TITLE:
Sawyer
SERIES:
Torey Hope: The Later Years
AUTHOR:
A.D. Ellis
PUBLISHER: A.D. Ellis Publishing
PUBLISHER: A.D. Ellis Publishing
COVER
ARTIST:
LENGTH:
372 Pages
RELEASE
DATE: August 06, 2015
BLURB: Sawyer Morgan has a
secret. Revealing his true feelings to his family could bring devastation and
destruction, so he keeps the burden firmly on his own shoulders. When he moves
back to Torey Hope to help with the family business, Sawyer’s hidden truth
becomes too much to bear.
**This is a male/male
romance. It has adult themes, language, and situations. Readers sensitive to
homosexual relationships, abuse, hate crimes, and derogatory terms should take
note. This story is meant only for readers aged 18+**
Luke Hamilton has a
past overflowing with emotional and physical scars. A promise to his dying
mother prevents him from seeking the love and acceptance he longs for. Taking a
job in Torey Hope brings Luke face-to-face with taboo desires he thought long
extinguished.
Secrets, lies, hatred,
and fear threaten to destroy their lives. But, love has the power to overcome
and lay claim to victory.
Will Sawyer succeed in
proving to Luke some connections are worth fighting for?
A poignant tale of two
hearts valiantly fighting to stay true and find love.
I’m gay.
His brother, Decker, had taken the news fairly well. He’d
needed a solo walk through the woods to gather his thoughts; Sawyer suspected
his always-in-control, serious, black and white brother also needed to come to
grips with the fact that he’d never suspected his brother’s sexual preference
was different than his own. How ironic that the one person Sawyer was the
closest to in the whole world was the one person who was the most clueless.
Sawyer had held his breath practically the whole time Decker
had been walking through the woods. A deluge of rain poured down as the dark
sky broke open, yet Sawyer still sat alone at the campfire. His head had
started playing tricks on him. You
disgust him…he can’t stand the thought of having a gay brother…you’ve lost
him…he’s not coming back. But Sawyer held out hope that Decker was just
doing his usual thinking things through.
He had breathed a sigh of relief when Decker emerged,
soaking wet, from the woods. Walking towards him with purpose, his twin had
stopped in front of him and spoke the most heartwarming, sincere words Sawyer
had ever heard from him.
“You’re my brother, always have been,
always will be. I wish you could have told me sooner, but nothing has changed
between us. I’ll be there in any and every way that I can.” Decker grabbed
Sawyer and pulled him into a deep embrace, communicating his love and
acceptance through his touch.
Telling his cousins, Zach and Kendrick, had been less
emotional, and a lot more entertaining. Sawyer had to laugh at the questions
his admission had stirred up.
“I’m gay.”
Two words that held such power. Would
they laugh? Would they walk away in disgust? Would they be angry?
Zach smiled and nodded. “I think I’ve
known that for a long time, man, but thanks for telling me.”
“Wait, you knew? Why didn’t you ever
say something? Why did you joke with me about girls?”
“I don’t know, I guess I figured you’d
tell me when you were ready. I didn’t want to bring it up if I was wrong and it
offended you. I think I joked about girls thinking it would give you the
opportunity to bring it up if you wanted to.” Zach stood and walked to his
cousin, reaching a hand down, he pulled the other man up into a hug. “Nothing
changes, I’ve got your back, man.”
Kendrick sat with his hand rubbing his
chin. Would he be the one who couldn’t accept it?
Eyes twinkling and a shit-eatin’ grin
on his face, he finally spoke. “What’s it like to suck cock?”
The
other three burst out laughing.
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
“Sorry, man. I didn’t know anyone else would be here.” Sawyer instantly recognized the new martial arts instructor, Luke Hamilton, and walked the edge of the ring to shake the man’s hand.
When a lightning-hot heat traveled between their joined hands, Sawyer took notice, but he also noticed how quickly Luke’s jaw clenched and his hand pulled away.
“I apologize for being here this late. I didn’t think I’d be interrupting anybody. I can leave…” Sawyer noticed that Luke trailed those last words as if hoping Sawyer would ask him to stay.
“No worries, man, you’re welcome to stay. We can go at it alone or team up and fight out whatever it is we’re both trying to rid from our minds.” Sawyer stepped away from the ropes slightly and swung his arms open wide in invitation for Luke to join him.
Wondering at Luke’s behavior, Sawyer watched as the man shuffled his feet and appeared to have an inner dialogue with himself. Running a hand through his hair again making Sawyer realize it was a nervous gesture, Luke blushed a bit. “I really should leave you to it, but I was hoping to get some issues pounded out tonight so if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stay. Want to go a few rounds?”
Sawyer’s groin constricted and threatened to make itself known with the words pounded and go a few rounds. Turning his back on Luke, he quickly adjusted himself and mentally scolded himself at the same time. Damn, man, the guy was just making conversation. Don’t turn everything sexual. Besides, you’d be a complete whore to go from one man to another in the same night.
“It’s all good, man. Let’s go.” Sawyer tossed Luke some spare gloves and headgear. Aside from his brother and cousins, Sawyer had seldom felt an instant kinship with someone he knew next to nothing about. Yes, he had known Hayden would be a friend even if he wasn’t a lover, but that was because Katie had already assured him that Hayden was a kindred spirit, another gay man just seeking love and acceptance.
This man, Luke, was a complete unknown. Would he balk at Sawyer’s sexual preference when he found out? Was he the type who would have made fun of Sawyer in school? His father had hired Luke, and Sawyer trusted his dad’s judgment. Maybe that was why he felt an instant connection with Luke, like he’d known him for years.
Sawyer has been hiding being gay from his family for a long time for fear that they will reject him and the repercussions that him coming out in a small town like Torey Hope could have, both in his life and for his family and their business. Now that he's back from college, he's intent on coming out and start living his life as he should.
Luke is the new martial arts professor at The Center+, Sawyer's family business, he's a broken man and even if he's attracted to Sawyer, a promise to his dying mother and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and brothers prevent him from giving into said attraction.
Will they be able to overcome all the things that threaten to keep them apart?
Sawyer was amazing, patient, sweet, understanding (a bit too much at times) and even when he messed up, there was that underlying measure of goodness in him and he has such a fantastic, loving family and friends that support him no matter what, even if some are a bit more headstrong than the rest. I loved that we were introduced to all these fascinating characters and that the author even shared their POV in some portions as they gave depth to the story.
Luke was a bit of a harder sell for me. I'm aware of his hangups and all he went through, but in my opinion, he was very selfish when he and Sawyer got together at first, and while he improved marginally as he worked on his issues, it was difficult to root for him as much as I would've if he'd been a little more empathetic with Sawyer.
Still, Sawyer and Luke were good together, they had great chemistry and it was sweet to see the detail that went into planning their dates and the way they worked to make things work. All in all, an enjoyable story, with tridimensional, well-drawn characters that make you root for them and a complex plot that kept me interested until the end.
Rating: 4.5 Stars!
A.D. Ellis is the award-winning author of two related collections of
stories, A Torey Hope Novel Series and Torey Hope: The Later Years. Her debut novel, For
Nicky, was voted #3 of the Top 50
Indie Books of 2014 by ReadFree.ly readers/voters. A.D.’s fourth novel, Loving Josie, was
awarded the bronze medal in the contemporary romance category in the
prestigious Readers’ Favorite 2015
International Book Awards.
Born and raised in a small farming town in southern Indiana, A.D. was an
avid reader from the time she learned to read.
She could often be found curled up somewhere with her nose in a book.
Most of her friends and family were not such book enthusiasts, so A.D. got used
to dealing with snickers and joking comments about her constant reading habits.
Truth be told, Ms. Ellis has always been the definition of a book nerd.
A.D. always dreamed of being a teacher. Graduating from Indiana State
University in 1999 and earning a Master's Degree from Indiana Wesleyan in 2003,
she met her goal of entering the world of education. A.D. has been teaching in
the inner city of Indianapolis, Indiana for 17 years. She spent the majority of
her 17 years in fourth grade, but has now taken on the challenges of teaching
3rd and 4th grade alternative education students. A.D. loves teaching
fractions, variables, probability, and graphing in Math. She loves almost all
aspects of English Language Arts. Figurative language, theme, making predictions,
drawing conclusions, inference, context clues, making writing come to life,
A.D. loves it all! Her students don't always share in that enthusiasm.
She met her husband in college in 1996 and they married in June of 2000.
She lives in a south side suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband and
two school-aged children. When she's not reading or writing with music blaring,
she can be found shopping at thrift stores, reading to her children, and
sweating at the gym in the very early
mornings.
A.D. began her writing journey in October 2013, and she is grateful for
the friends and support she's found along the way.
:: Website
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Winner’s
Prize: Signed copy of Sawyer (US only) or Winner’s choice
of any of my eBooks (box set titles included)
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Thanks so much for your review and for sharing Sawyer!
ReplyDeleteI love a book that one is not out. Angst. I really think this book looks good. Thanks for the review and giveaway!!
ReplyDelete