Title: If It Ain’t Love
Author: Tamara Allen
Genre: m/m historical romance
Print length: 44 pages
Publication date: August 25, 2011
Rating: Five Stars
Blurb: In the darkest days of the Great Depression, New York Times reporter Whit Stoddard has lost the heart to do his job and lives a lonely hand-to-mouth existence with little hope of recovery, until he meets Peter, a man in even greater need of new hope.
Review:
What a way to start the month!
This must be the fifth Five Star book I’ve gotten my hands on in the last two weeks! I’m either extremely lucky lately, or I’ve finally learned how to pick ’em 🙂
This was such a charming and beautiful read.
We meet Whit first and he’s really down on his luck. The times are desperate, his job is in jeopardy, and everywhere he turns, all he sees are people just as desperate as he is. The author paints a truly disheartening picture of the Great Depression without going into too much detail. There is a scene where Whit offers to buy a cup of coffee to a man he sees crying in the soup kitchen line. In this one simple encounter, the full misery and wretchedness of the era comes to light. It sets the tone for the rest of the story.
So we meet Whit and are acquainted with his misfortunes. But not until he meets Peter, is Whit’s true character revealed. Only then we can clearly see that Whit is a survivor, a man who takes every little gift with gratitude and appreciation it deserves. While Whit is a man who has nothing, Peter is a man who lost everything. Family, home, everything he cared about, including his good name. His darkness is so much deeper than Whits, it appears bottomless.
The two men find each other almost by chance, and in the worst of times, they find something worth living for. Even thought the word ‘love’ is never actually spoken, it shines through every page. It truly does conquer all.
This is a short read but the message is timeless. It will stay with me for a long time.
I recommend it with all my heart 🙂
Download it for FREE from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KV1EHW/ref=oh_d__o00_details_o00__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Obsessive Reader 