Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  After Ben  (2nd Edition)

SERIES:  Seattle Stories

AUTHOR:  Con Riley

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  300 pages

RELEASE DATE:  October 5, 2019

BLURB: 

A year after the sudden death of his longtime partner, Ben, Theo Anderson is still grieving. The last thing he’s looking for is a new lover. But as Theo soon discovers, sometimes life has other plans.

While Theo experiences a powerful physical attraction to fellow gym member Peter, it’s his new online friend, Morgan, who provides the intellectual challenge to make him come alive. Morgan is witty, brave, and irreverent, and Theo is ready to take the plunge… until he discovers Morgan might be half his age.

Theo’s late partner was significantly older—enough to strain Theo’s relationship with his family—and the potential of another relationship being cut short leaves him gunshy. Theo needs to lay Ben’s memory to rest, reconcile with his family, and rekindle neglected friendships if he’s to start afresh with a new lover. But Theo isn’t the only one with a past.

His biggest challenge, in living after Ben, might not be his to face.

REVIEW: 

This book is a very intimate portrayal of grief and what one man goes through when he loses his partner, exists for a period, emerges a bit from his fog and gets blindsided by his online friendship with what turns out to be a younger man.  He feels betrayed and stupid and bereft.  He makes mistakes.  He tries to fix the mistakes.  But sometimes life is funny in that someone isn’t really who you think they are.  I don’t want to say much more except to say that serendipity and twists in this book make the story. There is love and loss and forgiveness and compassion and friendship all rolled up into one man’s life.  It’s so very very well done.

True confession time. I bought this book when it first came out.  I never got around to reading it.  I saw it was being re-released and so I grabbed it.  This story.  Man.  Had me tearing up more than once.  I really struggled with the first third of the book – I was having trouble getting into and making it stick.  I got it.  Theo was struggling with intense and overwhelming grief at the loss of his partner, but I didn’t connect with him.  I had trouble with the relationship with Peter.  If you have the same experience, I beg you to just keep reading.  When things started to really change for me was at the point that Theo was focused on work and hiring the interns.  That is when I felt like I was finally getting to know Theo.  Perhaps that was the authors way of showing the real Theo emerging from the fog of his grief.  From that point of the story on, I just felt everything.  I don’t want to spoil this story for anyone, so I’m not going to say too much more about the plot.  Just read it.  Please.  It’s amazing.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon