Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
AUTHOR: Christina Lee
NARRATOR: Kale Williams
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 7 hours and 7 minutes
RELEASE DATE: June 22, 2020
BLURB:
The last thing Emerson Rose expects is to fall for his best friend, Rhys, especially since he’s never been attracted to a man before. Everything in his life is already complicated enough. He’s put his own future on hold to raise his two younger siblings, and confusing feelings for the guy who always has his back muddy the waters even more. But then something astonishing happens. For one perfect moment, he thinks Rhys might feel the same – only to have his world come crashing down around him a second time.
Rhys Lancaster has always known he’s gay and that Emerson isn’t. Best friends since childhood, their easy companionship has usually been enough. Between his job, his adrenaline-filled adventures, and hanging out with Emerson and his siblings, he has it good…until he wakes up in the hospital with no memories of the last year of his life.
Like they normally do when things go horribly wrong, Rhys and Emerson support each other. Frustrated by all he’s lost, Rhys stays with Emerson during his recovery, and Emerson helps Rhys through the fog, while pushing those other feelings aside. To make matters worse, Rhys knows Emerson’s keeping something from him. Everything feels different now when he looks at Emerson, and as they fall into a comfortable routine, that aching desire doesn’t stay buried for long.
But Emerson has a family to raise, and Rhys is struggling to figure out what’s going on inside his head. Unless they can push past the doubts and fears to seal that connection between them again, this tragedy might become the one each has to weather alone.
REVIEW:
Emerson and Rhys have been best friends since they were kids. They have lived across the street from each other growing up and consider each other family. Rhys’s mom and Emerson’s mother and stepfather were instrumental in the lives of both of their families. Emerson considers Rhys’s mom as second mother and Rhys feels the same about Emerson’s parents. Emerson has much younger siblings that the’s always taken a lot of responsibility for as they are growing up.
But as Emerson is about to go off to college to be a nurse, tragedy strikes and Emerson puts his life on hold, gets and job and stays home to raise his much younger siblings. The whole family is devastated, but there’s nothing to do except try to move on and keep the family together. Rhys is Emerson’s rock during this time. Rhys helps him, along with his mother, get things settled with his parents estate. He also helps Emerson keep the kids on the right path as he assumes the role of not just big brother, but of parent – which is not an easy task. Emerson gets a job in billing at a hospital nearby thinking at least it’s something related to what he wanted to do. In the meantime Rhys had gone on to work at an outdoor equipment store and continues to pursue his love of hiking and climbing and exploring nature.
Emerson feels lonely and he doesn’t have a lot of friends. But one night, when he sees Rhys after a date across the street, he begins to feel something. And that something is a cross between longing and jealousy. In all the years he’s know Rhys – who is an out gay man – he hasn’t had any feelings like this. Has always considered himself to be straight. Now he can’t help but realize that he is attracted to Rhys. He goes to a gay club under the pretense of seeing their friend who is DJing, but he’s got other motives as well. He wonders if he just hasn’t been paying attention and maybe he’s not attracted to men too. But it seems it might just be Rhys he’s attracted to. And when they are alone and they start being honest with each other, it seems that there might be a mutual attraction. But just as they seem like they might be getting somewhere, Rhys is hurt in an accident and loses his memory.
Emerson is terrified of losing his best friend. He’s sure he can’t cop of that happens after the loss of his family. He doesn’t want to push anything because Rhys doesn’t remember. But when someone else spills the beans, Rhys acts on it and Emerson gets scared again. They have to figure out if it’s worth pursuing this new level of relationship or not. If it doesn’t work, will their friendship survive?
I enjoyed this story. It’s definitely very slow burn, so if you’re looking for a quick friends to lovers, this isn’t that story. We get a lot of background on why Emerson is so closed off. He’s been through a lot and he’s done a great job for everyone except himself. He always puts himself last and that just isn’t going to work if he wants to make this work with Rhys. Rhys for his part, is definitely more open, but he understands Emerson’s reluctance. I enjoyed his journey to getting Emerson on board. The kids were really well written as were the other secondary characters of Rhys’s mom and Emerson’s co-worker. Kale Williams did a great job with the narration of all the voices. He’s still such a favorite. Recommended.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Audible