Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Strays

SERIES: Urban Soul #2

AUTHOR: Garrett Leigh

PUBLISHER: Fox Love Press

RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2018

LENGTH: 268 pages

BLURB:

Work, sleep, work, repeat. Nero’s lonely life suits him just fine until his best friend, Cass, asks him to take on a new apprentice—a beautiful young man who’s never set foot in a professional kitchen. Despite his irritation and his lifelong ability to shut the world out, Nero is mesmerised by the vibrant stray, especially when he learns what drove him to seek sanctuary on Nero’s battered old couch.

Lenny Mitchell is living under a cloud of fear. Pursued by a stalker, he has nowhere left to run until Nero offers him a port in a storm—a job at the hottest restaurant in Shepherd’s Bush. Kitchen life proves heady and addictive, and it’s not long before he finds himself falling hard and fast for the man who has taken him in.

Fast-forward a month and a neither man can imagine life without the other, but one thing stands in their way: a lifetime of horrors Nero can’t bring himself to share with Lenny. Or can he? For the first time ever, happiness is there for the taking, and Nero must learn to embrace it before fate steps in and rips it away.

REVIEW:

I’m different because you saw me

Strays follow Nero and Lenny, two scarred souls brought together by outside circumstances. One is hiding and one is running, figuratively speaking. Both find their safe haven in the Urban Soul kitchens. From a reluctant truce grows a friendship, they start needing and depending on each other. They start healing. I loved how they just worked, for sure there were ups and downs but it made it all so much more real.

I was hooked from first to last page. There’s something really special about this series, I love the atmosphere, the characters and their stories, and just everything about it. It draws you in, makes you feel like you are a part of their lives, their struggles, happiness and everything in-between.

It was a typical Garret Leigh book with the scarred and tortured main characters (some more than others), a healthy dosage of angst and where the actual plot of the book is in focus – not steamy sex scenes. And what’s not to love about that?
– Yep, you guessed it – Nothing! It’s brilliant!

Nero and Lenny were perfect for each other in every way possible. A little bit hostile, a little bit scared mixed in with fierce protectiveness and loyalty. They are both exactly what the other needed to start healing from the past, to see a brighter future for them both, and realise that it might just be worth fighting for.

Strays can be read as a standalone but you’d miss out on equally wonderful Misfits. I loved how Cass, Jake and Tom were such an integral part of this story, it just added another layer to the wonderfulness of this book. So if you still haven’t read these books yet – pick them up, I promise you won’t regret it.

You are my dreams. I just never knew it.

RATING:

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