Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Daybreak
SERIES: Vino & Veritas
AUTHOR: Kate Hawthorne
NARRATORS: Kirt Graves & Kale Wiliams
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
LENGTH: 6 hours and 8 minutes
RELEASE DATE: June 29, 2021
BLURB:
Liam Luckett is on an adventure. He’s dropped out of his master’s program without telling his overbearing parents and set off on a road trip across the country. Armed with little more than his guitar, he’s looking for his best life. He never expected his car to break down in the middle of nowhere Vermont with a huge storm pending, leaving him stranded and at the mercy of a hunky local mechanic.
Jasper Cunningham is in a holding pattern. Three years after the death of his husband, he still hasn’t moved on. A hot, younger stranded tourist is exactly the sort of complication this mechanic has been avoiding. But he also can’t leave him in the snow. He brings Liam home and lets him sleep on the couch. The air is heavy with more than snow, and when the power goes out, the two men become closer than either of them expects.
Every silken note Liam sings on that guitar thaws Jasper’s heart a little. Suddenly, Liam’s itchy feet aren’t so eager to move on. When their feelings get too big to ignore, the bond they’ve formed is tested. Will daybreak leave them going their separate ways?
Contains mature themes.
REVIEW:
Jasper is a widower who is stuck in his grief. He hasn’t really moved on at all in the three years since his husband Michael died tragically and suddenly. I can’t begin to imagine what that would be like. He lives in his family house with things just as they have been. He is a mechanic who enjoys his job and so when he gets a call about a tourist whose car has broken down by Vino & Veritas, he comes to the rescue – despite the imminent storm on its way.
Liam has run away from his prescribed life. His parents expect him to be a certain way and follow a certain path. Unfortunately he has no desire to do that and he hasn’t been able to talk to his family about it – for reasons. So he leaves California for a cross-country adventures to drive through all the states. He’s left his master’s program and he’s playing his guitar as he crisscrosses the country. When his car breaks down outside a nice wine bar/bookstore in Vermont just as a snowstorm is blowing in, he guesses his luck has run out. But the very nice bartender helps him out- calling the local mechanic. But there isn’t time for him to find accommodations and without a car, he finds himself having to accept the grudging “hospitality” of the grumpy mechanic at his lonely and sad house.
Jasper isn’t exactly thrilled to have someone in his house, but he doesn’t seem to have a choice. And when the storm continues and the power goes out and the part is delayed, the end up spending more time together than either had anticipated. Jasper pushes all of Liam’s buttons and Japer ends up feeling a lot of guilt as he’s not been attracted to anyone since his husband’s death. They both accept that this is just a fling. Liam will be going back to California and Jasper has nothing left to give anyway. Michael will always have his heart.
Liam of course can’t avoid his life forever. When he’s summoned back to California, he is reluctant to go, but he knows he has to face his family. Jasper doesn’t really want him to go, but he make himself ask Liam to stay either. It seems that they are at an impasse and both of them need to figure out how to get on with their lives.
*Sigh* I wanted to like this book more than I did. Part of the problem for me was the narration. I should have known better, but I didn’t check the narrators before I picked this one up. But my biggest problem was that I just didn’t feel any connection to either character or believe them as a couple. They are so different and I wanted a lot more in the area of relationship growth – not just lust and attraction with a sort of push/pull interaction. I didn’t feel any “bond” between them. While I felt bad for Jasper, I didn’t feel like I knew him or understood why he was so stuck. I really didn’t like his BFF Devon. I understood his overprotectiveness, but he was also kind of an ass to Liam – who had done nothing to him – or to Jasper for that matter. I did love how Liam finally stood up for himself and did the right thing, but man, his parents were pretty awful and I just knew that wasn’t going to go well. This one just didn’t connect for me.
As is the way with this series, there are dual narrators for the MC POVs. Unfortunately one of the narrators of this series isn’t to my taste and that took away from my enjoyment of the story. Couple that with the lack of connection I experienced with these characters, and it didn’t help. There is nothing wrong with the story or the writing per se, but it just didn’t work for me personally. As usual YMMV.
RATING: 
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