Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Salvatore Terranova is a teacher at the local high school. He used to live in the big city of Charlottetown, but never did meet the man of his dreams. Jaded but not defeated, Sal returns to Montague, completely unaware that the mysterious new neighbor in the old Victorian across the street is much more than he seems.

Having uprooted himself, Behr Kincaid settles in a small town, thousands of kilometers from everything and everyone he’s ever known. And with good reason, because he wasn’t born with that name. Behr always knew his brother was a criminal, but when Maurizio killed Behr’s husband of ten years, Behr gave up the life he had in order to see justice served. Despite his new identity, Behr knows the inevitable showdown will come when Maurizio tracks him down.

As Sal gets to know Behr, he realizes the man is lying about more than his name. While Behr wonders if there’s room for the truth, Sal wants to know who he’s falling in love with and must decide if it can lead to anything but a broken heart.

Even the Innocent by D. W. Marchwell was not the story I hoped for. I was waiting for something better. It’s a good story with good characters, main and secondary ones too (Sal’s family was amazing). The blurb sounded really good and the premise  caught my interest. The reason why I can’t give it more than three stars is that it didn’t deliver as I was expecting. Let’s start from the beginning.

Behr just moved to Montague, Canada with his two Shepherd dogs, Charlie and Lucy. He had to start a new life, in a new place, a new home and a new identity, after testifying against his own brother Maurizio, who killed Dino, a policeman and Behr’s husband for ten years.

Sal teaches physical educational and has a large, overwhelming Italian family but he is pretty much lonely. When he meets the beautiful man with redhair and cute dogs, he is soon attracted to him, but the man flees. The Fate will give Sal a second chance when the fearful man ends up being his new neighbor, Behr.

Behr is often on the edge, always watching his back for some revenge from his brother. Sal knows he is hiding something but he’s not worried about, he just wants to live this story, be able to make Behr smile again and show him how much Sal cares about him. I liked Sal a lot, he’s funny, caring and a great family man, just what Behr needs.

I was expecting more angst at the start but honestly the story is not heavy or depressing, cause the author chose to bring Sal and Behr soon quickly. So while I was waiting for something to happen, what I really got was simply a sweet story between two lonely men. It was a light reading, with some funny moments in it too.

I liked the story in general but I’d have preferred for the MCs to not be together so soon. In my opinion it was too early because Behr went through so much hurt.  I expected him to wait a little more before trusting someone who was basically a stranger with his secrets, that would have been better, especially when his own blood betrayed him in the worst way.  Through all the reading I had the feeling Sal and Behr didn’t realize the danger they were in. They acted too careless, foolishly. At the end the story resolved too simply, missing depth in the characters I had expected.

It is an okay reading, if you’re in the mood for something light. Since I thought I was going to read a different story, Even The Innocent disappointed me in some parts, definitely not the best book I read by D.W. Marchwell.

Cover art by Aaron Anderson

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Book Details:

Published March 30th 2015 by Dreamspinner Press
ebook, 200 pages
ISBN13 9781632166487
Edition language English