Review: Excellent addition to the series
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 13, 2014
4.5 Stars ~ I have become quite a fan of L.A. Witt's in the past year and the 'Distance Between Us' series is an excellent example of the author’s writing skill. I was particularly interested in this book as it's the first one the author has co-written, and I'm a fan of Aleksandr Voinov's work, also. 'No Distance Left To Run' is the fourth installment in the series and I was excited to get back to all my guys and to Wilde's, a bar I wouldn't mind spending a whole lot of time in.My mind is simply reeling from the idea of a best friend, maybe more, coming back from the dead after five years. I felt just as Chris did. Completely struck dumb. Angry, so angry, on one hand, and then equally grateful that this person wasn't really dead. But, then back to anger. I'd've probably remained at angry for a long time, but I'm stubborn that way. The fact that Joshua, now Julien, left his mission for the Mormon church halfway through and joined the French Foreign Legion? Leaving his family, his best friend, to all think he died? His family had a funeral for him! Just like Chris, I couldn't seem to wrap my head around that. I was on pins and needles waiting for that entire story."Well, you've been gallivanting around with the French Foreign Legion. And I'm sure you have some stories. Me? I've been trying to figure out what the f$&@ I'm doing. I came home from my mission a wreck, and I've stayed a wreck since then, especially because I couldn't get a f$&@ing answer from God about why He would let someone like you die while you were out doing His work, and -" I cut myself off, snapping my teeth together. "It's been rough, okay?"Two men, best friends all of their lives, who shared their first sexual experience with another guy the night before they both left for their missions. Julien chose to leave his life as Joshua, to give up the way he'd been forced to be, perfect at everything, and instead to embrace the man he really was, the man who'd lost his faith. Chris suffered through his mission after the death of his best friend, finally coming home and realizing he no longer had a faith, and spending the following years trying to live his own life. What happens to them now? How will Julien's family deal with him no longer believing? Do he and Chris have a future together, once the dust settles?I'm going to say this once, and only once, and then I'm leaving my opinions out of it. Family mixed with religion and guilt can do a tsunami of damage in a very short amount of time. It broke my heart to watch Julien struggle with this, all of these things which caused him to disappear in the first place, and new conflicts his parents put on him when he came back. And there was Chris who'd already gone through all his own horrors with family and church, trying not to get sucked back in. I truly adored both of these men. They were honest and real, with each other and themselves. They were strong men, who could be vulnerable and when they loved, they did it 100 percent.This was a wonderful addition to the series. It dealt with many difficult issues and, happily enough, it came to resolution for most of them in a manner I could accept. Great collaboration and I hope this isn't the end of the series.NOTE: This book was provided by Samhain Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews