Reviewed by Heather C
Title: Hold the World Together
Author: Pepper Espinoza
Heroes: Alfred & Sam
Genre: M/M Historical Romance
Length: 31,000 words
Publisher: Amber Allure
Release Date: April 2014
Available at: Amber Allure, Amazon, All Romance eBooks and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Harvard graduate Alfred Chan jumps at the chance to teach languages at the new University of California, eager to leave his life behind even if it means a dangerous cross-country journey. He knows there are bandits in the western mountains, but he never expects the most infamous of those bandits to stop his wagon train and steal him away into the night.
Sam and Shane Lyons are wanted for robbing stagecoaches and wagon trains across the western territories, and they don’t just take money. Sometimes, they kidnap educated men. A mysterious Chinese scroll holds the promise of a better life for the two brothers, if only they can find somebody able to read the strange marks on the page. They whisk Alfred to their hideout high in the ragged cliffs of the Uinta Mountains, and there, during a brutal winter, they warn him that his life will end if he fails to deliver a full translation.
Alfred knows he should fear for his life, but somehow, when he’s with Sam, he’s not afraid of anything…
Review:
I really enjoyed this little, historical novella. At first, I struggled a bit because I went into it knowing nothing of what it was about. I didn’t know who the love interest would be for Alfred. Would it be his rescuer? Or would it be his kidnapper? Or was this even a romance at all… Turns out, it IS a romance, and a sweet one at that!
Alfred has been kidnapped by the Lyons brothers: notorious for robbing stagecoaches and killing whoever gets in their way. They need Alfred to translate an old scroll that promises to better their lives forever. But when winter hits in the Uinta Mountains, Alfred finds himself falling for one of his kidnappers.
This was a sweet, slow burn romance that actually got a lot more smexy than I was expecting. No, I don’t think the story was at all realistic, but it worked for me and I really felt the connection and sexual attraction between Alfred and Sam. It is a little dark and what I consider to be a bit tragic, even though it has a happy ending.
I had two big problems with the story:
- There were some awkward POV changes in the beginning where at some points I couldn’t even tell whose POV I was getting. Then there was ONE scene told from the bounty hunters’ POV before they even started out on the hunt to rescue Alfred, so I was expecting them to have a more important role in the story than they did. Its mostly told from Alfred’s POV, but Sam and the other two characters sneak in there too. I just prefer more consistency with POVs.
- Alfred does something pretty traumatic near the end. Its quite surprising and I expected him to react a bit differently than he did. Instead, it was basically a “non-issue” that really didn’t fit with his character IMO.
In the end, I could still read more of Alfred and Sam…
Overall Impression: I Liked It
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*
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