REVIEWED by Caroline
TITLE: Choices and Changes
SERIES: All Cock’s Stories Book 7
AUTHOR: TM Smith
PUBLISHER: TTC Publishing
LENGTH: 200 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2017
BLURB:
Choices and Changes
There comes a time in every man’s life where he has to make a choice between what is right and what is easy.
Born and raised in Fort Worth Texas by open-minded parents, Dean Anderson realized early in life he was attracted to both sexes. Equal opportunity, he picked his lovers based on personality and common interests. He met Maggie in college, fell in love, got married and started a family. And they were happy…until they weren’t.
Adam Chase’s mother is South African, his father American military working at the US Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa. His parents’ positions in the South African and American governments awarded Adam dual citizenship, and he attended University in America, at Berkley. In America, Adam is lives openly as a gay man, something that could get him killed in his mother’s home country. He met his husband, Patrick Carter, at college and they too were happy…until Patrick died.
Two lives converge, and it would seem fate is giving them each a second chance at happiness, together. Dean stays in New York and moves into the apartment his son, Dusty, shares with his boyfriend David. He and Adam are quickly welcomed into All Cocks’ vastly growing family. And then one phone call changes everything.
The men of All Cocks are about to learn that death is just another part of life, a road everyone travels eventually. Choices are made, decisions that change their lives irrevocably. They rally together, drawing strength from each other as their close-knit family experiences the best and worst life has to offer. But that’s what families do, right?
Reading order…
Gay for Pay book 1
Fame and Fortune book 2
How to Deal book 3
Dare to Hope book 4
Live for Love book 5
Hide and Seek book 6
Choices and Changes book 7
REVIEW:
Book 7 in the All Cocks Stories is different in a lot of ways but still revolves around the group of men who have declared themselves a family. This story is about an older couple who have loved and lived but are now ready to make changes to their lives.
Adam Chase found the love of his life at College and it was a case of love at first sight. He had a happy life with Patrick, his husband, until HIV took him from him a decade ago. Adam is a doctor who specialized in infectious diseases as a sort of tribute to his husband. A decade on and Patrick is still very much a part of Adam’s life – whether it’s just a thought, a memory or simply looking through his old photographs the love that Adam still has for Patrick is clear even if he feels he may now be ready to move on and find love again.
Dean is Dusty’s dad and is currently going through a very amicable divorce. His first job is to tell his son what is happening in his parent’s lives and his second job is to just stop and breathe and think about what he is going to do with the rest of his life. Dean decides to move in with his son and his partner David while he adjusts to his new circumstances and that is where he meets Adam when the Dr is called in to tend to David – there is a crossover in the story here from the previous book.
The love affair side to this story is pretty much angst free. They meet, they smile at each other, they go for dinner and they talk. They share their pasts and discuss their hopes for the future. They fit into each other’s lives so easily and smoothly – it’s refreshing to see it happen and it was also wonderful that the author didn’t make Dean’s soon to be ex-wife the awful over the top female as so often happens in gay romance books. Maggie was also moving on with her own new chapter in life and she was extremely supportive of Dean and by extension Adam.
The blurb alludes to a tragedy and indeed there is a whopper of a shock thrown in but as you would expect from this self-made family they all pull together to offer their support when it’s most needed. I’ve been along for the ride with this group of men from the start and my best advice to a new reader to the series would be to start at the beginning. There are a lot of men, a lot of stories and keeping them all straight can sometimes be difficult but is always so very worth it.
RATING:
BUY LINK:
I haven’t read any of this series but it sounds heart wrenching. Definitely one the will stay with you after the last sentence is done.
Great review, thanks!