Reviewed by True

TITLE: Ties That Bind

SERIES: Arizona #3

AUTHOR: Romeo Preminger

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 288 pages

RELEASE DATE: February 16, 2022

BLURB:

After graduating from Columbia, with plans to start a writing career in New York City, Arizona is called back to bayou country by tragic news. His youngest brother Douglas is dead. The circumstances are unthinkable, and Arizona is pulled back into the struggles of a family he left behind.

While back in Louisiana, he’s also faced by his boyhood love, Preston Montclair, and Gaston Bondurant, Arizona’s secret, wealthy father whose growing public profile creates new problems for the two of them. Arizona could go back to New York, live the life he’d planned, and not have to worry about small town problems and small-minded people. But the ties that bind are strong and have him questioning where and who he’s supposed to be.

REVIEW:

It’s 1990,  Arizona and his friends Jonathan and Ken are sharing an apartment in New York.
He wants to live the life he had in mind, to be a famous writer one day. Leaving Louisiana was hard but necessary for him to grow.

When you read the blurb, you could think it will be a final easy read working to an end, well, forget it.
Life isn’t easy for Arizona, never was and probably never will. At twenty-two, he’s been through enough already for a whole lifetime.

For the ones who didn’t read book one and two, the story gives us peeks into the past so we understand the picture. I recommend, for the full experience, to read them, certainly to get the whole heartbreaking picture.

After finally settling in the apartment Arizona gets a call, I can tell because it’s in the blurb already.
His youngest brother Douglas died, I was aware of the circumstances the boy lived in, and yes that nightmare came true. Dang, how hurtful. So he’s back home again.

Reconnecting with Preston is far from easy. The feelings are there, only making decisions is something completely different. Both have different opinions about outing their relationship.
Louisiana got narrow-minded people. New York is the opposite.

Throughout the story Arizona is very outspoken and consistent with his opinions, it was something I highly respected about him. Even where he made some lesser decisions.

I’m sorry to say the matters around Arizona’s Daddy, Virginia and certain things, couldn’t amuse me very much. I had enough of their fights.
I always get claustrophobic from manipulators taking advantage of others for their own win. At times I had my doubts about Arizona’s Daddy motivation.
Also, I was a bit disappointed by the course the story took around politics, it wasn’t something I liked about this story. As for where Arizona got back into a place and situation where he fought to get out of, a certain ‘friend’, dinners, parties, and more, the outcome was a bit predictable.

This last story was good, not as excellent as the first or second, still extraordinary. The circumstances of that certain time felt real, the hurt around AIDS was palpable, the homophobic community ditto, the author did a great job! Except for a few episodes in this last book, I enjoyed it all. It was quite a journey, I think we followed Arizona for about ten years.
It was a satisfying end, not with a big bang, at some point it all came together, even with a few open ends, it was at a good moment.

RATING:

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