Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE: We Found Love

AUTHORS: Kade Boehme and Allison Cassatta

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH: 216 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2020

BLURB:

It’s no surprise Riley Connors is dealing with issues. He was kidnapped as a young boy, and his parents abandoned him after his newsworthy return. He bounced from foster home to facility and back. Now an adult, ghosts from his past continue to haunt him. After a suicide attempt, he is locked away in Hartfield so that people can make him tune in to emotions he has tried to bury.

Hunter Morgan had the kind of love that spans ages. But the stress of college and adulthood became too much to handle, and the love of Hunter’s life turned to drugs. After he overdoses, Hunter finds himself soaring out of control on the same miserable path. His brother finds him and calls an ambulance, and the sister Hunter would rather not have calls it a suicide attempt, landing Hunter in Hartfield.

Finding love isn’t easy, but it can happen under the most dire circumstances. Together Hunter and Riley may be able to grow from their pain. But they will need to learn to live for themselves, letting love come second.

REVIEW:

Please take me with you. Please don’t forget about me. Don’t leave me.

We Found Love is an extraordinary story of two terribly damaged men who meet and begin to fall in love at the worst possible time, in the worst possible place.  

Riley has been institutionalized against his will for eighteen months at the Hartfield mental hospital after trying to end his life. He’s a “lifer” with no hope of ever being released, he says. He’s an angry man – almost feral – who has his hackles up as soon as he meets his hot new roommate, Hunter. Hunter is an alcoholic, committed after an overdose doctors believe was a suicide attempt. He thinks Riley is beautiful but haunted, and while Riley is initially sullen, Hunter just wants to get to know him and maybe have an ally in the frightening, foreign place. 

They become nurturing and protective of each other. On Hunter’s first night, Riley holds him close in bed while he’s scared and shivering from detoxing. They are strangers but soon reveal their pasts and share caring, tender moments – some are life-defining. I won’t detail their time in the hospital and the creative ways they find to be together, so you can discover it all on your own. 

Riley confesses that he was kidnapped when he was six years old, held captive, and tortured for four years. After being rescued, his parents no longer want him, so for the last ten years he’s been a ward of the state, bouncing between foster homes, hospitals, and institutions. Hunter’s road to hospitalization began in college when he and his boyfriend, Cody, started partying too hard. Hunter’s downward spiral into six years of alcoholism and depression finally bottomed out when he found Cody’s body after he died from an overdose. 

Hunter is willing to fight against his demons but Riley is not. His anger and stubbornness – and underneath it all, the pain and despair – maintain their stranglehold and Riley won’t do the necessary work to heal. It hurts Hunter that this man he’s growing feelings for won’t try to help himself; it’s easier for Riley to give up. 

At the heart of We Found Love, Riley and Hunter must take responsibility for their own healing and undergo tremendous personal growth. Before embarking on a future as a couple outside the walls of the institution, they need to stand on their own two feet. They have to do it for themselves first, not for each other. 

The one thing that keeps We Found Love from achieving a five heart/star rating is the Grand Canyon of plot holes: why didn’t Riley’s parents want him back after he was rescued from his kidnappers? Without an explanation it makes no sense. Riley’s dark childhood history is intriguing but, unfortunately, the reader is left with more questions than answers and insight into Riley’s pain. In fact, there’s very little information provided beyond what’s already given in the blurb about both the abduction and the perplexing parental abandonment. I feel as if there was a whole chapter left on the proverbial cutting room floor.  

At 216 pages, this book is on the shorter side of typical MM romance novels. Given the serious nature of the subject matter, I feel the book could have been enriched with another 50 or 100 pages. It would’ve allowed for more discussion of the past, deeper characterization, and greater development of the world contained behind the mental hospital’s locked doors. Hunter’s family dynamic and time with Cody were also too rushed. There are only a few secondary characters and most are of limited depth, so that could’ve been expanded upon, as well. 

Despite the drawbacks, We Found Love is a treasure that I highly recommend. The falling in love portion itself is nearly perfect. My heart was shredded and left on the floor, only to be put back together one piece at a time with each step of progress Riley made. Kade Boehme and Allison Cassatta have crafted an achingly beautiful love story and the happy ending is sweet, yet realistic.

I will add that I’ve twice listened to the audio book narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo and it’s fabulous!! 

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon