Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Sometimes Love Lasts
AUTHOR: Jake Wells
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 246 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2016
BLURB:
For Rone Forrester, life as a high school student is a roller coaster ride. Though he’s intelligent, good-looking, and athletic, true happiness eludes him. He’s lost his mother to cancer, his hypercritical father is a tyrant, and he spends most of his free time taking care of his little brother, Eli. And to make matters worse, Rone begins to have romantic feelings for his best friend, Carson Harrington.
When Rone is inadvertently outed, his life swirls into turmoil. His father’s homophobia and Rone’s embarrassment at the thought of facing Carson force him to flee to Los Angeles, where he hopes to find a safe haven. Instead, he quickly learns that every moment is dangerous for a homeless teenager. As time passes, Rone navigates through multiple challenges, makes friends who love him for who he is, works hard to achieve his goal of becoming a pediatric surgeon—with all its inherent triumphs and tragedies—and overcomes a failed relationship. Ultimately, his journey teaches him that in order to fulfill his dreams, he has to come to terms with his past.
REVIEW:
I really wanted to love this book because the proceeds were going to such an amazing cause. “All the royalties from its sales will be donated to the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s services for homeless youth.” And the book itself deals with this issue. However, even though I liked the characters and the premise, I sadly can’t say that I loved it.
“Sometimes Love Lasts” is the story of Dr. Rone Forester Bode. It spans his life from a 17-year old senior in high school to a very successful pediatric surgeon in his mid-thirties. As the blurb above states, Rone’s mother is dead and he lives with a demanding and degrading homophobic father. Rone is forced to run away or fear for his safety from his abusive father. The story carries us throughout his struggles to achieve his personal goals.
I liked the character development of the characters in this book. I could easily identify Rone from his description. My problem lies with how easy a life Rone had when he ran away. Even though he did have a couple scary moments with his father and muggers, for the most part everything just came with a shiny pretty ribbon and that isn’t at all like the struggles that I have seen first-hand with some of my prior students. I realize that the book is biased towards the success of the center that provided support for Rone, but I just can’t see benefactors dropping into the life of a gay youth like it was portrayed. And, being as brilliant and attractive as Rone is portrayed, he doesn’t seem to have any self-awareness or self-preservation with men.
This doesn’t mean that it is a bad book or I didn’t like it at all. I have picked up and set down this review several times over the last couple days after I finished the book. I just wasn’t sure how I felt about it. It was a good story and did highlight a help center, which there is a need for many more of in our cities. I would have to probably classify this as more a young adult romance. There was no on-page sex and, at times, the book seemed to make you feel like you missed something that had happened off the page also. If you like a cute, sweet second chance love story then this is the story for you. If you are looking for a book that is a realistic description of what our runaway gay youth endure on the streets of a large city, this really isn’t the book.
RATING: 
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