Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Coddiwomple

AUTHOR:  S.E. Harmon

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 299 pages

RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2021

BLURB:

As a wildlife photographer, Journey “JJ” Sutton never stays in one place too long. The world is his classroom, and he’s living his dream. His only regret is that he had to sacrifice the love of his life to do it. But as the saying goes, you can never go home again. That’s until there’s a family emergency, and he has to…well, go home again. His easy breezy lifestyle gets complicated fast. It certainly doesn’t help that his ex-fiancé has bought the house next door.

After an unstable childhood, Cameron Foster loves small-town life. He has everything he needs in his vet practice, his friends, and his animals. Despite what numerous exes seem to think, he’s not still in love with Journey. And so what if they add “benefits” to their friendship? As long as he keeps his heart out of the equation, everything should be fine.

Too bad Journey’s not onboard with that plan. With summer ending, he has to convince Cameron that this is more than just a fling. This time around, he knows what he wants. He wants a second chance. He wants forever. Most of all, he wants Cameron’s heart.

Journey may have put away his passport, but things are just getting interesting.

REVIEW:

Coddiwomple (verb): to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination 

I adored Coddiwomple, a second chance love story about forgiveness, healing, and family. This heartwarming tale has endearing leading men, pervasive dry humor, lots of furry friends, and charming small-town living (i.e. nosy neighbors). 

Journey “J.J.” Sutton had two great loves in his life: his fiancé Cameron Foster, and traveling the world while capturing its beauty on film. The latter was a need that arose from having to escape the overwhelming familial responsibility and the expectations for him to be the family cornerstone. And so, his wanderlust won out and Cameron was left behind.  

“I hadn’t known putting my wishes first would cost me the love of my life.” 

This is a case where Cameron and Journey’s love was strong, but not enough to conquer Journey’s demons regarding his mother’s death, the resulting family dynamics, and the heavy burden that fell upon his young shoulders. He was a young teen when he had to assume responsibility for his three younger brothers and hold the family together when his father – mired in his own grief – “checked out” and began drinking heavily. Journey’s truncated childhood left him feeling the itch to break free from his constraints. By his mid-twenties, he’d already been forced to sacrifice so much of his own life to care for his family. In contrast, Cameron’s turbulent childhood left him longing to set down roots and seek the stability he was never granted after his own mother’s death. His father remarried five more times and with each new wife came a move to somewhere new.  

Now, a decade later, Journey has a second chance. He’s an internationally renowned wildlife photographer living in Seattle but spending much of his time on assignment in remote and exotic locales around the globe. While in Africa, he receives a dreaded phone call that his father, Jack, has suffered a stroke, so he rapidly packs up to return home to Florida. Cameron, who has remained a family friend, is the one tasked to pick him up at the airport. And so begins the attempts by both men to ignore their reignited feelings for the other. 

The men don’t really know each other after ten years apart, but they fall into a somewhat awkward companionship. Their time together is always charged with mutual desire, though. This book is rimming, I mean, brimming with UST. Journey suggests a friends with benefits arrangement but Cameron is hesitant to become involved – even though his dry spell has been three long years – because he’s convinced this “stupid” idea will only lead to another broken heart. He still loves Journey but can’t allow himself to revisit that old pain again. So even though Cameron fights it – “I thought about canceling no less than five times, but my dick kept hanging up the phone” – they finally succumb, and it’s sexy and electrifying.  

With the aid of hindsight and more maturity, Journey now sees a way to compromise and keep both their hearts intact. But Cameron stills want to settle down and fears Journey will always be a nomad.  

Coddiwomple is about more than just Journey and Cameron. For Journey, it’s also about healing an mending fences with his entitled family, but that requires difficult discussions and confrontations he may not be able to face. His father and John, the oldest of his three younger brothers, are both loathe to forgive Journey for leaving the family and eschewing his place in the family business. They don’t understand or respect Journey’s career. 

The story is enhanced by the inclusion of lots of furry friends: Kona, Cameron’s supposed-to-be-a-foster-but-is-obviously-never-leaving wolf dog; the stray mutt with a revolving door of monikers that Journey finds; even a playful cheetah in Namibia. The supporting cast, including the oft-frustrating and angering Jack, and Cameron’s best friend, Bailey, are solid additions. But it’s the nosy neighbors and family in this small, South Florida town where everyone knows everyone else’s business that really bring the laughs. 

All in all, Coddiwomple is a fantastic, well-written story. This is my first S.E. Harmon read but won’t be my last.  4.75 hearts.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon