A MelanieM Review: Road Trip by A.F. Henley

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

At 35, car mechanic Boyd Matthis is feeling a bit disillusioned if practical about the way his life panned out. He makes just enough to pay his bills and get by. But what of the dreams he once had? On his wall is a faded map of the country with pins pushed into locations he always wanted to visit. A 60’s muscle car, another dream, would be the ideal ride that takes him out on the trip of a lifetime…all out of reach of Boyd’s finances. Until a miracle happens. Boyd finds his dream car for sale at a price he can afford after 15 years of saving and his life changes course.

One cross country flight later and Boyd has the keys to his new ’69 Roadrunner in hand and the pedal to the metal. He’s got a plan and a time table to meet before he has to be back at his job. It’s all working out for once. Until Las Vegas when Boyd runs into Oliver Martin, 24, a young man in trouble trying to return home to Maryland. Boyd just can’t turn his back on someone in such obvious pain and need of assistance. Now its two for the road with time to get to know each other and for affection if not more to settle as they ride east. But Oliver’s troubles aren’t over yet as the shadow of Oliver’s past is following behind them. What happens when the dreams of one man has the potential to change both mens future forever?

A. F. Henley’s marvelous Road Trip brought up so many emotions and memories for me. Boyd’s dream car, what is now referred to as a historic vehicle was a car of my youth, along with 8 tracks, wide tires, and call of the road trip and the idea that your dreams could be realized somewhere along the way of that smooth, wide asphalt. It was also a known “next stage” of adolescence. From a boy and a dog, to a boy and his car, although in my case it was girl and a dog, to girl, dog, and a car. It didn’t seem to matter that was a Ford Mustang ’65 or in this case a ’69 Plymouth Roadrunner, black on black. To be the ruler of the road and master of your dreams, your ride needed to be powerful too.

Henley’s Boyd is a weary, good man who has about given up on his dreams. Boyd has diligently saved for 15 years (at a small salary as a mechanic) to own his own holy grail of cars only to see life with all its mishaps continually reduce the4 savings he put aside to purchase his dream car. A faded old USA map full of push pins outline a journey to places Boyd has thought about since childhood. Those dreams combined with the 69 Roadrunner encapsulated the hopes and future Boyd once thought he could achieve but are fast slipping away. I loved that Henley’s Boyd feels so familiar and real. He’s matter of fact about his appearance, good points and bad. His view of his life is unobscured by filters and he is accepting that his status, as a hardworking gay man of “singular” status might be permanent. Bars and hookups for Boyd as a thing of his past. And we get that because Henley’s portrait of a decent, hardworking man is so vivid and believable that Boyd quickly works his way into our hearts.

And then Boyd’s dreams come true and the feeling in these words are almost heartrending in their quiet joy.

…It was so much more than just a car, or just a road trip… It was that thing he’d been planning for, that one thing, and it was finally happening. It didn’t matter that he still rented a falling-down shack while all his buddies were buying houses. It didn’t matter that he didn’t own his own garage or that he had to scrape by on sixteen bucks an hour. He was getting his car. He was fulfilling a dream.

It was that flurry of emotion that gave Boyd the stamina to ignore the oversized man sitting to his left on the plane who snored most of the way there. It was the same rush that stopped him from losing his mind on the irritating woman to his right who kept bumping his arm with her laptop. He’d even been able to turn a blind eye when the brat in front of him kept popping over the seat to stick out his tongue.

When he arrived at the airport, Boyd waited with a patience even he’d been surprised he could manage for the cab that would take him from the airport in San Francisco out to West Sacramento. He didn’t get irate when they got stuck in traffic on the bridge, even though bridges freaked him the hell out— especially ones that seemed as long as small countries were wide. None of it mattered.

None of the tiny issues were going to get in the way of his adventure. He could have charmed demons if he’d needed to. Nothing in life had ever felt so gratifying as the moment when he finally got to stand beside that sweet little machine and call it his; when he got to hold the keys with the garish, dangling eight-ball and claim them. She was perfect.

There we are, in the moment as Boyd stands beside his dream realized, and its feels as powerful and true as if we were Boyd himself. And it gets better as Boyd and Roadrunner hit the highway, heading for adventure and all those red pin destinations he has dreamed about his entire life.

Of course, Boyd’s intricately laid out plan hits a snag in Las Vegas (perfect place where many dreams go sideways). There Boyd finds and we meet the second main character to this story, Oliver Martin. Oliver is a scared, desperate 24 year old who followed his dream to Las Vegas only to see it crumble and try to destroy him. Now he’s at a dead end at his journey with no hope in sight. Until Boyd intervenes. Oliver is another entirely believable personage. Guarded, wounded, and clearly in need of help he won’t ask for, its a joy for the reader to see his character change and deepen as the men head east towards their respective homes in Syracuse, NY (Boyd’s) and Towson, MD (Oliver’s). Sometimes such a difference in ages between the characters doesn’t work but it does here. Oliver gives Boyd a fresh perspective on his vision of the trips and places they see plus Boyd gives Oliver a safe, firm foundation that allows Oliver to start to heal. Their relationship starts off shaky yet slowly becomes so much more. I loved that too.

And the third main character? Well, the ’69 Plymouth Roadrunner of course, black on black. From the moment Boyd grasps that key in hand, that car roars to life, becoming as important to their relationship and story as they are.

…It wasn’t just the way the sun glinted off the chrome or the brilliance of the car’s finish; it was the entire aura of the automobile that caught everyone’s attention. It drew people by the dozens, be it at the pier, the beach, or even the Denny’s that Boyd ate breakfast at. The men asked questions they hoped made them sound smart, and the women came to flirt as if the car was some kind of bizarre extension of his cock.

..he was sure that he could make up the time in Vegas. He donned shades against the early evening sun, popped in a cartridge of Del Shannon, turned up the volume, opened both windows wide, and drove the car hard. The engine thrummed and the speakers cooed, both working in time to drown out Boyd’s voice while he tried to hit notes he should not have.

A braided steering wheel, a box full of 8-track cassettes and the open road…and A.F. Henley puts us in the seat next to Boyd where we feel the softness of leather, shield our eyes from blinding light from the chrome and sit back, lulled by the hum of a powerful car doing what it was manufactured to do…complete someone’s dream. I could have stayed on the road with all three for pages and pages more than their journey ended.

But life and reality catches up with both in Maryland and what followed felt a little rushed and without foundation. I felt this section of the plot needed a little more fleshing out, whether in background or characters, to bring it up to the wonderful narrative that comes before. But it does supply a necessary element of drama and helps bring the story to a totally satisfactory conclusion. I loved this story and all the characters, car included.

I highly recommend that readers take this journey with Boyd and Oliver. Pick up Road Trip and remember what is feels like to have your dreams come alive and the whole world ready to explore. I leave you with the images of a car made to fly down our superhighways with the music blaring and you singing at the top of your lungs.

Cover artist Natasha Snow did a great job with incorporating important elements in a design that feels timeless.

Sales Links: Less Than Three Press All Romance (ARe) Amazon Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook
Published February 11th 2015 by Less Than Three Press
original titleRoad Trip
ISBN139781620045077
edition languageEnglish

On the Road with A. F. Henley’s Road Trip! (guest blog and giveaway)

Let’s turn up the music, roll down the windows

and head out on the road

with A. F. Henley!

A Giveaway and Guest Blog for my newest release… Road Trip

My Road Trip by A. F. Henley

Is there anything more exciting (and at the same time as nerve-wracking) as the prospect of taking a road trip? If everything goes smoothly, it can be one of the best times of a person’s life – odd places, interesting sights, the freedom of the open road, and the opportunity to experience something brand new. I think the idea calls to those of us who still have some of the wanderer buried deep down under the partitioned, organized, drudgery of day-to-day existence.

I took my own road trip while I was working on Road Trip, although mine was more of the Eastern side of the United States as opposed to Boyd’s journey of ‘sea to shining sea.’ It was crazy exhilarating, at times it was more than a little bit scary (yes, things really are different on the other side of that there border), but I can honestly say that I’ve never felt so empowered by something as simple as taking holidays before. I stopped where I wanted to stop, looked at what I wanted to look at, and if the idea of wondering off my chosen path hit me, I went with it.

I learned a lot as I travelled. For example:

• American border guards art not interested in your sense of humor, thank you very much, please step out of the car.

• The people in New York are either pleasantly content or grumpily hostile, and these two personas can be swapped for the either in less than a second.

• Pennsylvania is beautiful—resplendent in hills and mountains with breathtaking views, full of winding roads and courteous drivers, not to mention all kinds of back-to-nature goodness—and you will spend more time looking at your map thinking, how can I possibly not be through this state YET?!, because of it.

• Maryland is a super cool state to travel through because you get to mark off an entire state in what seems like the blink of an eye.

• When something goes wrong on the roads in Virginia, it goes very, very wrong. (By the time I arrived at my destination I had coined, and already begun overusing the phrase, “I blame Virginia for everything.”)

• The Outer Banks in North Carolina is where I will someday go to die. For all the right reasons.

• Unless I end up in Tennessee, as it is almost as beautiful as NC but doesn’t have those super-icky beach bugs. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t have the super-awesome beach.

• There are vending machines in the U.S. for almost everything, including placing food orders (and, apparently, hospital scrubs?!). This makes me far more wary than it probably should. Nothing says technological advancement like the slow but steady removal of human beings from damn near every process known to mankind. One day we’ll have a society with nothing left but the robotics and the government… And there, see? I have digressed. Because that is a story for another time.

See, the most important thing I learned along the way was that there is a whole heck of a lot of truth to the adage that the expedition is just as important (if not more) than where you end up. And if life truly is a journey and not a destination, then I’ll happily take mine behind the wheel of my car, with the sun through the windshield and the radio blasting, any day.

Speaking of the radio blasting… how’s about a playlist to carry us through the rest of the tour?

Until next time! ❤

Blurb & Cover for Road Trip!

For as long as Boyd can remember, he’s been pushing pins into a map. Carson City, Las Vegas, Albuquerque—all places he wants to see, for a dozen different reasons that wouldn’t mean a thing to anyone else. When he finally gets a chance to purchase the ’69 Road Runner of his dreams, at a price that even he can manage, Boyd jumps at the opportunity.

Oliver seems like just another kid with a broken dream when their paths cross in Vegas. Against Boyd’s better judgment, he offers to let Oliver hitch along for the ride when Oliver confides the need to get out and get gone.

But it’s not long before Boyd realizes Oliver’s reasons for running are more complicated—and more dangerous—than Oliver let on. But Boyd doesn’t like people who play hardball, and he definitely doesn’t like people messing with a man who’s managed to light a fuse that Boyd forgot he had.

Please note: Novel contains some explicit content.

Purchase Link: Less Than Three Press

Excerpt

It was just another day—just another twenty-four hour period between all the rest of them. Sure, thirty-five years prior, Boyd’s mother had been forcing out a nine-pound, some-odd-ounces mound of entirely unimpressed infant from the depths of her lady parts, but Boyd figured that was an event that should win her more kudos than it should him. As far as celebrating his birthday went, Boyd’s big plan was the acquisition of a bottle of Jim Beam, followed by the slow-but-steady process of sipping himself into an alcohol-induced stupor.

It hadn’t taken long for thirty-five to catch up to him, and it was one of those birthdays where three and a half decades hit like seven. His back ached from sprawling on cold concrete for too many hours. His finger joints burned from years of gripping air tools and turning wrenches. He was bitter and disillusioned, tired and worn out, and doing his best not to lament over the possibility that life truly was as good as it was going to get.

Until he saw the email.

The auto trader website had promised the best deals in the country delivered directly to one’s inbox, free of charge. Simply enter some personal info, vehicle preferences, and wait. Boyd had been a member for almost four years, but it had got to the point where most of the ‘awesome’ notifications were marked and deleted before they were even read. This one had pictures, though, and even if it would take his ancient computer several minutes to chug them into existence, opening it would mean Boyd could live vicariously with somebody else’s chromed baby for a few moments.

The car was a beauty. The body was mint, the engine supposedly ran like a clock, and it was drive-away ready. So when he saw the price, Boyd almost ignored it. A typo, he assumed. Someone forgot a one. An asking price of six-point-two was unheard of. He even went so far as to close and delete the email, to shut down his computer, locate his keys, and head for the front door before he reconsidered. Because, what if…?

What if finally…?

The Giveaway

On behalf of the tour, please join the giveaway by taking part in the Rafflecopter below. The prize consists of a Vintage ‘Chrome’ and Leather Road Runner Key Fob (can you say awesome Father’s Day Gift?), a $20 gift certificate to the Less Than Three Press book market (free books!), and a signed, print copy of Road Trip (when available). Click through for terms and conditions, further details, and your chance to win! See all the details here:

** Please note that this giveaway is being offered tour-wide and there will be one winner awarded for the entire event. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

ENTER RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY HERE: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Author Bio :

Henley was born with a full-blown passion for run-on sentences, a zealous indulgence in all words descriptive, and the endearing tendency to overuse punctuation. Since the early years Henley has been an enthusiastic writer, from the first few I-love-my-dog stories to the current leap into erotica.

A self-professed Google genius, Henley lives for the hours spent digging through the Internet for ‘research purposes’ which, more often than not, lead seven thousand miles away from first intentions but bring Henley to new discoveries and ideas that, once seeded, tend to flourish.

Henley has been proudly working with LT3 since 2012, and has been writing like mad ever since—an indentured servant to the belief that romance and true love can mend the most broken soul. Even when presented in prose.

You can find or follow A. F. Henley here:
Website: http://afhenley.com/
Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/A.-F.-Henley/e/B00FIODWSK/
Publisher’s Page: http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/author-a-f-henley/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AFHenley
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AFHenley