Review: A great read while curled up with my own little dog
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 21, 2014
I have been looking forward to this book since the cover artist posted the cover on his facebook page.  Paul Richmond is a great cover artist and I do love this cover.  I also love dogs and have a great little shelter rescue dog of my own.  I have read other works from this author and enjoyed them so this seemed like one to grab. Grab it I did on the day it was released on Amazon.com.  It is 4:30 in the morning as I write this. I went to bed with my husband and dog just as the bedroom scene from their first date was about to unfold.  I could not go to sleep.  I thought about the characters and what had brought them to that moment in time.  I finally gave in and got up to finish the book! I am glad I did. I so enjoyed it.A previous reviewer did not like the book for all the reasons that I liked it. I liked the time the author took explaining Bean's love of coffee and all of the process that went into his becoming the business man that he was.  I enjoyed the backstories of the animal shelter, the rescue story and the backstory on H.D.'s childhood. As a retired child welfare social worker I think that the author did a really good job of depicting the type of responses that would be expected from someone who became orphaned at ten and grew up in the system bouncing from one home and rejection after another.  I also liked the secondary characters, female BFFs of the MCs.  In real life many gay men have female friends that they are close with and the author captured that well with these characters and the large role that they played in each others' social, work and emotional worlds.I love stories that are set in small businesses and reading about how the businesses are run. I am a very visual person and it is easy for me to place myself as an observer in the scene when the descriptions are rich and full.  I could almost taste the coffee described in this book and wish I had a coffee shop to visit in my community like the one depicted in this book.It is not easy to love.  The heart wants what it wants but submitting to that want takes a certain amount of decision.  Especially when one has been hurt in the past or suffered losses in childhood that cause one to build walls around one's heart and feelings.  The author did a fine job of showing the reader just how those old hurts can play out when two people find each other, want to be together but remain scared of being hurt.I have noticed that many reviewers find fault with books that they don't think have enough conflict.  Many books in the m/m genre hang on to the trope of men who are victims of extreme homophobia, both external and internal. Many rely on the gay for you trope. Many rely on gay bashings and hospitalizations or family lack of acceptance to create that conflict. I have read many of those and have enjoyed many of them.  I have to say, however, that I have much more appreciation to read a book like this one. The characters are gay. They have no issues with that nor do the people in their environment.  The conflict is much more subtle but very realistic in the context of the lives of the MCs and their reasons for being afraid of love and commitment.  They have lost before and are afraid of losing again.I also enjoyed the spiritual/mystical overtones in the story.Thank you, B G Thomas for a good read that celebrates the love of humans for humans, humans for animals and animals for humans.  It doesn't get much better that this for me!