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How do you save a drowning man when that drowning man is you? Jake Moore’s world fits too tightly around him. Every penny he makes as a welder goes to care for his dying father, an abusive, controlling man who’s the only family Jake has left. Because of a promise to his dead mother, Jake resists his desire for other men, but it leaves him consumed by darkness. It takes all of Dallas Yates’s imagination to see the possibilities in the fatigued art deco building on WeHo’s outskirts, but what seals the deal is a shy smile from the handsome metal worker across the street. Their friendship deepens while Dallas peels back the hardened layers strangling Jake’s soul. It’s easy to love the sweet, artistic man hidden behind Jake’s shattered exterior, but Dallas knows Jake needs to first learn to love himself. When Jake’s world crumbles, he reaches for Dallas, the man he’s learned to lean on. It’s only a matter of time before he’s left to drift in a life he never wanted to lead and while he wants more, Jake’s past haunts him, making him doubt he’s worth the love Dallas is so desperate to give him.
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Jumping straight in, just as the book does. Not writing a blurby bit, because I simply can't.
Chapter one. Page one. And I'm crying. I'm thinking that this is gonna be a much darker read for me than of late and I was not disappointed!
Ford pulls you, kicking and screaming into Jake's world and you FEEL it, right here, *touches chest, repeatedly* right there, you FEEL for Jake, you really do. And when it is all laid out for you, oh God, more tears!!
Come to think of it, I spent much of this book in tears!! But trust me, there are happy ones at the end!
Because Dallas does love Jake, right from that meeting of eyes across the street. He knows that Jake needs gentle handling, needs time to process everything. And Dallas will take Jake, as his friend, if that's what Jake needs. Jake doesn't, to be fair, know exactly what he needs but he KNOWS he needs Dallas in his life.
And Celeste. Oh she is funny. But she had Jake's number way before Dallas did. And she made Dallas see.
not as explicit as some of Ford's books, but that's not what this book is about. Its about seeing that, actually, you are not a bad person, and you really do deserve someone to love you.
I love Rhys Ford's work, you know I do. I fell in love with The Sinners Gin guys, and for a very long time, they were my favourites. But this book?? Way WAY surpasses those books.
I can't express, not properly, how this book affected me today. I read it in one sitting. The cat was pleased I did not more for better part of the morning. I could not find a way to stop reading. I needed to know that Jake and Dallas have their happy ending.
Cannot give it anything other than...
5 full and painful, but brilliant stars **same worded review will appear elsewhere**
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *
Rhys Ford is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and was a 2016 LAMBDA finalist with her novel, Murder and Mayhem. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications. She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Yoshi, a grumpy tuxedo cat and Tam, a diabetic black pygmy panther, as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.