Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Wade Porter spent his whole life in the shadow of a lover who doled out snippets of love and time as he saw fit—and who insisted that love stay deep in the closet. But now that man is gone, and Wade finds the oceanside cottage where they spent so many weekends together in the Florida Keys cold and empty. He has come one last time, not even sure he wants to keep living.

 

To his surprise, the house next door is occupied by another bereaved and lonely man. Kent Walker is an artist of romantic gay paintings who is open to the future—and determinedly interested in Wade. Kent wants to show Wade the beauty in being an openly gay man and the possibilities for a real relationship.

 

Maybe Kent can help Wade let go of the past and discover a better way to live—and love.

 

 

First Edition published in Two Tickets to Paradise by Dreamspinner Press, 2012.

Book Review

This story was painful for me to read – not because it was badly written, on the contrary – but because Wade and his loss quickly became so real to me that I felt as though he was a friend whose loss I felt almost as keenly as if it were my own. B.G. Thomas has this knack for understanding his characters’ emotions, then making me feel the same thing, and ‘New Lease’ was no exception.

For a while it looked to me as if ‘New Lease’ might not be the right title for this story. After all, it implies some sort of hope, a new beginning maybe. Wade has been through so much, and he is not someone who lets go easily, so it takes him seemingly forever to come to grips with his lover’s death. But as his memories surface while he vacations in the same cabin where he met Gene twenty years ago, it becomes clear that all was not well in that “relationship” – if you can call an affair with a married man who wants you to stay in the closet a relationship at all. Wade has to come to terms not just with Gene’s death, but with his own repressed feelings of anger toward a man who never wanted to own up to what they shared, and shame for never having fought Gene’s will to stay hidden.

Kent has also lost a lover, but they were an out couple for ten years, so his grief is more straightforward. Don’t get me wrong, losing a lover to death is never easy, but Kent’s situation is less complex, not as complicated as Wade’s multilayered feelings. Kent’s patience with Wade is exemplary, and I loved how honest and open he is as they admit their attraction and work through the implications together. The depth of emotion is an especially amazing achievement for such a short story!

If you like stories about loss and how people deal with it, if you want to see a man who has given up hope of ever being happy again find out that he is capable of finding love a second time, and if you’re looking for a powerful read that might make you cry before eliciting a small smile of hopeful optimism from you, then you will probably like this short story as much as I do. I’m glad it was published as a separate book which gave me the chance to finally read it.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Short Story, 46 pages/12178 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	12-April-2017
Price	$1.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/new-lease-by-bg-thomas-8357-b