Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Love Comes Home

SERIES: Senses #3

AUTHOR: Andrew Grey

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 200 pages

BLURB: When architect Gregory Hampton’s son, Davey, starts having trouble in Little League, Greg takes him to an eye doctor. The diagnosis hits them hard. Davey’s sight is degenerating rapidly, and eventually he’ll go blind.

Tom Spangler is used to getting what he wants. When Greg captures his attention, he asks Greg for a date. They have a good time until Greg gets a call from the friends watching his son, telling him Davey has fallen. Greg and Tom return to find the worst has happened—Davey can no longer see.

With so much going on in his life, Greg doubts he’ll see Tom again. But Tom has researched beep baseball, where balls and bases make sounds to enable the visually impaired to participate in Little League. Tom spearheads an effort to form a team so Davey can continue to play the game he loves. But when Greg’s ex-wife shows up with her doctor boyfriend, offering a possible cure through a radical procedure, Greg must decide how far he’ll go to give Davey a chance at getting his sight back.

REVIEW:

Love Comes Home is the third in the Senses series, which all follow the lives of men or their loved ones with physical issues, illness, or injuries. The main characters of this story are Greg and his son Davey, who goes blind fairly early in the story, and Tom, Greg’s love interest. They meet at a party hosted by one of the couples from an earlier book, and hit it off well. Unfortunately Greg’s life gets very complicated as Davey’s sight deteriorates rapidly. Greg is initially unsure if Tom will stick around, after all they only had one date before Davey takes a turn for the worse. Taking on a new boyfriend who has a special needs child is too much to ask after a single date, no matter how connected they might have felt.

Tom however, has other ideas. He steps up and gets involved, helping Greg with Davey and his new life, but also helping Greg to realize he is more than just Davey’s father. Gordy, Howard, and Sophia from the last book are in this one lots, also helping Greg and Davey adapt to their new reality. The role of villain in this story is played by Joyce, Greg’s ex wife, and Davey’s mother. She’s been out of their lives for a while, and comes rushing back in when she hears about Davey. Tom is clearly the hero of the story though, he slips his way in to Greg and Davey’s lives, introducing them to beep baseball, helping Greg find the strength to stand up to Joyce, and truly help his son.

There are great characters in this book, Tom and Greg are good, but also Davey and Skip, Tom’s New York friend. Davey is obviously the catalyst for the drama of the book, but he’s more than that. Sometimes the kid added to a story feels like they have only been added for the drama, but that wasn’t the case for me with Davey. I liked him as a character on his own, and I’m curious to see how his life goes. I was sad when the book ended, not so much because Tom and Greg’s story was over but Davey’s.

Then there is Skip. I LOVED Skip! He starts out as a little bit of fluff, but really did bring something nice to the story. He and Davey bond, becoming buddies and Skip seems shocked that he likes a ten year old. There was an odd moment of potential angst between Tom and Skip about feelings, but they got past it and moved on. I think Skip liked the small town more than he thought…. Maybe we’ll see him again in another story! (hint hint)

This is the kind of book that Andrew Grey does well. It’s very similar to a lot of his other books, which is not a bad thing by any means. There is definitely a pattern though, and not many surprises. It is a romance afterall, we know going in to it that it will end well. I wasn’t really surprised by anything, it was all very predictable and sweet. Comfortable and comforting, light on the drama, not a huge amount of background story to the characters, easy solution, and not much sex. But I really liked it for those reasons. It wasn’t dramatic and scary, I just finished a book that was hard for me to read, and this was just what I needed. I wish there had been a little more sex though, but as I’m saying that, what Greg and Tom did and when they did it felt right, so I’m not sure what I would have changed, really…

Reading books like this one feel like watching a favorite TV show or a favorite movie, you’ve seen it before and know what to expect, yet enjoy it every time you watch it. It was warm and sweet, well written, and enjoyable.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press