Review: 4.5 stars
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2014
In this second episode of the Rough Boys series we mostly center on one of the three main characters: Ty.Ty is 17, homeless, and soon-to-be addicted to heroin. While on the streets, he's usually okay with just getting drunk, but his spotter disappears and his life is in even greater chaos. He can't find his friends, Dani and Kaedan, and he's sick. One rainy night he shows up at Tim's condo. Tim's a college sutdent, but mostly he's a drug dealer. He lets Ty crash for a few days, and starts to recognize that he has some latent gayness. So, in order to entice Ty into an 'arrangement', he starts giving Ty more and more heroin. Then, he wants Ty to pay for it. Ty loses his job as a grocery stocker and is completely beholden to Tim for the fix he needs. Tim's willing to exchange smack for sex. Instead of giving in, however, Ty steals what he can find and runs. Tim catches up with Ty not long after. Ty's a total mess and ripe for the picking. While Tim brutalizes Ty, Abe--who has spent months jogging the streets and parks of Heartland City looking for his lost boy--hears Ty's cries for help and Abe rushes in to the rescue. In the process he beats Tim and one of his cronies half to death.Thereafter are a whole series of moments between Ty and Abe where Abe struggles to get Ty clean. It was such a dark time, Ty didn't even realize he'd missed his birthday. Ty struggles greatly with urges for smack, but Abe's compassion and strength bring him back from the abyss time and again. Reaching out to make amends, Ty reunites with his mother and sister, and makes good on his earlier mistakes at his old job. In fact, his boss recommends him for another job and he's hired as tech support to a grocery inventory software company. Ty has dark cravings, however, so we are always on edge that he'll let down himself, and Abe who he lives with exclusively. Ty does seek counseling for his physical and emotional abuse, which helps. Also, Ty begins to realize that he is gay--and very much attracted to Abe. Abe is in deep with Ty, but won't make any moves that will scare him off. Ty does meet with his father at a family dinner--at which time he "comes out" which is funny as he and Abe never even kissed before that. It sets off a chain reaction that lands Ty's dad in jail, however. Good on that. More stuff happens--including a foreshadowing that Tim and Ty's father will seek revenge, respectively. Also, MIT had accepted Ty before he ran away, and considering the great hurdles he's overcome they are willing to delay his enrollment--but Ty's nervous to leave Abe behind.Other storylines that are picked up and woven in:Dani and Nigel develop a clear and strong bond. There are some stumbles in the beginning, but it seems that they are meant for each other. Leather, Nigel and Sean's band, gets signed by a label, but they struggle with the lead singer and later when Sean trashes his car in a drugged out crash. He heads off to rehab, unaware that the boy he desires, Kaedan, is in serious trouble with his newest john. Yeah, being a rentboy can be a very dangerous profession.The series keeps rolling forward with constant forward motion. This time the resolution isn't as clear in the story arcs--well, certainly not Kaedan's, anyway, but we know there's some hell to pay for several characters in the next book. the tension runs very high. And, the smexytimes get all the smexier. Very steamy scenes, even if Ty is still a "virgin".I received a copy of this book via Goodreads' Don't Buy My Love program in exchange for an honest review.