Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Homeward Bound
SERIES: Pine Cove
AUTHOR: H.J. Welch
NARRATOR: Nick J. Russo
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 9 hours and 55 minutes
RELEASE DATE: October 30, 2019
BLURB:
After Micha Perkins finds himself wrongly implicated in a crime, the last person he wants coming to his rescue is his secret crush Swift; his older brother’s best friend. But when Micha returns to the town that never felt like home, he discovers Swift’s young daughter is in trouble as well. If Micha can help them both in any way, he knows he will.
Self-defense coach Swift Coal never realized he was a father until he gets custody of five-year-old Imogen and her cranky cat. His neat and tidy life is about to come crashing down, but to his surprise, Micha Perkins is there to save the day. He’s so damn good with kids, and just as cute as Swift remembers. When Micha moves in to help look after Imogen, Swift struggles to repress the feelings he’s kept hidden.
Micha’s always been a misfit and Swift’s life was always orderly. Micha may have taken the fall to protect those more vulnerable than him, but who will save him when his past comes back to haunt him? Was Swift a fool to risk the safety of his daughter around a bad element like Micha? When their chaotic worlds collide, perhaps love and family are the middle ground they both need to become stronger together.
Book Three in Pine Cove. Homeward Bound is a steamy, standalone MM romance novel with a guaranteed HEA and absolutely no cliffhanger.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the third book in this series and does contain spoilers for both books 1 and 2, but it can be read as a stand alone.
Micha Perkins has grown up in Pine Cove. He was adopted by the owners of the town diner, Sunny Side Up 🙂 He’s got a number of siblings, but he never really felt a part of the family in some ways. He left Pine Cove after high school and moved to Seattle. Unfortunately, he got into a bit of trouble after being manipulated by a housemate. He know he has to get away from that environment, so he returns to Pine Cove to regroup.
Swift – the eldest of the Coal family – has just discovered that he’s a father and that the mother of his child is in no position to care for her. So of course Swift takes her because it’s the right thing to do and he wants to get to know her. Imogen comes along back to Pine Cove with Swift and he gets a crash course in kid wrangling 😉 His best friend is Micha’s older brother. Micha happens to be great with kids as discovered at a family get together, so he agrees to stay with Swift temporarily until he can get settled in with Imogen and his work scheduled, etc. This is a bit tough on Micha as he’s always had a crush on Swift, but he’s not out and he’s not planning on coming out either.
Swift isn’t having the easiest time with Imogen. His life and house are not really child friendly, so he needs to make some adjustments. Micha is a huge help getting Imogen set up with appropriate bedroom stuff, toys, foods, etc. Swift realizes just how out of his comfort zone he is and he’s incredibly grateful to Micha. As they settle in, he realizes he’s kind of crushing on Micha. When others point this out, at first he denies it because he’s never been with a guy before and has always thought of himself as straight. His siblings are all LGBTQ+ so it’s not like he’s got any problems with it and his best friend and Micha’s dads are gay. He just never really saw himself in that light before and he’s also not exactly sure about Micha’s orientation either. But then he realizes that maybe there really is something there – but he’s a little tentative about approaching Micha since he’s living with him and helping take care of his daughter.
Micha has a lot of issues – in fact his issues have issues! He’s reluctant to do anything with Swift besides be his friend and help with Imogen for lots of reasons. When he shares his past with Swift, well Swift is pretty shocked and outraged on his behalf. He gets why Micha has always held himself a bit apart from everyone. But Swift can see what a good person he is and that he does deserve good things and deserves to be happy. Micha takes a lot of convincing however. And then when trouble from his past shows up, he’s put in a position of wanting to protect Swift and Imogen from anything tainting or hurting them. Micha’s got a decision to make and has to determine what he’s wiling to do to make this problem go away and what affect it will have on all his relationships. But Swift isn’t going to let things go without a fight either 🙂 So Micha might just have to get used to it.
I liked this story a lot. Poor Micha really had a bad start in life which made things difficult for him to receive love and acceptance. When his very nature was attacked and belittled, he put up walls and tried to portray something he wasn’t. He had a lot of self-loathing to overcome. Swift was so good at giving Micha a safe place to fall. He was really diligent at sussing out the reasons for Micha’s lack of self esteem, why he was so afraid of coming out and why he didn’t think he deserved anything good or any happiness in his life. Swift’s support and understanding are hard for Micha to accept at first, but Swift shows a lot of perseverance. It was good to see Robin and Dare again as well as the entire Coal and Perkins crew who play a larger role in this one. The Perkins are kind of the epitome of the modern family as well and I love that they don’t sugarcoat the tough things that they’ve all been through/witnessed, but with love and support and acceptance they have all made it through and are leading happy and productive lives. There are trans, bi, gay, straight, lesbian characters all through these families and it’s just matter of fact. I hope we are getting closer to that being the norm 🙂 As usual, Nick Russo’s narration is great – from the main characters to the parents the children, I appreciated all of his voice choices. He continues to be an autobuy narrator for me 🙂 Recommended particularly for those who enjoy a sweet story of both main characters overcoming the odds and accepting and being themselves fully.
RATING: 
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