Reviewed by Nina

TITLE: Salvage
AUTHOR: Con Riley
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 219 pages
BLURB: Five years ago, an accident fractured Gabe Cooper’s family. Believing it was broken beyond repair, Gabe and his best friend Jamie Carlson left Minnesota behind for San Diego sunshine and college. Now another crisis brings Gabe home to help his ailing father, and he finally has to face the guilt that kept him away for so long.

Scott Stark also returns to Minnesota, with his young niece and nephew in tow, shouldering new family responsibilities. While Gabe comes to grips with his past, Scott struggles to accept his present role as a substitute parent, caring for two children, each with different needs. As Gabe and Scott get to know each other, reclaiming family life almost seems possible. Only two things stand in the way of love: Gabe’s unresolved relationship with Jamie, and Scott’s plan to leave Minnesota as soon as he can. Both men will have to accept past mistakes if they want to salvage a future together, and time is running out.

REVIEW:

Disclaimer: I’m quite cold-hearted – or a glacial bitch, as some would say – so take what I’m about to say here with a pinch of salt. This book might make you cry buckets, even though it didn’t do that to me.

When I say this novel was light, pleasant reading, I definitely do not mean that it’s a simple, easy story. I mean that it’s a difficult story, handled with an incredibly delicate hand that somehow managed to squeeze my heart without making it bleed.

Con Riley’s strength lies in words. It’s not the plot that had me glued to the pages – although that has its merits too – but the way it it was told.

The story unfolds over the course of a few months, not once lagging or speeding up too much.

Gabe, Scott, Ariel, Jamie and Coop’s backstories are doled out in small doses, just enough at a time to keep the reader happy, but slightly obsessed and hungry for more. But what I found most fascinating about each character, Gabe and Scott in particular, is that despite a slight air of mystery around them, at least in the beginning, and the uttermost complexity of an actual human being that Riley managed to transpose here, there is a crystal clear transparency about them that had me following their thought processes, agreeing with their actions and sympathising with them even when the path they chose wasn’t one I would have chosen myself; even when it seemed to me they were doing something senseless… somehow I saw the sense in it.

The romance is not, by any means, the main focus of this story of personal growth, but it’s delicious, heartwarming and sexy all the same.

In a story full of issues and trauma, the love story between Gabe and Scott is the only easy and angst-free happening. It’s plain to see how well they fit together right from the start, in a way that requires no words and no explicit commitment, but comes naturally and brings only joy.

The other characters are just as lovable and interesting, each of them with a clearly defined personality and a past that shaped them and changed them. In a way, most of them aren’t even secondary characters, because they spend just as much on-page time as Scott. That makes this more of a choral, family-centred story – family in every sense: the one you’re born with, and the one you build for yourself – and despite the fact that my tastes don’t usually run in that direction, I loved it. I absolutely adored it. I enjoyed the hell out of it. Is there a way to make this any clearer or more emphatic?

The issues in this story, ranging from rape to illness, homophobia and ASD, have the potential to be very heavy and difficult to handle – for the author and for the reader.

But what I said about Con Riley’s magical way with words comes into play here too, and the narration never turns preachy or oppressive.

Every plot thread, every single small detail is weaved into the plot so seamlessly that at the end, when this masterpiece of a tapestry was finished, I was left smiling, completely satisfied and speechless. Speechless. All that came out of my mouth for the next three hours was “green marbles”.

Irrealistically realistic, astonishingly beautiful, and heartbreakingly comforting.

There’s probably a lot more to say about this, but other people have already written everything you need to know. I can only hope I helped someone make the decision to pick up this book, because it’s worth every penny and every minute. This is the quality I hope for every time I start reading a novel.

Nina rates it –

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press :: Amazon :: All Romance eBooks

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Nina is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: NINA’S REVIEWS
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