Title: Motion of the Planet
Author: Alexa Snow
Genre: Contemporary
ASIN: B00HMRF4DW
Length: Novella (82 pages)
Publisher: Torquere Press, Inc. (December 31st, 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: 3.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: Tyler Brown and his Irish boyfriend Mason Fitzgerald are slowly creating a life together that they both love. It’s a life that includes Tyler’s sister Theresa, her husband, and their two young children; Tyler loves the kids, but insists it’s because he doesn’t have to see them every day.
A sudden phone call interrupts everything — there’s been a fire at Theresa’s house, Theresa and Brian are officially missing, and Tyler and Mason need to take custody of five-year-old Jill and her baby brother Colin. Tyler struggles to come to grips with the reality of having to care for two small children and with wondering if his relationship with Mason changes in ways, he can’t handle. What will their future together hold?
Previously published in Torquere Press’ Family Matters anthology.
Product Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78_85&products_id=4102
Review: This was a surprisingly nice story though it made think it might be a bit too much on the emotional side. See our main character – Tyler – is a person that has already suffered a heavy childhood with his father abandoning them after many years of abuse and his mother reverting to alcohol and drugs, only to die when he was a teenager leaving him responsible for his six year younger sister. So the story already starts with a heavy past, albeit Tyler now is in a comfortable place in life, having found someone who loves him and his little sister all gone to college, married and having children. Tyler is finally in a place he can call peaceful and that’s all he wants.
Now our second character here, Tyler’s boyfriend Mason, is literally the supporting kind. He was everywhere picking up where Tyler couldn’t. He was simply the perfect character, so much so that he felt a bit unreal.
As for the story itself, it starts with a nice and mellow couple in a peaceful place in life only to be shattered by a tragedy, that instantly colors the entire read with stress, angst, and melancholy, albeit a bit light. Tyler loses his sister and brother-in-law in a fire and gets to be the guardian of their children. The story mostly tells about the transmission from a simple person to a parent. It’s a hard one, having to suddenly care for two children, a five-year-old and a barely one-year-old, and the whole ordeal led me down a trip through memory lane back when I had my own children. Having to shop for everything and deal with everyday things that come with little kids, well this was a well-known area for sure.
So while to story in general was a bit on the depressive side and without much tension, I found it oddly comforting and nice, with an end that makes you smile even as you still feel sad for the ones that were lost. A recommended book on my part!