Review: Good Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 25, 2013
Considering I usually like my characters and my stories with a little more drama, I surprised myself by wanting to read this second installment in the 'Learning to Love' series. I liked the first book, very much, and as I stated in my review, it was exceptionally sweet and somewhat predictable. So why, you may ask, would I want to read more? Well, for one thing I despise not reading all the books in a series. I'm a little too anal retentive to not finish a series. And, another thing, I liked Evan a lot from book one and I was betting this story might be a little edgier and, perhaps, have more angst and drama. I wanted to see if the author might break these characters out of some of their cookie cutter molds they've been written as and do something shocking.Evan initially came across as a bit of a twink, always with the ready wit, the hugs, the kisses on the cheek, and the 'honey' and 'sweetie' forms of address for everyone. There's so much more depth to him, though. Evan has been a bit of a man-whore and he is most definitely out and proud. He doesn't want the one-offs anymore, he wants what his housemates, Sean and Michael, found. A deep, abiding, and committed love with a man who will cherish him always.Daniel is a shy, sweet, unassuming young man with a painful past. He has some deep scars from his childhood and they are holding him back from being able to have the full relationship with Evan that Daniel so desperately wants. He knows that he will need to tell Evan the truth about himself, but he's also terrified that maybe Evan won't still love him afterwards.Evan and Daniel's love story is different from Sean and Michael's. The first couple dealt with discovering they were gay and all the trauma that can follow that. Evan and Daniel are dealing with creating a lasting relationship in the midst of childhood trauma and the effect that finally reporting it to the police can cause. This love story seemed deeper to me and I liked it even better than the first book.This story was fairly long but it also dealt with a lot of issues and continued to have equal representation within the story by Sean and Michael. The wedding of Sean and Michael plus the trial for the hate crime committed against Michael along with slowly introducing two new characters that are to be the focus of the next story, Josh and Chris, filled the book to overflowing. There is considerable angst and drama in this installment and I'm constantly surprised by how perfectly all the characters seem to respond to all the trauma. It was also interesting to note the sexual situations all four men got up to together with there seemingly being no issues amongst them afterwards.It is a very good, sweet, but with a little more drama, love story that I enjoyed. Just remember that it is quite long so don't expect to be done with it for awhile.NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews