British Vignette Not Enough for Memorable Story

An excerpt from my review of Out in the Sticks by H. Lewis-Foster that was posted today on The Romance Reviews:

This slim mundane vignette brings two men together, but doesn't explore any new ground as far as romance is concerned.

Thirty-three year old British lawyer Adam Sibden moves from a modern apartment in Nottingham to the charming, thatched Sage Cottage in the village of Sharpley after Roger, his partner of five years, proves to be a philanderer. When he has car problems, Adam visits a garage owned by Jim, who'd taken over the business from his father.

They get to know one another through visits to the local pub where they often share pints with Jim's pals. One snowy night, however, when Adam has a flat tire and calls Jim, they completely connect and commiserate on their bad luck in finding love up until they found each other.

Because the story is so short (23 pages), neither Adam nor Jim are very developed as characters, and their backstories of having partners and losing them are so typical as to be bland, this novella never becomes even a little bit memorable.

Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.

Amazing Reconciliation

Are fifteen years enough for a man to forgive the guy who nearly killed him? I wasn't convinced Jack Flemmings in Remmy Duchene's Deliver Me could.

In high school, Jack was stripped, tied to a flag pole, and left in freezing weather overnight as a prank by a group of guys including the teen he loved, Zachariah Durban. Jack survived, but Zachariah, now a famous author living in the South of France, hasn't gotten over his guilt in betraying Jack.

Fifteen years later, Jack's the co-owner of a garage and helps troubled teens by guiding them as they rebuild cars to raise money for their group home. He's been getting attached to a kid named Jordan Nash and has been thinking about adopting the boy.

But repeated phone calls from Zachariah, which Jack at first refuses to answer, have cut up his peace. Should he give Zachariah the chance to apologize for his part in the prank that nearly killed him?

Not only is Jack's answer yes, but he flies off in Zachariah's private jet to spend time with the man and see if the love they supposedly shared would reignite, leaving the emotionally scarred Jordan behind.

At this point, the story totally lost me. I could understand Jack being curious about why Zachariah went along with a senseless and harmful prank, but why it escaped Zachariah's reasoning powers to understand that Jack was in real trouble out there alone and cold was beyond me. That Zachariah, when he heard Jack nearly died and was in the hospital fighting for his life, flees to college without saying a word to Jack was beyond my comprehension.
Read the rest of my review at The Romance Reviews.