Title: Blink
Author: Rick R Reed
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel (200 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (January 23rd 2015)
Heat Level: Mild
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3 Hearts
Blurb: Life can change in the blink of an eye. That’s a truth Andy Slater learns as a young man in 1982, taking the Chicago ‘L’ to work every morning. Andy’s life is laid out before him: a good job, marriage to his female college sweetheart, and the white picket fence existence he believes in.
But when he sees Carlos Castillo for the first time, Carlos’s dark eyes and Latin appeal mesmerize him. Fate continues to throw them together until the two finally agree to meet up. At Andy’s apartment, the pent-up passion of both young men is ignited, but is snuffed out by an inopportune and poorly timed phone call.
Flash forward to present day. Andy is alone, having married, divorced, and become the father of a gay son. He’s comfortable but alone and has never forgotten the powerful pull of Carlos’s gaze on the ‘L’ train. He vows to find him once more, hoping for a second chance.
If life can change in the blink of an eye, what will the passage of thirty years do? To find out, Andy begins a search that might lead to heartache and disappointment or a love that will last forever….
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5973
Reviewer: Tams
Review: Andy Slater wants to have it all. Marriage, kids, white picket fence, that is perfection in his mind. Until the day he sees a man on the L train, and everything changes. Thirty years later, he is a divorced dad that has finally accepted the fact that he is gay and that is okay, but the one that got away still occupies his thoughts every day.
Carlos Castillo was hurt when Andy rebuffed him after being so close to claiming him. One phone call completely derailed their would be romance. Thirty years later, he is still nursing a slightly broken heart over the loss of his long-term lover to cancer when another chance encounter brings Andy back into his life.
Life is what you make it, but there are these teensy occasions called fate and destiny that can change everyone’s course somewhere along the way. Call it fate or call it destiny, Andy has found his way back to Carlos after three decades apart. But life has changed them both. Andy isn’t the confused young man he was back then, and Carlos still aches from the loss he experienced. Can they finally be happy together? Or does life have other plans for these two?
The story is told from alternating perspectives, Andy and Carlos, and it is also told over a span of thirty something years. From that first glance on the train through all of life’s ups and downs for these two men. I admit I got confused several times throughout the story with the time jumps, and the flow wasn’t always steady. And while I could almost feel Carlos as a person, his story really pulled me in and I was always engrossed while he was narrating, I didn’t feel a connection with Andy overall.
This was just an okay read for me. I do think readers that enjoy stories where their characters never give up on their happiness will really like this one.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *