Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Stray Awakening
SERIES: Rainbow Rescue Cat Café
AUTHOR: F.A. Ray
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 245 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2024
BLURB:
I fled my hometown seven years ago. I never planned to come back. I never planned to give up my city life for a small town. And I definitely never planned to fall for another man.
Henry
Tripp Lake, the place I love the most. Working at a cat café on Main Street gives me a chance to get some deserving cats their forever homes.
But when a blast from the past walks into my café, I’m not sure what to feel. Alex was always hot and popular in high school – and straight.
So it’s a shock when he keeps accepting my invitations to hang out. I don’t think I’m imagining the spark between us, but is Alex actually interested in me, or am I letting this straight boy break my heart?
Alex
Tripp Lake, the place I hate the most. I’m only here because of my father’s heart attack. But the second I return home, I remember all the reasons I ran away.
My parents are overbearing. This town is small and boring. And I want nothing more than to flee back to my new life in San Francisco – a life that doesn’t come packed with any surprising new feelings about a guy I went to high school with.
Henry is a ray of sunshine amid this bleak journey home. But I’ve never been interested in a guy before. When a relaxing hike results in my first timid kiss with another man, I start questioning a lot more than just my decision to leave Tripp Lake. Is Henry worth staying in this crappy town for?
Stray Awakening is a small-town MM romance with first-time gay experiences, a sweet ray of sunshine winning over a jaded grumpy, spicy open-door scenes, and, of course, lots of cats. Go to linktr.ee/faraywrites for CWs.
REVIEW:
Henry has returned from college on the East Coast to his small hometown in the PNW. He’s not too far from Seattle, but he’s happiest out in the mountains and in his quiet town. He works at a Cat Cafe and he loves it. He loves the cats, his regulars, the care owner and the peace and quiet tranquility of the town. If he doesn’t have a lot of dating options, well that’s Ok for now. If he lets the part time high school students slack on their shifts, well he’s ok with that. He wants the cats to be taken care of
Alex blew out of town at the first opportunity to get away from his controlling and dictatorial parents. They seem to thing that they get to decide what Alex’s life is going to be. Since they helped with college and Law School, he has felt beholden to them. So he got the Big Law job in San Francisco. A job he absolutely hates. It’s soul-sucking and doing the exact opposite of what he really wants to do. Then his dad has a “cardiac event” and so he returns home to “help out” while his dad is recovering. His parents take no hints and badger him from the minute he walks in the door. His mother is particularly onerous. She seems to think he is there to serve them. I never did figure out what the hell she did – if anything – to help her husband.
The family visits the Cat Cafe and he sees Henry who he went to high school with. Surprisingly he finds the space and the cats calming. Poppy, one of the resident cats seems to take a shine to Alex in particular, sitting on his lap and purring up a storm. Henry is surprised seeing Alex and the same can be said for Alex seeing Henry. He knew that Henry went to college out east and he doesn’t get why anyone would want to come back here. But Henry loves it. He and Alex exchange numbers and he invites Alex to grab a pizza with him. Alex surprisingly accepts.
Initially Alex is grateful to Henry for getting him out of his parents house and the suffocating atmosphere. But then he realizes that he likes spending time with him. They go hiking and share an unexpected kiss. Henry thinks he’s ruined everything. But Alex isn’t scared off. He’s surprised by how not turned off he is 😉 Seems like maybe he’s kinda into Henry. Things take off from there.
Alex is juggling a job he hates and that demands he return to San Francisco, parents who want to dictate his life and his newfound attraction to Henry. Henry doesn’t want to pressure Alex and he gets that this is a limited run, but he can’t help falling. Despite the odds, can these two figure out a way forward? Luckily they listen to the people around them who do have their best interests at heart.
This is a cute story overall. I loved Henry – he’s adorable even if he is too much of a doormat to too many people. Alex has dealt with his overbearing and controlling parents for so long. I cannot tell you how much a HATE that kind of parenting – like the kid owes the parents. Um, no. You had the kid. They didn’t ask for all the “hopes and dreams” and status of the parents to be heaped on them. Not really sure how Carly escaped it but kudos to her. Treating a grown adult with a career as a servant and not even being very nice about it? This is why some kids have to cut the toxic parents out of their lives and then the parents whine about their “ungrateful” kids. Again, just nope. Not treating an adult with agency as such is a recipe for disconnecting from those people. Good for Alex for finally coming to his senses and doing what HE wanted. The stories of people following “the path” and having miserable lives trying to live up to others’ expectations are myriad. Henry finally going for what he wants is also growth – prompted by his bestie Ellie (who I would have liked more of in the story). I also would have liked to meet Henry’s mother – not sure why she is a no show in the story. The epilogue is a bit of a jump ahead and I would have liked to see how exactly Alex and Henry work things out in Tripp Lake as a couple 🙂 There is a bit of repetition in some part of the story that could have maybe been tightened up, but I enjoyed the dual POVs so that Henry and Alex’s feeling and motivations were both clear. This was my first book by this author. I’m looking forward to the next story in this small town life series featuring Sebastian, Henry’s co-worker at the Cat Cafe. Recommended.
RATING: 
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