Michael Robert

The idea of the striking stranger being right here in my town after rescuing me, caused a stirring inside I didn’t recognize. I was nervous, excited, tingly, and my mind conjured up all sorts of scenes where he protected me and held me close. Maybe he’d kiss me?

“Nobody knows why he’s here, but trust me, the single ladies are all a flutter,” she said. “He can expect a load of welcome-wagon casseroles coming his way.”

I curled my index finger asking her to come closer.

“He is very, very, very, good looking,” I whispered.

“So do you mean very ?” she joked.

I exaggeratingly nodded my head.

“I have an idea,” she began. “Let’s drive by old lady Bolling’s place and check him out.”

“Tonight?” I asked.

“Hell yeah, tonight, dude,” she stated. “Do you wanna be late to the parade of casseroles?”

I knew with every fiber in my body I did not want to miss any parade our town’s newest resident was involved in.

Michael Robert is an author residing in Seattle, Washington. The Crow Flies Free is his debut novel. Michael enjoys traveling and he aspires to visit the locations of his upcoming novels so as to provide vivid and accurate descriptions of them. He enjoys tennis, road trips and fast cars. Please look for his future projects, the next story coming soon.

. .

TREY BARNES

I professed my love for Jordy when I was seventeen. He was leaving for his last year of medical school after working another summer at my family’s Banks Lake resort in the Pacific Northwest.

Desperate for him to know how I felt even though he was my older brother’s best friend, and fearing that he wouldn’t return after that summer, I decided to take the plunge and admit my feelings while I had the chance.

As the adult in the situation, Jordy wisely chose to discount my confession as simply a teenage crush. But my last spoken words to him were that I’d wait patiently for him.

And I always kept my promises.

JORDY HALL

I’d been away from my small hometown for nearly five years. Life and a stressful medical residency had kept me busy, but I finally returned to fulfill my best-man duties for my best friend’s upcoming wedding.

His younger brother, Trey, was a sweet, sensitive kid when I left years ago. The shy, lean teenager who’d tearfully professed his love for me my last summer there had grown into a sexy, confident man. I was intrigued by what I saw, though I probably should have walked away again.

Had he actually waited for me to return? Did I hope he had? He was nine years my junior and my best friend’s little brother. But he could be so much more.

After five long years, it was suddenly last summer.

Title: Suddenly, Last Summer

Author: Michael Robert

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited – All Regions

Goodreads

This was an author I had not read before, so I decided to give it a shot, as it was a second chance age-gap romance. Whew, I struggled to cross the finish line with this book.

The premise of the story was good. Trey tells Jordy on the day he is leaving for his medical school residency that he’s in love with him, and that he will wait as long as it takes. And Trey really does wait. When Jordy finally comes back home, four years later, Trey is still a virgin, never having been kissed, still in love with Jordy, but all grown up at the age of 21.

When Jordy left he had some feelings, but let’s face it, Trey was underage, and he’d watched the young man grow up, so yes, it would have felt uncomfortable. I did like that Jordy respected himself and Trey’s parents enough to leave. However, I didn’t understand never communicating with Trey during that time.

There were several things that never quite clicked for me. Why Trey’s brother was so “emotionless”, yet wanted Jordy to stay away from Trey. Why Jordy was best friends with him in the first place. The cringey conversations in the sex scenes, that was tough for me to get through. And the conversations between Trey and Skippy, or even Trey and his parents about “the gays”. At one point , Trey calls his best friend a f*g, as they are talking about Skip passing out. These conversations were a bit disturbing for me, since they came from the MC’s or close side characters. There were just too many things that didn’t make sense, or hit me the wrong way.

The relationship between Trey and Jordy did make sense, though. They really were very well matched, personality-wise. However, it just wasn’t enough to pull this story back from some of the difficulties that I felt were there. I think this could have been a really good story, but in the end, it didn’t leave me feeling happy as an HEA should for me.

2.5 pieces of eye candy