Saturday, 4 November 2017

Back Where He Belongs by Isobel Starling



Size: 740 KB
Buy links: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Also available on Kindle Unlimited

Blurb

Back in Scotland after five years working in Australia, Kier Campbell finds himself stranded on a road in the Scottish Highlands on Christmas Eve. He needs to get to the next village urgently or freeze to death in his broken down hire car. Kier hikes down the icy road and as he walks memories of the life he'd run from-and the love he'd abandoned in Scotland return to haunt him.

With a blizzard fast approaching, a passing motorist finds Kier and offers him a lift. He is surprised to recognize the driver. As the weather worsens he realizes they is no way he will reach his parent's farm, and so is stranded with his savior for the holidays.

Kier's one Christmas wish is to make up for the mistakes he made all those years ago, but, curiously, he finds he has an unexpected rival for his lover's affections...

FYI: This 'second chance at love' story contains descriptions of Gay sex and Puppy Play (Woof!)

This book comes with an additional free short story "The Christmas Bonus"

Review

Back Where He Belongs distinguishes itself in that it is both one of the sweetest and one of the kinkiest stories I have read in recent times. With this being a second-chance at love story it could easily have been angst-ridden, filled with soul searching and anguish. Much to my delight it wasn’t. Sure, both men have one or two moments when the past comes back to haunt their thoughts, but these are short and almost immediately dealt with. For the most part this is the story of two men at last both being ready to embrace what they are and have together, at the same time.

The confusion about Douglas’s housemate made me smile. I had a feeling where it was going to go from the start but that didn’t make the journey any less charming. In fact, despite the snowy and freezing setting so vividly described in this novella, Back Where He Belongs only brought me warm, fuzzy feelings from start to finish; exactly what I want and expect from a Christmas story.

But, this wouldn’t be an Isobel Starling book if the fuzzy didn’t come with its fair share of imaginative sexiness. Puppy play is a relatively new area for me but if the combination of kink and tenderness described in this book is an accurate portrayal, I will have to revisit it in the not too distant future.

I was totally charmed by this sexy, heartwarming and uplifting story. It is very well written. The descriptions of the surroundings and the weather managed to put me in the Scottish Highland’s in December. And, most importantly, Kier and Douglas (not to mention his housemate) charmed the socks off me.

“Nobody else has ever made me feel like this, like” — he paused to find the right words in the jumble of thoughts, “ — like a million fireworks are exploding in my chest when you look at me. I feel like I’ve been hit by a steamroller when you smile at me that way.” – Kier

****

This novella comes with a bonus story, appropriately titled: The Christmas Bonus. I really don’t want to say too much — read ‘anything’ — about this short story except that it managed to surprise me from start to finish because nothing and no one was quite what they at first appeared to be. And I like that sorta thing.



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