Some scars can’t be seen.For over a year now, it’s been the same thing. At six o’clock every night Connor starts watching the door for him. Like clockwork, every night the guy with the sad eyes comes into the bar, orders a single drink, and leaves again. He never speaks. Never smiles. Just drinks and leaves.Until the night he orders a second drink and Connor finally gets him to speak.After the … speak.
After the brief conversation, Connor is more intrigued than ever – but it’s not until a chance meeting after work one evening that he even learns the guy’s name.
Two years ago, a fire left Lucas with extensive scarring.
A year ago, his partner, unable to cope with the aftermath of the event, left him.
Battling nightmares, depression, and survivor guilt, Lucas turns more and more often to vodka for company.
Until he drops his pizza order and the guy who steps in to help him is the bar tender who has been serving his drinks for the past year.
How can Connor understand the true horror of what happened to Lucas? How can he convince Lucas to accept his feelings and start looking to the future instead of the past?
Recovery is a stand-alone contemporary gay romance.
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3.5
When I chose Recovery from my tbr, i was looking for a sweet story with low angst.
And it’s exactly what I got, but I wasn’t prepared for some of the deep feelings it carried…
Recovery is a story of healing, acceptance, and love
I loved Connor, his patience, his understanding nature; and I loved Lucas, his feelings of guilty, his nightmares, and his insecurities.
They made me swoon and shed few tears
I liked the author did not take lightly on Lucas health problems, because it gave the story a sens of realness.
What I didn’t like was the use of third person because it feels like the characters are out of my reach.
I don’t know if it makes sens but it’s like i can’t really connect with them and their emotions.
A story of opening up to love after years of pain and trauma. Overall a beautiful story!
This is a beautifully written story dealing with deep emotions and heartbreak. The author brings strong characters in Connor and Lucas and deals with self confidence,guilt and pain … both physically and mentally on Lucas’s part and support and love on Connor’s. You can feel the pain coming through the pages with the authors vividly painted scenes and as she takes them on their journey in finding love and happiness. I would highly recommend reading.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own and freely given.
Traumatic events can forever change a person in many ways. For Lucas, it’s left him with nightmares, doctor visits, physical therapy, and lingering pain, both emotional and physical. He feels unloved, unwanted, and guilt for surviving.
Connor has been serving Lucas a drink every day for over a year. They’ve had little verbal contact during that time. Everything changes, one u202aFriday nightu202c, over pizza and a spilled drink.
This was a good story about the resilience of human nature, and one man’s journey to recovery. Lucas and Connor were adorable as a couple.
Not having read them, in their original state of three novellas, I enjoyed this as one whole book. I read it easily in one setting. I always enjoy a story involving journeys of personal growth. This did not disappoint. I would give it a steam rating of 2.5 out of 5. For the most part, it happened off-page. That changes a little over halfway. Despite that, the love between the two was very present and accounted for. If you’re looking for a story that will give you hope, and a case of the warm fuzzies, this is it.
***Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure. A review wasn’t a requirement. ***
4 Stars!
Connor has been drawn to the man with the sad eyes that has been coming to his bar every night for a year and ordered a single drink. At first, he tried talking to him, but the man shut him down. But after a deviation from the man’s usual order and a chance encounter outside the bar, Connor finally learns the man’s name, Lucas, and they strike a friendship that quickly turns into more.
However, Lucas carries with him the scars, both emotional and physical that surviving from a fire in his building two years ago left him and while he’s attracted to Connor, he has a lot of baggage from his last relationship.
Connor was a dream man, sweet, caring, supportive, I loved him from the start. I liked Lucas, too, my heart broke at all he went through. I was more than a little frustrated with him, though, for keeping comparing Connor to Justin, his ex. Still, I really liked them together and thought they had a lot of chemistry.
While I didn’t like Justin, the one I liked even less was Lucas’s mother, although I guess she got better near the end.
All in all, I wouldn’t have known this was 3 stories that the author compiled into one with some new content if she hadn’t mentioned it. It flowed well and even if there were some missing words here and there, it wasn’t enough to dim my enjoyment of the story. It was an emotional, realistic read, I will admit I shed more than a few tears in the last 35% of the story, but it was well balanced with the sweet and hot romance. Recommendable!
*** A copy was provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, but I borrowed it from KU. A review wasn’t a requirement.
I read and enjoyed this book as 3 separate short stories (Phoenix, Dove and Eagle) when they were first published. I must admit that I couldn’t wait to revisit this new and extended full length book, Recovery.
Again, I was intrigued by Lucas’s story, which Connor slowly draws from him. The nightmares, the damage, the pain…all are told in sympathetic, though realistic, detail. Although often dark, particularly at the start, Lucas becomes lighter as his relationship with Connor grows, happy for longer periods of time.
Connor is a sensitive hero. The temptation is to draw comparisons with Drew or Ben, but he is a person in his own right. We never really learn much of Connor’s background like we do for Lucas, but then their present together is so much more important. One particular reveal is that Connor is drawn to “lame ducks”, something he didn’t recognize until pointed out to him. He also has a lower self esteem than it first appears.
Lucas’s mother has the potential to be a cartoon villain. Her concern comes across with added bitchiness for much of the story. I really enjoyed the metamorphosis to a more caring individual and her final acceptance of Connor. It rounds out this well written story.
This book is full of emotion and, by the end, I wanted to cry happy tears that this lovely couple will have the HEA that they deserve. Ultimately, the man who didn’t believe he could ever be loved again has found the one person who completes him. Bravo!
Fabulously awesome tale. Wonderful characters.
Highly recommend.
A relationship tempered in tragedy and trouble: touching
4-4.5stars
This couple, bartender Connor and Lucas, a mysterious regular customer, have major challenges to overcome. Lucas has a very moving backstory and still bears the burden of his survival when others perished in a fire. He’s struggling; luckily for him, Connor sees past his issues to the man beneath.
I first read the shorter, serialized version of the story when it came out a few years ago. This version has greater continuity and provides a happy glimpse of the bliss at the end of their rainbow.
To me, the first half of the story is the strongest as Lucas reveals his past, his scars and weakness to Connor and finds nothing but support and acceptance. Lucas’s mother is a real fly in the ointment; her machinations are priceless! With plenty of steam, angst and emotion, topped off by an adorable surprise at the end, I really enjoyed this tale of triumph in the face of pain, betrayal and adversity.
I read a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.