Reviewed by Cheryl

TITLE: Back Where You Belong

AUTHOR: Maggie Blackbird

PUBLISHER: Extasy Books

LENGTH: 184 pages

RELEASE DATE:  October 21,  2022

BLURB:

He rejected love the first time. Now he wants a second chance.

After having his love tossed back in his face, Hudson Suggashie has eliminated the word trust from his dictionary. Since his return to his Ojibway community, his suspicions are running high, all because one man is hinting at a second chance—the too-gorgeous and sexy ball-crusher who turned Hudson’s world to black fifteen years ago.

Stephen Brandt knows he screwed up big time when he rejected Hudson’s love, and he’ll do anything to win him back, even if it means being a mere bed buddy to the man whose love he aches to reclaim.

The longer the former best friends engage in their no-strings affair, they want something more—what they lost as teenagers. But Hudson isn’t about to open his heart again, leaving a desperate Stephen searching for a way to earn back the trust he broke, or for the second time, they’ll lose the greatest love either has ever experienced.

REVIEW:

One of my favourite things about this author is how relaxed and easy her worldbuilding is. Many, maybe even most, people have no idea what it’s like to live on a native reservation and the author does not describe it. Nevertheless, she brings it to life and carries us along with the characters as they go about their business in a very different world. There is never a time when the reader is jarred into a realisation that things are done differently – well, unless the author wants them to be.

This book is an easy read and is less focused on the life and culture of the Ojibwe as the lives and musical tastes of the two main characters.

As usual, the author’s characters are strong and vivid. They are not perfect. They do not act like ideals, but like flawed human beings and they can be bloody frustrating, but that’s all part of the skill of the author in making us care. There is less of a supporting cast than in some of the author’s other works, but that doesn’t matter because the focus is rightly on Hudson and Stephen. However, Mrs Brandt is a beautifully crafted exception. If the boys are flawed, she has a fissure the size of the Grand Canyon running through her, but it exposes a deep love for her son and a genuine desire to do her best by him. This might be uncomfortable for Hudson; it would be for anyone; but it achingly real and draws you into the character and, again, makes you care.

The trope is a well worn one and there is nothing blindingly new about the way it’s approached but the story is beautifully crafted and is warm and comfortable like the familiar front door to a favourite cottage; old and well worn, but given a bright new coat of paint, welcoming you to the treats inside.

This author is precious, treasure her. She writes about a way of life that is alien to so many of us and she makes it real and alive. I had never heard of the Ojibwe people before finding her and she has inspired me to research a fascinating group of people whose lives I am privileged to share within her pages. These two young men, so clumsy in their approach to each other, dance with two left feet but eventually manage to stop bouncing off each other ever time they get close and their happy ending is well deserved and worth waiting for.

I would say this is a coffee time read, nothing too challenging, nothing too dramatic, just a sweet romance with a good sprinkling of the unique flavour this author brings to her stories, of a completely different world.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

eXtasy Books

Amazon