Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: As Big as the Sky
AUTHOR: Amy Aislin
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 137 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 7, 2020
BLURB:
Sam McAuley isn’t having a great start to the summer. Served with papers? Great. He’s being sued. Perfect, pristine yard overrun with chickens? What the—? Clearly, the new guy running the animal rehabilitation centre next door has no idea what he’s doing.
It’s one town to the next, one school to the next, one job to the next for Bo Novak. Everything is temporary. Even his current job—running his sister’s animal rehab centre while she’s away on a four-month leave—is temporary. And he does know what he’s doing, thank you very much. Sure, things don’t always run smoothly, but the stick-in-the-mud next door could be a little nicer about it.
One overheard conversation, an olive branch, and a baseball game might show these guys that being at odds isn’t really what they want, and that what they want might just be each other.
[As Big as the Sky was first published in August 2017. This new edition has a brand new cover but no content changes.]
REVIEW:
Sam is a graphic artist who is house sitting. But his summer isn’t going great – even though his garden is thriving. He’s got a lot on his mind and so he’s been a bit of a bear to his neighbor’s brother.
Bo is a sweet young guy helping his sister out for the summer at her animal rehab. He loves the animals and taking care of them, but her neighbor is a different story. He’s been a bit of a jerk to Bo. Bo’s trying to figure out what he really wants to do in life and was looking forward to being friends with Sam. He doesn’t have a lot of friends – even his friends in Ottawa where he’s been living are basically blowing him off.
Sam figures out that he’s pretty much been an ass to Bo and decides to fix the situation. So cute! Bo accepts Sam’s apology and they start to build a friendship. As their relationship grows, Sam gets to know the real Bo and realizes that his preconceptions were completely off-base. He discovers what a sweet and wonderful guy Bo really is. And maybe he can convince him to hang around after the summer is over 🙂
This was another really lovely novella from Amy Aislin. I love the setting of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Having spent a good deal of time living there myself about 20 years ago, I’m familiar and it was like a nice holiday visit. I really liked Bo so much. He was such a sweet character and so vulnerable. As the story went on, I grew to understand him more and more and I was so happy that he found someone to really see him and understand him. Sam is a bit prickly at first, but he realizes his mistake pretty quickly and makes amends in the best way 🙂 I loved the sweet little twist in the story as well 🙂 The family drama was mostly off page but I enjoyed how the author explored the vestiges of an unstable upbringing and how that has played out in very different reactions from people who had the same lived experience. It was wonderful to see Bo come into his own with Sam’s support. Sam’s family was an absolute delight! It would be so nice to revisit this whole cast again sometime 🙂 Recommended – it was a solid sweet and happy read!
RATING: 
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