Title: From Out in the Cold
Author: L.A. Witt
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel (188 pages)
Publisher: Loose Id (December 4th 2012)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 5 Hearts
Reviewer: Tams
Blurb: Neil Dalton’s foundation is already cracking. Grief, guilt, and PTSD have ruled his life since a terrible crime tore his world apart last year, and he’s dreading a holiday visit with the family he simultaneously needs and resents. Then someone from his past shows up and rattles that shaky foundation right out from under him.
First, a war nearly destroyed Jeremy Kelley. Then his family threw him out when he needed them the most, and now he’s barely holding on emotionally. He spends his last dollar to get to Chicago and prays his former best friend doesn’t leave him out in the cold.
Together, Neil and Jeremy spend the holidays with Neil’s family in their hometown of Omaha. They struggle to deal with families, flashbacks… and feelings that haven’t even begun to fade since their last failed attempt at more than friends. As they try to repair their fractured psyches and rebuild damaged bridges, they rely on each other more than ever, but they can’t deny the mutual attraction that’s existed since before they were both emotionally battered and scarred. If they couldn’t make it work back then, how in the world can they pull it off now?
Purchase Link: http://www.loose-id.com/from-out-in-the-cold.html
Review: Neil Dalton is hanging on by a thread since the loss of his partner in a random act of violence a year ago. To make matters even worse, he can’t even talk to the most important people in his life about the agony he’s goes through on a daily basis because as far as he can tell, they won’t accept him for who he really is.
Jeremy Kelly is an Iraq war vet that suffers in silence as well in the aftermath of the time he spent serving and protecting over there. His family is even worse than Neil’s, shutting him out and cutting him off abruptly when they learn he’s gay, when he needs their help now more than ever.
Childhood friends drawn back together and spending the Holiday’s with Neil’s family in Omaha, each suffers in silence and struggles to overcome inner demons due to lingering effects in the form of PTSD. Will it be three strikes you’re out, or the third times the charm for this pair? Longing for each other, but scared to be hurt again, will Neil and Jeremy find a way to be together? Or will their failed attempts in the past at a relationship coupled with their duelling grief keep them at arm’s length?
Not an easy read, but well worth the time. A love story stemming from the longing of two broken men. Neil and Jeremy are exactly what the other one needs. They can find a strength within each other that has been taken from them through violence. An element of two steps forward, three steps back applies to this story as well, for every time you think they’ve figured it out, something is amiss. Both men grown throughout the story and through being together and its equal parts beautiful, terrible and sexy.
Definitely, a rollercoaster ride of emotions and Witt conveys the emotions flawlessly. Witt is a very versatile author who can and has written Sci-Fi, contemporary, dystopian, BDSM but her niche’ is military inspired stories. I don’t think she can do any wrong, and this story was definitely right, highly recommend. But be sure you have tissues at the ready.