With his staunchly conservative upbringing, Miller has been playing it straight his whole life. Now with Church so close again, it's getting harder to keep his denial intact. As they fumble their way back to friendship after so many years apart, Miller struggles to find the courage to accept who he really is. What he has with Church could be more than desire—it could be love. But it could also mean trouble.
Church's criminal connections are closing in on the both of them, and more than their hearts are at risk. This time, their very lives are on the line.
Comment: I've decided to read this book after seeing a positive review by someone whose taste I tend to share in regards to certain genres. However, this is one of those cases where people do look at things differently, for I wasn't as impressed...
Edgar-Allen Church is a young man who is finally out of the system after doing his penance for assault. He knows people like him barely have opportunities, much less actual success but he wants to try and he reaches again to Miller, the older guy he had a crush on and who, by rejecting him,was one more factor to propel his anger. He is different now and Miller is still a good guy, welcoming him again but Church knows Miller won't see him that way. At the same time, he believes he can still be friends and improve his life but there is still one complication, the bakery where he is able to find a job is also a sham for criminal activity... when things seem to go wrong and Church is caught in the middle, can he hope to keep Miller out of danger and still be hopeful for a future?
Stories about redemption of stories where someone has been in prison (or deprived of freedom) and wants to have a better life are usually quite stimulating for me to read. I especially like them if the person in prison was there unfairly or if the person regrets whatever caused them to be there. There is something about a second chance in life or the idea people can want to have a quiet and peaceful life, even more so after a "lesson learned" if one wants to label it this way.
This was precisely what I hoped I'd get here and added to it, an unrequited love element which probably would turn into a romance was the cherry on the cake but it turns out the plot of this book wasn't exactly aimed at a sweet romance type, but more so on the dealing with issues which happened to include a romantic relationship at some point. I didn't exactly mind this, although it was a setback to my expectations, but I wasn't counting on such a large amount of criminal content.
I've read the review that influenced me to try this one and I've read the blurb but I still imagined something different. Therefore, when Church and his friend Ghost are so closely linked to criminal activity, namely drug dealing and mafia like families... this immediately brought down my enjoyment, I dislike these types of subjects and situations in romances. Actually even in other genres, unless it's like a secondary issue not on the page which I can easily overlook or even ignore, but that wasn't the case here. Well, to be honest, the mafia content I ignored and skipped a few paragraphs but it felt disappointing to me that such content was even in the story.
The romance, which if so amazing would certainly make me think of the other things as if they weren't so bad, also wasn't as romantic as I imagined. Both Church and Miller have a lot of issues to deal with, and while I can accept they were attracted and falling in love, their previous friendship and now the rekindling of it good elements in fact, I still felt the general tone of this book was one for drama and bleakness and that has certainly influenced my enjoyment of it.
Of course it should be realist to assume people in Church's situation and having faced what he did could not be all about rainbows, but the way the story was told, the narrative style wasn't one I found compelling nor was I eager to keep reading. I've finished the book mostly to see if Miller would realize he is a closeted gay man and if he Church would find a way to have a happy shared life but while things happened well enough, I just didn't have a good time reading. the theme isn't one I like but the development didn't truly captivate me either.
I feel this was more about how Church and Miller would be a couple, after a lot to accept and deal with, as well as how they could cope when dealing with people involved in criminal activities. I still think this was totally unnecessary, for the drama and internal conflicts were more than enough subjects for the main characters to process until their HEA, but...oh well. I particularly think Miller wasn't always very likable, as I believe he should, thinking about his personality and life experiences alone.
"issues with a side of romance" can be good, but I'm with you on the criminal activity; I can read police procedurals but I am not partial to criminals getting their happy endings.
ReplyDeleteHello! And it's not exactly the fact one of them had some sort of criminal link, I've read a book once and one of the main characters was part of the Yakuza, and I still liked reading it, but the fact the character here had to be involved with it all. To me, that was unnecessary, and the romance would have certainly benefited from having the focus solely on it. ;)
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