Review by Susan Lee

TITLE: Choices (Book #1)
SERIES: Waiting for Forever
AUTHOR: Jamie Mayfield
PUBLISHER: Harmony Ink Press
BLURB: Part One: The Throwaway Boy

As the country’s religious and secular leaders battle over equality in the abstract, Brian McAllister and Jamie Mayfield live in the crossfire. In their little town of Crayford, Alabama, loving another boy is the worst kind of sin. Best friends since childhood, they explore their love and each other in Jamie’s backyard tree house as they hide from the world. They happily plan for the future together—until their lives are rocked when their secret is exposed and Jamie’s family intervenes.

When hatred turns to violence in their sleepy little town, Brian tries to cope with the loss of his best friend, who is stolen in the night. In desperation, he turns to Adam, a new friend with a shared pain. Can Adam fill the hole left by Jamie’s absence? The answer will change everything.

Adapted from the award-winning Little Boy Lost series by J. P. Barnaby.

REVIEW:

Just a few details:

Jamie Mayfield is the fictional character in JP Barnaby’s “Little Boy Lost” series. This character has now become a YA writer and is releasing his first book, “Choices”. All proceeds from Jamie’s books go towards the support of organizations that help homeless LGBT youth.

With that being said, I do want to be clear that “Choices” is not actually a new story. This I found out as I turned to page 1. It’s actually an adaptation of Barnaby’s “Enlightened” & “Abandoned” for YA readers. I had deja vu for a hot second and then realized what was going on. I actually couldn’t even tell much difference at all. In any other circumstance, this would annoy me. But, because I feel strongly about the cause, I fully support this “repackaging”.

This book follows the friendship-to-lovers-to-soulmates story of Brian and Jamie. What they have is so pure and so sweet and so lovely. What really breaks me is the small-mindedness of their town, their church, Jamie’s parents.  The fear that they feel of being caught as “gay”was palpable and emotional, but their commitment to one another inspiring and powerful.

In any case, I really liked this original series…it made a huge impact on me and opened my eyes not only to the plight of kids being kicked out of homes because of being gay, but also for those being shuffled around in the foster care system, sometimes in truly dismal situations. The original books themselves are  decent reads (I rated them between 3 – 3.5 stars each the first time through) but the series as a whole is IMPORTANT and POWERFUL.

So, I highly encourage you all to BUY this version of the story (especially if you haven’t yet read Little Boy Lost)…so that you can also support a great cause.

Susan’s Rating: 

BUY LINK: Harmony Ink Press  ||  Book Store

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Susan Lee is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love
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