Love knows no limits…but fear could keep them from seeing it.
Gabe lives a double life. As Gabriel Henson, he works multiple jobs to support his remorseless, alcoholic mother. As Tony Ryder, he does internet porn for extra cash and regular safe sex without complications.
Yet when he encounters a scared young man freaking out in a night club, he’s compelled to reach out. Ever since then, the memory of that young man has haunted him.
Tristan Lavelle lives his life thirty minutes at a time. After a traumatic brain injury three years ago, he gets through his day recording his life in spiral notebooks and sticky note reminders.
A month after Tristan’s embarrassingly public meltdown, another chance meeting with Gabe sparks a warm, emotionally fulfilling email relationship. Both men crave more, but fear of the next step stands between them.
Until Tristan gets the opportunity to take part in a clinical trial that could improve his memory—if the side effects don’t kill him. But for Tristan, the possibility of a real life with Gabe is worth any risk…
Author Name: A.M. Arthur
Book Name: The World As He Sees It
Series: Perspectives
Book: Two Can be read as a standalone
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Pages or Words: 283 pages, 83,000 words
Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, M/M Romance, Romance
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Cover Artist: Lyn Taylor
The late hour didn’t diminish the sweltering August heat, and Tristan worked up a good sweat walking. Shane and Noel both looked crazy sexy in their club clothes, and even sexier walking side by side. He was happy for Noel. Happy his best friend was in love and enjoying himself.
He was also stupidly, insanely jealous.
He stuck close with his stupid, insane jealousy because the streets were teeming with people of all ages, heading into and out of the different restaurants and clubs. They turned down a quieter side street that was more like an alley. Halfway down the block a few guys hung out against a stone wall, most of them smoking cigarettes. An industrial door with no sign or markings was being guarded by a big, burly bear of a man in a black leather vest.
“Hey, Officer Carlson,” the bouncer said. He had a deep voice to match his broad body. “Nice to see you again.”
“Hi, Mr. Henson,” Noel said.
“Bear, son. Everyone calls me Bear.”
“Right. This is my friend Tristan Lavelle.”
“A right pleasure.”
Tristan shook Bear’s hand, surprised by the gentle grip. “Hi.” He glanced at Shane, who didn’t seem at all annoyed at being left out. “Um, that’s Shane. Noel’s boyfriend.”
Bear grinned. “Yeah, I know that one all right.”
“You do?” He reached for a notebook he didn’t have, then looked at Noel for answers.
“Shane dances here once a week,” Noel said. “He got the job through Bear’s son Gabe.”
“Oh.” He didn’t bother asking if he’d already been told that. Probably. Every single piece of information that was mildly important to his life had been repeated to him at least, oh, eighteen times. Minimum.
“Enjoy yourselves, boys,” Bear said. “First drinks are on the house.”
“Thank you,” Tristan replied.
Noel pulled the door, and what had been a distant bass became an impressive thumpa-thumpa in Tristan’s chest. The interior of the club was wide and deep, with a high ceiling decorated in strands of red and blue lights. Strobes and other lighting flashed around the dance floor, which seemed to make up most of the floor space. A small U-shaped bar stood to the right. In the rear were what looked like raised platforms. Two hot guys in red short-shorts were gyrating together on one of them.
This is the kind of dancing Shane does? Shit.
He was probably twenty kinds of hot up there.
Someone jostled past them, reminding Tristan to keep moving forward. Noel was hustling them straight for the bar. Tristan couldn’t drink alcohol because of his antidepressants and anxiety medications, and Noel was driving so the only person able to drink much was Shane.
Lucky bastard.
Not that Tristan was going to mourn his dry night. Men. Everywhere around him, a sea of hot men. All kinds of eye candy. Every age, height, weight, shape and body hair amount. He observed and mentally drooled over the flesh on display. The air smelled of liquor and sweat and sex, and good Lord he was starting to get lightheaded from it all.
Noel nudged them closer to the bar. A middle-aged man with gray hair and a pink sequined vest gave them all a big, toothy smile. “Noel and friends,” he said. “Richard Brightman, pleased to officially meet you, Tristan.”
“Hello,” Tristan said. Officially meet you implied they’d interacted before, but the man’s name meant nothing to him.
“I’m Bear’s husband. We own the place.”
“Oh. It’s a great place. I’m pretty sure this is my first time. I like it.”
Noel flinched.
Okay that was wrong. When was I here before?
“So what are we drinking tonight?” Richard asked. “First round on the house. Samuel Adams for you, Shane?”
“Yeah, thanks,” Shane replied.
Richard knows because Shane works here.
“I’ll have a vodka tonic,” Noel said. “Tris?”
“Virgin margarita,” Tristan said. He loved margaritas, and while a virgin wasn’t as good as one with Patrón, he couldn’t mix with his meds.
“Coming up,” Richard said.
The music changed to a faster, sharper beat. Tristan’s hips rolled in tiny motions, instinct bringing out his love of club dancing. Of getting into it with another dude, all writhing bodies and gyrating hips. Arms and legs. Sweat and heavy breathing.
Wonderful arousal stirred in his gut, heating his blood already. He might not be getting laid tonight, but damn it, he was going to have some fun.
“Hey, you guys made it,” said a sexy, sultry voice.
Tristan glanced over his shoulder to see who the voice had spoken to, only to find himself staring into a pair of kind, dark eyes. Kind, dark eyes belonging to a stunningly handsome face. Black hair. Tan skin. Tall and well-built. A walking wet dream who was smiling like they were old friends.
Holy fucking hell, he’s gorgeous.
“Hey, Gabe,” Shane said.
Gabe.
Those kind, dark eyes never broke from his, and Tristan couldn’t look away. Gabe was a stranger, and yet somehow familiar.
His eyes. The eyes I see. We’ve met.
“We’ve met,” Tristan said before he could think twice.
Gabe’s eyebrows twitched. “Yes, we have. Do you remember that?”
“I remember your eyes.”
I am a HUGE, I mean super HUGE, A.M. Arthur fan. Her books are always gritty, raw and honest (although sometimes the honesty for the characters takes a while). She manages to take two characters that are nearly as low as they are going to go, and build them up together, managing to keep them as independent people, yet stronger together than apart. And if you read Book 1 in the Perspectives series, The Truth as He Knows It, you knew that a book for Tristan, a man debilitated by a head injury from a gay bashing, was not going to be an easy story to write. He has zero short term memory, and only really has Noel’s presence in his life to keep him centered. He writes down everything in journals or sticky notes, and promptly forgets everything 30 minutes later. Writing Tristan falling in love with a man he had not ever met, and would be unable to remember could have turned into a disaster if not done properly. However, in A.M. Arthur’s hand, Tristan’s story worked so well, I was amazed!
I won’t do a retelling of the story, because I want you to experience it for yourself. However, what the author was able to do was beautiful and so well thought out. This was a slow love story, as it needed to be, since Tristan could only “remember your (Gabe’s) eyes”. So, without knowing it, Gabe was able to ensure a memory that stayed by putting it down “on paper”. They fell in love, and lust, in an age old tradition with a twist, via pen pals.
I enjoyed seeing how Tristan was able to make new memories, and more than anything begin to enjoy life again. In the first book, it was obvious that Tristan was existing, but he came alive as a person in this book. We were able to see the type of personality Tristan had, how much pain he’d had to endure physically, emotionally, and mentally. All these were brought out in small pieces by the author, gradually letting the reader get to know Tristan as Gabe was getting to know him. The bond these two were able to forge through simple emails was fantastic.
The reader will shed a few tears, as Tristan learns to love himself again, as well as learning to love a new man, someone who was willing to take the time and patience needed for such a unique situation.
Someone said to me at one point that they had concerns before reading the book that it might end up being a retelling of the movie “Fifty First Dates”. It was not that at all. It was a slow growing, ever changing love, echoing the vows that state “Love is patient, Love is kind”. With Gabe and Tristan, it was exactly those things.
This book was 4.5 pieces of eye candy for me, and I was so happy to finally read this story!
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Author Interview:
- Hi A.M., thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book. Hello! I’m a contemporary m/m romance author (who occasionally dips into paranormal). I hail from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, equal distances from beaches and corn fields, and I currently share my apartment with two rascals of kitties. My current book, The World As He Sees It, is the second in my Perspectives series with Samhain Publishing. It’s Tristan and Gabe’s book, and anyone who read the first Perspectives knows why Tristan is super special. He has severe short term memory loss, which prevents him from living a fully realized life. Gabe spends all of his time and money taking care of his alcoholic mother, which prevents him, also, from living a fully realized life. I’m so excited for readers to finally get their story.
- When did you write your first story/book? How old were you? I wrote my first “novel” when I was twelve years old. It was pretty awful. Straight up Sweet Valley High-meets-Beverly Hills, 90210 fanfiction. But it was a complete story with chapters, and I was proud of it at the time. My first actual novel, that meant something, I think I wrote when I was 18-1
- Are you a plotter or pantser? A mix of both. I always do character bios before I start a novel, so I have a good idea of who the leads are and what’s happened to them. That often informs the plot of the actual novel. I usually have plot points in mind, scenes that need to happen, but I very rarely sit down and write a scene-bye-scene outline.
- What do you think makes your book stand out from the crowd? Well, I haven’t seen too many romance novels lately that feature a hero with short-term memory loss. I think my book stands out because of Tristan. He’s a unique character who stole a lot of hearts during his first appearance in The Truth As He Knows It (Perspectives #1). And even if folks haven’t read the first book in the series, I hope they give Tristan a chance to wiggle his way into their heart.
- How do you find or make time to write? I am lucky in that am single and childless (both by choice). It gives me plenty of spare time when I’m not at the day job to write. I write before or after work, and almost always on my days off.
- What do you like to read in your free time? A little bit of everything. Of course, m/m romance, but I also like to dip into het romance, urban fantasy, biographies, memoirs, true stories, and books on health issues, like processed foods and the farming industry. I’m a pretty well-rounded reader.
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) 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.
Contact her at am_arthur@yahoo.com with your cooking tips (or book comments).
Where to find the author:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/am_arthur
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/annearthur/
Other: Tumblr http://www.tumblr.com/blog/am-arthur
Other: Blog http://amarthur.blogspot.com/
Tour Dates & Stops:
20-Oct
21-Oct
22-Oct
23-Oct
26-Oct
Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
27-Oct
28-Oct
29-Oct
30-Oct
Book Reviews and More by Kathy
2-Nov
The Fuzzy, Fluffy World of Chris T. Kat
3-Nov
4-Nov
5-Nov
6-Nov
9-Nov
Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
10-Nov
Two Chicks Obsessed With Books and Eye Candy
11-Nov
12-Nov
Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My
13-Nov
16-Nov
Rafflecopter Prize: Grand Prize Goodie Basket: 1 signed paperback of The Truth As He Knows It, 1 signed paperback of The World As He Sees it, plus a bunch of other goodies (notebooks, cute post-it’s, etc…).
Congrats on your new book!