Not Until Noah is a forbidden romance between a closeted actor and the man hired to look after his daughter. It features star-crossed lovers, low angst and is of course a m/m romance .
From the Blurb:
Carter Westlake is on the brink of being Hollywood gold. Cast as the lead in a highly-anticipated sci-fi trilogy filming in Australia, he’s primed to be the next A-list action hero: all-American, hot as hell, and straight. The problem is, Carter can only check off two of those boxes. But that’s okay—his bisexuality can remain a secret until these movies are behind him.
Childhood educator Noah Jones has a plan. Work as a nanny for six months, make some extra cash, and move to the UK to teach. He doesn’t expect his new boss to be a Hollywood star. And he certainly isn’t prepared to fall for the guy.
One kiss sends them tumbling into a secret relationship, even though they both agree it can be nothing more than a fling. Carter needs to stay in the closet for the sake of his career, and Noah’s leaving. But when their feelings continue to grow into something deeper, Carter has a decision to make. Knowing that exposing his sexuality could cost him his career, would he rather carry on living a lie, or risk it all to stand tall in his truth?
Not Until Noah is the first book in the Star Crossed series, where regular guys meet famous ones, and sparks fly.
Red's Book Reads Review:
Carter Westlake is a Hollywood actor hiding his bisexuality from the world to carry on doing the job he loves. Noah is a out gay man who is temping as a nanny until he goes to the UK to become a teacher. I really liked the way Noah was portrayed here and how sweet and adorable Carter’s daughter was. Emerson is just the cutest and totally stole my heart. I enjoyed the interactions between Carter and Noah and loved that we got almost the forbidden side of Hollywood with Carter’s interactions on the set and with the cast. The only thing that I felt slightly let down by was the ending as it felt a little too quick and neat. I won’t say too much because - spoilers! But it just felt a little too quick. It doesn’t detract from the story at all though and on the whole I really enjoyed Not Until Noah.
Rating: 4 Stars
Bookish.jka's Review:
"𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙𝙣'𝙩, 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝙄'𝙢 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙧, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄'𝙢 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩, 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙬, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄'𝙢 𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮."
This is the first book in the Star Crossed series, with each book focusing on a different couple. It's a standalone, but the series is interlinked.
Not Until Noah was the first Lisa Henry book I'd read and it was such a cute, low-key angsty book to start with.
Our MCs are Noah Jones and Carter Westlake. Noah is a childhood educator, a gay and out young Australian, looking for a short work contract while planning on moving and working in the UK once the school term starts.
Carter is slightly older, a single dad with a crazy ex-wife, who happens to be a high profile American action movie star filming a trilogy on the Gold Coast. He's also bisexual, but not out, because he fears it would kill his career.
Noah is hired by Olivia on a 'live-in' fixed contract to teach and look after Carter's daughter Emerson, who has come to Australia with her dad while he makes his movies. What could possibly go wrong?
Throw in a homophobic movie producer, a fabulous director, Noah's laid back brother Dylan, a train-wreck of a female co-star, Carter's brilliant sister and assistant Olivia, and of course Bennett, the best body guard ever and you've got a fabulous support cast for Noah and Carter's love story.
You know where this one is going, but it's such a cute journey 🥰.
Some steam 🔥but this is no smut-fest.
Recommended.
Rating: 4 ✨✨✨✨
Sarah C's Review:
Like with Bookish, Not Until Noah was my first Lisa Henry book, but it will definitely not be my last. Her work with characters - which is honestly my biggest draw to any and all books - is amazing. She focused not only on Noah and Carter, our two MCs, but on all of the side characters, making them feel real and fully developed. I was cheering as much for the side characters as I was the main characters, and that says something about the author.
The story itself is also really cute. Noah is a nanny hired to take care of a child on a short term, five month contract, trying to raise money so he can spend some time travelling Europe when he moves there to begin teaching. Carter is an actor who comes to Australia with his eight year old daughter, Emerson, in tow to film a trio of movies. He is also a closeted bisexual who, at the start, is content to stay in the closet in order to keep his career steady.
Carter's career and closeted status are the largest sources of angst for both Noah and Carter - right from the start. Well, after the very small hurdle of the fact that Carter is <i>technically</i> Noah's boss. I like that Lisa allows those issues to be addressed rather frankly between the two men. However, I would've liked to see more of the development of their relationship on page.
I mean, I loved how often we got to see them interacting with other people. It made them feel more real as characters. However, the deep love they have for one another seemed to have developed off the page a lot. We get passing mentions of time they spend together, but I would've loved to see a bit more of that play out. I also would've loved a bit more at the end, because it seemed a little rushed.
All in all though, I loved this book and couldn't put it down once I picked it up.
The story itself is also really cute. Noah is a nanny hired to take care of a child on a short term, five month contract, trying to raise money so he can spend some time travelling Europe when he moves there to begin teaching. Carter is an actor who comes to Australia with his eight year old daughter, Emerson, in tow to film a trio of movies. He is also a closeted bisexual who, at the start, is content to stay in the closet in order to keep his career steady.
Carter's career and closeted status are the largest sources of angst for both Noah and Carter - right from the start. Well, after the very small hurdle of the fact that Carter is <i>technically</i> Noah's boss. I like that Lisa allows those issues to be addressed rather frankly between the two men. However, I would've liked to see more of the development of their relationship on page.
I mean, I loved how often we got to see them interacting with other people. It made them feel more real as characters. However, the deep love they have for one another seemed to have developed off the page a lot. We get passing mentions of time they spend together, but I would've loved to see a bit more of that play out. I also would've loved a bit more at the end, because it seemed a little rushed.
All in all though, I loved this book and couldn't put it down once I picked it up.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Sheena's Review:
"I want you. I want you, and I shouldn't because I can't have you. I'm your employer, and I'm not out, and I can't be out, not now, but I want you, and I'm sorry"
A good yardstick for me if I'm enjoying a book is if I can't wait to get back to it, and I found myself really looking forward to picking up the story where I'd left off.
I love Lisa Henry's writing, mostly because I never really know what I'm going to get. In this case it was a sweet, low angst story of a nanny falling for his famous employer. I honestly loved Noah, I have a bit of a thing for 'sunshine' characters and Noah was just so sweet yet with a bit of a backbone that you saw right off in the interview for his job. I loved his relationship with his brother too, they were so much fun together.
Carter I took a little bit more time to warm to, I did like how down to earth he was and how he was with Emerson. I kind of get where he was in life too, I can't really relate but can only imagine how torn he was between what wanted. Both in his career and private life too, and I was glad he got the happy ending in both. (Although side note: I'd have loved to find out if Elizabeth got to make the film she really wanted and not Leon the asshole's version)
The antagonists were okay too, I really hated Leon and I'd have loved to see him get a little comeuppance, bit disappointed that I didn't get to see Carter stand up to him (in my mind he did it off the page ;) ). Glad Stella got kicked to the curb though, what a horrible person.
Overall I really enjoyed this, as usual with a Lisa book set in Australia it makes me really want to visit though!
Great start to a new series and I look forward to getting to know Marco better.
Rating: 4 Stars
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