Keith Kramer might be based 1,500 miles away from Gil, but their shared work brings them together—a chance meeting that’s life-changing. Gil is drawn to Keith’s good looks and intelligence, but it’s his innate understanding that Gil is more than the scars on his skin that is truly attractive. He’s everything Gil used to be and more. It blows Gil’s mind that his attraction might be returned.
Only doubt could widen the distance between them. Keith’s hopefulness, borne out of surviving some tough challenges of his own, isn’t enough to bridge the distance alone. Gil will need to believe he has as much to offer as Keith if they’re to build a life together.
Comment: The idea behind this book was interesting and that was why I decided to add it to my reading list. I was looking for the idea of having a plot about a man trying to deal with PTSD and someone else there to help him while both were falling in love..
In this book we have Gil Lemieux, a former lawyer who is now working as a copy editor/proofreader for a medical company and when the story begins, Gil is still dealing with his issues but for work reasons he travels to another state to be in meetings at his firm that he needs to attend in person. Gil has suffered an attack in the past, a bomb went off when he was entering his house and now all sudden, loud noises make him nervous and panicked. Meeting many new people can be a task but he feels very happy when he meets Keith, one of the main editors and they slowly hit it off.
But then Gil needs to return home: could this be the end of a potentially good relationship for both of them?
Real life is filled with situations that we can not control and often they seem more fictional than the stories we read in books. So, I can accept the author has written a story about not only one man going through a difficult situation, but two.
We can say Gil's issues ae more psychological and Keith's more physical but put together the two went through quite the hardships. This can obviously be a good thing because both have common ground to unite them, they have something that can be understood by the other and that makes their relationship a potentially good one.
What I'd change is the level of problems they need to face. Both having a serious medical situation to go through, to overcome and to manege while being in a relationship? Ideally things aren't as difficult so, again, I can accept the believability but at the same time, the focus of the story was more about - it seemed to me - who was the one who needed the most help and not how equal they actually were in their shared fears and past experiences. Maybe it was just my impression, though.
As for the situations themselves, I liked the author didn't magically solved them. They need to work on their issues and, as individuals doing it, that seemed well done.
I felt the relationship was not explored as romantically as it could. I can understand why it would be difficult with so many obstacles and I do know it's the authors' prerogative to write as they see fit, but from my POV as a reader, my focus was not on them as a couple but in the challenges they both faced and how could they be both, at the same time, psychological and emotionally ready to not only deal with their own problems but also somebody else's while maintaining they sanity and loving nature. I'm not saying it's not possible...just not in an easy way.
This is a long book, not the biggest ever but the story takes some time to develop and evolve. I don't mind books with a big page count but I confess I was a bit bored here and there, not enough to stop reading but I wasn't always as emotionally invested in the story as I felt in the beginning.
I guess I can say I liked how things were starting to develop but then they were together and although theoretically there was a lot to deal with, it seemed they had it simply done and all the major issues between the two of them (meaning, the problems each one was bringing to the relationship) weren't really dealt with, only talked about and would be solved. But one wouldn't need so many pages to do it, I suppose.
At the end of the book, there's an HEA but I feel I didn't really know Keith and Gil as individuals, only how they suited one another because of this and that. It was nice to see them together but I guess a bit more sexual tension before any admitting of strong feelings would have helped me had the notion they were meant to be together instead of seeing them saying it after 3 days meeting.
Grade: 6/10
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