Review - Bodies of Water by Alex Pendragon
Bodies of Water
My rating: 
Heat level: 
Tags: Contemporary
Posted in Book Reviews on 11 October, 2026
Tate has been just going through the motions since the breakdown of his fifteen year relationship. He rented a furnished house in the hills that includes a pool, although he didn’t really plan to use it. When the attractive young man next door asks to use the pool, Tate can hardly refuse. Kai is a pre-med student home for the summer who has been a competitive swimmer since high school. He flirts with Tate, but the older man has been out of the dating game for so long, he can’t believe Kai is really interested and not just being nice. Anyway, Kai is only home for the summer, so it’s not like a relationship is on the table.
“Bodies of Water” is an age gap romance that plays with some of the power dynamics that often characterize such relationships in romance fiction. Kai ends up being a bit aggressive at bringing Tate out of his shell and trying to keep the older man from being so down on himself. It’s sometimes as if Kai is the adult in the relationship and Tate is a rather petulant child.
The narration is entirely from Tate’s point of view. The man clearly under-rates himself. It seems that whatever confidence he may have had when he was younger was taken away when the relationship he thought was going to be happily-ever-after turned out not to be. You can understand why he thinks Kai wouldn’t be interested in anything long term, even when it becomes clear to us that Kai is developing feelings that go well beyond friendship.
We only get to know Kai through Tate’s viewpoint. The older man sees Kai as a happy, sunny young man that has everything going for him. We can see that it’s not entirely true, even if Tate doesn’t pick up on it, but it definitely seems that Kai is a strong personality. From Tate’s description, you can certainly understand why he finds Kai attractive, and also why his feelings of inadequacy make him think the feelings can’t possibly be returned.
“Bodies of Water” is available from Smashwords or buy from independent booksellers through Bookshop.org.
