Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Outcome

SERIES: Aftermath #2

AUTHOR: Cara Dee

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 253 Pages

BLURB:

Three years ago, Chase Gallardo ran toward freedom with his fellow survivors after having spent five months in captivity. He hasn’t stopped running since. Only now, it’s the memories he’s constantly trying to escape. Haunting echoes of a man who forced Chase to play the part of another, the kidnapper’s younger brother. Chase may have survived, but that doesn’t mean he’s really living. Until one day, when his employee tells him there’s a man sitting at the bar, wearing only underwear.

Remy Stahl has given up—almost. For a year, alcohol, drugs, and faces without names have kept him company. But he has two friends who refuse to give up on him, and they lock him up in his house in an attempt to save him from himself. Though, never underestimate an addict’s desire to see the bottom of another bottle. Remy escapes, and he doesn’t give a rat’s ass that he’s nearly naked.

This is the sequel to Aftermath, where Cam and Austin met, struggled, and fell in love. Outcome takes us back to Bakersfield with Chase and Remy’s story. Fueled by anger, guilt, and shame, they’re not off to an easy start. But it’s only a matter of time before they learn how much they need each other in order to move on.

REVIEW:

The name’s Chase. I like to tinker with my Harleys, I can’t cook to save my life, but I make a mean grilled cheese sandwich. I leave the toilet seat up and the cap for the toothpaste off, there isn’t a drink on this planet I can’t make, and oh, that’s right: after being held captive by an insane madman for five months, my head is fucked. Permanently.

“Remy is…” A beautiful fucking mess who wants to get better but is afraid he can’t.

That’s right my friends, it’s a double whammy. The ultimate in damaged characters, the holy grail of hurt-comfort – both MCs are dealing with some serious psychological baggage that leaves them struggling to move forward with their lives.

I’m working on the assumption that if you’re planning to read this book then you have already read, or are going to read, Aftermath first. And I recommend that you definitely do so because Aftermath gives you a pretty detailed insight into what the abducted men suffered. Outcome picks up a couple of years after the end of Aftermath, on the three year anniversary of Chase and the other survivors escaping their cages and attempting to return to the lives they left behind. Obviously that’s easier said than done because as we witnessed in Aftermath, the trauma these men suffered is something that leaves lasting effects. In the first book Cam and Austin had each other to turn to, a lover who understood what they needed to heal, unfortunately, Chase wasn’t so lucky. Chase had nobody to comfort him but a teenaged sister who he didn’t want to burden with his problems.

Actually, Chase had problems way before he was abducted by Ben Stahl. He’s lived his whole life trying to live up to the expectations of his narrow-minded father who has long since passed away. Chase has never told anybody he is gay, believing that that would just be one more slight to his father’s memory. The fact that he was abducted from an alley after giving into his long suppressed need to be with a man just seems to be further justification that, for him at least, being gay is not right. Enduring five months of being screamed at and called a “fag” by his kidnapper obviously didn’t help him accept that part of himself.

Remy Stahl, as the youngest brother of kidnapper and murderer, Ben Stahl, has his own issues stemming from what happened three years ago. Rejected by a family that never really wanted him, ignored by an angry Chase who didn’t want to hear his apologies and abandoned by a mother who didn’t love him enough to fight for him, Remy feels that he has been let down by everybody. Not wanting to give his best friends the chance to let him down too, he abandons everybody who still cares and disappears into a hazy world of alcohol and drugs. A rather forceful intervention by Remy’s friends results in a chance meeting between Remy and Chase and Chase recognizes that it’s perhaps time for both men to ask for help so they can move on with their lives.

I really enjoyed this story. I think for anybody that read and loved Aftermath this is definitely a must read and you’ll be pleased to know that there’s plenty of Cam and Austin so we get to see how those favourites are getting on with their lives. In fact, a couple of times the point of view actually switched to one of those two men but as much as I love them both I don’t really understand why. It’s a strange thing really, when we fall in love with characters it’s always so exciting to find them popping up in another character’s book, and I won’t lie, I was happy to see them. I can’t even explain why I didn’t like the story switching to their point of view except I think maybe it drew my focus away from the two new main characters that I was trying to concentrate on. However, they make for some great secondary characters along with Remy’s best friends who are a very import part of Remy’s recovery and the story’s progression.

Since I’m on the topic of point of view, the story switched regularly between Remy and Chase. Not sentence to sentence or anything, but at times I still found it a touch confusing as to whose perspective I was getting. I think the trouble was that both men have a very similar voice. Both men suffer from feelings of guilt when it comes to what happened with Ben. Chase feels guilty because although he was locked up and has the shackle scars to prove it, he wasn’t beaten or tortured or instrumental in their escape like some of the other men were. Remy on the other hand thinks he’s guilty of enabling the kidnappings because he was providing his brother with money while Ben was playing his twisted game with the men locked in his basement. The guilt and self-disgust that winds its way through both mens thoughts at times made them too similar.

I must admit that I enjoyed the second half much more than the first half. It took till halfway through the book before Remy made much of a break through with his problems and the two men finally hook up but at the same time I appreciated that the men didn’t just meet, fall into bed and abracadabra their problems are overcome by love. Instead, it’s written much more realistically. As Remy’s friend tells him, he has to play a part in his own rescue. The men both have to acknowledge that they want help and they have to ask for help, they’re not given a magic fix. There’s therapy, there’s AA, there’s relapses and it was real and I actually really respected that.

My favourite detail in this story was Remy’s tattoo of the Joshua tree and the significance of that to Chase. It was just one of those awww, how sweet moments, without it actually being cutesy.

The only real downside to this book? It isn’t Aftermath. I love this story, I love Chase and Remy but unfortunately or maybe fortunately, however you want to look at it, Aftermath was one of those books that makes you feel, hard. And the trouble with that is the sequels, no matter how great they might be in themselves, aren’t the same book and tend to receive a somewhat mixed reception. Just remember people, Remy and Chase aren’t Cam and Austin, but their story is just as worthy and I think the author did an awesome job.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

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