Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Date published: March 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62380-394-0
Genre: M/M contemporary
romance
Book format: E-book
Obtained via: Publisher
Reviewed by Keldon
High school senior Kieran Appleby lives a lonely life as an
outsider: at home, his dad ignores him; at school, he has no friends, lunches
with the janitor, and does his best to avoid the school bully who taunts him
with slurs like “faggot.” When he graduates, Kieran plans to get as far away
from Cedar Keys, Florida as possible.
Fellow classmate and star baseball pitcher Drew Anderson has his
own demons—a mother with crippling agoraphobia, an uncle serving overseas in
the Marines, and a remarried father too busy with his new family to have time
for Drew.
Kieran and Drew appear to have nothing in common but a shared
table in art class, until Drew notices Kieran drawing hearts with the initials
“K.A” and “D.A.” Before Drew can react, the teacher demands to see Kieran’s
notebook, prompting Kieran to take drastic measures and end up with
detention—cleaning out the art supply room. Feeling obligated to reassure
Kieran that there will be no consequences about the revelation, Drew seeks him
out after school in the supply room. Thus begins a rather sweet romance for
these two, full of firsts. As the school year unwinds, Kieran and Drew must
negotiate untested waters and decide where they stand after graduation. An
epilogue provides closure about where the boys end up.
At first, the book reads like a Young Adult romance: two high
school protagonists dealing with teenage angst and the stress of sexual
identity and first love. However, the intimate encounters are explicit,
planting this book squarely in the adult category. The writing is smooth and
the pace good. Some distracting head-hopping in the beginning disappeared as
the story played out. The plot is a straightforward romance; the secondary
characters serve to advance the main story, and the only subplots are familial
relationships.
This book was an easy read, if a little too rooted in high school
for my adult reading taste. I’ll be checking out this author’s other offerings.
This is an objective review.
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