Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Leif’s Serenity
SERIES: Brigs Ferry Bay Book 4
AUTHOR: Misty Walker
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 278 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2021
BLURB:
Leif
The world knows me as Leif in Wanderlust, travel blogger.
Through the lens of my camera, I take my followers along as I vacation in some of the most beautiful places all over the world.
Sure, it can get lonely, but I’m literally living everyone’s best life and loving every second of it.
Until I’m hired for a job in Brigs Ferry Bay, Maine, where I meet a local diner owner, Fernando.
One steamy night together turns into two, and two… turns into a week of bliss.
Our instant connection leaves me questioning my motives for why I do what I do.
Am I replacing meaningful relationships with the approval of strangers?
And why can’t I get Fernando out of my head?
Fernando
Tourist season in Brigs Ferry Bay is the best season when your number one rule is to not sleep with the locals.
Small towns get six degrees of incestuous if you’re not careful.
So when a sexy travel blogger with a nerdy vibe struts into my diner, I call dibs.
He’s the perfect distraction from the dumpster fire that is my life right now, since Pops was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
I didn’t expect to actually like the guy or miss him after he went on his way.
But I do, and I can’t stop the intrusive thoughts telling me what we have is more than lust.
Now my biggest problem is convincing a wanderer to stay in one place with me.
I’m the cat, he’s the mouse.
Game on.
*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, hurt comfort, age-gap romance, and so much more. Fall in love with the charming small-town gay romances of Brigs Ferry Bay.
REVIEW:
Finally, a Brigs Ferry Bay story that does not depict the small Maine town as a toxic, homophobic, insular community. If you’ve been following my reviews of the Brigs Ferry Bay series, co-written by K Webster and Misty Walker, you know that I’ve questioned the blurb’s description of the Brigs Ferry Bay romances as “charming”. Prior entries in this series have shown us a town full of homophobes, harassment, and even violence, belying that statement.
However, Misty Walker’s Leif’s Serenity at long last shows us a very different Brigs Ferry Bay. This Brigs Ferry Bay reflects the community spirit and camaraderie you’d expect from a small town. The residents see one of their own in trouble and rally behind them to help. To these residents, sexuality is irrelevant. Now that’s not to say there’s no negativity. Some of the vile characters we saw in prior books still linger and interfere. But even then, we see some opportunities for redemption given and taken.
Leif’s Serenity brings together Comida’s Diner owner Fernando Lopez and nomadic Leif Olsen in an impactful opposites-attract romance. Ms. Walker does an excellent job of developing both characters fully. She explores their challenges, connections, emotions, and desires. These two multi-dimensional men come to life under Ms. Walker’s pen (or keyboard as the case may be). She endears both of them to us and we quickly become invested in their relationship and their personal and family situations.
Family serves as the prevalent theme in this story. Family love, family obligation, family rejection, family security and the sense of belonging it brings. We see all of these aspects at work in this heartfelt account of Fernando and Leif as they experience these various aspects of family and then find their own family together.
We see Fernando buckling under the weight of his father’s early-onset Alzheimer’s, his youngest brother’s acting out, his younger brother’s nonchalance, his mother’s self-sacrifice, and the deteriorating financial state of the family-owned diner. His own needs come last and even then with guilt. So even though Fernando has family surrounding him, he’s desperately lonely.
Leif is also incredibly lonely, but unlike Fernando, Leif is also alone. On his high-school graduation day, he comes out to his parents and they cast him out. He then spends the ensuing seven years literally homeless, living out of his car with no family, no friends, no one in his corner at all except his BFF Ava. He has no job, little money, and struggles to survive while he slowly builds up his social media presence as a travel blogger. To his credit, he resourcefully creates a source of income out of nothing by traveling far and wide visiting places, and reporting on his adventures and findings. But moving from place to place, he’s not able to form lasting friendships and doesn’t even bother to try for a romantic relationship. His only constant companion is the sound of his own voice.
Fernando and Leif come together quickly, intended as a hookup only. But their connection is very real, strong, and unexpected. Leif’s only in town for a week so that forced proximity with a deadline accelerates their burgeoning romance. Their chemistry is off the charts and the steamy scenes are hot but also emotionally meaningful. Notably, unlike many of the other Brigs Ferry Bay characters we’ve met, Fernando and Leif exude kindness and generosity of spirit. We see that resonate with the town as demonstrated by the support shown, particularly to Fernando. It’s easy to engage with both of them and become invested in the outcome of their personal trials and tribulations, and ensuring they get a well-deserved HEA together.
Overall, Leif’s Serenity stands as one of the best installments in this series so far. The pacing is a little slow, particularly in the earlier parts of the book, but you will nevertheless be absorbed from start to finish. Ms. Walker envelops us in an authentic, beautiful story of resilient and lasting love. She delivers it through excellent writing and carefully crafted, complex, multi-faceted characters. The story cleverly sets us up for Brigs Ferry Bay books to come and ensures that we’ll be there for them.
RATING: 
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