Title and Link: Love Me Back To Life
Author: M.L Rhodes
Cover Artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Publisher Buy Link:
Amazon buy link: Love Me Back To Life
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Extended Novella. 39000 words
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Review by Zac D
Review Summary: A slightly over crowded, predictable read, but enjoyable enjoyable nonetheless, with a well described setting and likable characters. Shame about the dodgy timeframe.
WARNING
The plot of this book is centered around the rape/incest hidden in the past of one of the main characters. Not a problem for me, but if it’s triggering for you, avoid.
Blurb:
The first time Noah Blackburn met Phoenix Quinlan, he’d known they were going to be best friends. It was fate, after all, since they were the same age and shared the same birthday. It hadn’t mattered that Noah lived in a sunny world where he spent his days wandering the Colorado mountains with his doting, artist father, while Phoenix hailed from the outskirts of town, where he lived with a dad who drank more than he worked and who ruled their house with a brutal temper. When the two boys were together, life was perfect, and neither of them could imagine being parted. But the spring before their sixteenth birthday, tragedy struck, robbing Noah of the father he’d adored. Shortly afterward, Phoenix began to withdraw, holding Noah at arm’s length, missing school…and then one day he just disappeared. Devastated by those events, Noah’s further shaken when, without warning, his emotionally detached mother moved them across the country, cutting Noah’s final tie to everything he’d once loved.
Now, twelve years later, Noah returns to La Paz, Colorado. He’s tired, emotionally battered, and looking for a fresh start, or maybe a restart of the life that had so long ago been derailed. But with painful memories haunting every corner, he begins to doubt his decision. Without his father, and especially without Phoenix, whom he can now admit was so much more to him than just a friend, his childhood town feels barren, absent of the connections that had once made it home.
But then, when he least expects it, Noah discovers something that shakes his world. He finds that truths aren’t always what they seem, quaint small towns can hide the darkest of secrets, and some heartaches run so deep only the strongest, most steadfast of loves can heal them.
Review:
I enjoyed this book for the most part, and the main reason for that was Noah. Noah is a wonderful character. Technically, his backstory is less traumatic than Phoenix’s turns out to be, but for me it was every bit as heartbreaking, and actually I think Noah’s past was written much better than that of Phoenix.
Noah lost his dad when he was a teenager and moved across country believing the love of his life (‘Phee’) was dead. Heartbroken, he crashes his car, shatters his leg and embarks on a career he hates. He is but a broken soul when he returns to the town he grew up.
Man, it still gives me the feels even now, and this element of the book was superbly written.
Phoenix didn’t resonate with me as much as I wanted him to. His back story broke my heart and I wanted to like him, I really did, but his personality wasn’t emotive enough to see it through. I felt disconnected from him every step of the way and it made me wonder if perhaps the story would’ve been better told entirely from Noah’s POV.
I did, however, believe in the timeless bond between the two men. The glimpses of their childhood together were wonderful, and I’d loved to have seen more of them. I also enjoyed the character ‘Gracie’. While I found it a little convenient that she just happened to know just about everything in the whole wide world about the two MC’s…even stuff they weren’t sure of themselves…sometimes a book just needs a sage old dame to bang some heads together. The good ole’ fashioned diner food helped too. The diner itself was an evocative setting and made me feel rather nostalgic. Good work.
Onto the nagging…
The time frame of the story is ridiculous. The two main characters have been separated from each other for twelve years, and yet the whole book spans just two days…AND, by the end of those two days they are head-over heels in love again, getting down to business and life’s a peach.
I love the concept of a lost love healing a broken soul, but, seriously, that shit takes years…perhaps a lifetime. Not two nights in a seedy motel room.
Still, I do love me a happy ending, and I came away from the book with a smile on my face. It’s well written for the most part, and technically sound. I wanted to like it much more than I did. I just felt that such heavy subject matter, combined with Noah’s tragic backstory, could’ve been handled better, and fleshed out into a longer book. I came away with a lot of loose ends and unanswered questions.
A shame, because the concept had huge potential.
Three stars.