Title: Bright
Series: N/A
Author: Laura Susan Johnson
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (150 K)
Publisher: PeachHam-Beach Publishing (October 10th, 2013)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3Hearts
Blurb: Monty and Walter meet under extraordinary circumstances. One life is saved and two lives are forever changed when two men, one an out and proud gypsy at heart, the other a shy recluse left blind and seriously ill by a farm accident, fall deeply and irrevocably in love. Neither of them can explain the fierce bond between them, and as time goes by, they find it impossible to live apart.
The two men get married, and later, they befriend a young woman and joyfully plan to have a family together with her assistance, but their happiness and dreams will soon be shattered by an ever-present evil that has been in their family from the very beginning. After two lost pregnancies, their lives begin to come apart and the strength they have always found in one another begins to wane. Monty, Walter, and Natalie will be put through a relentless gauntlet that will force all three of them to examine themselves and learn what it takes to stand strong in defense of their dreams.
Product Link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/364679
Reviewer: GiGi
Review: I wanted to like this book more, but the one thing I think that held me back the most was that it tried to be too much at once.
This is a long story that I feel could have either been broken down in two stories or had a few scenes omitted. The main thing that I came away with was that we don’t get to hand-pick the person we are attracted to and fall in love with. Life throws curveballs, and no matter what our plans, we need to expect changes and make the best of them. I was angry with both MC’s throughout this book, Monty for not being ready for Walter…and breaking my heart over and over again! Walter drove me nuts because I wanted him to grow a pair of balls and stand up for himself!
The book is hard to follow at times because we flash forward and backward in time, change POV’s often, and go on tangents that should have been clipped. I really didn’t expect this story to develop into such a mystery…I thought we were learning about forgiveness, new beginnings, accepting handicaps, learning to see with our hearts not our eyes. But many other things that were thrown in included dysfunctional families on all sides, manslaughter, attempted murder, surrogates, religious extremists and a pseudo-closeted gay character who doesn’t know if he’s into drag, bondage, fisting, farming or what…oh and he has chronic heart disease.
Though there are so many wonderful points made in this story about acceptance, what family truly should be and personal growth, there is one thing that bothered me at the end. I believe the writer did a disservice to those suffering from mental illness, a terrible stereotype was written for bi-polar or manic-depressives in general. Using that mental illness to describe and excuse the actions of a bigoted murdering woman was rather insulting. You’ll know what I mean when you reach the end of this very long and disjointed story.
It’s an interesting read, has many adventures into scary territory, lots of kink sprinkled in, and a fight to break the cycles of abuse, dysfunctional families, alcoholism, untreated mental illness and so very much more.