AnnaLund2011

I raced into this book, and loved every second of it. Finally a book that doesn’t only talk about romance, and sex, and relationships as in pairings.

No, it talks about so much more.

It talks about relationships between friends, between family members, between a young father and his daughter.

And therein lies the strength of this story.

It is not the romance of a story. It is the life of a story.

And by god I love this story for that. For going there, and not just doing what everyone else is doing; because it actually tells me a real story. About a real and relatable person. Not just the boy meets boy then fall in love and have sex and genitals and tab A in slot B and add a little angst and all well now, everybody came. Grand-slam HEA.

No, it goes deeper. Way, way deeper.

It actually shows me a beautiful young man, at times overcome by what life throws in his face, like losing his mother when he is still a child, getting his first girl pregnant and becoming a father at a very young age, etc.

Shit just keeps getting thrown in his face, and I find Joel to be both extremely likeable and very strong, given what he’s going through.

I love that this book is about his struggle, as a person, not in the relation of a possible love-interest, but in relation to himself, and his life.

His choices, his focus, his child. His life.

Fucking refreshing, if you ask me.

(Almost) Anyone can write a sexy story with two men banging to get us all off. Some readers are so cut off from real life, that’s all they know how to read or feel or see.

So, isn't it a good thing there are so many different kinds of books out there, truly something for everybody? This one worked for me on so many levels.

Few authors manage to involve me deeper, to actually make me start giving a shit about the MCs. This one does.

I care for Joel. A lot. I have a hard time when shit blows up in his face. I have a hard time holding back the tears when he loses faith in himself and runs. He is beautiful, and human, and incomplete, and so, so likeable. And such a good father.

I could not put this book down. I started reading yesterday, and then had to go do family things all Sunday afternoon, and was mostly just waiting to get back to the book and keep reading. Which I then did, and finished it at 2.30 am.

That, for me, signals a good one.

When you walk around during the day, thinking about meeting your characters again in the evening. Looking forward to it. Wondering what will happen.

Yeah, it got me to that place, that happy place where I care and root and give a damn.

Books like these are few and far between these days. With stories that show me a real person. Stories that engage me.

Give this story a try—it is well worth the read, as it keeps on giving, and quite a step up from the author’s first Novella.

I’m keeping my eye on this author.

***

I was given an ARC of this book for free from the publisher, Dreamspinner Press.

A positive review was neither expected nor promised in return. 

The author is a Twitter friend, but Jay knows that I review with my own head, and not through friendship-filters.