Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  The Endless Road to Sunshine

AUTHOR:  Nicky James

NARRATOR:  Nick J. Russo

PUBLISHER:  self-published

LENGTH:  13 hours and 26 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  August 20, 2021

BLURB:

My name is Jason Atkinson, and I married a serial killer. 

My world shattered on a cold April morning when they took my husband away in cuffs.

The life I knew, the man I loved, and the world I believed in was nothing but a lie. He stole my trust, my happiness, and my faith in humanity, and I’m not sure how to move on.

With my mental health hanging by a thread and a media circus following me everywhere I go, escape seems like the only answer.

Shedding my old life and starting fresh.

A new city. A new job. A new name.

Maybe everyone will leave me alone and let me wallow in peace.

But Skylar Dawson, a student almost twenty years my junior, has a different plan.

Everything about him is endless – his eyes, his smile, even his babbling mouth.

He shines with a blinding inner light I can’t ignore.

He’s a ray of sunshine in my dark world.

Skylar Dawson will not be ignored.

But will his energy and patience run out when he realizes I’m too tormented and broken to love him back?

This is a hurt/comfort, student/teacher, grumpy/sunshine, age gap (25/43) MM romance novel with a moderate amount of angst.

REVIEW:

Oh my.  Jason Atkinson’s entire world has fallen apart.  His husband who he has been with for 20 years turns out to be a serial killer.  Even worse, his victims were men who had the bad luck to flirt with Jason.  Jason was never unfaithful and never did anything beyond harmless flirting.  But Morgan was obviously possessive and jealous way beyond what Jason could see.  So not only is his husband in jail for the rest of this life, but Jason has been pursued and harassed despite having been cleared of having any knowledge of Morgan’s crimes.  He’s lost his job.  He’s been abandoned by his family.  The only lifeline he has is Levi, his best friend and lawyer and a new job 6 hours away under a new name.  He’s changed his appearance as much as he can but he’s still nervous about everything.

In his first class at he notices – and who could not notice – Skylar Dawson.  Skylar is a happy go lucky 25 year old student in his Ancient Civilizations class who is dancing and singing to Jason’s (now Dr. Jackson Palmer) faculty photo 😀  He is obviously crushing on Jackson but of course he’s a student and Jackson/Jason isn’t interested in getting close to anyone.  He’s barely keeping his head above water as it is.  He’s drinking too much, eating fast food, not sleeping, etc.  At 43, he’s depressed, isolated, paranoid and lonely.  And he’s not interested 😉

Jackson/Jason makes the mistake of going to an Abnormal Pysch class and Skylar discovers him there and makes himself at home next to Jackson/Jason.  Sklyar never stops talking. He knows he’s too much for most people.  But that’s just who he is.  Jackson/Jason keeps trying to put him off, but Skylar follows him back to his office and continues to show up at office hours – despite not needing help 😉  But when Skylar gets assigned The Kingston Strangler for his research project in the Abnormal Psych class, Jackson/Jason realizes it’s only a matter of time before Skylar figures out who he really is.

Jackson/Jason realizes he’s going to have to tell Skylar before he figures it out on his own 🙁  So he does and Skylar then understands why Jackson/Jason is the way he is – closed off, sad, angry, etc.  Skylar shares a bit about his past as well – and Jackson/Jason begins to think that maybe he has been wrong in some ways he’s been handling things.  And Skylar sure wants to make Jackson/Jason feel better.  So they being a fling – a secret fling of course because Jason is still Skylar’s professor.  As the semester goes on though, they grow closer and Jason even begins to smile more.  Levi certainly notices.

But then Jackson gets recognized and things go completely sideways.  And then there is Morgan who continues to try to manipulate Jason and refuse to give him a divorce.  And Skylar doesn’t used the best judgement either.  So yeah, things go badly.  And you’ll have to read/listen to discover the rest.

This book was crazy good.  I had NO idea what I was getting into but the premise was so intriguing and I listened into a live read while Nick Russo was recording this book and I was hooked.  These characters were so well-written.  From the beginning the polar opposite personalities of these Jason and Skylar pulled me in.  The author gives plenty of background and context for both men completely organically within the story.  The flaws and foibles and insecurities are slowly revealed through the actions and their interactions as the story builds.  I totally felt Jason’s despair at realizing that so much of his life had been a lie and that he had not clued into the psychology of this deranged husband.  He took on all the guilt of Morgan’s actions.  He really should have listened more to his therapist 😉  Skylar is such a lovable character.  Despite his sunny disposition, he’s not had it easy.   I loved discovering how he had to work for his happiness and acceptance the contentment with who he is.  Their relationship was believable and I enjoyed the pace and the persistence of Sky in getting Jason to see beyond his guilt and despair.

I do not want to spoil the plot because I think it’s best to be surprised.  But man, this was an edge of your seat story for the last 2 hours of the audio.  I did not expect so much suspense and the plot twist that led to this really caught me off guard.  I had to get up and walk around while listening to dissipate the tension I was feeling while reading this.  I was a nervous WRECK waiting to see what would happen.  Very unexpected but completely riveting conclusion to this story.  Well done!  Highly recommended.

Holy hell!  This is not at ALL what I expected.  Let me just say that my heart was absolutely pounding by the climax of this story.  I had to actually speed up the narration to find out what was going to happen.  I was literally bouncing on the edge of my seat – and I’m not sure that has EVER happened while I’ve been listening to an audio.  Well maybe one other.  But seriously.  This is absolutely outstanding voice acting narration.  Possibly my favorite book from this team of author and narrator.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

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