The Blurb:
After an amicable divorce, Jay Hill decided to move back to his rural hometown with his teenage kids. Being on good terms with his ex-wife and in laws has made the transition into single life pretty smooth. Things were good and uncomplicated. Then Landon Petty walked into his life.
Landon didn’t expect to still be stuck in his hometown working at his dad’s sawmill at this point in his life. Being an openly gay truck driver was as awkward in practice as in description. (…)
When Jay came to take over managerial duties at his dad’s business, Landon was surprised to find a friend. When Jay turns out not to be as straight as he thought, things get complicated.
When feelings for Landon shine a light on how much Jay’s life has been actually half lived, he’s forced to decide if he’ll jump in with both feet or if he’ll let Landon slip through his fingers.
The Stats:
Publisher:
Genre:
Length:
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Type:
Kade Boehme
Contemporary, M/M, GLBT+
232 e-book pages
3rd person
Stand-Alone
Edition I read:
Kindle Edition
The Review:
My spellcheck doesn’t like Kade’s last name. The mac and I have fought about it. There’s not a clear winner.
Anyway…. This newest release by Kade was a sweet taste of later-in-life-GFY or likely-been-gay-or-bi-all-along. It doesn’t matter which, does it? I kind of like the stories of older characters who think they know themselves and then life comes along and turns them on their ear, or smacks them on the ass as the case may be. I take a little bit of sadistic glee in that.
While I liked the premise, the overall story was just sort of average for me.
I liked that it was set in small town South. And I liked that, while there were some nervous-ish moments of possible bigotry on the fringes, it wasn’t a big huge thing. Yes, there were town-folk who weren’t fully embracing, but…they were peripheral and it was an afterthought (mostly) as these two men found their way together. I’m glad it didn’t become the impetus of a Big Misunderstanding. It gave me hope that even in the rural south people’s minds are growing—and that it doesn’t matter so much what other people think as long as we’re true to ourselves.
I wish the characters of Jay and Landon had been flushed out just a wee bit more, including the relationship between Jay and his kids and Landon becoming part of that mix. Sometimes the character-driven parts of the story and dialogue felt a tad forced and a bit overly narrative.
The ex-wife…I wanted to thump her between the eyes. But that’s generally the case of exes in books.
This was a light read, and kind of fun…which is sort of what I needed. I can’t help but wish there had just been a little more meat on the bones.