Book Reviews

Book Blurb

In the five years since the love of his life abandoned him at the altar, Jake Morgan hasn’t left his house. The locals in this small English town have dubbed him Mr. Havisham, but he’s too preoccupied wrestling his demons to care about Dickensian comparisons. Forced to admit he’s losing the battle to keep up his large estate alone, he reluctantly places an advert for help. The striking young man who answers his call shakes him to the core.

When Darius answers the ad for the position at the mysterious mansion, the bitter, lonely master of the house tugs at his heartstrings. Setting aside his own run of bad luck, Darius batters at Jake’s emotional walls with kindness and determination that defy all attempts to drive him away. 

Just as tendrils of new love begin to intertwine, though, a terrible voice from the past intrudes. It threatens to drive Jake back into the shadows where Darius can never reach him…

Book Review

Reason, as most people will admit, has nothing to do with love. Even people who think of themselves as rational can be overcome by their emotions when matters of the heart are involved. Jake, the main character in this story, is a perfect case in point. He is a loner who believes he is not fit company for anyone, he has closed himself off to the outside world, and he believes he will never be able to love again. As it turns out, the perfectly “reasonable” attitude, at least in his opinion, cannot hold out against Darius. Once the man hired as a cook and handyman enters Jake’s life, reason flies out the window – never mind how much Jake fights his quickly reawakening impulses. The more I got into the story, the surer I was that this was one battle I did not want him to win!

Jake thinks of himself as broken, and he is definitely not what I would call well-adjusted. He has been through a lot, having been left at the altar five years ago, but the fact that he has not recovered even after so many years and constantly analyzing himself and his potential failings made me curious. What else was going on? Jake’s resolution, revealed early on, tells part of the story: “When Marc had left him on his wedding day, Jake had decided he would never need anyone again. He would never become so reliant that the loss of another person devastated him. He would never again leave himself wide open to such hurt.” Jake’s inability to figure out why he was rejected is a big part of the reason. And Jake’s character explains the rest: he is stubborn, his pride is wounded, his heart is broken, and his resolve never to fall in love again almost gets the better of him.

Darius is a bit of an enigma as well. He is much more outgoing, a talented cook and excellent handyman, and clearly determined to get the job working for Jake. As it turns out he has his own issues, debt being one of them, and he is desperate to keep his job. But then curiosity gets him fired, his landlord wants the back rent, and while his financial troubles grow, it is Darius’s tentative connection and sympathy for Jake that increase his need to do something. Anything to get Jake to reconsider…

Between these two men there are enough issues to make anyone despair. And it doesn’t get much better once Darius starts working at Jake’s house – in fact, his curiosity gets him summarily dismissed. It takes some doing for them to figure out they need each other and to gradually open up. It’s not an easy process, but loneliness (once admitted), shared space, and basic human decency play their part. And then it almost falls apart when Jake’s past tries to catch up with him - the audacity of the creep made me gasp and root for Jake and Darius even harder.

If you like stories about tortured souls and wounded emotions, if you want to see how two strangers find out that they need each other more than either of them could have believed possible, and if you’re looking for a read that begins much bleaker than it ends, then you will probably like this novella.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Extasy Books for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novella, 97 pages/28282 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	13-April-2018
Price	$4.99 ebook
Buy Link	http://www.extasybooks.com/978-1-4874-1603-4-against-reason/