after another, some being sweet and funny, but for the most part being rather boring. The action moments were not much to speak of, the bad guys were not really a big presence, and I just did not connect with this new side of Jory. I think the writer could have done a better job of giving readers the Jory we all fell in love with while still showing us the ways parenthood and age had matured him.

I have read all of the books before this ([b:A Matter of Time, Vol. 1|8578291|A Matter of Time, Vol. 1 (A Matter of Time #1-2)|Mary Calmes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1279064017s/8578291.jpg|43980964], [b:A Matter of Time, Vol. 2|8585948|A Matter of Time, Vol. 2 (A Matter of Time #3-4)|Mary Calmes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348437757s/8585948.jpg|43982162], [b:Bulletproof|12478639|Bulletproof (A Matter of Time #5)|Mary Calmes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347572746s/12478639.jpg|17461549]) so it came to a surprise to me to notice something here that I did not notice earlier. And that is how much Jory seems to be written so much like a woman, if I was to change out the pronouns for "her /she" I don't think anyone would realize it started out as M/M fiction. I didn't get that feeling with the first two books, but after thinking about it, Bulletproof had this same sort of "female" vibe to it. I'm not exactly sure what to make of that observation. In all fairness to Calmes, I did alternate between reading the book and listening to the audiobook version which was narrated by Finn Sterling. And while the narrator does have a kick-ass name (could totally be a name in a romance novel, yes?) his narration left much to be desired, specifically the inflection he gave to Jory's voice, which came out sounding rather effeminate. Just something to ponder, I guess.

So would I recommend But for You? Well, if you're invested in the series, then sure, read it. Will I continue with the series and read [b:Parting Shot|18104599|Parting Shot (A Matter of Time, #7)|Mary Calmes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371671764s/18104599.jpg|25423113]? Yes, mainly because I know already the book is not about Jory and Sam anyway.
( )

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Would have loved for Sam and Jory to have more time together in the book, and I was very surprised that Jory didn't get into more trouble. I'm sorry to see Sam and Jory go, but I'm glad they got their HEA, and that the kid issue was resolved.

Any chance we get an Aaron and Duncan story? I haven't really been an Aaron fan, but he seems very different with Duncan, so I'm thinking I might like their story. ( )