Review: 4.5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 31, 2014
**Originally written for Book Bliss Book Blog I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased and honest review**Review:General: To start I want to say that I found Autumn Fire to be a refreshing m/m read that looked at the subject with a dignity and honesty that many m/m romances lack. This book was raw whereas many focus on forced emotions or explicit sex to tell the story. Autumn Fire focuses more on the story of being gay and dealing with it than the emotions linked to a relationship and hot sex. They were both still present, but not in the way that most m/m books are and it may have to do with the fact that many are written by women assuming what occurs and this was written by a man, with a direct connection.I felt the story had so many amazing moments, whether I wanted to cry for Dustin or punch him for being an absolute idiot. When the book first started I was immediately turned off. I didn't like the attitude Dustin had towards himself and others like him. I have never been in his scenario so I cannot posture as to what I would do, but I felt like he was not someone I wanted to be reading about. Then we get Kyle in the picture and suddenly I am in love with Dustin as a romantic lead.I think overall the plot was well done and had a great flow from scene to scene that kept things realistic. I do think some of the writing was a little raw but didn't really take away from the reading. I think the strongest point in the story was watching Dustin come into his own but I think in that regard, Kyle was the weak link as I never really cared about him but saw him more as a vessel to push Dustin.Characters: Dustin- Dustin annoyed me in the beginning as I said. He was afraid and frankly a jerk. But as the novel went he grew, he saw the person he needed to be and how he needed to do it and I felt all his emotions and actions from the initial hookup, to the random hookups and beyond were realistic and easily identifiable regardless of your sex and sexual preference.