Reviewed by Susan65
Title: Damaged
Author: Noah Willoughby
Heroes: Tom Otso/Eric Kontio
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 74 Pages
Publisher: Noah Willoughby
Release Date: June 27, 2016
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Nobody is invincible…
On a seemingly ordinary night, Tom Otso’s life changes forever when he is ambushed, attacked and left for dead. Though he survives the ordeal, Tom finds out at the hospital that the gravity of his injuries has left him permanently disabled.
Eric Kontio is a physical therapist who is assigned to Tom’s case to help rehabilitate and adapt Tom to his new way of living. In helping people for over 20 years, Eric has never met anyone with such an incredible spirit and positive attitude as Tom. Eric becomes infatuated with him and marvels at his incredible progress.
Being together every day, the two men grow closer as friends, but things become complicated by Tom’s jealous and moody boyfriend, Adrian, and Eric’s professionalism being doubted by his superior. When the true feelings of both men come to the surface, so do their painful pasts which could make or break their relationship.
Review: I had to sleep on this review before I could write something. There was so much I liked and some that I didn’t. Trying to decide how much I liked the book was not an easy task. It was somewhere between a 3 and 4 star, so I settled on 3.5 stars. I guess I can write this by pointing out what did and did not work for me and then you can be your own judge once you read the book.
First what I liked. I loved Tom and I loved Eric. These two just fit as decent men and as a couple. They were more alike than different and I think that worked well for this short story. I also loved the ending. Finally getting answers to why the book started the way it did was necessary to my enjoyment and the overall rating. Eric was such a great guy, and the fact that he put his attraction to Tom on hold and still went above and beyond to assist a man who was in a relationship was admirable. His boss was a tool, but that’s another story. It was also pretty amazing to read about how well Tom progressed. I am not in the medical field, so whether it’s realistic or not didn’t matter. I think the purpose was to show his fortitude in the face of adversity.
What I struggled with was Tom allowing this to happen to him in the first place. Getting the reason at the ending helped tamper down that disbelief, but still, I can’t imagine anyone willingly allowing that type of trauma on their person. It was hard to wrap my mind around, but who knows what they would do in that type of scenario. I think the other big part that I couldn’t understand was Adrian not knowing where Tom was while he was in the hospital. For four weeks Adrian did what? We never knew what was going on with him while Tom was in coma. We can guess, though.
This is a short story. I read it in one sitting, so you know that the character development will be limited and the timeline will jump to progress the story. For the most part, it wasn’t that big of an issue, but there were parts that needed a little more explanation and development for me to totally get on board. Otherwise, I liked the premise and the real Tom at the end was a shocker, so overall it was a pretty good read
Overall Impression: I liked it
*I received a copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.*
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