Reviewed by Roberta
SERIES: Tucker Springs #7
AUTHOR: L A Witt
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 205 pages
BLURB: After their umpteenth breakup, Brad Sweeney and Jeff Hayden are living apart and starting over from scratch. The morning after a promising first date, they’re more optimistic than ever that they can make it work this time . . . until Jeff’s ex-wife and business partner calls to announce she’s pregnant with Jeff’s baby. Brad’s already competing with a demanding business for Jeff’s time. Now there’s a baby on the way, and worse, he’s afraid Jeff is still carrying a torch for the woman who’s carrying his child.
Jeff is desperately trying to keep his life together, but before he can even get his head around the news that he’s going to be a father, his ex announces that she wants to leave Tucker Springs. Now he either has to take over her role at the shop while ferrying the baby back and forth from Denver, or move the business—and himself—with her.
Brad and Jeff knew reconciliation wouldn’t be easy, but they’re rapidly running out of room for compromise. And sooner or later, something has to give.
REVIEW: Brad Sweeney and Jeff Hayden are having some major issues. They can’t seem to get it together. Yet, they are trying again to make it work between the two of them and they’ll need ALL the help they can get.
Jeff Hayden is this bisexual guy who has been in a relationship with Brad for 4 years. Jeff loves Brad so much and he wants to work things out with him. Jeff thinks that this time, they can really make it work. Jeff prays that they can make it work. Jeff owns this engraving business with his ex-wife, Christine. They’ve been divorced for a while and have a pretty good working relationship. There’s no worries on that end. Just his relationship with Brad is keeping his life from being perfect. Jeff knows that he loves Brad and that they can work their issues out. He’s filled with such hope, until he finds out that his ex-wife is pregnant with his child and that she wants to move home to Denver.
Brad Sweeney works in a high end jewelry store and is trying to keep his head above water when it comes to his relationship with Jeff. Brad loves Jeff the same that Jeff loves Brad. He wants so badly to make things work out with them. He’s trying so hard to get past his insecurities regarding Jeff being bisexual and leaving him for a woman. He’s always been scared of the closeness between Jeff and Christine, no matter what Jeff has said. He’s tired of the fighting that they seem to keep doing. It’s like there’s this rut that they can’t get out of. He wants to make a life with Jeff. He wants to finally get these issues out of the way and allow them the chance to truly make things work. It’s just so damn hard. Then when all seems to maybe finally be working out, Jeff hits Brad with the news that Christine is pregnant with his child and wants to leave Tucker Springs. Sigh…what’s a guy to do?
Now, the true secondary character in this story is Christine. She’s a part of this story in the sense that not only is she Jeff’s ex-wife and business partner…she’s also the mother of his unborn child. She has nothing but love for Jeff and with Brad, she’s never wanted to come between them. I know that even reading those words and knowing that she’s preggers is hard to believe, but it’s true. She even gives Brad advice regarding being with Jeff. She loves Jeff and only wants him to be happy. I will say that I was like, WTF is going on here when I read that she’s knocked up and they’d been divorced for a while. But I felt for her. Here Christine works with her ex that she loves and yet, Tucker Springs is not home for her. It’s hard being a person of color in a very white place and to always feel like an outsider, no matter how you long you’ve been there. I could understand her and felt bad for all of them. It was a sucky situation for all involved.
This story broke my heart. I kept trying not to cry reading this story. To see that these guys loved each other so much and couldn’t figure out what were the true issues that they were fighting about and how to fix them and move forward was so hard. I just wanted to sit with each of them and hug the hell out of them. Tell them that it was going to be ok. That sometimes people hit rough patches and that they could work it out. These guys truly did suffer to get their HEA. It wasn’t easy for them. They really did have to work for it. But, I loved watching each of them really think things through and realize what was important and what was just BS. I loved that that they worked it out. It wasn’t easy, but boy was it worth it!!
I have to say that even though I’ve not read any of the prior Tucker Springs novels, this was a great book and it worked as a standalone. I wasn’t really lost in who the characters from prior books were. They were just friends and were on screen just a bit. This truly was the story of Jeff and Brad. You got to go on the journey of their relationship and seeing if they could make it.
I will say that towards the end, I was disappointed that things felt just a bit rushed. The ending was good, don’t get me wrong, just rushed. I felt that if maybe it was a bit longer, than it filling in the gaps that I felt at the end would have made this better.
This was a great book and I now want to go back and read the prior books. Such a nice introduction to this series. A great read.
BUY LINKS: Riptide Publishing