Lenaribka

3,5 stars rounded up

[book:A Careful Heart|33864398] is a good and solid story that held my attention from the beginning up to the end, well written, with love to detail and melancholic elegance.

Not your typical MM Romance: though it is a love story, you won't find any sex scenes here. Sex happens but out of pages.

It is in the first place a novel about deep friendship and the power of love.

Two close friends—Travis Gaines and Stephen. Whereas Stephen is rather shy and very reserved, Travis is extroverted and communicative, but despite all the differences, they are the best friends - more like brothers - and they are inseparable.

[book:A Careful Heart|33864398] is a story of their friendship, their supportive families, their profound connections to each other, their life experiences, bad and good, and how they learn to be honest to themselves and their feelings. The author shows us their lives through high school, college, beginning of working careers and adulthood. From childhood to maturity, through thick and thin.

There is an interesting way of telling the story: [author:Ralph Josiah Bardsley|14439629] shows it from different points of view. The focus is not steadily set on only one characters, it flows between characters.

The book starts a bit slow but gains on pace through the story. The last part is full of surprises and an unexpected turn at then end can let us consider almost a change of a genre!

I mostly enjoyed the part that told the love story of Stephen und Gabe and the dynamic of their relationship. Moreover, Gabe became my favorite MC, though he is rather a main secondary characters in this book.

All in all, it is a good written, emotional and engaging novel. I think I would have enjoyed [book:A Careful Heart|33864398] much more if I had fallen for the main characters too, but despite I was invested in their story, I didn’t feel this deep connection to them that makes a good written interesting book to a 5 star reading experience.



***ARC provided by the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.