At War With a Broken Heart
by Dahlia Donovan
Genre: M/M/M Contemporary Romance
One autistic coffee shop owner, one morose mug maker, and a mostly cheerful police detective.
Fie Morogh Russell goes off to war with a broken heart and returns with a shattered spirit. He hermits away in Bideford, Devon, making mugs, with his service dog, Haggard, for company. Post-traumatic stress turns every memory into a minefield, and life is dismal with one or two rare exceptions.
Davet Heuse drags his younger brother to Bideford for a new start. Both autistic, the two siblings have fought hard to enjoy freedom by the seaside. While Davet runs a coffee shop from his tiny house, his brother pursues his dream at university.
Detective Sidney Little has transitioned from military service to the police force easily. His unrequited crushes and his estranged father are the only points of frustration in his life. He hasn't quite figured out how to deal with either problem.
When a tragic accident brings Davet's world crashing down around him, can Fie and Sid help him through the pain of loss?
In this May-December romance with a twist, three men struggle through one obstacle after the other to somehow find themselves in love on the other side.
4 Stars
This was a really great story! The characters were great and each one different from the next, yet similar in the most important parts. I think this is the first time I have come across an autistic character that I can remember and I really liked the way Dahlia handled writing him.
Davet was such a strong character who knows his limits and knows what he needs when things get to be too much for him. There are small things that Davet does that I do when I get overwhelmed at times.
Fie has so much unresolved emotional trauma from before the war and after that even though he gets some help with it, he dwells on the past and the losses he suffered.
Sid had me laughing just as much as he had me feeling for him. He was definitely the comic relief; even when he’s serious he tries to keep things light.
This is the first book by Dahlia that I have had the pleasure of reading and I really loved it.
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***
3.25 Stars!
I liked Davet. He's a sweetheart, and I liked how he saw to the heart of issues a lot of the time. His perspective on things was really good. He has carved out a life for himself and his brother in a little town near his uncle and aunt. He knows his limits and what he needs to function in the world and has things just as he needs them. Fie is a changed man after returning from the war. His struggles are far from over, but he is slowly improving with help from his friends. Sidney is the one who lightens up a lot of the situations.
I really wanted to like this one more than I did. Davet suffers a terrible loss early on that was hard to see happen; I felt his pain and wished there was something that could be done to alleviate it. While I could see how these three men could make a relationship work and that they were good for each other, I had a hard time seeing their connection. None of the men really ever talks about their feelings for each other. I really felt like Sidney and Fie were just friends and had no romantic feelings for each other until a past event was briefly brought up and even then they avoided discussing what happened between them. I missed the emotion that would have made their relationship seem more real and solid to me.
I enjoyed reading this story, but just felt I was missing something that would have cemented everything together better for me.
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***
Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.
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MMM isn't really my thing, but I read her Grasmere mystery stories and loved them.
ReplyDeleteLove the cover.
ReplyDeleteLovely cover
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