Review by Lily Lamb
TITLE: More Than Anything
SERIES: More Than Anything #1
AUTHOR: T.T. Kove
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 380 pages
BLURB:
Arriving home after work one evening, Jørgen sees a young man who looks adrift and out of place—and who promptly has a seizure on the sidewalk. Jørgen takes care of him until the seizure passes and then, not knowing who to contact, takes care of him for the night. After giving the kid, Geir, a ride home the next morning, he expects that to be the end of it.
He doesn’t expect Geir to be a student at the vocational school where Jørgen works as an electrician. He definitely does not expect to be drawn to Geir time and again, to want things that will never be possible for two people with more obstacles between them than can ever be overcome.
REVIEW:
One evening 22 year old Jorgen finds a young male outside his home who appears to be out of sorts and soon realizes the young male is actually having a seizure. After the seizure, the young male needed some care so Jorgen had to go through the young man’s backpack to find out who he was but was unable to reach any family member. As the young man is not well, it was Jorgen who cared for him for the night. The young man was 16 year old Geir. This is how they meet and slowly become friends. Geir needed Jorgen’s friendship because he was a lonely youth who was also bullied at school. Jorgen needed Geir’s friendship because he suffers from PTSD and this beautiful story unfolds slowly and delicately with these two wonderful wounded heroes. As you can read from the names, the setting of this story is in Norway so that was very refreshing for me because I got to have a small view of Norwegian culture.
Their friendship starts innocently loaded with compassion for each other and then turns into love as Geir gets older. I really loved reading how they got to know each other. There was a subtle bond between them that was endearing and heartwarming at the beginning.
As I was reading the story, I got to know Jorgen more. His complex past traumatic events left him struggling with anxiety, panic attacks and flash backs. He was so damaged but so kind in a selfless way. I couldn’t help but adore him.
Geir on the other hand was an underweight teen who was bullied at school and at times was having significant epileptic seizures that were leaving him vulnerable in the public. His father was working off shore and his mother passed away when he was 7 years old. Chronologically he may be 16 years old but emotionally, he was a way ahead of his age group so it was understandable how these two became friends and then when Geir reach the legal age were kind of dating but with no sexual intimacy. All of these pages were loaded with emotions, friendship, compassion, emotional trauma and some unforgettable events that left me moved and totally engaged with the characters.
The story is more than about these two lovable guys but involve their family members who are equally interesting for different reasons. Each one has their own place in the story which kept the story dynamic. My only issue was at times, the dialogue dragged a bit but that certainly did not put me off from reading so I finished the story in one go. The writer approached to complex childhood traumas and family dynamics sensitively with empathy. As a reader I understood what happened to Jorgen without reading the details…to me that was a superb articulation along with style from the writer. This will be a reread for me one day soon.
RATING: 
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