Recovering the Hard Way

Trying to recover from alcohol addiction and taking pictures for a photo journal as his dying second mother begs him to do are taking a toll on central character Jamie in Con Riley's Recovery, the sequel to Salvage.

Here's the first few paragraphs of my review that was posted today at The Romance Reviews:

When the only real mother he's ever known is diagnosed with terminal cancer, a former bad boy, now a rising photographer, meets the challenge with love and art.

Jamie Carlson, last seen in Riley's Salvage, has turned his life around after joining Alcoholics Anonymous and being given Alec Bailey as his sponsor. Bailey brings with him his wife Belle, who has given Jamie what he's always missed: a mother.

When Belle is diagnosed with cancer, she asks Jamie, now a rising photographer, to record the family's last years. This is difficult on many levels for Jamie, particularly as he's still struggling with sobriety and watching her dwindle away makes him crave the blackouts alcohol provides.

Into his life comes successful businessman Daniel Priest, twenty years his senior, who's newly divorced after deciding to stop living a lie and embrace the fact that he's gay. As he watches Jamie struggle with Belle's decline, Daniel provides part of the support the younger man needs to fulfill his promise to Belle.

A source of irritation, however, is Alec and Belle's son, a children's book author, who has resented Jamie since his parents informally adopted him and who hates his once-alcoholic father for his past neglect of the family.

When I first started reading the book, I thought that Jamie and the children's book author were going to be the ones to hook up since they started out sniping at one another, but seemed to have a solid bond. I discounted Daniel, not because of his age, but because he seemed to be exploring his new life as a gay man. Even though he kept saying that he'd had his flings while he was married, Daniel struck me as someone who was ready to play rather than settle down again.
Read the rest of review at The Romance Reviews.

The Beauty of Salvage

Only Con Riley could make the beauty of salvaged articles compelling.  In Salvage, one of the characters explains, “Salvage is everything we keep here—old things that can be used again by a different owner. Sometimes, finding out about where all these things came from, and about the people who might have first used them, is worth far more than treasure.”

That comment stuck with me for the entire book, and I've often thought of the "old things" scattered throughout my house that I'm using.  Unfortunately, many of them, like the old TV cabinet in the living room that we transformed into a stereo unit, we have no idea about the people who owned them first or why they gave them away.  I would love to know about that TV cabinet and also the upright piano in the family room with its inlaid gold, copper, and shell images.

How did the cabinet end up in Colorado and the piano get from England to south Texas?  Who were the people who bought these items and why did they let them go?

Riley's poignant book looks at family and friends as it does the salvaged items, giving readers more than a satisfying romance, giving them something to ponder as they look around the people and things in their lives.