Reviewed by Morgan
Title: Lost Along the Way
Author: Marie Sexton
Narrator: Jeff Gelder
Series: Tales of the Curious Cookbook
Heroes: Daniel Whitaker/Landon Kushner
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 4 Hours, 41 Minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: august 11, 2015
Available at: Amazon, Audible and iTunes
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Three months after losing his parents in a car crash, Denver weatherman Daniel Whitaker returns to Laramie, Wyoming. It’s bad enough dealing with the death of his parents and his failing relationship of fifteen years, but when he finds his childhood home full of clutter, Daniel is at a loss. He enlists Landon, his parents’ sexy neighbor, to help him sort through the mess. Landon Kushner is a study in contradictions. He builds wind sculptures out of scrap metal and loves the outdoors, but he also rides a mint-green Vespa and has an affinity for knitting and fortune-telling. He’s been friends with Daniel’s parents for years, and he’s more than willing to lend a hand.
Their plan is simple: clean the house so Daniel can sell it and get back to his life in Denver. But when a strange cookbook comes into Landon’s possession, Daniel begins to realize that the universe–and Granny B–may have other plans.
Review – Book: Danny is stuck in a relationship with a man who is slowly pulling away from him and he doesn’t know what to do. When he finds out his parents have suddenly died and left him his childhood home, he runs away from making tough decisions by taking a long time to clear out the house.
While there, he meets Landon, a gay man who has been friends with Danny’s folks in a way that Danny never could. They had accepted Landon for who he is whereas they forced Danny to choose between his lover or his family.
Most of the story is spent with Danny ruminating about his dwindling relationship with his husband, Chase, and the loss of the relationship with his parents for Chase.
Landon helps him to see that he had to choose happiness, and at the time, that meant Chase. He also helps him to realize that Chase is no longer bringing him happiness, so he needs to make a new decision.
Danny also finds Landon to be an amazing person and the best cure for his long- standing loneliness (despite his relationship status) and is delighted to find that Landon has been crushing on him (via his parents) for years.
Together they work through some of Danny’s issues, his parent’s house and make a road map of their future, together.
**
I have to say that I was not expecting this when I read the blurb. I was expecting things with Chase to really have been over by the time Landon comes into the picture. I thought that it would be uncomfortable to have a new relationship starting on the heels of the old… and it was… but not as badly as I expected.
Landon is a wonderful character, and I wish we’d had more time with him and in his head. He’s got such a big heart and is such an improvement over the Eeyore-like Chase. I really appreciated his take on Danny’s life and thought he was spot on in his analysis.
The smexy times were nice and the HEA was sweet.
All in all a good – and surprising!- short story.
Review – Audio Book: Jeff Gelder is not my favorite narrator. His reading style is a bit more flat than I’d like, but he does a fair job with this. He doesn’t do anything to differentiate the characters but he does try to infuse the appropriate emotion into the dialog. I feel the non-dialog parts end up sounding a bit too upbeat (regardless of the words being read) and that sometimes gets distracting. However, as a way to listen to this story, it isn’t bad even if it doesn’t necessarily add a lot to the experience.
For the book and the audiobook 4 of 5 stars
Overall Impression: I really liked it
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*
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