Title: Destiny
Series: Waiting on Forever, Book #2
Author: Jamie Mayfield
Genre: Young Adult
Length: Novel (310 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (July 4th 2013)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥5Hearts
Blurb: San Diego is so much more than Brian McAllister ever expected. He’s found friends, acceptance, encouragement, and an entire world of sexual adventure he never dared to imagine back in his little Alabama town. The only thing missing is Jamie. Encouraged by new friends Mike and Emilio, Brian builds a life for himself, haunted by a beaten and bruised boy no one seems to want to help.
Dumped into gay rehab, blond-haired fallen angel Jamie Mayfield has been shunned by his parents and forced to find his own way. When Brian McAllister, the other half of his ravaged heart, explodes back into his precarious life, Jamie is astonished and dismayed. In the two years they’ve been apart, not a day has gone by that he hasn’t longed for Brian. How can Jamie protect Brian from the pain and brutalization of his life when he can’t even protect himself?
Brian and Jamie put every bit of themselves into saving each other, but obstacles keep them apart. Jamie’s own self-hatred may prove to be their undoing.
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3955
Reviewer: Tams
Review: This story is part of a series and is best-enjoyed if read in order.This book picks up right where Choices, book one, left off. This is not a series where you can just jump in, I strongly suggest that you read the first book before you read this book or you won’t understand the characters and see the beauty of their relationship prior to reading where they are right now.
Brian has left his home and traveled to San Diego to find Jamie. What each of them find in California is so vastly different, and yet, shockingly similar. Brian found a boarding house full of other young gay men. He got a job and made friends, he’s safe. The only thing missing is Jamie. When he’s lain off, he refuses to admit his failure and go back home, not to mention he still hasn’t found Jamie. A friend in the house suggests gay porn as an easy way to make money. Reluctant at first, Brian finally gives in and applies for the job. The last thing he expected to find on a porn set was the first thing he came to California for, Jamie.
Jamie wasn’t quite as lucky as Brian was when he escaped the gay rehab center his mother condemned him to. The first person he meets and becomes friends with is brutally murdered, and in his grief, Jamie lands right in the hands of a sadistic sexual predator. Steven is emotionally and physically abusive in addition to getting Jamie addicted to drugs and making him do porn to pay his drug debt. He tells Jamie he loves him and he will keep him safe, but his love and safety come with a very high price, one Jamie might not survive.
I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I LOVE the love story of Brian and Jamie! I love Mayfield’s style of writing and the way he conveys the emotional and physical connection these two share with the reader. They actually make love on a porn shoot, surrounded by people and cameras, and Mayfield maintains the connection that is just them. I HATE the abuse Jamie has to endure! First from the one person that is supposed to love him regardless, unconditionally, his own mother. Then at the gay rehab center by delusional morons, and finally from Steven.
To spite the heavy seriousness of this series, Mayfield has my attention. I am emotionally invested in these characters and their journey. He is just that good. I cannot wait for the final installment to this trilogy and I highly recommend these books. Again, they are intense and graphic, but you can feel the love there as well. Mayfield shows both sides of the coin that is being gay and either accepted or denied by the people you love and trust. Brian’s adopted parents love him completely and there is nothing he could do to change that. Even Porn, they express their disappointment but adamantly maintain their unconditional love. Jamie’s parents dumped him off at a gay rehab center like an unwanted animal at the pound. It’s heartbreaking.
Just a reminder, read book 1, Choices, first if you haven’t yet and I promise you’ll be hooked with Brian, Jamie, their story, their struggle to just be together, and the obstacles they face along the way. (http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3878)