Penny’s Rating: B
This is a lovely story. When Detective Kurt O’Donnell loses his partner Ben in an explosion, he discovers that maybe he didn’t know Ben as well as he thought. Kurt discovers that Ben was gay, and hid his decade long relationship with his partner/ husband Davy Broussard from everyone he possibly could, including Kurt. Grieving and hurt that Ben didn’t trust him with his secret, Kurt is determined to do the right thing and offers assistance to the grief stricken Davy. The two become fast friends. As their friendship grows, so does Kurt’s attraction to Davy. When sparks fly between Davy and Kurt, Kurt who has never been attracted to a man before must figure out who he is and what he wants, if it’s not already too late for him and Davy.
This is a pretty well written romance. The characters are endearing, and the storyline is fairly believable. Davy and Kurt are such sweet characters, and I really enjoyed reading about them.
In addition to dealing with the difficult grief of losing a loved one, author KC Burn also addresses a very important issue; the aftermath of being in a very controlling relationship. Not only did Ben hide his sexuality and his relationship with Davy from the world, he controlled many aspects of their day to day lives and isolated Davy (and himself) from everyone. Being controlled in this matter, being isolated, letting someone else dictate where you go, who you see, who you hang out with, etc. is not healthy at the least, and abusive at worst. Plus Ben had some pretty serious OCD. The emotional scars left on Davy by his deceased spouse run deep. I could go on and on about this- no matter how much you love somebody, you should never be forced to hide/ compromise who you are for them to the point that Davy did for Ben. The fact that Ben lived the way he did because of his own hangups and issues (and probable mental health issues) does not excuse his treatment of Davy. Other subjects covered in the novel include coming to terms with sexuality, self-medicating with alcohol, coming out to friends and family, and relationships between friends and family, co-workers, etc.
The timeline in this book is a little confusing. Sometimes weeks blur together, months are slipped over in a few sentences and I was having to flip back a few pages to figure out where we were. One day it’s Christmas, and then all of the sudden… BAM Valentine’s Day, in less than a page. Really? That one in particular was an awkward jump. OK- I get it, nothing happened to speak of during those two holidays, but there is no transition, or even a page break to indicate any passage of time whatsoever. The time stream gets even more disjointed as Kurt falls into despair/ decline and tries to figure out his life, and weeks and weeks kind of get brushed over, and half a year passes with very little mention. This is really the only thing that bothered me about the book, it just made the last half of the novel feel disjointed. The resolution at the end is also a bit rushed. Everything got
That being said, read it. It’s a nice little romance. I can’t say much more without giving away the story. Enjoy!
