Release Day Review ~ Where We Belong (States of Love) by Tia Fielding ~ #Review

Release Day Review ~ Where We Belong (States of Love) by Tia Fielding ~ (Review) 

Title: Where We Belong
Series: States of Love
Author: Tia Fielding
Release Date: November 30, 2016
Category: Contemporary, States of Love
Pages: 77

Dreamspinner ~ GoodReads

It all starts at a concert at the Red Rock Amphitheater in 2004. Blake just finished high school, Dusty is a college sophomore, and as soon as they meet, they know—they belong together. With Blake living in Nebraska and Dusty in Colorado, distance does its best to keep them apart.

For two years, it succeeds.

Then Blake flees his bigoted—and even dangerous—hometown.

Two years later, Blake and Dusty are getting their lives off the ground, with Blake trying to grow his computer repair business and Dusty working with kindergarteners. Dusty thinks there’s room in their hearts and their lives for their family to grow… he just has to figure out how to express that to Blake.

States of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the United States.

4 Stars

*Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the Dreamspinner Press for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.*

Dustin/Dusty and Blake meet at an Incubus concert in 2004. They hit it off immediately and soon establish a long distance relationship. While Dusty is in college in Colorado, Blake, two years his junior, is freshly out of high school with no real plans or direction, and is from a small hick town in Nebraska. A town filled with bigotry and hatred. A place where Blake has to hide who he is for fear of being attacked. We then fast forward two years ahead to 2006. Under threat from local good ole boys, Blake packs up his beat-up Toyota and heads to Colorado, hoping the man he loves will accept him.

This was a short and quick read, but frankly, while I did enjoy it and I absolutely loved Dusty and Blake, I didn't like that the story took place over a 12 year period. To me the story reminded me of a really long epilogue. I understand why the author wrote the story the way they did, to show the milestones throughout their relationship over the 12 year span of the story, but it all felt choppy and like when I was just starting to settle into a time period it moved forward a number of years. In my opinion, if the author wanted to use this format to write the story, this should have either been a much longer book, or the earlier time frames should have been shorter and the present portion of the story longer.

Now for what I did like. As I said, I LOVED Dusty and Blake. They were such likable characters and their chemistry was off the charts. You could feel it coming off the pages at you. One of my favorite tropes is actually already established couples. I'm impatient and always ready to get past the meet and greet portion of the story and into the meat of it. While they do meet in the story, it's done right away and I loved that. Then we move to two years ahead quickly and they are now an established, although long-distance couple. The writing was good and the book enjoyable. I loved the secondary characters, but at times felt Holly, Dustin's bff, was too big a part of the story. While as I said, I did enjoy the story, I was left wanting more in the end. 

All in all, this was a sweet story of two men who are brought together by fate, perhaps and make their relationship work. They love one another and that clearly shines through in the story. This is a story of friendship, love and family. Very recommendable!!