Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Amazing! Kiera Andrews brings home another hit and strikes it out of the ballpark.

The day before his wedding, Ethan comes home early to surprise his fiancé before they head out to their bachelor party. Though he’s not looking forward to the crowds because he’s hard of hearing, going deaf at an early age due to a genetic anomaly, he’s a bit distracted when he first walks in. But what and who he finds in his bed is exactly what you’d imagine. His fiancé and his best friend have been carrying on for several years and the proposition his fiancé makes nearly floors him.

Gutted, and with no immediate family left and now no best friend either, Ethan makes the decision to go to Australia alone. Intended to be his honeymoon trip, a visit to Australia is something his mother always wanted, and he chose the destination in part to honor her, so why not go alone? Better than staying in big, noisy New York City, where he’s not happy anyway and half the time can’t hear what anyone is saying due to the cacophony of sound echoing from building to building.

Clay Kelly drives bus tours on Australia’s East Coast. Living in Sydney with his adult daughter, the 46-year-old divorced father of two is pretty happy with life as it is, though he never does much more than work and watch cricket—his all-time favorite sport. When a hard of hearing young man joins the tour alone, Clay decides to befriend him—especially after he overhears the man explaining that he’s alone because his wedding was called off. He figures the least he can do is help by doing as the young man asks: speak slowly while facing him so that he can understand what’s being said. So many others talk too fast or put their hands in front of their face or turn slightly away. The author makes this point really well by adding mumble, mumble to the dialogue when in Ethan’s POV so we can appreciate how difficult it is for him to hear.

The author also takes time with this subject, educating without preaching, and she develops Ethan into such a loveable character that I just wanted to take this sweet young man under my wing and show him he’s not alone.  Fortunately, that’s what Clay does. He’s never been with a man, though he had a brush with neighborhood homophobia toward a nice young man in his childhood and suspected he might have felt an attraction before the boy was run out of the area. But he’s most definitely drawn to Ethan and decides to act on his attraction, despite the fact he has to tell his kids, his ex-wife, and his parents. 

This story has all the elements I love: age gap, man over forty, first time with a man, a sweet MC (or two), ordinary—yet complex—people doing extraordinary things like falling in love with someone who lives half a world away. Just lovely and I highly recommend it.

The cover by Dar Albert is perfect for this story and features a young man sunbathing at the beach and another walking past behind him. The colors of the sky and ocean are bright blue and the title in hot pink. I think I might have picked this up for the cover alone, but the contents are definitely a solid win.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details:

ebook, 286 pages
Published September 27th 2018 by KA Books
ISBN139781988260372
Edition Language English