Reviewed by Dan

TITLE:  Only Forever

AUTHOR: Scotty Cade       

PUBLISHER:    Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:  134 Pages          

RELEASE DATE:  November 30, 2016

BLURB:

Master Captain Theodore Gourdin has always loved the ocean. But his devotion to maritime life left little possibility for a long-term relationship. After two failed marriages, Theo gave up on finding the person who completed him and decided the sea was his soul mate. When offered the opportunity to captain the newly launched megayacht Eternity, Theo jumped at the chance. With Eternity’s maiden voyage looming, Theo focused all his energies on hiring his crew and readying his ship. The last thing he expected was to finally lose his heart in the process.

After twelve years at sea, First Officer Heath Rawlins was restless and in need of a change. A gay seaman’s life could be a lonely one, but to Heath the positives far outweighed the negatives. With excellent recommendations and an impressive résumé, he was quickly offered a position on the private megayacht Eternity. Heath’s heart skipped several beats when he finally met the ship’s captain. He was handsome and charming. And… familiar? Had they met somewhere before? Highly unlikely. But as smitten as Heath was with the gorgeous captain, everything inside him screamed, Abandon ship! Rough seas ahead!

REVIEW:

I’m not sure how to review this book without doing a little bit of a spoiler, which I’ll mention below. It is from the Prologue though, so isn’t really a story killer spoiler. Also the author directly refers to it in his Preface, so I think I’m safe and won’t get fists waiving at me from the sidelines.

We meet two men in the Prologue, or more accurately we meet one man who has just lost the love of his life who was named Steven. The date is April 27, 1942. Before the Prologue is done, the other man, Edward, is also dead.

Flash forward to today.

G. Heath Rawlins is a First Officer on a large merchant vessel, but has been looking at jumping ship, literally, and has turned in his thirty-day notice. The next day they are arriving in Savannah, Georgia and his job will be done. He has no idea what he going to do, and has sent out a few resumes. He decides to send one more, this time to the Captain of the brand-new luxury mega-yacht Eternity.

Theo Gourdin is the Captain of the Eternity and when Heath’s resume pops up just as he is closing his computer, he is intrigued and replies.

One thing leads to another, and soon Heath is hired as the First Officer of the Eternity. But something is strange. Both he and Theo are having these strange déjà vu moments. And strange dreams. And they are attracted to each other…but both know that the other is straight. Why do they keep dreaming about these guys named Steven and Eddie?

I really enjoyed the story. As I said above, minor spoiler, you know from the very first page that it is about reincarnation, which I loved. I really enjoyed the way Mr. Cade added some background details about the ship and the crew. I thought those details helped the story immensely, and for this reviewer, it gave me a feeling of being there. I also, of course, had to Google the yacht builder and look at some of their yachts. If you like a story about ship-board life with what I didn’t think were too many ship details, and throw in some reincarnation and some miscommunication, you’ll really like this story like I did. My husband watches that show “Below Decks” constantly. I was picturing those yachts while reading this and I think that helped me feel like I was in the story maybe? But Mr. Cade did such a good job it might just have been his descriptors. I highly recommend this one.

Final note. Great cover by Reese Dante. It would definitely make me pick the book up.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Dreamspinner Press 

Amazon 

ARe