Hello all, hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween weekend. A few of the Guilty Indulgence girls will be at my house to help me pass out candy on Sunday while our husbands take the younger kids around the neighborhood. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays I love to see the kids in all of their different costumes, that's why I love to stay behind and pass out the candy....that and our neighborhood has a LOT of hills. LOL Well I have a "treat" for you adults, I found a new to me author a couple of weeks ago and wanted to tell you about his book.
Home, William Neale, MLR Press, LLC
Lucas Reed is a Cleveland advertising executive who returns to his southern hometown to deal with the sudden death of his estranged homophobic father. There, he unexpectedly encounters Rogan James, the former high school bully and now local deputy chief of police who had once made Lucas's life miserable.
Reacquainted 12 years later, the two finally acknowledge a long held powerful physical attraction that quickly evolves into an even stronger emotional connection.
But all this becomes secondary when a local reporter's secret obsession for Rogan threatens not only the end of their newly found love, but their very lives.
This story starts with Rogan showing up at Lucas's fathers funeral, he has come to pay his respects but also wants to apologize to Lucas for the way that Rogan treated him through high school. Rogan invites Lucas back to his place for a drink and to try and explain why he treated him the way he did back then. Rogan has been in love with Lucas since the first time he saw him and like a lot of boys at that age doesn't know how to deal with those feelings and so he lashes out at Lucas, teasing him and calling him names. Lucas is skeptical of the apology at first but finally accepts that Rogan is being sincere.
Their relationship builds from there and the two together practically burn the pages up(seriously thought my computer was going to overheat)but they each have issues that they need to deal with. Rogan was married and has twins, he is also the deputy chief of police in a small southern town, will admitting his relationship with Lucas cost him his children and his job? Lucas is still not sure that Rogans feelings for him are real and isn't sure that Rogan could handle coming out. Well the coming out part is taken out of both of their hands when a reporter who is secretly in love with Rogan sends pictures of Rogan and Lucas together to Rogans boss and several high ranking public officials.
After the pictures are made public Rogans ex-wife calls and threatens to never let him see his children again, when Lucas hears this he leaves and goes back to Cleveland hoping that by leaving, Rogans life will go back to normal. Rogan gets support from his boss who tells him to take sometime off while he handles the fall out. When Rogan realizes that Lucas has left he goes after him. Rogan explains to Lucas that his wife can't take his kids away because of the custody agreement that he has and that his boss supports him and his job is safe. The two spend the next couple of weeks in Cleveland enjoying being "out" together.
When they return not only do they have to deal with Rogans family and friends ignoring him but Rogans house was broken into and Lucas's life has been threatened. The reporter who outed them wants Lucas out of Rogans life even if he has to take him out himself. While they know all along who is responsible for the pictures and the threats they don't have any proof and can't do anything until Randall actually tries something.
Now in most books, when Randall attemtps to kill Lucas would be the climax and end of the book, but not with this book and I think that's one of the reasons that I liked it so much. This author lets you continue to be a part of Rogan and Lucas's life. You get to see where they go from there. You get to be a part of their life and their love story. It also sets up the next book in the series beautifully....it made me want the next story NOW!!! I can't wait for the next installment in Lucas and Rogans life, and that is why I gave Home, 5 chocolate dipped strawberries.
Tyra:
ReplyDeleteWhat a particular treat to log on this morning and already find 5 chocolate dipped strawberries in my treat bag. I'm both elated and humbled and thank you both for reading "Home" and for your very kind words.
I wish the next story were available NOW but Book Two in the Home series, "A New Normal" will be released by MLR Press either late this year or early next. It introduces a new cast of characters that will meet up with Rogan and Lucas in the third and final book in the series, "The Fifth Stage." It should be out in mid-2011.
As much as I wanted to continue my own love affair with Rogan and Lucas in the second book, I felt they needed a bit of a separation before entering the next phase of their lives together. Hopefully you'll see how it all makes sense in the grand scheme of things once you read Book Two.
I am now a proud follower of Guilty Indulgence
so invite your members to contact me anytime with questions or comments.
Thank you again for such a terrific review.
William Neale
www.williamneale.com
William, Thank you so much for stopping by. I think your book read so real for me especially how you wrote about surrogates and gay couples adopting. I have friends who have been going through this and felt so bad for the extra steps they had to take to insure custody. I also thought it was very real the way some people reacted to Rogan coming out later in life but eventually came back around. As far as the next book I will be purchasing it no matter who it's about! Thanks again for sharing Rogans and Lucas's story.
ReplyDeleteWow, this sounds really interesting. I must admit I don;t usually read a lot of M/M books or fiction, but I do think it is nice when it's well-written and tasteful and this seems to be both, so thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteSo....I finally read "Home" at Miss Tyra's insistence. I loved the book partially because it was a great love story, but also because it reminded me of being at home too. I grew up in a really small town with the same feelings as the town that Luc and Rogue live in. Like Luc, I left for good and found myself. I highly recommend the book and thank Mr Neale for publishing a well-written and classy book. I'm very much looking forward to the next book, hopefully with Clay and Tag's story. Have a great weekend - Sid
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