Publisher:
Pride Publishing
261
pages
Available
for Early Download on the Pride Publishing website: Now
General
Release: May 30
Blurb
A love worth the wait.
Carter Hamilton and Riley Porter-Wright room together as Harvard undergraduates. An immediate friendship forms, but as the years pass it deepens into something neither man understands. As attraction simmers under the surface, lines begin to blur. When they move back to Manhattan, they gradually slip into the lives their families have envisioned for them.
Both men marry, but in time, Riley realizes he’s ended up in a passionless relationship like his parents’ while his career takes center stage. Although he loves his wife, Carter misses the emotional and physical connection he shared with Riley.
The weight of Riley’s feelings and his growing discontentment with his life eventually push him to tell Carter the truth about how he feels. Shocked and unable to face his own feelings, Carter rejects Riley.
As each man comes to terms with the lies they’ve told themselves, each other and the people around them, they find their lives changing in ways they never imagined. They soon discover that the truths they’ve been longing to tell shake the foundations of their friendship.
Carter Hamilton and Riley Porter-Wright room together as Harvard undergraduates. An immediate friendship forms, but as the years pass it deepens into something neither man understands. As attraction simmers under the surface, lines begin to blur. When they move back to Manhattan, they gradually slip into the lives their families have envisioned for them.
Both men marry, but in time, Riley realizes he’s ended up in a passionless relationship like his parents’ while his career takes center stage. Although he loves his wife, Carter misses the emotional and physical connection he shared with Riley.
The weight of Riley’s feelings and his growing discontentment with his life eventually push him to tell Carter the truth about how he feels. Shocked and unable to face his own feelings, Carter rejects Riley.
As each man comes to terms with the lies they’ve told themselves, each other and the people around them, they find their lives changing in ways they never imagined. They soon discover that the truths they’ve been longing to tell shake the foundations of their friendship.
Review
As
people who’ve been following my reviews will know, I love books that are
different, surprise me and/or challenge genre expectations. So it won’t come as
a huge surprise when I say that I loved Wake, because to say that this story
breaks virtually every rule associated to romances really only scratches the
surface.
In
fact, the book comes with the following reader advisory:
‘This book contains polyamory and infidelity,
expressions of homophobia by multiple secondary characters, divorce, scenes of
M/F/M intimacy, references to parental neglect, disownment, one brief scene
involving an physical altercation.’
And
you know what? As a result Wake was one of the most
fascinating, captivating, and engrossing reads I’ve enjoyed this year so far.
Riley
and Carter — bear with me while I sigh — I fell for these two men as soon as
they were introduced to the reader and
to each other when they both start at Harvard. The two men are friends from the
moment they meet, and only grow closer as time goes by. Things get confusing
when especially Riley realises that his feelings for Carter run a bit deeper
than ‘just’ friendship. But Carter and Riley being who they are and preparing
for futures that have been determined for them long before they were old enough
to have a say in the matter, have no idea how to deal with whatever it is they
can feel developing between them.
Sharing
women allows Riley and Carter to be intimate without actually having to
confront the confusing and possibly life-destroying connection they feel and it
works for them, more or less, until it doesn’t anymore.
When
I’m honest I have to admit that this book should have been too angsty for me.
It is testament to the quality of the writing these two authors produced that
it wasn’t. Quite the opposite in fact. As much as it was clear to me that these
two men belong together, I completely understood the reasons why they weren’t.
Despite the fact that I’m not a fan of cheating, I couldn’t help admiring the
solution they found for their dilemma. And yes, I did fully appreciate the very
hot scenes their ‘compromise’ resulted in.
My
heart broke, time and again, for both men, but more for Riley than for Carter.
In fact, I have to admit that although I adored him, I did feel like slapping
Carter on several occasions. I’m not going to tell you why — read the book —
but really! In all fairness, I did understand where he was coming from but that
didn’t make it any easier to watch Riley’s suffering.
If
my review is somewhat obscure, that is on purpose. While I do want to let you
know what this book is about, I do not want to give any spoilers or give so
much away that you start this book with preconceived ideas. All I can say is
that this book is more than worth taking the risk, regardless of how you feel
about any of the topics laid-out in the reader advisory.
Exquisitely
written, beautifully told, and gripping from start to finish, Wake
is a book to experience as much as it is a great read. And it is only the start
of Riley and Carter’s journey. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the book
ends on a cliff-hanger, but it is obvious there’s a lot of story left to be
told. And I for one can’t wait for Calm, the second book, to be
published. I’ll be hitting that early download button as soon as Calm
becomes available. Is it August yet?
Overall
I have to say this may well be the best 5 Euro I’ve spent in recent times.
The
Authors
K. Evan Coles is a mother and
tech pirate by day and a writer by night. She is a dreamer who, with a little
hard work and a lot of good coffee, coaxes words out of her head and onto
paper.
K. lives in the northeast United States, where she complains bitterly about the winters, but truly loves the region and its diverse, tenacious and deceptively compassionate people. You’ll usually find K. nerding out over books, movies and television with friends and family. She’s especially proud to be raising her son as part of a new generation of unabashed geeks.
K. lives in the northeast United States, where she complains bitterly about the winters, but truly loves the region and its diverse, tenacious and deceptively compassionate people. You’ll usually find K. nerding out over books, movies and television with friends and family. She’s especially proud to be raising her son as part of a new generation of unabashed geeks.
Brigham Vaughn
is starting the adventure of a lifetime as a full-time writer. She devours
books at an alarming rate and hasn’t let her short arms and long torso stop her
from doing yoga. She makes a killer key lime pie, hates green peppers, and
loves wine tasting tours. A collector of vintage Nancy Drew books and green
glassware, she enjoys poking around in antique shops and refinishing thrift
store furniture. An avid photographer, she dreams of traveling the world and
she can’t wait to discover everything else life has to offer her.
Email: brighamvaughn@gmail.com
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