Title: All the King’s Men
Author: R.J. Scott
Genre: Contemporary, Drama, Action, Suspense
Length: Novella (101pgs)
Publisher: Love Lane Books (31st May 2013)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥4 ½ Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: When Ryan Ortiz decides to go direct to LA to fight for a second chance with his lover Nathan Richardson he is caught up in the biggest earthquake to hit the city since records began.
LA is destroyed, burning, people homeless, and fires are ignited high in the LA hills above Nathan’s apartment. Nathan is trapped and Ryan is his only hope.
It is a race against time and the powerful all-consuming destruction of nature for Ryan to find Nathan, trapped in the ruins of his home in the hills, and to get both of them to help before the fire reaches them.
Purchase Link: https://www.lovelanebooks.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=36
ARE: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-alltheking039smen-1216575-149.html
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/321500
Author’s Note: This book was previously published in 2011.
The story has been rewritten, re-edited and contains a new final chapter. If you have previously bought this book, please send a receipt of purchase to rj@rjscott.co.uk and she will happily replace the file for you.
Review: Ryan and Nathan parted ways two months ago when Nathan’s ambitions took him to LA. Now, Ryan has decided to fight for their relationship, not wanting to lose the man he loves. Traveling to LA to try for a second chance, he walks into destruction when an earthquake hits and he becomes Nathan’s only chance of survival. It’s a race against time to rescue Nathan and to flee the hills of LA, as after tremors hit and a fire races after them. The life and death race puts their feelings into perspective and now they just have to survive to share their love.
R.J. Scott takes a natural occurrence and turns it into the stuff of nightmares. She takes our fears and brings them to life while twining a love story with terror and determination to survive. Ryan was insecure and jealous in his relationship with Nathan, so when Nathan decided to follow his dream of acting, Ryan let him go; thinking it was the start of the end. Nathan wanted Ryan to fight for their relationship, even though he knew that Ryan wouldn’t fight for them. He still loves Ryan, but their only hope of ever being together is if Ryan tries. Ryan has missed Nathan and wants to make a go of it, but just before he reaches Nathan the earthquake strikes.
This is an incredibly descriptive story. Not just in the stark and horrifying settings, but of the emotional trauma and feelings that the characters have. We are dragged through the entire book with the sense of hopeless loss with just a glimmer of light to shine our way; the knowledge that Ryan and Nathan will become stronger for their experience at the hands of Mother Nature. Ryan and Nathan are just a couple who have lost their way. letting stupid insignificant things come between them until one of them makes the first step towards reconciliation. They have to work together, they must have determination and they have to make sacrifices.
Focusing on any one thing in this story is hard to do, because to focus on one aspect would diminish the effects of the others. Ryan and Nathan’s relationship might be important and they are trying to sort it out, but they have love and Mother Nature shows them that petty differences are just that, petty. The earthquake angle is shocking and devastating and R.J. Scott drops us into the centre of a hell hole with her horrifying descriptions and terrifying feelings. Damn, she does it so well that you could imagine she has experienced it first-hand. That’s how terrifyingly realistic the settings come across.
I will recommend this to those who love realistic settings and emotions, love and drama, death and hope, danger and rescues and finally a relationship being forged in the fires of hell.