I received an eARC from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
A passionate and powerful romance featuring a transgender man and an ex-Orthodox woman who find each other through their devotion to art, and fall in love despite all odds, from bestselling author Victoria Lee
Elisheva Cohen has just returned to New York after almost a decade away. The wounds of her past haven't fully healed, but four years of sobriety and a scholarship to study photography with art legend Wyatt Cole are signs of good things to come, right? They could be, as long as Ely resists self-sabotage. She's lucky enough to hit it off with a handsome himbo her first night out in the city. But the morning after their mind-blowing hookup, reality comes knocking. When Wyatt Cole walks into the classroom, Ely realizes the man she just spent the night with, the man whose name she couldn't hear over the loud club music, is her teacher.
Everyone in the art world is obsessed with Wyatt Cole. He's immensely talented and his notoriously reclusive personal life makes him even more compelling. But behind closed doors, Wyatt's past is a painful memory. After coming out as transgender, Wyatt was dishonorably discharged from the military and disowned by his family. Since these traumatic experiences, Wyatt has worked hard for his sobriety and his flourishing art career. He can't risk it all for Ely, no matter how attracted to her he is or how bad he feels about insisting she drop his class in exchange for a strictly professional mentorship. Wyatt can help with her capstone photography project, but he cannot, under any circumstances, fall in love with her in the process.
Through the lens of her camera, Ely must confront the reason she left New York in the first the Orthodox community that raised her, then shunned her because of her substance abuse. Along the way, Wyatt's walls begin to break down, and each artist fights for what's right in front of them—a person who sees them for all that they are and a love that could mean more than they ever imagined possible.
It always feels like a gamble to me, to pick up a book from an author you love. What if they don't live up to that initial book? What if this new genre doesn't work for them?
Reader, I'm beginning to suspect that Victoria Lee can write whatever the hell they want to and it'll be a banger every time.
A Shot in the Dark is a contemporary romance story between two queer, recovering addicts set in NYC. Ely is ex-Orthodox, having been kicked out of her family for her addiction and since having complicated feelings of her Judaism, but back in New York to attend a prestigious photography summer program. She meets a hot trans man in a club her first night back, but the next day she realizes that the guy she had amazing sex with is actually, Wyatt, a famous photographer and her professor. The book follows the two of them trying to balance professionalism and the chemistry between them.
Lee, as always, excels with their characters. Ely truly steals the show here. Her journey with finding her feet again after so many years adrift and especially her religious arc had me near tears. I wanted a little more from Wyatt, but I still loved him and his journey (and his introduction scene? Woof!). And the side characters! They were all so good!
I rated this book 3.75 stars! Wyatt and Ely's love story is a little heavier than perhaps your "standard" romance, but there are more than enough sweet scenes to balance everything out. I'm really pleased with this book and I hope Lee writes more romance in the future!
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