Review: Beautifully Told
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 28, 2013
*Tissue Warning* (Like seriously, I was bawling through most of this book and probably used half a box of Kleenex... it wasn't a pretty site!)Once I took the time to process all of the intense emotions that this book evoked in me, I realized that I loved this book even more than I thought I did.Kevin still isn't really out to a lot of his friends or his soon-to-be-ex-wife and is only a few weeks away from the divorce becoming final so that Hugo and he can move on with their relationship.Things seem to be going well for them, and the Kevin stops answering Hugo's calls and texts and goes almost an entire week without replying to Hugo, which sends him into a nervous frenzy thinking he pushed Kevin too hard about coming out to people.A drastic turn of events takes place when they discover Erin has terminal cancer. Kevin is devastated; he thought that even though he was getting a divorce, he would have decades left with his best friend and the mother of his children but that doesn't seem to be the case.She has less than a year and Kevin makes the decision to not go forward with the divorce and move Erin back in with him so that she can be with the kids everyday and so that she doesn't lose his insurance to cover the medical costs. This is a major problem for Hugo because he loves Kevin with his whole heart and wants nothing more than for Kevin to be only his and then Kevin brings him a dog and drops this bomb on him.Things seem to be so up in the air and it's devastating for everyone involved.I really like Erin in this story. I love that the author stayed true to her characters because no matter how much Kevin loves Hugo and wants to spend the rest of his life with him, his best friend and the mother of his children has to be more important at that point. That's just who Kevin is and that's just life sometimes. I hate that people are upset that Erin is such a huge part of this story because although this is technically a M/M romance story, Kevin is a bisexual male, meaning there was an entire section of his live where he was married to Erin and had two kids with her. He loved her and she is important to him, that's important to this story. He didn't lie to her for years about being gay like so many stories where the man is married and has kids, he genuinely loved her and still loves her as his best friend.What kind of person would he be if he left her alone to die just so he could run off to be happy with Hugo? Whether it's his daddy issues or just his internal struggle to prove that he's the complete opposite of who his father was, Kevin needs to do the right thing to feel okay with himself.The story is told so beautifully and it's definitely a heartbreaking tale. Hugo eventually comes around and he and Erin become incredibly close. Hugo isn't sure where he belongs in their tight knit family but Erin is incredibly supportive of Hugo and Kevin's relationship.There are a lot of battles they have to overcome in this story and as you follow them they will drag you through an emotional ringer. You see everyone struggling to deal with Erin's illness, Kevin struggling with coming out to everyone and Hugo trying to do the right thing and be the rock for everyone.I look forward to the final installment of this series but on the other hand, I don't want their journey to be over and I know I will need more tissues for the next book based on the blurb.Five HUGE Stars for this one!