NO DISTANCE LEFT TO RUN

NO DISTANCE LEFT TO RUN by L.A. Witt & Aleksandr Voinov

Pages: 227

Date: 20/05/2014

Grade: 4.5i

Details: No. 4 The Distance Between Us

            Received from Samhain Publishing

            Through Love Romances and More

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“The night before Chris and his best friend Joshua were sent thousands of miles apart on their respective Mormon missions, they finally gave in to their mutual desire. Left trying to make sense of what happened, Chris’s already shaky faith crumbled altogether a year later when Joshua suddenly died.

Inconsolable, ostracized by his family and the only community he’d ever known, Chris found his way on his own. Now he’s going to school and loves his job as a bartender at Wilde’s. Years after Joshua’s death, he’s finally moving on.

Then a familiar face rocks his world. Joshua isn’t dead. He’s back in Seattle to make peace with his dying father, with a new name, a new accent…and old feelings for Chris that are alive and well.

Forgiveness doesn’t come easy for anyone, but just as Chris is accepting that the man he loves isn’t going to run away this time, their families threaten to pull them apart all over again…”

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My thoughts:

This is the fourth book in the ‘Distance Between Us’ series but can easily be read as a stand-alone.

It has been five years since Chris and his best friend Joshua gave in to their feelings for each other and spent one passionate but clumsy night together. The following the day both of them left on for their separate two year long Mormon missions. Chris has had doubt s about his faith and the Mormon community he is a part of for some time but both his world and his faith are shattered when he finds out Joshua has gone missing and is assumed dead. Cutting his mission short, Chris returns to Seattle where he turns his back on his faith and finds himself excluded from the community he grew up in as well as his family.

When Chris discovers that Joshua isn’t dead and is on his way home to reconcile with his family and dying father his emotions are torn between relief and anger.

The man who returns to Seattle may look like an older version of Joshua but after five years in the French Foreign Legion he’s acquired an accent as well as a new name - Julian - and no intention of returning to the Joshua he used to be. What’s more, the attraction between the two men is as strong as it ever was. Despite his lingering anger and the fear that Julian may just leave again, Chris offers him a place to stay and it isn’t long before that place turns out to be in Chris’ bed.

The Church and Julian’s family aren’t prepared to just allow the lost son to be who he needs to be though, forcing Julian to make an impossible choice between the man he loves and his family. All Chris can do is stand on the sidelines, ready to catch Julian should he fall.

“Not simple by any means - there was nothing left between us that could be considered simple – but easier.”

No review of mine could summarize this story better than the quote above does. This book is an emotional rollercoaster. The love and passion between the two men is so intense and beautiful it will take your breath away while the pressures put on them by their families and community are both realistic and heartbreaking. The angst in this book isn’t the result of doubts about the two men’s commitment to or feelings for each other, although Chris suffers some of those. The tension is the result of outside forces doing their damnest to keep the two men apart. Nobody should ever be forced to choose between their family and the person they love, and yet that is exactly the choice Julian is left with.

While the story is told from Chris’ point of few I did get a good impression of Julian’s difficult journey too and he all but broke my heart. Because Chris has gone through a similar process years before he knows exactly what Julian is dealing with although that doesn’t alleviate his helplessness. He can’t force Julian to choose between him and his family and is all too aware he may lose Julian, despite the man’s obvious feelings for him. Lesser authors might have jumped on the opportunity to force that rift between the two men; Aleksandr Voinov and L.A. Witt are good enough to know the story didn’t need the extra tension. The story as it is provided almost more angst than I could deal with as it was and I’m so grateful they didn’t go for overkill.

For someone who has huge issues with organised religion at the best of times this was the perfect read. Not only because the two main characters take their stance against the indoctrination they’re facing but also because it showed the other side as well. The side where the love within a family can’t be broken, not even by the power and rules of a self-important head of the congregation. I liked that it didn’t make the dilemma black against white. Yes, Chris is shunned by the people he grew up with and knows that he’ll never be able to be part of that community again. But even five years later it still hurts him, because it does. Even when a clean break is the only option it doesn’t mean it is an easy one and I applaud the authors for including that hardship in this story.

And, before I forget, allow me to add that the relationship between Chris and Julian is HOT. Both men have used the five years apart to become experienced and inventive lovers. When they get together passion rules and naughty fantasies spice up their bed, bringing this reader some wonderful moments in the process.

As I’ve come to expect from this partnership this was a very well written and captivating love story filled with tension, tender moments and passionate love. This book was a pure joy to read while giving me plenty to think about at the same time. I may be repeating myself but I don’t care; Voinov and Witt are now high on my list of must-read authors and I can’t thank them enough for being as prolific as they are.

DECEMBER BRIDE

TITLE: DECEMBER BRIDE

AUTHOR: SAM HANNA BELL

Pages: 262

Date: 04/08/2012

Grade: 3-

Details: Read for Dialogues Through

            Literature

Library

When Andrew Echlin’s wife dies, leaving behind Andrew and two grown sons, the man realises how important the woman was for the smooth running of his farm on the coast of Northern Ireland. Needing someone to take over the tasks his wife used to take care of, Echlin invites Martha Gormartin and her 30 year old daughter Sarah to come and live and work on his farm.

It isn’t long before both of Echlin’s sons, Frank and Hamilton take an interest in Sarah, an interest that is mutual.

When Sarah falls pregnant and gives birth to a son she refuses to name either of the brothers as the father and declines to marry either of them. This decision sends Sarah’s mother to an early grave and leads to the Echlin farm and its inhabitants being more or less shunned by the puritan Ulster community they live in.

It is only twenty years later, when there is only one brother left and Sarah’s second child, a daughter, wants to get married, that Sarah can be persuaded to marry the remaining brother.

This is a very grim and equally bare story.

What the author offers the reader are snapshots of a life in a time in the past during which horse drawn carts were still the normal form of transport in Ulster. What we get are glimpses at people and their surroundings without every finding out enough about either to feel any attachment to them. Motivations are hinted at but rarely clarified, feelings, when mentioned are suppressed and rarely, if ever, shared.

I read somewhere that a good author shows but doesn’t tell his audience what is going on with the characters in his story. If that is true, this author went about conveying his message in completely the wrong way. Nothing is shown in these pages, everything is told and despite that, or maybe because of that, I never really got a feeling for any of the characters in the book. I think it is quite possible that I could have felt sympathy for Sarah or any of the other characters in the book if I had been given a better insight into their emotions and motivations. But, since the author was cryptic at best when it came to revealing his characters inner lives, I really didn’t care about them or their fate at all.

I think this is a book that I would not have finished if it had not been a book for the “Dialogues Through Literature” programme and one that I will be discussing with my reading group at the end of the month. It doesn’t happen very often that I have to force myself to get back to a book, but with this one I found myself looking for excuses to do something else instead of reading.

I do understand why this book may have been picked for this reading programme; the story touches on the separation between Catholics and protestants and on the fact that although they had to cooperate occasionally to keep the community going, any conflict could and would be excused through that difference in faith and background.

The best I can say about this book is that it will make me appreciate future reads that much more than I might otherwise have. I guess that every now and again I need to be reminded that some books just aren’t for me and how lucky I am to read so many that I do truly love.