Review: Slow burn romance, that ends up feeling a little rushed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 9, 2014
3-3.5 starsI received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.This was a short an easy read in spite of the fact that it deals with heavy topics.Chad has not had an easy life. His mother died when he was 11 and his father is an alcoholic who uses him as a punching back. He is not booksmart and had trouble with the workload at school, so he ends up having an affair with a teacher, Dion, who is kind to him.When the teacher breaks up with him - due to the fact that he has a boyfriend - Chad spirals out of control, losing the only good thing in his life. He drops out of college and spends most of his time drunk or high with his dysfunctional group of friends or getting slapped around by his abusive father.One day the abuse goes to far and Chad escapes, battered and bruised. He runs to his ex-teachers flat, only to encounter the mans boyfriend, Jeremy. Jeremy is a kind person and takes Chad in and takes care of him - although he is well aware of who Chad is.Jeremy and Dion are not in a good place. They are still together, Dion has confessed his sins, but they are essentially living separate lives, sleeping in separate beds, and have done for the past 3 months.I really enjoyed the first part of the story, although I was very apprehensive about the idea of a threesome when the original couple was already heading for break up. It is stated many times that Jeremy and Dion love each other and do not wish to break up, unfortunately though we don't really see it. We see distance and hesitation between the two. And conflict when Chad shows up - naturally.The romance is slow, but still end up feeling rushed at the end, if that makes sense? I never actually believed that this was an equal relationship between the three. There was still too much unaccounted for baggage between Jeremy and Dion and I wasn't sure if Chads feelings for Dion were real, or just a product of the fact, that Dion was the first person in his life who had been kind to Chad? The story would have greatly benefited from another 4-5 chapters where some of these things were worked out.We got a pretty good idea about who both Chad and Jeremy are, as a lot of the story is told from their pov. But Dion was kind of invisible. We see him through Jeremy's eyes and a bit through Chads, but we do not get to know him.There was a lot of things happening around Chad, some of which made sense and drove the story, and some which seemed superfluous. The aunt I really didn't feel bring anything to the story at all. It felt like the author just threw her in there to show off a happy lesbian couple? Josh and Damian brought nothing to the story, but kept cropping up. This is book 5 of a series though, so maybe their story is in one of the books I haven't read?All in all though an interesting little story and I would read something from this author again.