Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Welcoming the Recluse
SERIES: Forestville Silver Foxes #7
AUTHOR: Nora Phoenix
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 384 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2026
BLURB:
I’m a man on a mission to stay as far away from everyone else as possible. I have too much damage as a veteran, and this is the only way to keep those I love safe—especially Boden, my teenage son, whom I haven’t seen in years.
I find a quiet spot on top of a mountain where no one bothers me. Until Arek shows up, the local doctor and a single dad to teenage twins. I help him with an emergency, but something happens. There’s a spark, a connection between us I’ve never felt before.
We become friends, and slowly but surely, he’s the reason I come down the mountain. Even though I’ve never been attracted to a man, I’m very much into Arek, and our friendship grows into more.
But the past never stays in the past, and if I want a future with Arek, I’ll have to deal with the mistakes I’ve made. Can I repair what I broke, or is it too late to find healing?
Welcoming the Recluse is a super slow burn, friends-to-lovers MM romance set in a small town, featuring two older single dads, a bi awakening, and all the hurt/comfort. This is book 7 in the Forestville Silver Foxes series but can be read as a standalone. Please mind the content warnings in the front of the book.
REVIEW:
You know that book that you pick up and as soon as you start reading you just know that this can’t possibly be a rushed read. It’s a book to sit back and savor. Just like the good coffee from Brianna’s Bakery. A book that has things that makes you think long and hard at certain parts. The one that makes you re-access what you just read and then apply it to your own life. A book about coming out of the long, dark tunnel life can throw at you and start accepting that the light is good and you will be okay. Not just fine! That’s this book. I couldn’t have rushed it if I tried. I sat and chewed on some parts more than others. But I savored it. It’s simply that profound.
Macallister Heald is a recluse of his own choosing. He is a military veteran struggling with severe combat-related PTSD. He has episodes and severe night terrors that made him choose this current life. After a really severe night terror, that resulted in major bruises on his wife and fear it could have been their ten year-old son Boden instead, Mac did the only thing he felt he could do and left. Left his marriage and left his family. He left the life he knew and struck out on his own. It was a safer choice. It was the only safe thing to do for his family. So, for five years, he has chosen to close himself of from the rest of the world. Yes, it’s lonely but necessary to keep everyone around him safe. But Forestville is a town that opens its arms to those who need it most. It started with Fraser sitting with Mac at the Thanksgiving dinner Fraser and Calloway had for all the people in town who had no place else to go. Fraser then took it upon himself to befriend the town’s hermit. He would go up to the campgrounds Mac is renovating and hang out and help him. And now there is Arek coming up to just sit, have better coffee and hang out. What’s next for our favorite town’s hermit?
This story was deeply personal for me. I haven’t been diagnosed with PTSD but suffer from debilitating night terrors (mine are from a traumatic brain injury that was re-injured two more times) that are a constant reality for me. They aren’t predictable and very irregular in occurring. But they have made it where my grandchildren don’t want to sleep in the same room as me. They have awoken my entire family with the blood curdling screams that come out during one of my episodes. They are grueling, awful and exhausting. So I truly got where Mac was coming from. You can’t control them and you can’t prepare for when they are triggered. For me, I try super hard to keep my pain level under control before I head to bed. I try to not get over tired. It helps sometimes but not a cure.
But what Mac went through, not being able to prevent a violent outburst was excruciating. He did the only thing he could think of to protect those whom he loved and were most precious to him at that time. Therapy wasn’t working and harm to his family simply was an option. Did it hurt his son? Damn yes it did. Being ten and having your father just vanish was devastating for Boden. Thankfully there was a new type of therapy now that Fir recommended to Mac that seemed to be helping. But the years of loneliness and anguish that Mac and his family endured was tragic. Add in that this trauma occurred while he was serving our country. That’s that part that angers me the most. These valiant men and women put themselves on the line for us and then are simply tossed away like something forgotten in the back of the refrigerator. Mac (and all those valiant warriors) deserve so much more. But sadly our government has found them expendable. It breaks my heart of them and their loved ones. The sacrifice is simply too much!
As I stated earlier, this is not a quick read. This is a thought provoking story that should touch everyone. To be reminded of the sacrifices that public service and armed forces have to endure in the name of freedom. Freedom never has been nor ever will be FREE! The cost is high and this book reminds us of that. I love this series and this book just landed itself on my Top Books of 2026 list! Can’t recommend it enough!!!
RATING: 
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