Book: Foundation of Trust | Stand By You
Author: A M Arthur
Genre: M/M Romance
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Blurb
Foundation of Trust:
David Weller thought he had it all—a loving partner who gave him a ring, a steady job he didn't hate, and so much hope for the future. But in the wake of a devastating diagnosis, everything he thought was solid and real lay in pieces at his feet.
Four years later, he’s still sifting through the rubble of his life. His catering partnership occupies his days, while his nights are filled with dangerous sexual hookups and very bad decisions. Then the last person he ever expected to see again walks back into his life.
Owen Hart's single biggest regret is the way he was forced to leave David behind—no explanations, no chance to make it right. Until now. Finally free of eight years of lies, Owen's back for the only man he's ever loved.
An incendiary encounter in a club proves that time hasn't weakened their physical connection, but David's wounds run deeper than Owen's deception. And if David can’t first forgive, Owen doesn’t have a second chance in hell.
Warning: This book contains an Australian transplant with a head full of secrets, a party planner with enough baggage to sink a battleship, and a surly teenager who just wants them both to get over themselves.
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Excerpt
Foundation of Trust:
A shadow drifted across Owen's face—the same shadow that had been there almost constantly that first year. An angry shadow that had diminished under the brilliance of their love for each other. "We had to, me and my son both. Michael was born Benjamin Hadley Swenson."
"But why?" David needed to know why he'd been lied to for so long. Why he'd fallen in love with a man whose name he never really knew.
"To protect us from the man who killed Michael's mother and grandfather."
"You told me his mother was killed during a home invasion."
"I used parts of the truth to fashion the lie. Makes it easier to remember. She was killed by a man who had no business in that house, but he wasn't there to rob anyone. He was a dangerous man, and I did what I had to do to protect my son."
Blurb
Stand by You
Three months after his rescue from an abusive boyfriend, twenty-two-year-old Romy Myers has landed his first legitimate job—bussing tables at his friend’s new coffee shop. The job has brought him some stability after years of abuse have left him feeling damaged and broken. He's working hard on his panic and social anxiety, and those things are often tempered by the big, burly presence of Brendan Walker.
From the moment ex-football player Brendan helped rescue Romy from his ex’s abuse, he's wanted to protect him. And he does, from a distance, with joking text messages, a new gym routine to toughen him up and a genuine friendship. So far it's been easy—but Brendan's feelings aren't just friendly anymore...
When an argument spirals out of control, a hot and heavy make-out session causes Romy’s friendship with supposedly straight Brendan to reach a new level. The last thing Romy wants is to fall for another guy who could potentially shatter him, but Brendan also wakes up a part of him he thought had been destroyed by violence—his heart.
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Excerpt
Stand by You
“So make a plan for yourself.” Romy was getting excited over the idea of Brendan going back to college—maybe because Romy had never gone and probably never would. He didn’t even have his GED. And here he was giving Brendan career advice when the longest job he’d ever held in his life was as a hooker. “Figure out what it will cost to go back and finish. Figure out how you’ll save the money. Nothing is impossible, Bren, not if you want it bad enough.”
Brendan looked at him, chocolate brown eyes catching his, and something in that moment changed. Like a snap or a zing, Romy couldn’t describe it. Only that his words had touched something in Brendan, and that something leapt across the space between them and right into Romy. His pulse raced.
Oh crap.
Romy broke eye contact first, using the untwisting of his bottle cap as an excuse to kill the odd charge between them. Not happening. Not again, and not with Brendan. Brendan wasn’t even gay!
Was he?
Review
Stand By You
Foxy Rating = Four emotional stars
I was a little confused when first reading this until I
realised it was the third book in the Belongings series and although each can
be read standalone, I would have liked to have read in order. Once I got my
head around who was who in this merry family of gay men, I was pleasantly hooked.
Romy has been through a lot in his twenty two years and more
so in the last few due to losing his first love to his first love and then an
abusive ex using him as his property to carry out his vile needs on him. It was
the abusive ex and his abhorrent actions that brought Brendan into his life. He
now looks at Brendan as his ‘safe’ place and on that night a bond of some sort
was created. It’s no wonder that Romy is now timid and running scared but with
Brendan close and his comforting text when he isn’t, he feels an anchor in his
lost and lonely world.
Brendan comes from a loving and committed family of his Mama
and sisters but he himself does have issues from the past mainly to do with his
father who abandoned the family when Bren was young. Brendan has a natural
ability to care and protect others and when he carried Romy out of that
nightmare, this protector mode went into overdrive. He has been holding back
his true self since his was a teenager but it’s Romy that makes him want to be
the man he really is and not to hide anymore.
I really latched onto this group of guys and the coffee shop
(I would love to sit there and watch them interact!) that Ezra opens. This give Romy
a chance to start giving back and also to build back his confidence he once
had. It was satisfying to see him doing this slowly but surely throughout the
book. The author did a great job of highlight certain issues in this book that
were delicately handled.
I must admit at first I was unsure of the characters of Bren
and Rom. Brendan came across as a big lumbering lug but the more I read he
became such a hottie with his washboard abs and his bulging biceps. Romy
appeared as a young child as opposed to a twenty two year old man, although I
guess what he had been through he would have regressed to timid childlike
behaviours. But again as I read more about him and observed his transformation
as he built up his confidence and strength, I could see his true persona
revealed.
This was a sweet friends to lovers emotional storyline that
also touched on some heavy issues. I loved that it was also an interracial romance
and the characters so believable and likeable. I wouldn’t say it was a GFY
romance per se though as Bren had already stated he was gay, he just hadn’t
come out to others. I guess he was waiting for the right man to come along
before he did.
I really enjoyed this book, so much so I went back and
purchased the first books. I love these guys! Four stars.
Author Bio
A.M. Arthur was born and raised in the same kind of small town that she likes to write about, a stone's throw from both beach resorts and generational farmland. She's been creating stories in her head since she was a child and scribbling them down nearly as long, in a losing battle to make the fictional voices stop. She credits an early fascination with male friendships (bromance hadn't been coined yet back then) and "The Young Riders" with her later discovery of and subsequent love affair with m/m romance stories.
When not exorcising the voices in her head, she toils away in a retail job that tests her patience and gives her lots of story fodder. She can also be found in her kitchen, pretending she's an amateur chef and trying to not poison herself or others with her cuisine experiments.
Author Contact:
Contact her at am_arthur@yahoo.com with your cooking tips (or book comments). You can also find her online (http://amarthur.blogspot.com/), as well as on Twitter (http://twitter.com/am_arthur), Tumblr (http://www.tumblr.com/blog/am-arthur), and Facebook (A.m. Arthur). A.M. Arthur's work is available from Samhain Publishing, Carina Press, Dreamspinner Press, and Musa Publishing.
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