Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: Kindred Spirit

AUTHOR: Sloan Johnson

PUBLISHER: Self Published

RE-RELEASE DATE: October 24, 2019

LENGTH: 163 Pages

BLURB:

Family secrets, a surprise inheritance, and a sweet employee he can’t help falling for. Sunset Beach was only supposed to be a quick trip but now he’s wondering if he’ll be able to leave.

Dane learned early to not rely on anyone. He has a good job and a decent life in the city. Granting his father’s request to visit the family he didn’t know existed, the last thing he expected was to find out he’d inherited a share in his grandfather’s inn.

Brook has only known romance through notes left in a mailbox at the end of the beach. When he’s tasked with showing his boss’s gorgeous nephew what makes Sunset Beach and Bird Island special, he’s compelled to take Dane to his favorite place.

Dane never wanted the inn, but when it’s threatened, he steps up to defend it… and keep the man he’s coming to love by his side and in his life.

Kindred Spirit was previously released through a publisher. The second edition has minor changes but Brook and Dane’s story remains the same.

REVIEW:

Upon the instructions of a father who is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Dane takes a trip to the quiet seaside town of Sunset Beach. He is destined to spend some time with his estranged uncle at Bird Island Inn – the family hotel. Dane learns his deceased grandfather has left him part of the beachside inn. Unfortunately, life has left New York raised Dane expecting to be let down. The question is whether sand, love and roots will give Dane the inner peace he craves.

Brook has worked at Bird Island Inn since, forever. He cares about the place, but he knows something is happening. The last thing he wants to do is babysit, someone he expects to be, a pretentious nephew. At Sunset Beach, the gay scene is seasonal, so Brook’s favorite past time is reading the notes left in the ‘mailbox’ – a place for people to leave random messages to someone or no one, but ones that were never meant to reach their destinations. The notes allow Brook to imagine what love is really like, never truly believing it will come to him.

The story is told in the first person from Dane and Brook’s POV, with alternating named chapters, and is technically sound.

I work at a hotel and identify with many of the elements mentioned. I laughed out loud at the comment about guests arriving for breakfast a couple of minutes before close. Oh hell, absolutely.

Dane has an emotional battle between his life in New York, which, although he’s not comfortable with it, he knows what’s what and where he stands – and the life on offer to him.

Brook is thrown off-kilter when Dane isn’t the ass he expected. He shows Dane what a special place Sunset Beach is and introduces him to the ‘mailbox’. It is during these times that the characters grew on me.

Loan sharks darken the doors of the Inn via James, Dane’s uncle. While this is an important element in the story, for me it was a secondary arc, adding minimal drama. The primary focus was on the emotional expectations of life and the belief that something good is worth fighting for and that it won’t go away.

I found Kindred Spirit to be one of those stories that warmed the cockles of one’s heart.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon