Reviewed by Mal
TITLE: Running Feral
SERIES: Possum Hollow #3
AUTHOR: Erin Russell
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 321 Pages
RELEASE DATE: December 20, 2024
BLURB:
TOBIAS
I moved home to take care of my grandmother. Instead, I got caught up with the worst kind of people in town, and now I’m the personal punching bag for a member of the mafia who has no intention of ever letting me go.
He doesn’t care about me. He cares about what he owns. I used to care about things like staying alive, or trying to be a good man, but the longer this goes on, the harder it is to see a future different from this. I don’t even have friends in this town.
The only person I could possibly run to is a bartender who I barely know. Gunnar watches me a lot. He doesn’t speak very often, but the way he watches me, I know he cares. He’s probably the only person who does.
It’s not like I could really ask him for help, though. He’s a stranger, and Eamon isn’t a normal guy. He’s violent and unpredictable. Anyone who tries to ‘save’ me will be putting themselves right in his crosshairs.
Maybe some people just aren’t meant to be free.
GUNNAR
I hated Possum Hollow when I was growing up here. But now I’m older and wiser, I’m able to see it for what it is. Poor and remote, sure. Full of some toxic attitudes? Sometimes. But there are also a lot of amazing people here, and I do more good trying to change the culture than running away.
Which is why I came back and started a business that was meant to be a refuge for people like me who weren’t welcome anywhere else.
But I was also supposed to keep myself distant from them. Give people a safe space, but not get tied up in their problems. Especially not the problems of someone who is way too young, way too pretty, and way, way too damaged for me to be getting attached to.
What can I say? I was never very good at setting boundaries. And Tobias needs someone in his corner more than anyone I’ve ever met. As long as I don’t fall in love with him, everything will be just fine.
Running Feral is a small town age gap M/M romance about moving on from an abusive relationship. Tropes include black cat/cinnamon roll, found family, and hurt/comfort.
It is book three in the Possum Hollow series and features many of the same side characters, but can be read as a standalone. It also overlaps with Book one of the Sins of the Banna series.
This book contains explicit sexual content as well as potentially triggering themes regarding mental health, and is not suitable for readers under 18. Please see the content warning at the beginning of the book (included in the sample) for more details.
REVIEW:
Tobias is completely trapped, he’s made a decision he was forced to make and he’s come to regret a million times over and Gunnar is witnessing his pain over and over again. I love this book and it was intensely intimate and heartbreaking making parts of it hard to read, it starts off with melancholy running through its pages, a helplessness saturating their interactions only growing to accommodate Tobias’s pain and trauma.
Despite the horrific circumstances, Tobias and Gunnar have been pulled towards each other for a while now. When things escalate and Tobias finds himself needing safe haven, Gunnar is there for him. I loved the way the author chose to evolve their relationship during this time, making space for healing but also not disregarding autonomy. Tobias is so resilient, sparks of humour shining through even in the most dismal of circumstances. But through it all there is the spectre of Eamon (who is just pure evil) hanging, and while this pocket out of time they have hidden away in together holds for now, it eventually has to give way.
When the other shoe drops and the worst happens it’s utterly devastating. The author lays out the emotions of this viscerally, pushing you completely to the edge, making you experience that fight flight freeze terror. But Tobias resilient and brave through it all as Gunnar holds out hope. And when Gunnar’s story comes out it makes you cry and makes you want to punch something (someone). Good lord this book rang every emotional bell I have, all tied in with these two at the centre of the storm raging. Highly recommend reading this book and series!
I love the way Sav and Micah are introduced to us (the stepbrother comment hehehe), I cannot wait to start that book! I loved seeing Tristan and Cade again and I liked Gunnar’s found family or as he says his team!
RATING: 
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