Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Awakening the Sheriff

SERIES: Forestville Silver Foxes (Book 2)

AUTHOR: Nora Phoenix

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 326 pages

RELEASE DATE: August 25, 2023

BLURB:

I thought we were building a friendship. Turns out I’m falling in love.

I’ve always wanted simple things. Become the local sheriff like my dad. Get married and have kids. Build a life in Forestville.

I’ve done all that…but it hasn’t turned out as expected.

At forty-eight, I’m single and co-parenting my two daughters with my ex-wife. My chances of meeting someone new in my small town are slim. Have I missed my chance at happiness?

When a new high school teacher moves into town, I recognize a kindred spirit. Keaton’s my age and a single dad too, and we hit it off, becoming friends.

The more time we spend together, the closer we grow. I love hanging out with him, and he seems to feel the same way.

When I realize our friendship has become something more, it’s the biggest shock of my life. I’ve never been attracted to men, but I can’t deny my feelings for Keaton.

But he and his sons struggle to feel at home in Forestville, and I can’t ever see myself leaving, so what does that mean for us? Is there even an “us,” or am I delusional in thinking we have a future together?

Awakening the Sheriff is a small town, single dads romance with a bisexual awakening between two men who grow from friends to lovers. This gay romance novel is the second book in the Forestville Silver Foxes series, a contemporary small town MM romance series featuring hot silver foxes and the men who fall in love with them. Each book can be read as a standalone.

REVIEW:

I’m so excited. We get another trip back to Forestville and learn more about those gorgeous silver foxes that live there!

It’s no secret that I absolutely love Nora Phoenix’s books. She writes men that resonate with me. Men of honor and integrity that protect and love those that are theirs. But then add to these stories men that have already lived more than a few years and have experienced life but discover they haven’t learned everything about who they really are and what they need.  And these men aren’t afraid to embrace something new they didn’t know existed and you have me completely hooked.

These two men aren’t super stars or billionaires (although I enjoy those kind of men too 😉) but average men who just want and need love and acceptance of who they realize that they really are. Nora captured that completely with both Auden and Keaton. They both struggled with loneliness in their lives and needed each other equally as much.

Both men had marriages they thought would last but unfortunately real life issues got in the way. Auden and his ex, Tricia, we’re just babies really when they fell in love. But the stresses of  life, along with infertility issues, took their toll on both their marriage and Auden’s self worth. Thankfully they worked as a well oiled team to support and love their two amazing and well adjusted daughters. I loved that Tricia finally got through to Auden that she didn’t blame him or feel it was his fault with the fertility problems. Life happens and they adjusted but he needed to really hear and believe it again.

Keaton’s ex-wife Mandy was the polar opposite by being “a wolf in sheep’s clothes” as my Mama used to say. She came across as the fun mom but deep inside she was a biphobic, manipulative person and was actually mentally abusive of not only Keaton but their sons as well. She was truly a narcissist at heart. Her gaslighting practices not only effected her sons and former husband’s well being but put her oldest son Byron’s safety into serious jeopardy. There are women that never should be mothers and she proved that point.

I loved getting to see all of Auden’s lifelong friends. They all support and value a friendship that is many decades in the making. Marnin really struck home to me how close he was to Auden and that he would do anything for his best friend. Auden’s family had been there for him growing up and I believe he truly loved his best friend. But I also believe there was nothing that ever would have happened between them if Aiden had discovered his bisexual side earlier. They were brothers from another mother but not destined to ever be lovers. Even if Marnin might have desired it. Keaton was it for Auden and that was that!

I look forward to getting to see the love ‘em and leave ‘em Marnin meeting his match. That’s going to be a doozy of a story for sure. But first we will get Tomás, Tiago’s twin brothers, HEA with the widower doctor and former classmate Fir. I can honestly say I NEVER, EVER saw that match coming. The playboy super model with a country doctor with kids…oh my what a ride that’s going to be!

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon