Review: A decent read, but a little lite on the angst and all ended a little too easily.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 14, 2014
LA Witt is an autobuy, so I had this on pre-order for ages, when I was lucky enough to get an ARC from Samhain to review in exchange for an honest review. I'm glad, as had I paid for this tale, I'd have felt a little cheated.The blurb actually promises a little more than it delivers, and by that I mean that we don't get to see any of the leads' past history; we're just briefly told that they'd had a fairly innocent sexual encounter, next thing they were separated and Josh was believed to have died.I read, but I didn't entirely believe or agree, that Joshhad had it that hard that he'd had to disappear for his own sanity, and in fact, it seemed as if Chris was the one who had it harder and who'd paid the price. We never got much more than 'too much was expected of me' as an explanation, which was made worse by the fact that Chris didn't push for any explanations. The French Foreign Legion thing should have been explored far more, and frankly, the mention of the 5-a-side orgy felt a little superfluous; this is not what I was hoping to learn about Josh's life during his 'death'.Chris, lapsed Mormon or not, was far too accepting, far too forgiving for someone who'd been left alone and suffering a triple loss - of his best friend, his lover and his family, yet he bent over backward to help Josh, aka Julien, and sometimes seemed a bit of a pushover. I loved his loyalty to J/J and that he was there for him, but Chris was entitled to have some righteous anger, which he didn't have, and J/J should have had to earn back his love.As it was, I felt as if the tale was sort of a sketch/that it skimmed, rather than being the real deal, as it was as if all emotions were muted, all passion slightly subdued, and even the sex scenes were a little...lacking. This is a first in an LA Witt novel, and though I cannot fault the storytelling and tale, I can't help but be a little disappointed at the calmness of the tale, though the end was heartwarming.Worth a read, but for once, not a Keeper - for me, at least.