Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Only Love

AUTHOR: Garrett Leigh

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 274 Pages

RATING:

BLURB: The diagnosis of a chronic stomach condition leaves thirty-two-year-old Sergeant Jed Cooper with little choice but to call time on his Army career. Then on the dusty streets of Kirkuk, an ambush gone tragically wrong decimates his team, and he returns to the US with a shattered leg and the memory of his best friend dying in his arms.

Life in his sleepy hometown proves intolerable until he finds solace in a lakeside cabin with vivacious young carpenter, Max O’Dair. In the shadow of the epilepsy that periodically plagues Max, he and Jed form an unspoken bond. After a late night episode, Jed realizes how much Max means to him, and life has taught him not to waste time.

But the lines between contentment and complacency are blurred. Things left hidden resurface to tear through their world, and before they can repair the damage, death comes to call again. Faces, past and present, rally around them to weather the storm, but before long, they are left with only love.

REVIEW: Poor Jed is a hot mess. He needs physical therapy for his shot up leg while dealing with the symptoms of his gastroparesis, an incurable stomach ailment. Add to that his abrupt departure from the only life he has known for over a decade and his subsequent return to Ashton, a town he never expected or wanted to see again. Having to move in with his younger brother is just the sickly icing on some cake he’s finding extremely hard to swallow. Luckily, he discovers there may be another option.

Max lives in an isolated cabin on the shore of a lake and he has his own troubles to deal with. He suffers from epilepsy and relies pretty heavily on his medic alert dog, Flo, to keep him safe. But despite his friendly, easy going nature Max has secrets he can’t share with anyone but his sister. He’s not keen on the idea of Jed moving in to his spare bedroom until he meets him and can’t resist the impulse to try to help.

As main characters go, the author did a brilliant job of creating two who are just plain interesting. They’re instantly drawn to each other but it’s more about a budding friendship and the desire to help a fellow human being than anything romantic. Obviously the attraction is there but I wasn’t desperately waiting for them to hop into bed together. I enjoyed that the sexual aspect was on a back burner as I learned more about both of these men.

As I’ve already mentioned, Max has epilepsy and Jed suffers from gastroparesis. I don’t know if the author has experience with either condition or if she just did her research but I really bought the pain and frustration and fear that these characters experience. Particularly when it comes to Max’s thoughts and feelings post seizure.

Once they do eventually have sex it sort of awkwardly slides them into a relationship. Not awkward as in the author messed up, but awkward as in, they’re two stubborn men with secrets who don’t like to talk about stuff, with each other or with other people. When they first somehow find themselves in a relationship, I must confess, I wasn’t feeling a romantic connection. Not that these are chocolates and flowers kind of guys but it seems to be more convenience than anything else. I felt their friendship much more than I felt any other connection. Even the sex doesn’t seem all that important to them. When people talk about hurt-comfort books, Only Love is one big beacon of an example of that. It almost felt like they want to help each other so much, they figure the best way to do that is to jump into bed together because that way they are physically as close as possible if the need to help arises.

However, and this is one ginormous however, any notion I had that these men don’t really have feelings for one another went straight out the window when one of them lands in hospital. It was as though I was coasting along just enjoying the book when there was a BOOM and WTF just happened? (The boom does not signify a bomb in case I confused you. It was just me being dramatic.) Suddenly this story was just burying me in emotion and the characters are drowning in tears and fears and it was all rather magnificent. Had the author not written this so well I may have reacted differently. I very easily could have been writing a review that said something along the lines of – and then just because one of them was really ill they were suddenly in love. It was completely unbelievable. But I believed every single tear shed and every endearment whispered and it was just all the more powerful because it came out of nowhere.

Now I know a number of you out there in m/m land are staunch Garrett Leigh fans but Only Love happens to be the first of her books that I’ve read. When I’d finished the story I checked out the author bio in the back of the book and it says that Garrett Leigh can’t write without angst. Which is why I haven’t read any of her other stories. The blurbs just radiate angst. But I honestly wouldn’t label this book as angsty. For the characters, yes, but not for the reader.

Just a warning that the story contains flashbacks, which I know some people hate to read, I know sometimes I don’t like them either. But I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My only regret is that I didn’t request the accompanying freebie that is being released on the same day. Now I’ll just have to wait, patiently, like everybody else.

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press