Dreamspinner Presents http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6622
Blurb
DANIEL MULLIGAN is tough, snarky, and tattooed, hiding his self-consciousness behind sarcasm. Daniel has never fit in—not at home with his auto mechanic father and brothers, and not at school where his Ivy League classmates look down on him. Now, Daniel’s relieved to have a job at a small college in Northern Michigan, but, a city boy through and through, when Daniel arrives in Holiday, Michigan, it’s clear that this small town is one more place he just won’t fit in.
REX VALE clings to routine to keep loneliness at bay: honing his large, muscular body until it can handle anything, perfecting his recipes, and making custom furniture. Rex has lived in Holiday for years, but his shyness and imposing size have kept him from connecting with people. Though he loves the quiet and solitude of his little cabin in the woods, Rex can’t help but want someone to share it with.
When Daniel arrives in Holiday, they are smitten with each other, but though the sex is intense and explosive, Rex fears that Daniel will be one more in a long line of people to leave him, and Daniel has learned that letting anyone in could be a fatal weakness. Just as they begin to break down the walls that have been keeping them apart, Daniel is called home to Philadelphia where a secret is revealed that changes the way he understands everything.
Can a scrappy professor, an intense carpenter, and a stray dog make a go of it in their cabin in the woods? Sometimes, you have to go to the middle of nowhere to end up exactly where you want to be.
Review
Daniel moves to rural Michigan from Philadelphia for his first job as an English Professor. There he meets Rex, a wood worker, who both inspires his lust and makes him incredibly nervouse.
Daniel has been a scrappy kid for most of his life – his dad and brothers are not supportive of him, his lifestyle, his education, his sexuality, etc, etc. He’s been burned in the past, but has also never really had a serious relationship.
Rex has loved and lost and is very guarded with his heart. Neither man is very good at speaking their feelings and yet they both feel deeply.
Most of the story is the two coming together only to be separated again by a misunderstanding of one or the other.
Eventually we get a solid HFN that looks very promising.
**
This is written in first person present tense and can be difficult for some authors/readers. I think it’s done very well and after a few pages I didn’t think it felt odd at all.
I really loved the characters. Daniel is hysterical and snarky and insecure and sexy and wonderful. Rex is a simple yet deep (still waters and all that) and the perfect foil for the kinetic energy that is Daniel.
I loved how they came together right away and started building from that. What I didn’t like was the continual waffling. A simple, sincere conversation could have easily eliminated half the angst of this long (maybe too long?) book.
I also didn’t love the ending. After all the torment I really wanted them to end up in a more decisive place. Perhaps this is leading to a book two, but if not, I really wanted more for them. It just felt so wishy washy – and we had put up with a lot of torment for us not to get that glorious satisfaction of a solid HEA.
The side story of Colin, Daniel’s closeted brother, didn’t really lend itself to the story and only served to muddy the waters. Perhaps this is another book to follow, but if not – I’m not sure it was necessary here and definitely distracted from the focus of the book.
All in all I mostly really enjoyed the book, wished it was a bit more tightly edited and wished for a slightly more robust ending.
4 of 5 hearts
