Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: Saving Ziggy
SERIES: Liverpool Boys #1
AUTHOR: Alex J. Adams
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 290 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 29, 2022
BLURB:
Leaving home four years ago was the best thing I could have done. Selling myself on the streets for the past two years, the worst, but what else was I to do? All I truly wanted was someone I could love and someone to love me in return. Was it really too much to ask?
Meeting him, the most handsome man ever, I thought all my prayers had been answered…..until they weren’t.
That man was almost the death of me.
I survived though, it’s what I’d always done and now I needed to try and rebuild my life.
Marc saved me, was with me every step of the way, showing me that finally, good things can happen. He thought I was damaged, and I probably was, too many emotional scars that would take time to heal.
But Marc had them as well and together, I knew we can find the love we both deserved.
Saving Ziggy is a darker MM romance about a male prostitute and the paramedic that saves him.
Please heed the trigger warnings: This book features abuse, both verbal and physical and sexual assault.
REVIEW:
Ziggy hasn’t had an easy life. He left home at sixteen and has been working as a prostitute on the streets of Liverpool for two of the four years since. He has very little in his life – a few meager possessions, a best friend and roommate, Suzie, and a lousy flat they can barely pay rent on. Then one day, life gets a whole lot bleaker when he becomes homeless and, against his better judgement, puts his trust in the wrong man.
The victimization in this book is brutal and ugly. I was holding my breath waiting for the abuse mentioned in the blurb, but when it came, it was so much worse than I anticipated. I don’t mind dark material, but the on-page physical abuse is sickeningly graphic and the sexual abuse slightly less so. The malicious and predatory nature of the crimes is terrible. It was so awful I tried skimming it then felt I had to go back to read it fully so I could be informed for this review. But I almost DNFd because it was more horrific than I was expecting. It also felt somewhat gratuitous.
Marc doesn’t enter the book until the 43% point when he and his paramedic partner rescue Ziggy. Marc instantly feels a strong connection to Ziggy. His need to sit by Ziggy’s bedside and reassure himself that he would survive is warranted, but his quick attraction to Ziggy felt unrealistic and a little icky. I liked his character more than I did Ziggy, though. The latter went from one savior to the next – a pattern of older men who seemed like they’d take care of him – without standing on his own.
While romantic and heartwarming, the epilogue left me shaking my head in some ways. Ziggy and Marc decide to move and live in the Liverpool suburb where the scene of Ziggy’s crime occurred. What? It made no sense. The worst part for me, though, was that Ziggy showed little growth. For example, there’s no mention of him getting a job to break the pattern of him being dependent on other men.
On the positive side, I enjoyed Marc’s mother, Pat, who, without hesitation, took Ziggy into her home to care and nurture him back to health. She and Marc’s brother, Ryan, became true family. Overall, though, the relationship between the main characters felt underdeveloped and the book just didn’t work for me personally.
RATING:
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