REVIEWED by Jen B.
TITLE: The Guy in the Window
SERIES: N/A
AUTHOR: Cara Dee
PUBLISHER: Cara Dee
LENGTH: 208 Pages
RELEASE DATE: November 5, 2019
BLURB: I was in the middle of my divorce when Adam messaged me. I believe his exact words were, “Hi. I think you’re my dad’s brother. Would you like to get to know me?”
My brother and I had never been close, so I’d only met his adopted son a few times when he was very young. Instinct told me to ignore the message, and I did. For a few days. It took an exhausting fight with my soon-to-be ex-wife and half a bottle of whiskey for me to change my mind.
Adam first became “sort of my nephew.” Next, he became the guy who helped me find an apartment in the building next to his. He was a sweet, cheerful young man doing his best to raise his four-year-old daughter, which led to him becoming the guy who wanted to help me patch up my relationship with my own daughter.
Then one night as I got ready for bed, I looked across the alleyway to the next building, where I saw him getting ready for bed too.
I couldn’t look away to save my life.
It was the night he also became the guy in the window.
REVIEW: Everett is at a turning point in his life. He is smack dab in the middle of getting divorced from a marriage he hadn’t realized he checked out of quite a while ago. At the same time, he is trying to repair the damaged relationship with his college-aged daughter and trying to find a place to live and begin life as a single man. Luckily, timing is on his side when his estranged nephew (adopted), Adam, now grown with a child, contacts him to see about rekindling their familial relationship. It seems the entire family is a bit toxic which is common ground for them to kibitz over. Adam and Ev quickly become friends, and it is Adam who ends up finding the new apartment for Ev to live which happens to be in his complex.
First of all, it is easy to see that the family issues come from the soon-to-be ex wife’s side of the family, because unfortunately, she is a bit of a bitch, and that behavior flows right through to the daughter. She does little to encourage the father/daughter relationship, often acting more like a high schooler trying to steel the friend away from another and then bragging about it to the friend who lost out. The daughter eventually comes around, but not before she allowed the mother to drag her along that path for a bit. It bugged me that Ev was basically willing to do anything, including leaving someone he had feelings for like he never experienced, to move closer to her when she is busy with life in college anyway. She was every bit as selfish as her mother, in my opinion, though as I said, she does get better.
As for Adam and Ev, I loved them. Adam is gay but with a young daughter, has basically put his dating life on hold. He doesn’t set sights on Ev, but when Ev becomes increasingly attracted to Adam, Adam is right there to help him along his new discovery. Another thing I loved was how ever time I expected things to get cheesy or go in a typical direction…they didn’t. Yes, this was Ev’s first time attracted to a guy, with all of the firsts to follow, but Adam was amazing in that department and actually forced Ev to slow down. Adam came across as mature enough to match Ev, but I loved that is felt as though Ev’s maturity helped with his reaction and then follow through with his feelings for Adam.
My only real niggles were the pet names (which is my own issue really). I’m not a fan of darling when used frequently, but it helped there was a young child involved at times. To that end, I had trouble picturing Adam’s daughter being four years old and saying some of the things that sounded like a much older child. I get that kids come out with some surprising things, but this just felt off to me. I’m not generally a fan of children in my stories, but other than that language issue, I didn’t mind her being in the story at all.
All in all, I really enjoyed this story. It isn’t something I would have normally grabbed, but Ms. Dee is an auto read for me, and I’m happy to report that she remains so after this. Definitely recommend.
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