Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: Taking Stock
AUTHOR: A.L. Lester
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 124 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 19, 2020
BLURB:
It’s 1972. Fifteen years earlier, teenage Laurie Henshaw came to live at Webber’s Farm with his elderly uncle and settled in to the farming life. Now thirty-two, Laurie has a stroke in the middle of working on the farm. As he recovers, he has to come to terms with the fact that some of his new limitations are permanent and he’s never going to be as active as he used to be. Will he be able to accept the helping hands his friends extend to him?
With twenty successful years in the city behind him, Phil McManus is hiding in the country after his boyfriend set him up to take the fall for an insider trading deal at his London stockbroking firm. There’s not enough evidence to prosecute anyone, but not enough to clear him, either. He can’t bear the idea of continuing his old stagnating life in the city or going back to his job now everyone knows he’s gay.
Thrown together in a small country village, can Phil and Laurie forge a new life that suits the two of them and the makeshift family who gathers round them? Or are they too tied up in their own shortcomings to recognise what they have?
REVIEW:
What a lovely book. Despite its serious subject matter – insider trading, fraud and recovery from a stroke – it’s a sweet book with plenty of light moments. Phil and Laurie are lovely characters and we are fighting in both corners right from the start. The journey from strangers to friends, to lovers to partners is not an easy one for either character but they are assisted by a strong cast of supporting characters from the inimitable Sally to timid and scared Cat.
Despite Phil’s situation I think the main source of angst, if that’s what it can be called in this situation, comes in Laurie’s struggles. He author has done a great job of conveying the frustration of a fit and active man who, overnight, becomes almost entirely reluctant on others. Laurie could easily have become embittered, but even though he is certainly frustrated and angry there is a certain graciousness in his struggles.
The book has a sense of realism that is refreshing and I think that the setting, in the 1970s adds some grit while not being in your face. The telling is natural, and in fact it’s easy to forget that it’s not a contemporary setting. In fact, the first time the war was mentioned it came as a shock that characters would have experienced it, then I remembered the setting and it made sense.
The rural setting, with all the little details of life in a small village and on a farm is charming as much as it is educational and I loved things like the sheep shearing, the descriptions of the landscape and the sense of connection between the characters and the setting and people around them.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and whilst it is more weighty than a coffee time read it is a sweet and gentle romance with very satisfactory feel-good ending
RATING: 
BUY LINK: