Awakenings by Tara Larson
The story of 28 years old Sean awakening to his gay self was nice and well-plotted. Sean didn’t jump out of bed one day saying, I’m gay, be right with that, but he went through a self-questioning process, whose output could have been also his falling into depression. Sean knew there was something not right in his relationship with his girlfriend, he knew he didn’t want to end law school and enter the family firm, but he needed a push towards the right direction, or better, to be pushed out of the common track.
A weekend at Miami Beach and the meeting with Adam is more than a push. Adam is a dream man, model-beauty, nice and friendly, good upbringing and with a nice income. Aside from being a man, he would be the perfect fiancé for Sean’s conservative family, but being gay Sean thinks is not an option for him. And so when he realizes that all his discontent could be solved by acknowledging his desire for Adam AND his artistic side (and so a more creative chosen career), he also thinks that he has to break his connections with his previous life. He will have a surprise from his family, maybe not all of them, but it will be a good surprise.
My feeling for this story is mostly good, maybe I feel like the author was a little rushed with the real ending, i.e. when she dealt with Sean’s relationship with his family and their reaction to Sean’s news and then with Sean and Adam’s relationship start-up, wherelse she decided to give a further look into their future life. The last 3 chapters of the novels (50 pages out of 276 total) are almost a story of their own, like one of those novellas authors write about some of their favourite characters, to give the fans something more about them. It’s an original choice, and for sure it gives a sure stamp to the love story, but as I said, I would have not minded for Sean to deal a little more with his family after they found out about him, and instead he let the bomb drop and took away… probably a wise choice, considering it was not an easy situation to deal with, and maybe give it “space” will serve also to dilute the tension, but I feel like there are open questions there.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2704
Amazon: Awakenings
Amazon Kindle: Awakenings
Paperback: 280 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (January 6, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1613723253
ISBN-13: 978-1613723258
Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle