It’s the first friday in September and I’m utterly shocked at how fast this year is flying by. It’s also National Suicide awareness month and while I realize it’s a difficult topic, it’s also one that I feel needs to be talked about because it happens far to often. I think every person in this world is touched in some way by this deeply saddening circumstance. Someone I knew when I was younger and still living in my hometown took their live several years after I moved to Texas. We’d lost touch over the years but it still pained me when I heard about it, made me sad that he felt that was his only option. My sister tried to take her life after her husband passed away about ten years ago and thank God and all things holy she did not succeed, but she lives with life long issues that are a result from that attempt. My point is, this is an issue that affects millions of people all over the world and it’s an issue that everyone should be aware of every day of every month of the year.

I do want to highlight one of the best damn books I’ve ever read this month as their is a damaged and broken character in the story that sadly, takes his life. This book wrecked me! I experienced every facet of emotion while listening to it from sadness and anger to delight and tears of joy. It’s actually part of a series that is M/F books but readers wanted Dylan’s story after so badly the Author wrote it. There are several secondary characters that are in the series, but this book stands as a standalone story you don’t have to read any of the other books. My September book recommendation for you guys is Let Love Live by Melissa Collins, narrated by Sean Crisden and Marc Bachmann. I would suggest you have tissues, vodka and loads of chocolate on hand before you begin.

• By: Melissa Collins
• Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Marc Bachmann
• Series: Love (Collins), Book 5
• Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 01-27-15
• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Audio

Buy links: Audible | Amazon US | Amazon UK

My review….

My new favorite book!

What did you love best about Let Love Live?

The dual narration. Having two different narrators voice these characters that are completely different mind sets, it was genius.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Let Love Live?

All of it! I really liked part 3 though, seeing the possibility of Connor and Dylan finding their happy ever after.

Have you listened to any of Sean Crisden and Marc Bachmann ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have, and I always enjoy their abilities to tell stories and capture an authors words with their voices.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was but it took me a few days. I will say, I was so enthralled with this story that I had my head phones in every moment I had the chance.

Any additional comments?

Dylan Hopkins found love at an early age with his best friend Shane. But the path to happiness is far from paved for these two young lovers. Shane’s father is verbally, emotionally and physically abusive and Shane carries those marks daily. Eventually they graduate and Dylan goes off to college, leaving Shane at home and under his controlling father’s thumb. Though they try to find a way to be together, Shane finally reaches a breaking point and takes his own life while in the bowels of a deep depression.

Eight years later and Dylan has reconnected with Shane’s younger brother Reed, and they work together as counselors for an LGBT advocacy agency. Dylan also volunteers as a big brother of sorts for a local boy’s home, teaching them how to play baseball. He’s dated and had a few partners here and there, but a piece of his heart was broken the night Shane died, and Dylan has come to terms with the fact that he will never find anyone to love that much again.

Connor Michelson has lost someone dear to him as well, his parents. An ex MMA fighter forced to leave the profession after a life threatening injury at the hands of, get this, his sisters abusive boyfriend. After he recovered, Connor packed up his sister and their lives and moved them away from all those painful memories, also fullfilling a dream to open his own gym. When Dylan and Reed wander into the gym one day, Dylan definitely notices the large, brooding, tatted up owner and soon enough there is a little innocent flirting flying around. And for the first time in a long time, Connor wants more than just a casual romance, he wants the white picket fence and the happy ever after. Dylan, however, doesn’t know how to move past his love for Shane, or the fact that he blames himself for Shane’s death. Can Connor show him how to let love live again?

This book was broken up into two parts, Dylan’s past with Shane and that heartbreaking situation and then Dylan’s present with Connor. The narration as well is told both from Dylan and Shane’s perspectives, then Dylan and Connor’s perspective, and it was this aspect to the story that was most intriguing for me. You are introduced to Dylan when he’s a teenager and you take the journey of self awareness with him. Discovering he is gay, realizing he is in love with his best friend, going to college and then having to loose the love of his life in such a horrific way. While Sean Crisden voicing Dylan was my favorite character and narration, I was so taken with young Shane and his broken soul. That poor boy fought tooth and nail to try and be true to himself and his love for Dylan, and his father was just a horrible kind of evil that went out of his way to break down every fiber of his own son’s being, until the poor kid felt his only out was suicide. I was balling like a baby, full on snot slinging blubbering!

Fast forward eight years and Dylan has turned his pain into something good. He and Reed found their way back to each other and are now best friends, they counsel troubled and bullied LGBT teens and try to make some kind of sense out of what happened to Shane. Sort of karmic payback for not being able to save Shane in a way. Enter Connor Michaelson, the one man that has more in common with Dylan than they realize at the start, and the one man that will not be ignored. Connor even tells Dylan the first time they kiss, it won’t go any further with us unless you give me your time. That was one of the best lines taken in context I’ve ever read, or in this case heard.

I could sit here all night and praise this book. I absolutely loved it! Collins made me laugh, made me cry, tore my heart into shreds then glued it back together, and I thought only Amy Lane could do that. This story is heavy, it deals with bullying, parental abuse, suicide and the darker side of being an LGBT teenager. But then there is so much passion, love, courage and strength in the story as well, I was completely immersed in this story from the first chapter. So well written and woven together with the past, present and possible future of these three guys. And it was pure genius to use two different narrators to tell the different characters stories throughout. If you like slightly angsty stories fueled by strong characters and well written descriptives that truly bring the story to life, then you have to get a copy of this book!

That’s all for this month guys, and I’m ending this post without my usually obligatory self promotion, but with a phone number and a website and a reminder to check on those you love if you think they’re at risk.

Suicide Prevention hotline: 1-800-273-8255

Suicide Prevention website: suicidepreventionlifeline.org