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Some I've read, some are on my TBR - and they are all on sale on DSP and Amazon. Go get 'em!
2.5 stars
Hmmm … it has been days since I finished reading this book and I still have no idea how I feel about it. It’s not a stellar or memorable read for me but I can’t say that it’s a total failure either. But the book did let me down in a big way and that had me contemplating about the rating. The thing is, I approached this book with my mind set to expect the story being a “murder mystery” book. Especially because the blurb gives the impression that Sam would be dealing a lot with investigating the death of his favorite client, with him being a writer of a blog as well as sometimes at the Gazette as well.
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that the story successfully delivered. I’ve read quite a number of murder mysteries in my younger years. I devoured Agatha Christie books. I like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (though the writing’s not exactly that accessible for me). And of course, when it comes to more recent authors, I love Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, and Robert Crais. So having familiarity with these books, I had expectations. One of them being a true progress of INVESTIGATION. True, this story is also marketed as romance, but I was saddened that I didn’t exactly get the scenes of Sam INVESTIGATING the murder.
I thought Sam spent too much time either lamenting about the mysterious Nathan or busy drinking. There was nothing that showed me that Sam used his brain or showed passion for being an amateur sleuth to find out what happened. I didn’t get that grit determination from him. I felt that the murder and the deaths of the other characters stayed firmly in the background – which was a bit strange since one of the victims was a police officer. Usually the department would take that kind of death more seriously.
In addition, Sam found out who the culprits were by way of ‘accident’! It was disappointing because I guessed about the villains – I had my clues – a few chapters before he did!!
Now about the romance … unfortunately, I also found it uninspiring. Nathan was introduced to us, readers, as being married to a woman. Then when his wife was killed, we found out that Nathan had been contemplating his sexuality. However, the set-up to Nathan switching teams was not too my liking … I don’t want to spoil too much but it had something to do with his ‘secret’ job and ‘acting’ for the sake of it. To me, it was flimsy at best. The fact that the story was also written mainly from Sam’s perspective made Nathan a detached character all throughout. I wish I could say that I liked him, but I couldn’t. I just didn’t feel enough connection to him. I also didn’t feel the chemistry needed between Sam and Nathan. None at all.
So in the end, those reasons made me decide that it was not enough to be in my ‘okay’ category. It was definitely not what I expected and I felt let down. As always, rating is subjective and your mileage may vary. Others might enjoy this more than I did.
3.25 stars
I decided to read this short novella because Maggie Kavanagh had an upcoming novel released at the end of January. I wanted to 'sample' her writing before deciding to pre-order it since she was a new-to-me author.
For a novella, I thought Taking Flight had a good conflict. Here are two men who have been in a relationship for awhile but one is not yet ready to settle down and keep 'running back' to the battlefield. The story is written from Hunter's perspective, the one who stays behind, the one who wants to have more from the relationship. I thought Ms. Kavanaugh wrote his pain very well. The break-up sex in particular was heartbreaking
Unfortunately, this was also the story that relied on the "men-don't-talk" trope. Jake seems to step back to his shell and refuses to discuss things with Hunter when it comes to his 'issues'. I didn't really understand his reasoning that much ... I mean, "Life’s not too great for people who love me" was pretty lame of an excuse.
Since this was only a novella length, I thought it was lacking a deeper insight on to why Jake refused to settle down as well as the conflict resolution. To me, the resolution was as lame as the excuse because I didn't understand the sudden change of heart (especially since the story doesn't have Jake's perspective!). For a complicated conflict, the resolution was not really believable.
Having said that, I think I like Ms. Kavanaugh's writing (except for her choice of endearment. Baby! URGH! BLEH!). I pre-ordered her upcoming novel afterwards. Hopefully it will be a good gamble :)
This story left a good feeling in my soul after reading, a feeling of what it’s like to realize that the life you are living isn’t what you were looking for. And going out too look for what makes you whole. Going out to make sure you can be all you can be.
That is a beautiful premise: that love doesn’t heal us, fix us, make us whole. We need to have all that in place already to be able to truly love.
A novella sized story can of course not do the work of a full novel, but the parts that were left out of this story have been hashed over and over in so many romance books that I, for one, was very glad to just leap over them, as it were. And get to the point.
Hunter walked into my home and sat down and told me a good story.
I like that in a man.
He was both verbal and focused.
I like that even more.
Recommended afternoon read in a hammock (if it’s summertime where you live), or in front or a roaring fire with a couple of cats purring for good measure, in case you are facing winter still.
Hunter and Jake worked with what they had. As do we all. They did well.
Beautiful story, short and to the point. Loved it.
***
I was given a free copy of this book by the publisher, Dreamspinner Press, and a positive review wasn’t promised in return.
