Reviewed By Donna

TITLE: Taking Flight

AUTHOR: Maggie Kavanagh

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 70 Pages

BLURB: When Hunter decides he wants more from his relationship with Jake, the couple finds themselves at a crossroads. Never home for more than a few weeks at a time, Jake has been running from the pain of a rocky childhood ever since high school, when he first enlisted in the army. The thing is, he always comes back to Hunter’s bed. It’s not the kind of commitment Hunter wants, but it’s the kind he’s settled for—that and a dead-end job at the local bookstore in the small Southern town where he grew up. When Jake reveals his plans to make a full-time career in the army, Hunter wonders if he’s putting his life on hold for a relationship that will never happen. He needs to say something now before he loses Jake. However, if Jake can’t conquer his demons, Hunter’s asking for more is sure to drive him away.

REVIEW:

Hunter and Jake have been in a relationship for several years. Jake is in the army and because they’re apart for months at a time they’ve agreed that they’re both allowed to sleep with other people. But Hunter has become unhappy with their agreement. He has a dream of Jake quitting the army and the two of them buying a house together and living happily ever after.

Unfortunately, Jake obviously doesn’t feel the same because he’s talking about reenlisting when his contract is up in a few months. Hunter is terrified at the thought of losing Jake but he’s made the decision that he can’t keep living his life on hold, waiting around for whatever time Jake has to spare.

I’m going to use those words that so many people use when reviewing short stories – I really think this needed to be longer.

I definitely enjoyed the author’s writing style. It flowed nicely and the story was well edited. I would have loved to read this as a full-length novel. As it is, I feel there’s a lot of the story that needs expanding upon.

The blurb talks about Jake’s painful past influencing the choices he’s making in the present but the story doesn’t really go into that. We also know little of the men’s past together.

Another part of the story I would have liked to read more about was Hunter’s new job as a journalist. His first real story is a daring exposé that sounded like that in itself could be the premise of a story. But it all happened very quickly and wasn’t given a lot of attention.

The romantic connection between the two main characters was also a bit lacking in my opinion. I was surprised by how little time Hunter and Jake spent together in the book. I understand that Jake was avoiding talking to Hunter but considering the whole story was only 70 pages it didn’t allow me to get a feel for them as a couple.

Actually by the end of the book I still hadn’t formed much of an opinion of Jake one way or the other. If the story had switched to Jake’s point of view at some point perhaps I would have been more invested in their relationship but I had no clue as to what Jake was thinking or why he made the choices he did.

I realize that this review has ended up sounding pretty negative but I think that’s just my disappointment talking. Many people will probably enjoy this story, I did, but I just wanted so much more. There were good ideas here that I just really wanted to explore further. I’ll definitely be reading more Maggie Kavanagh in the future.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press