Review: Reclaiming Love by V.L. McElfresh
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 9, 2011
The book starts with a frightend Kevin, a thirty old guy who can't bear to stay alone at home. He clings to a linus blanket, he tries to create "rumor" around the apartment to avoid the silence, he makes call to friends. Since the first pages the reader realizes that Kevin is a traumatized man who hasn't yet overcome his nightmare. Three years before Kevin was in a D/s relationship with a Dom who didn't respect the boundaries they agreed, and this sent Kevin to the hospital near dead. Now he is trying to rebuild his life, but his former Master doesn't give up and uses any means to scared him and at the same time begs him to come back. Without the help of his friends, a roommate who is almost a brother, a best girl friend like a substitute mother and a former lover now counselor like second father, Kevin has good chance to success.Now enter Saint Connor; saint is the only word to describe this man, tender and caring and with too much patience. Have you present that story where everyone knows the secret of one of the main characters, but they spend all the story refusing to reveal it since it's not their right to? Usually they give hints and pushes the poor man in front of them in a abyss of total confusion letting him wondering what atrocity they are hiding? Well forget any of that. Here everyone, from the roommate to the best friend, till the owner of the local bookstore, all are ready to spill the true about Kevin's past and to warn off Connor. The poor man can't even talk to Kevin, that they are telling him that Kevin is fragile, that he probably is not ready for a sexual relationship, and Connor has not yet kiss him! A man with less patience would give up as soon as possible and instead Saint Connor smiles and vows Kevin. When the crazy man who is stalking Kevin, begins to threaten also him, he simple shrug his shoulder and ask Kevin if he is all right. When Kevin becomes a icicle the first time they try something in bed, Connor rises and goes for a cold shower. When all around him seems to collapse in nonsense, the 39 years old Connor takes the phone and calls... his DAD! Connor always does the right thing.Connor is obviously a good man, but I like that he is not the macho man hero type. In a classical romance, poor Kevin would be rescued by the average knight in shining armour, proud and brave. It's not that Connor is not brave, but he is simple a man; he doesn't set up a show where he "magically" makes disappear all the trouble, he simple gives to Kevin another shoulder to lean when he needs to. He is willing to help, but he will not "resolve" all Kevin's trouble only due to his powerful charm. It's Kevin's task, and right, to learn how to be independent again.Kevin is a trouble young man. He had obviously difficult childhood, with a mother who pushed him beyond his limits, and who instilled in him a feeling of never being good enough, and a father who probably was too weak to impose; Kevin's father loved him, but he probably was not the authoritative figure Kevin needed, and Kevin searched that figure in other men, like his friend Devon, and finally in his abusive former lover. Now Kevin, to be happy again, needs to realize that he is strong enough even alone; and Connor is good to him since he doesn't try to overprotect him, but he let him space to move, fall and arise again.The book is quite angst, there are very few light moment, but even if not often, I like the impish streak that the author gave to Kevin. I also like the anti-hero character she created with Connor, handsome and gentle, but not perfect.