This is one of the most emotional and hearbreakingly beautiful books I have had the pleasure to read in a long time! Outstanding!...
I am not sure I can even begin to explain or even do justice to the words of Ms. J. P. Baranby! This book touched my heart in so many ways. Being in the mind of Aaron, his soul so utterly and completely shattered was devastating! but the heartwarming journey for his chance at 'normal' and the two families involved, who themselves were stretched to breaking point was poignant in it delivery.
Aaron, a beautiful boy damaged and broken, scarred both inside and out, by the most heinous of crimes from which he can never escape. Night after night he is plagued by debilitating nightmares, taking him back to the garage where he and his best friend Juliette were attacked. He can see the stained concrete floor, the water damaged ceiling - it's dirty and he can smell the oil, there is blood and always, Juliette's eyes pleading. But he is helpless....awakes full of fear and nausea, trembling, his very soul tortured. He survived....and now he can't live with that guilt and wishes that he too had died that night with his friend.
Aaron now simply exists, the sixteen year old boy with everything to live for died on that garage floor and what is left is an empty vessel, unable to function on his own. The many psychologists who were unable to help him, simply administer drugs for his suffocating depression and panic attacks, which leave him incapacitated and completely impassive, and with flashbacks of the fateful night triggered by any touch to his body, he is left without even the comfort of his mothers arms.
Spencer Thomas is deaf, born three months premature he is left with hearing impairment, and having been mainstream schooled he is also angry at the world and those who could not see past his stilted speech and deafness and saw him only as a retard! Ostracised by his peers and no friends for company, even his Father, a leading Trauma Specialist, who he was once so very close to has now slipped into a depression, finding his comfort in a bottle. Spencer is alone. He may be deaf, but he is like any other normal teenage boy, same wants and needs..in other words, he thinks with his dick! His solution, which was very enlightening for me was...Twitter Sex! Over the internet, where his deafness was not an obstacle he found willing partners. He just wants to be touched!
Spencer is drawn to Aaron - so sad and frightened, he feels compassion, wanting only to help him. So when the two are paired together as project partners, which is the perfect solution to what could have been a very harrowing and humiliating experience for both, through Twitter, IM and email they slowly come to trust one another and we are taken on a journey fraught with emotion, good and bad, compelled by evocative prose, moving dialog and characters so well developed you become immersed in their lives, willing them to make the right decisions, hoping with all your heart that the pain and hurt in their lives, if not forgotten, will at least be behind them and truly find solace in their friendship and love in their blooming romance.
People who know me, will be aware of how much I love my smut...but most of all I love books that make me 'feel' a book that has me so engrossed and invested in the characters that I am part of their lives. This is an erotic romance, but not between our two MC's, they are merely fledglings, taking baby steps in an emotionally complicated relationship, that is so beautiful in its delivery, I found myself in tears through the most part, my heart both assaulted and warmed by the numerous emotions this book evoked. There is more to the tale of Aaron and Spencer and I am hoping the extremely talented J. P. Barnaby will not be making me wait too long to read it.
Do I recommend this book...HELL YES! Just read it!
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