Reviewed by Danielle

Title: Autumn Changes

Series: Seasons of Love #3

Author: B.G Thomas

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Length: 266 pages

Blurb:

Asher Eisenberg is a brilliant actor, destined for fame and fortune. But a traumatic incident in his past has caused him to reject his Jewish heritage and hide from everyone behind walls of arrogance and selfishness, and he blurs his loneliness with a lot of sex and alcohol. When he meets Peniamina Faamausili, however, he strangely can’t stop thinking about the young man.

Peni is struggling with his sexuality, the Mormonism he was raised in, and the Samoan heritage that calls to him. He longs to receive the pe’a—the traditional Samoan tattoos– and learn more of his people’s ways. He has no interest in a man like Asher, who appears to use men and put them aside and whose drinking can’t help but remind him of the drunk driver who killed his father. But he can’t deny his attraction to Asher and finally agrees to a date if Asher can go thirty days without a drink.

Asher is about to go on a journey that will awaken him to his friends, his past, his future, and even to love. But that awakening could well demand the sacrifice of the dream he holds most dear

REVIEW:

Big big smile when I saw this book finally appear because this series is seriously a treat for a series lover like me. I love how the author just weaves the stories together featuring one of the fabulous four in each book without leaving the others out of it or trying to maintain the “stand alone” point of view.

I specifically wanted to mention this because in my honest opinion it happens more and more that authors don’t “risk” (if that is what you want to call it) weaving a series together with multiple characters coming back in each book, and again for a series lover like me it is a blessing that some authors do go that way still. So big kudo’s to author B.G Thomas for treating us the reader and me on all the wonderful characters we met in the first two books Sloan still incredibly in love with Max and Scott is keeping his more open and positive streak with help of the love of his life, Cedar.

And our little Bear, Wyatt gosh who doesn’t love Wyatt, when finally Wyatt sees the real Howard and despite the fact it isn’t his choice, he finds out he is supposed to grab his life together and go on living alone.

The Fabulous Four is one of the strengths of this series, as I already mentioned, but is also a little bit of the criticism on the first part because although valid, the story centres on Wyatt a lot especially in the beginning. Getting Howard out of the f*cking picture is worth it though. I rarely despised a character so much as I do Howard (I am afraid we haven’t see the last of him with Wyatt’s story coming up).

This third book eventually does comes down to Asher and Pen so lets get to that because it is worth it trust me. Author B.G Thomas paints a very detailed intriguing story mix with morality and real life situations. The alcohol problems Asher faces are real, make sense and the samoan backstory on Peni is very thoughtful and feels really researched.

The play Asher wants to act in fits very well with how he is dealing with who he is, what he wants and how he is seen. I’d also like to mention the way it helps his search inside his alcoholic issues.

Peni doesn’t understand why he is fascinated by a man he thought he disliked as much as he did Asher. What is it that his boss Sloan keeps saying that makes Asher one of the fabulous four making sure to express Asher is a good and dear friend.

Slowly, while Asher is finding out that he wants more than just Peni for a while, Peni sees Asher in different situations…sees what his friends mean as slowly but steadily Asher is indeed realizing, understanding and healing even you could say.

As I mentioned, the build up is long and it takes a while to get to Asher and Peni’s story but when you do,you get treated to religion, spiritual  and inspirational written words.

Was it perfect? No it wasn’t. There were some things that I already mentioned that could have processed more or balanced out more. For example, when the focus was on Wyatt and  on the sexual risks he was taking, it would have been nice to see that part through.

The build up of Peni and Asher is long—perhaps a tad too long—making you want to read a bit more of things when they finally come together. I missed the intimacy, although it was kind of present, I felt there could have been more or more played out right up to and including the epilogue.

I was fascinated by the characters as I have been from the start. I love author B.G Thomas and his inspirational way of storytelling, his detailed version of background information and when I started this book, I wanted to read till I was done! I also wished to have the next one in my hands like right now, please!

And a little bit of extra hope shining on the horizon because lets face it Mr. Thomas, you can’t stop this whole arc without adding Logan (Max’s son)  story 😉

RATING:

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