Review: B+ rating...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 17, 2013
My Review:I loved this story. The set-up was perfection. As a reader, I could feel Joshua's pain when he discovered what Ben had been doing with other men. The emotions pulled at him...both arousal and extreme disappointment. What he's been watching Ben do on camera was what he thought they would be doing together...eventually. Imagine the pain of that, the pain of realizing that he waited too long to act on his attraction to Ben. But by the time he does discover it, he's too late in another regard. Now all of their hometown which is a small town and fairly traditional in their beliefs knows about the porn and that Ben is gay. He thinks there's no way he can ever return home again. And the story just goes on from there...I loved the emotions behind this book. It's a novella, but it reads like a full-length novel. There's a long history of friendship between these two men, but neither one ever acted on their attraction...never the right time. But there's also the emotions of living up to their dreams and on the flip-side....living up to the expectations of this small town and what these men should be vs. what they truly are. I liked Joshua and how he manages to juggle all those things, even though he's feeling overwhelmed by all of it throughout most of the movie. This is a guy who holds a lot of responsibility and respect in this town. As a result, he could lose it all by standing up for what he wants and is.This book is so good. It starts out in an unlikely manner for a romance novel, and it develops to another level with a message about acceptance and love that I adored. It was a great book and i hope to add it to my yearly Christmas reading...although, I will say this is a novella that would be good to read any time of the year. The climax of it just takes place during the holiday season