It is important to know the kind of situation our character Luka is in, in order to understand the story:
“My dad has made it clear that he’s only allowing me to live under his roof until I turn eighteen. As soon as the social security checks run out, so does his hospitality. I would have been on the street years ago but since the checks started rolling in after my mom’s death, he became a little more tolerant of my belligerence.
Of course, my belligerence is mostly defined by the fact that I breathe his precious smoke-filled air and occasionally pass his field of vision, reminding him of my mother. She was the only woman he ever loved, and certainly the only woman who could love him, and she’s gone forever.
He doesn’t care that I lost my mom when I was only fourteen. The only thing that matters is that he’s alone and miserable, and stuck with me.”
This mental state of the dad justifies his action later on “Luka’s dad committed suicide this afternoon.”
The romance between Brad and Luka is quite maturely handled. At the same time we get a small glimpse of the kind of shabby treatment people in the LGTB community has to face. By sharing the points of view of both the characters (alternatively) Ms. Grace is able to make both of them well-developed and multi-dimensional.
As much as I admire her and her work, I wish Ms. Grace had not started the book with an “F-word”. I am no prude and cusswords have their place but why not use them after making the reader a bit more comfortable? A cussword on the very first page of a novel jerks on my nerves and leaves me in a bad taste. That is the only negative thing about this book. It is like introducing a psychopathic woman with the “b****” word – it just grates on you! Otherwise I simply adore the dialogs of this book, even more so than those of her other book, “Corner Office”. The sex scenes in this book are not as hot compared to the other book but that is fine keeping in mind the situation and age of the character. A lesser writer would have made it mushy and sentimental but Ms. Grace’s writing powers are such that she can call a spade a spade and still make it sound novel and entertaining! Highly recommended for lovers of realistic gay romance fiction.