Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Change of Address
SERIES: Hartsbridge Island #1
AUTHOR: Jordan S. Brock
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 312 Pages
RELEASE DATE: October 24, 2016
BLURB:
Air Force sergeant Michael Baldwin wanted nothing more than to escape his family’s political ambitions, but his dream of freedom was shattered by an enemy bullet to the head. Two years later, he and his service dog, Kaylee, resist his father’s demand to join him on the campaign trail — where a photogenic “wounded warrior” is always an asset — and instead return to the family’s summer home on Hartsbridge Island.
There Michael and his beautiful German shepherd capture the attention of Josh Goldberg, co-owner of the local bagel shop. Josh has a knack for business and a killer repertoire of his bubbe’s recipes. But lack of education undermines his confidence, and Josh’s father doesn’t share his ambition for the restaurant’s future.
Chicken soup and bacon might be the way to Michael’s heart, but he and Josh need time to learn about everything that comes after — lessons that Governor Baldwin and his relentless ambition will do anything to thwart. Letting someone in is a tall order for two men who can’t trust themselves, but if they have any hope of a future together, that’s exactly what they’ll need to do.
REVIEW:
I thought this was going to be a rather heavy on the angst/hurt comfort kind of story. But while there is an element of hurt comfort here, there’s not a wisp of angst in sight, making this a rather sweet and easy read.
Our two main characters are Michael and Josh. Josh is a long time resident of Hartsbridge island, who owns the local bagel shop with his father. He’s bisexual but doesn’t have much luck with either sex in his search for the love of his life. His life pretty much consists of work, work and then more work, but he loves the shop so doesn’t resent spending all of his time there. And neither did I resent the amount of time spent at the shop. It was a different and interesting setting. Somehow the author incorporates the running of the store into the story without getting bogged down in details and turning it into a how-to guide. Such a setting allowed us to meet more island residents and get a feel for the overall vibe of the island. I also appreciated the fact that Josh’s bisexuality wasn’t made into an issue. Michael wasn’t paranoid that Josh would one day cheat on him with a woman and Josh’s family didn’t “accept” the fact that he was bi, only to assume that meant he would end up with a female in the end. And speaking of Josh’s family, his father is bloody awesome! As a secondary character he wasn’t wasted, but was well utilized to show different aspects of Josh’s personality and also to support our two main men.
Michael, on the other hand, was an infrequent visitor to the island in his younger years, but after being shot in the head while in the army – yes, you read that right, shot in the head – he naturally has PTSD and a host of other problems to deal with. The family’s holiday home on the island seems like the sort of place he can hide away and feel safe, while he continues to recover. With this character we get the rather well known stereotype of the homophobic, elitist, political parents who really don’t give two stuffs about their distressed offspring. Yes, it’s been done many times before but it’s one of those clichés that I always enjoy reading. Everyone loves to hate a douchebag politician. Michael was the character that I assumed would bring the angst to this book, but although he struggles, there’s nothing really torturous about it. And I guess a big part of that is due to Kaylee’s presence. OMG, how much did I love that dog. She really was the star of this show. So many stories these days seem to use pets as a selling point – I swear some authors just have a dog slapped on the cover and the animal never actually appears in the book. But Kaylee was very much present here. So much affection obviously went into this canine character that I can only assume the author is a dog lover.
It’s a bit hard to tell if the next story in this series will further explore the different residents of Hartsbridge Island or if we’ll continue Josh and Michael’s story. The men certainly get their happy ending here, but some aspects felt a little unfinished. Michael’s father still feels like a threat and his sister has yet to reappear from overseas. But one thing I do know, whatever the blurb may tell us, I’ll be in line to read that book.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: