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Warning: this book is filled with serious discussions about, and memories of, various characters’ domestic abuse. There are no active descriptions of abuse on page (everything is related via memories or off-page), but one of the minor characters does die at the hands of her abuser.
This is one of those books that really should not work as a romance – and may not for many romance readers. But if you can handle the very serious subject matter, set within the context of its “counseling” settings (for example, readers experience both of the main characters’ therapy sessions), the book works. It appeared in a list of m/m recommendations on AAR’s old messages boards; and I’ve never forgotten it.
Logan Crane’s life changes abruptly the day he injures his wife. Having pled guilty to abusing his wife, and now in an abuse counseling program, Logan is ashamed, confused and just trying to get back to his old life – mostly his two daughters – as quickly as possible. He is genuinely uncertain about how he came to be in the situation he finds himself: he knows he hurt Linda but he can’t really explain how it happened. He is desperately attempting to complete his required counseling but without admitting to himself or revealing to anyone else any more than is absolutely required. As part of his therapy, Logan agrees to teach auto maintenance skills to a group of battered and abused women – and meets Nick Zales, whose own mother was a victim of serious abuse. Nick is a counselor at a shelter for victims of domestic violence and runs the life-skills program in which Logan has volunteered to teach. He also owns a classic T-bird convertible in desperate need of restoration.
What worked for me was Watson’s ability to distinguish between someone who commits a single, horrible act and people who are persistent abusers. Of course, the fact that Nick is a survivor of abuse himself (in addition to his mother) makes him suspicious and resentful when he is forced by Logan’s counselor (who also happens to be Nick’s boss) to allow Logan to interact with his survivor clients. In real life I imagine it is unlikely that Logan would ever come into contact with survivors of abuse even in such a supervised setting – particularly so early in either his, or their, recoveries. But this is romantic fiction and – while a little quick for my tastes – Watson believably develops a relationship between Nick and Logan.
I really liked the working-class characters in this book. Logan and Logan’s family in particular struggle to make ends meet. What Logan wants to do is work on cars. It’s the only place he can really relax and be himself. But when the book opens Logan is working every hour he can get in the garden center of a Pittsburgh hardware store to make ends meet (his father’s garage in the much smaller town he is from had to close). And although Nick is college-educated, he worked his way through school. He owns a small house in a working-class neighborhood, drives a beater car (despite the T-bird restoration project), and can pay an aide to look after his mother while he is at work. But there are no secret trust funds or billionaire sugar daddies lurking in the background to step in and save any days.
The Pittsburgh setting is unusual. And if I’m ever there, I will absolutely go to Point State Park to visit the fountain and overlook of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers where they join to become the headwaters of the Ohio River.
The worst thing I can say about the book is the phonetic spelling used throughout by the author to evoke what I assume is meant to be a working-class Western Pennsylvanian’s accent:
“Gonna warsh my hands, and get me a Iron City; relax a little before dinner.”
“You didn’t say nothin’ ‘bout a party this mornin’.”
“I ain’t up for no party. You jus’ go on without me.”
Even college-educated Nick – to emphasize his working-class upbringing? – regularly uses the word “ain’t” when he is speaking to Logan. This may accurately reflect how some people speak but the quantity throughout was distracting to this reader.
On the whole, however, this is a solid read. It is a book that has stayed with me for more than 6 years and several hundred books; and it held up on a recent reread.
~ Katherine Lynne
Buy it at Amazon
Grade: B+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 05/12/21
Publication Date: 02/2011
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Over the years, AAR has had many a guest reviewer. If we don't know the name of the reviewer, we've placed their reviews under this generic name.
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You all know me as nblibgirl here at AAR but that didn’t feel quite right for a full-on review. This is my first contribution as a reviewer. I’ve recommended the book in passing here on the site in the past, and thought it deserved a more permanent place in the site’s database.
Good to “meet” you! Thanks so much for reviewing and for the recommendation – this looks really interesting.
And we are THRILLED you did. Write more!
I’ve had this book on my tbr for ages. Perhaps this review will finally tip me over to finally reading it. Another m/m book featuring working-class MCs with car repair as a central theme is Roan Parrish’s OUT OF NOWHERE, where a deeply-closeted mechanic is persuaded to present a class on auto maintenance to a group of LGBT+ youth and falls for the openly-gay man who runs the program. It’s part of Parrish’s Middle of Somewhere series and was one of my favorite reads of 2021 (published in a prior year division).
I think you’ll like this DDD. And I’ll have to check out Out of Nowhere just to compare ;-)
I’m from western PA. It’s just how we talk. And Pittsburgh is a great small big city. Terrific neighborhoods, the Andy Warhol museum, the Strip District (docks), which is a must see if for no other reason than to go to Permanti Brothers to eat, the incline, top universities like Carnegie Mellon, the ‘dawntawn,’ and it’s home to the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates. But don’t miss the Point either!
:-)
And the amazing series by Wen Spencer with Tinker is set there – the descriptions of “our world” Pittsburgh in those bools sounded so interesting, with the water plus mountains sounding like such an unique combination that I actually did a video tour from my couch – really a special place!!
If I ever end up anywhere near (I am from Europe, so no real expectation of that) I want to visit!
Thanks for all the area recs! Pittsburgh is on my list for someday. And I doubt the speech pattern would stand out in everyday conversation. But seeing it written out like that . . . got to me. You know the t-shirt: “I’m silently correcting your grammar”? People in my family talk about buying one for me . . .
Pittsburg is a great city. It’s the city of friendly drivers. There is a lovely history museum at Point State Park. I was fascinated by the two different color rivers merging and keeping their distinct colors for as far as I could see. Also, Pittsburg is home to the best pancakes in the US. Pamela’s Diner, I’m talking about you. They were served in the White House during the Obama administration.
I read this book based on the recommendation here, I think in someone’s “best” list, apologies for not remembering who, and in what thread (I think older m/m books before they became so fashionable was the topic).
Thank you so much for that, and for this review!
I also loved it.
And I salute the author. I would not have thought it possible that I could really relate to this book’s heroes. Both of them.
I still am astonished:
How I could empathize with both characters, how I felt the “lost”ness and the guilt and the abuse of the abuser so that I could truly accept his redemption, how I could see how the second hero in the book made his way through his own fears and was aware of the huge hurdle he would face if he went forward with the relationship, and how they both knew about the fragility of trust, and still had the courage to go forward… it was just all so well done, and somehow, it all never got too much.
Yes, the book stays with me too.
Its characters make a life within the hard circumstances, there is no magic solution to make it all go away, there are hard conversations with ex-es, with siblings, that feel real to me, there is grief, and there is no magic “all problems are gone, we go off into the rainbow” ending.
Yes, there are some “quicker than real life”-solutions, but they felt minor to me, and make the book work as a romance, and as a pleasurable read for me despite my (relatively low) limits of how much pain and horror I am willing and able to read in my fun reads. The subject matter is not glossed over, but the relatively rapid moving forward is what made it possible for me – I believe – to read all through the book and not get lost in all the pain and burdens that the characters bear.
I hope more people are encouraged to read this book.
It truly stands out.
I’m so glad to find another fan!