Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Kian’s Focus
SERIES: Brigs Ferry Bay Book 2
AUTHOR: Misty Walker
PUBLISHER: self-published
RELEASE DATE: January 12, 2021
LENGTH: 242 pages
BLURB:
Kian always gets what he wants… and now his focus is on Archer.
I lost my boyfriend on the night I had planned to propose. It was a horrific accident that was all my fault.
I gave up and resigned myself into a life of obscurity.
Until I got a call that my sister, Sara, needed me. It gave me purpose and I ran to her rescue.
Because that’s what I’ve done our whole lives.
That’s how I ended up in Brigs Ferry Bay. But when I showed up, things were so much worse than I thought.
She was sullen, fragile, and sinking into a depression I didn’t know how I’d get her out of.
Together, we were drowning.
Until I met Kian. He’s everything I’m not.
Bouncy, bubbly, full of life, and an innate ability to make everything better. He makes me believe I can be happy again.
Now the unthinkable has happened and Sara is on the verge of losing her life. Once again, it’s all my fault.
Kian had clouded my vision with promises of hope and forever. I was so stupid to believe I could be happy again.
I try push him away. To shove him out of the darkness that follows me. I don’t want him to suffer the future fate had secured me to.
But Kian’s focus is on me And he’s used to getting what he wants.
*Brigs Ferry Bay is a steamy MM romance series. While each book can be read as a standalone, to get the full experience, they’re best read in order. Enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, hurt comfort, age-gap romance, and so much more. Fall in love with the charming small town gay romances of Brigs Ferry Bay…
**Trigger warning. This is a MM emotional romance that touches on sensitive topics like death and suicide, but ends happily.
REVIEW:
I’m very much of two minds when it comes to Kian’s Focus. One the one hand, it’s well-written and packs an emotional punch. If you enjoy angsty reads, it sure delivers. On the other hand, I felt oddly disconnected from the main characters and couldn’t engage with the storyline despite my best efforts.
What you need to know:
- Kian’s Focus is the second book in the Brigs Ferry Bay series, written by new-to-me author, Misty Walker.
- It follows on the heels of the terrific Sheriff’s Secret by K Webster but is completely different in content and tone.
- You can read Kian’s Focus as a standalone. There’s actually very little connection to the events of Sheriff’s Secret. Very few of the BFB characters from Sheriff’s Secret appear in this book, except for the notable exception of our MC, Kian Abrams.
- The book features age-gap, opposites attract (and I mean opposite in almost every respect), and hurt/comfort tropes.
- It delivers a very angsty, emotional read with some, frankly, horrifying events (like the death of MC Archer Warren’s boyfriend *not a spoiler – it’s in the blurb*) that will sit with you.
- Heed the trigger warnings. Difficult subjects are tackled in this book, and not fleetingly. They are major themes that run throughout.
- There is a definite HEA.
My view:
Misty Walker writes an impactful, emotional story of a man, 40-year-old Archer Warren, weighed down by obligation and grief. He’s suffered a tragedy – the accidental death of his boyfriend – which he views as his fault. Burdened with survivor’s guilt and extreme heartbreak, he is summoned back to BFB to help his sister, Sara, when her husband leaves her. She’s left with two young children, little money in the bank account and a whole lot of grief and betrayal.
Archer practically raised Sara due to parental neglect, so his sense of obligation and need to take care of her is outsized. He represses his own needs and happiness to support her. Sara’s also suffering from depression, and Archer struggles to recognize it and then help her even as her mental state begins to spiral down.
Enter Kian Abrams, Archer’s self-appointed savior. I gotta be honest, I really was not a fan of Kian from Sheriff’s Secret, which introduces him as a successful business owner of Blur/Focus, the BFB gay resident hot spot. He’s shown as free-spirited and unapologetically true to himself, yet also seemingly unforgiving. He and Sheriff Jaxson Bell were secret high school sweethearts, but broke up at graduation when Jax chose to stay closeted rather than acknowledge his love for Kian. Over a decade later, Kian still acts a bit like a lover scorned. He harbors such resentment still that he continues to give Jax the cold-shoulder, even exhibiting latent hostility at times.
At the beginning of Kian’s Focus, we see Kian is indeed still a bit bitter. Despite his projection of self-confidence and self-esteem, we learn that Jax’s choice left Kian stung by rejection and with a feeling of inadequacy that he’s yet to work through. The whole Jax and Kian dynamic is complicated, but somehow I ended up immediately forgiving and loving Jax, but not really liking or empathizing with Kian.
The author needed to work some magic to turn that view of Kian around in Kian’s Focus. She wasn’t entirely successful. I grew to like Kian, but nothing more. His sense of inadequacy, while completely relatable, remained so raw that it no longer seemed understandable 10+ years later.
Kian definitely has redeeming qualities, though, which is really what moved the needle for me in terms of growing to like him. The primary one on display is his selflessness vis-a-vis Archer. Archer is so sweet and altruistic, and also wounded. He needs time to heal and there’s no room in his life for it. He tries so hard, going above and beyond for his sister and her kids at his own expense, but he’s somewhat misguided in his efforts. Further, his stubbornness and refusal to acknowledge what’s right in front of him – both with his sister and with Kian – is frustrating.
Selflessness is one thing Kian and Archer have in common. Kian also goes well above and beyond for Archer, sacrificing himself in the process. Archer’s commitment is not reflected toward Kian, though, but is instead directed toward his family.
Archer and Kian are so different that the attraction between them didn’t make sense empirically, and the book didn’t sufficiently develop their connection to make me understand why they organically fit together. The one-sided dynamic of Kian endlessly giving to Archer, but not having it reciprocated, undermined the development of the relationship between them. Sure they had some chemistry, but it just didn’t resonate with me.
I gave this book 4 Hearts, a recommended read, because the biggest flaw in Kian’s Focus stems from expectations. It’s a well-written, angsty, ambitious story with sensitive, realistic treatment of difficult subject matter. Because of that, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to not recommend this book. I think a different audience with different expectations might really like this story.
To me personally, though, this is a 3.5 Heart read, mainly because I expected a romance. This did not feel like a romance to me. Kian’s Focus puts it’s focus elsewhere: on exploring the repercussions of loss, rejection and grief, and leaning on family and friends for help and healing. It’s a beautiful story in that regard. I’d definitely recommend it if you are interested in an emotional, fictional account of this type of struggle. But if you want to feel romance – and this is billed as a romance – this book misses the mark. The romantic relationship between Kian and Archer felt incomplete and peripheral so, ultimately, Kian’s Focus left me wanting.
RATING:
BUY LINK: