Book Description:
Liam Davis is a man without a past. That’s what he wants everyone to believe, anyway. Hell-bent on erasing any memories of his previous life, he knows that starting over is all he can do. Hiding who he is, where he’s from, why he’s running, and especially who he’s left behind, Liam has run away from everything he’s ever known. His plan works perfectly until one day when Parker Ryan threatens to expose his carefully concealed world.
Parker Ryan is a man without a future. Sure, he’s a partner in one of New York’s most prestigious law firms, but he’ll never be more than a failure in the eyes of his boss, his father. Rather than break away from his father’s standards, he finds himself mindlessly pursuing them, in turn sacrificing anything that would actually make him happy.
When Liam’s and Parker’s lives collide, the ugly truth about who they really are, and who they hope to become reveals itself when they least expect it. As both of their lives become wrecked beyond all belief, they’ll learn how to rely on each other in their journey to become Repaired.
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Excerpt:
The loud bang on the garage doors scared the shit out of, making me jump out of my skin. “Shit,” I yelled after hitting my head on the bumper. Despite calling out, “One second,” the banging continued. More than a little dizzy, my anger mounted as I walked toward the door. “Chill the fuck out,” I muttered as I wiped my hands on a work rag. The row of windows stretching through the mid-line of the door was tinted so that only someone on the inside could see out. They were designed that way so anyone peering into the shop wouldn’t be able to see what kind of cars were parked inside—a security tip I offered to Paulie after I’d started working here.
The man standing on the other side must not have heard me because he continued his relentless banging. At this rate, I’d be surprised if his knuckles weren’t all bloody and cut up.
Knowing he couldn’t see me did nothing to stop me from staying to the side. My initial intention was simply to check out who the hell was trying to break down my door. The last thing I needed was some psychopath ruining my night, but as I peered out the window, the last thought running through my mind was that he was a psycho.
Dressed in a modern grey suit, he was the epitome of class. The baby blue shirt underneath made his eyes pop, of course the anger simmering there amplified them as well. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he looked like he was trying to ward off some massive headache. Either he really was a psychopath, playing his part of the deception perfectly, or he was in a bind and genuinely in need of help. Watching him run his fingers through his thick dark brown hair, he let out a deep huff of breath. The door muffled his words, but I swear I heard him say, “Just my fucking luck.”
Having uttered that phrase more than a few times in my own life, I decided I’d let him in and see what he needed. The fact that my dick was twitching in my pants at the mere sight of him didn’t hurt his case much either.
He stood at attention as he listened to me unclicking the locks. The doors rolled open revealing his long, lean frame. This guy was money. It was written all over him, from his shirt to his shoes, from his shiny cufflinks to the BMW key dangling from his finger.
“Can I help you?” My voice was gruff, and I hoped he thought it was from his less than polite request to be seen, rather than the reaction I was having to him.
He eyed me, scanning my body from head to toe. Annoyance was written all over his face and my attraction quickly morphed into annoyance. “Excuse me,” I prompted when he still hadn’t spoken a single word. “You knocked on my door. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Uh, yeah,” he answered, running his hands through his hair once again. “Hit a pothole down the road,” he explained somewhat distractedly. He pointed in the direction in which I assumed his damaged car sat.
“Let me grab the keys to the tow truck.” Walking away from him, I felt his stare on my back.
By the time I walked back out of the office, he was gone. “What the hell?” I mumbled to myself, wondering where the hell he’d gone. For a split second, I actually wondered if I’d conjured him up from thin air to keep myself occupied as I closed the shop by myself. But the smell of his cologne still hung in the air, his heat like a shadow lingering in the open space.
Our Review:
Reviewed by Donna ~ 4 stars
***ARC given for an honest review***
“I knew he was never going to be the person who completes me. He was the person who helped me realize that I was complete on my own, flaws and all.”
I do love M/M books and I can’t for the life of me remember why I was so apprehensive when I dived into my first many moons ago. There is something about the connection in these books that melts my heart, everything is more intense and it is for this reason that I am an M/M addict. This was another one of those reads, that intense connection, it gave me the flutters and once again I was championing these two men.
“I’d tried for so long to hide that same look, that same anger at being trapped in a life you’d give anything to escape.”
Liam and Parker were as opposite as opposite can be, but then we all know that saying how opposites attract...even though their first meeting was far from smooth, even then I felt that sizzle, saw them fireworks and you just knew that if these two ever got together it would be intense and I was so right, this was intense.
“You’ve got a simple choice here. Accept him for who he is and what he had or use who he is to push away from him. What you choose says a lot more about yourself than it ever will about him.”
Liam was a runaway and throughout the book you are trying to figure out why and what he was running from, you have an idea but nothing is truly revealed until a pivotal moment and the build up to this stopped my heart. It was heart breaking. Liam was lucky, he was found, starving, dirty and desperate and was taken in by a man that had the hugest heart and became Liam’s one and only friend. He gave Liam a job and a job that Liam has remained in for over ten years. Their friendship is strong and he is the father type figure that Liam never had.
“Running away is never the easy choice...it means you must have had a really good reason for doing so and you were brave enough to do something about it.”
Parker is a lawyer, a lawyer that is a partner in his father’s firm. A man he doesn’t get on with, a man who hardly recognises him, a man who really despises him, a man who just sees him as a regret as a mistake. Parker tries so hard to make his father love him, respect him, it is heart breaking and when the real feelings finally come out, it was truly devastating.
“All I could focus on was that the man before me, who was once so afraid of what the future held, was now grabbing it by the reins and making it his bitch.”
Both of these men crave acceptance, they each have their issues, Liam more so than Parker but Liam is reserved, he is a hard nut to crack, he requires perseverance and thank god that Parker had the patience of a saint. Parker, in the beginning came across as the cocky, arrogant arse that you would expect from a lawyer, he does himself no favours, but underneath that false bravado is an extremely endearing man. Liam himself has a façade to break down and once Liam and Parker find the men underneath, sparks fly and they were truly amazing together. Sometimes you can just tell, you know that moment when you know they are “the one.” This really came across in this story; you knew this was the be all and end all for these two. Neither were looking for it, but it hit them over the head and in the heart anyways and while they have their issues to work through, they both took the time.
“He didn’t only need to give up control, he needed to give it to someone who could be responsible enough to take it, yet caring enough to earn it.”
I loved how these two discover each other, the time they take to “find” each other, that voyage of discovery. It is slow; it is intense and was truly beautiful. Issues that take time to break down, deal with and finally put away, that giving and receiving of complete trust, that handing yourself over, mind, body and soul. It was real, it was tangible, I felt every brick come down and with every one your heart beats that bit quicker. I was willing these two on, I wanted them to succeed.
“Because you’ve made yourself a part of my life. Whether you know it or not, your quiet strength has helped me start to fix some of my broken pieces.”
We have dark pasts that are dealt with sympathetically and empathetically, men that have never felt loved, never felt wanted and at times this was heart-breaking. This book may contain triggers for some but as I said above, it was not done for gratification, it felt like a real story, panning out before your eyes. My only little critique was that I felt one piece of the puzzle fell a little too conveniently, but overall this was an extremely addictive read. A book that once I started, I couldn’t stop until the last word was read. I had tears and I had smiles but at the end I knew that I read a great book, a story that I will remember and one that I loved wholeheartedly. I highlighted so much of this book; I love this author’s voice.
About the Author:
Melissa Collins has always been a book worm. Studying Literature in college ensured that her nose was always stuck in a book. She followed her passion for reading to the most logical career choice:
English teacher. Her hope was to share her passion for reading and the escapism of books to her students. Having spent more than a decade in front of a classroom, she can easily say that it’s been a dream.
Her passion for writing didn’t start until more recently. When she was home on maternity leave in early 2012, she read her first romance novel and her head filled with the passion, angst and laughter of the characters who she read about it. It wasn’t long before characters of her own took shape in her mind. Their lives took over Melissa’s brain and The Love Series was born.
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