Review: heart-warming
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2012
This rather long M/M romance is far from perfect.The beginning is a bit slow, characterization is sometimes a bit rough, some plot twists appear a bit contrived and in several pages facts and feeling are more told than shown. Here and there writing is not really as polished as it should be.I would have particularly loved to see the relationships among the leads developped with more subtlety. We do not really get to understand why Travis starts to fall for Matt and how Petey shifts from respecting Matt to considering him his best friend. Had the POV shifted more often and more consistently among the main characters these evolutions would have probably been clearer.The main point of contention might be the relationship between Matt and his first boyfriend: even assuming Matt to be generous and sweet and kind I really cannot understand how it is possible for him to fall for such an individual with no redeeming quality. Such attitude would imply a complete lack of self-esteem on Matt's part and while it is true that he becomes more self confident as the story moves on nowhere in the book he is supposed to be that dumb.That said, this novel is highly enjoyable. The first half is quite tense, with some deftly managed action scenes. In the second half the action shifts to the inside of the characters' hearts, each of them coping with his insecurities.It is a great story. Mr Smith really has the talent of a great storyteller, he makes his characters come alive and the reader care for them. Their struggles are dramatic without being melodramatic, the plot is always interesting.The author manages to infuse the book with so much warmth and love that it is nearly impossible not to like it. He even managed to make me stomach all that patriotic ranting with only a limited amount of effort.Sex is mentioned but it is never graphic.For such a low price ($1,05) it would be a pity to miss this read.