Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: A Long Way Home

SERIES: The Coming Home Series (Book 1)

AUTHOR: Blake Allwood

PUBLISHER: Blake Allwood Publishing

LENGTH: 274 pages

RELEASE DATE: February 11, 2923

BLURB:

With the odds stacked against them, will they be able to overcome, or will their pasts push them apart, forever?

Gib clings to family, while being afraid to trust them. As a former foster child, he clings to security denied to him in early childhood. When he begins having feelings for one of his best friends and fellow medical school student, all his issues are expanded.

Allen has everything a kid from a wealthy New York family could have. When he decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Harvard trained doctor, he didn’t anticipate meeting and falling for the enigmatic Gibson Ridley.

With Allen’s daddy issues, and Gib’s fear of intimacy, the stakes couldn’t have greater risks. Can these two men work through their issues and give love a chance, or will they lose it forever?

NOTE: A Long Road Home is a low-heat, sweet, high drama romance.

Triggers: Death, loss of family members, orphaned children, trauma, fear of loss, recovery, homophobia…

The Coming Home series is a sweet romance series in a hallmarkesque style. (No explicit sex scenes).

REVIEW:

A whole new style of book by the talented Blake Allwood. Think Hallmark meets Gay Romance.

Gib has had a hard time with relationships since he was a small child. His parents had been killed in an automobile accident and he had been shuffled through the foster care system until he landed with Mr. & Mrs. Simmons. When Mr. Simmons died and two years later Mrs. Simmons admitted she was sick his tenuous home was threatened to be pulled from him again. Thankfully her sister Miss Margaret came to help out with her and Gil, Olivia and Chase. Although tough and a bit scary, she provided a safe place to finally grow up. Allen has lived what appears a charmed life in NYC. But his father had left his mom and him for a new wife and eventually another son. Much to his mother’s chagrin he is following his father’s footsteps into medicine instead of taking over her family’s thriving hotel business. Allen has been a bit of a slutty playboy in college but that all changes when he meets the drop-dead gorgeous Gil at Harvard Medical School when his friends help form the Apple Fritter Gang study group. Allen is immediately taken with Gil and wants him but Gil is gun shy of any relationships, due to his childhood trauma, but especially a rich New York playboy. Allen wants Gil and is willing to wait for the man that does it for him. But can he get Gil to learn to trust and give love a chance?

Allen may have been a playboy but when he set his eyes on Gil  he had the patience of a saint to wait for him. I really, really liked Allen. He was caring and kind. He just wanted to love Gil, damage and all. Yes, Allen had baggage from his family but his love for Gil never dulled even when Gil freaked and ran. And poor Gil. That poor boy needed therapy more than anybody ever. He had such deep rooted trust and abandonment issues. I wish that when all that went down with Chase and Olivia when Mrs. Simmons died that Miss Margaret would have insisted that he get counseling. He was obviously deeply troubled. Yes he was a hard worker and a dedicated med student/intern but he had such deep issues that caused him such distress and challenged any chance of a healthy and thriving relationship. And these men seemed to never get a break. Between all the family drama and tragedy, Gil’s crippling relationship anxiety and their exhausting careers I don’t know how either man survived it all.

What I really loved were all the well developed side characters that made this story real. First of all Gil’s siblings Olivia and Chase. Then Miss Margaret who became one of my most favorites. And then there was the Apple Fritter Gang that included Alexi and Fiona, Allen’s friends from New York that were also med students. I loved that their friendship continued past med school. But it was Chrissy and the twins that stole my and Gil and Allen’s hearts. Add in how Allen’s mom came through when he really needed her and these characters kept them held accountable and back on track.

I will say that this book is extremely angsty. And Chase and Olivia’s story literally gutted me! Big fat ugly tears gutted me. I’m not usually a fan of this much angst and tragedy but this sorry was so well written and the characters so believable that I couldn’t sit the book down. Not even when I anticipated the bad times.

I am really looking forward to Dr. Nash, Gil’s new boss, and Todd, their contractor’s story in the next book in this series. I am hoping, since Gil works with Dr. Nash and they reside in the same small town that we will continue to hear how they are all doing. These stories are without any on page sex but show how true love conquers even the worst of circumstances and perseveres.

RATING:

BUY LINK:

Amazon