Letting Go by M.J. O’Shea
This is the second book in the Rock Bay series.
- Coming Home (book # 1)
- Letting Go (book # 2)
- Finding Shelter (book #3)
**This review may have slight spoilers for those who haven’t read the first book in the series **
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Blurb…
Drew McAuliffe has lived in the small town of Rock Bay most of his adult life. He’d like to be happy, but not at the cost of having his private life under his nosy neighbors’ microscope, so he keeps his bisexuality under wraps.
After a messy breakup that caused him to pack up and move to Astoria, on the Oregon coast, Mason Anderson decides to avoid drama of the romantic kind. All he wants is to start over—alone.
But Drew and Mason were meant to meet. The long looks and awkward half hellos chance offered were never going to be enough. But when they do finally come together on the worst night possible, misconceptions and problems from their pasts get in the way. Until Mason learns to trust again—and until Drew learns to let go of who he thinks he is—a real connection is nothing but a pipe dream.
So what did I think?
I enjoyed this story.
Drew has lived in Rock Bay most of his life, playing by the rules which were largely dictated by the ‘in crowd’ at school. He is still friends with Brock, the homophobic bully who hasn’t changed his behaviour since high school, because Brock has contacts that could damage Drew’s business. But Drew is now querying the path his life has taken. “He wondered if at nearly thirty-three, it was too late to escape.”
In the first book of the series Coming Home, Drew had come out to his good friend Tally, finally admitting he was bi. Tally’s admission he was gay gave Drew the confidence to confide in his friend. Drew meets (or rather sees across the room) a gorgeous guy called Mason. The sparks fly for both men as they encounter each other a number of times without speaking beyond a ‘hi’. However, the road to true love does not go smoothly.
In this book, the timeline crosses over that from Coming Home so we revisit the events from the first book with some slightly different point of view. I had mixed feelings about this approach. In terms of providing a better understanding of Tally’s behaviour (why he kept seeing Brock instead of standing up for Lex), it was good. But I felt it didn’t do much to shed more light on Drew’s character and I just wanted the romance part to start!
The age gap was handled beautifully. Mason and Drew developed their relationship slowly and it was lovely to see the younger man excited to teach Drew about “passion and closeness”. “Mason realised it had nothing to do with skill or experience because all Drew had to do was touch him, and he melted all over the place.”
The men need to overcome a number of obstacles to find their HEA. Drew is worried that he is too old and Mason may tire of him or feel held back because his life is just starting. Mason has been hurt before by a controlling boyfriend and this leads him to interpret some of Drew’s actions incorrectly. Luckily there are some great best friends to push them in the right direction.
“So Drew makes huge changes in his life to be with you, you love him, and he makes a couple dumb mistakes, one of which he didn’t know was a mistake because you never really told him about Todd, and now you’re going to end everything over it?”
When Logan put it that way, he did sound crazy.
Overall this was an enjoyable book and Drew and Mason got their happy ending. 3.5 stars.
For more information on M.J. O’Shea and her book visit the website.
Buy the series at Amazon.