Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Gideons Gratitude
SERIES: Love In Mission City #5
AUTHOR: Gabbi Grey
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 294 Pages
RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2025
BLURB:
Gideon
When my marriage fell apart, and I lost custody of my kids, my world shattered. My own fault, all of it, from the pills I was taking to how badly I handled the court case. I retreated to my grandparents’ old home, shut the door, and hunkered down with my Labrador Retriever, Lucky. Life is rough, and the constant construction noise from the mansion going up next door will truly be the end of me.
Archer
I’d never met the man living next door until a storm forces me to take refuge with him. Gideon’s skittish, generous, and oddly endearing. I’m dismayed the construction of my post-divorce home has been so upsetting for him, but there’s little I can do to ease that distress. What I can do, though, is use my skills as a talented divorce attorney to help with the most painful part of his life, the unfair custody arrangement that keeps him from being with his kids.
Gideon’s Gratitude is a small-town, opposites attract, hurt-comfort gay romance about a former longshoreman who believes he’s broken and the lawyer who believes there’s life after divorce.
REVIEW:
A storm, two gorgeous men and a dog. What’s not to like?
Gideon’s Gratitude is one of those stories that quietly gets under your skin, to the point where you come to love the characters. It isn’t a high-octane, high-drama, ride-the-waves type of tale. It is emotional, caring, subtle, and beautiful. For a story that spans 294 pages, I reached the end before I realized it.
The story is told in the first person from the viewpoints of Archer and Gideon. The setting is in the hills/mountains about an hour’s drive away from Vancouver, which makes the plausibility of such lovely people more believable. Canadians are well known for being affable, that is, until someone pokes the proverbial bear, or goes up against a Canadian hockey team!!
AAAAnyhoo, I digress. Inside and out, Archer and Gideon are beautiful people, hailing from very different backgrounds.
Archer is a wealthy divorce lawyer who is himself divorced. He has enough assets to offer his ex-wife a straightforward settlement and is now ‘free’. Seeking somewhere outside the rat race, for reasons revealed in the story, he encounters Gideon. Archer hasn’t explored his sexuality since college, but something about Gideon draws him in, triggering his protective instincts. Additionally, Archer has numerous brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. All of them like to take an active role in Archer’s life.
When Gideon and Leo divorced, Gideon lost everything, including his children, and now lives on disability benefits. He would do anything for his children, but he has been dismissed and told he’s not good enough so many times that he believes it. Gideon is the introvert to Archer’s extrovert. Gideon doesn’t see the man that Archer sees, but Archer is on a mission to change that.
I only have one niggle, and that is, despite Gideon’s vigorous defense of Leo, I still didn’t like the guy and would have liked to see some quiet dialogue, where Archer points out a few things to Leo.
Regarding the wider cast, they were all good people. Generally, that would not sit right with me, but it suited the ambience of the location, country, and people.
Rarely have I read such an amicable tale and liked it so much. I even cried in one bit.
RATING: 
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Nice review.