3.5 Stars

A light, easy feel-good read when you don't want anything more substantial. And sometimes that's just what one needs. ( )

Tim is a country boy at heart. He is from a small town USA, farm county, but on the contrary of most young people like him, he loves to live there, he loves the warm atmosphere and that everyone knows everyone else and you care for your neighbor. Maybe most of this attitude is due to the fact that Tim grew up in an accepting family, orphan when he was few years old he was brought up by his aunt and her husband, a couple that had lost hope to have a son for their own. Being older than ordinary parents and old fashioned, they never spoke loudly of the nephew's sexual preferences, but they neither made him feel uncomfortable or unwelcomed. Problem is that the small town didn't do the same and Tim ended up in an abusive relationship with a same age man. Being alone and desperate for love, Tim mistook his relationship with Aaron for love and it took him 10 years to understand the truth. And it was never his own understanding, but he was forced to face the reality: Aaron got married with a woman and wanted for Tim to continue being his little dirty secret as always.

Despite loving his family and the place where he lives, Tim understands that it's time to leave. He takes the first bus out of town, without real destination. Three days later he is in a diner just out of Austin, waiting for the next bus to leave. The place is like a mirror of his own life, only at the contrary: the nephew of the owner of the diner, a young gay man, living in an accepting environment and with a boyfriend who is not ashamed to openly love him, wants something different for his life; he wants the glittering of the big city, and suddenly leaves the place and the job. Tim is just there to take his place and his life: he has now a job in a place where more or less, everyone else is gay or gay friendly; it's a bit an utopical place, above all in Texas, but it's a small place in the world. The secret is to not leave the border of the diner, and life can be good.

In few days Tim has a new life, a new job, a new place where to live and also a possible new boyfriend, Bernie. Bernie is a long haul truck driver, who periodically stops at the diner before going home in Austin. Even if he has the body of a trucker, big, strong and reserved, Bernie is odd around the edges; he is very gentle and very cultured, he lives in a good neighborhood, he has his own property and drives expensive cars... there is something strange in him, but it's not a 'bad' strange, more another fairy tale piece to the dreamy atmosphere of the diner.

The story is sweet and simple, as I said almost fairy tale. Everything for Tim clicks in the right way if he lives inside the protective shield of the diner; and if he has to leave, it's enough for him to bring along someone like Bernie, that is part of that dream. The story is not a paranormal tale, but more a contemporary tale with a lot of optimism; the bad big world is out there, and it's not that is not acknowledge, the author only prefers to cover it up with a veil that soothe off the sharpness of it.

As always, both in contemporary stories than fantasy than paranormal, T.A. Chase adds the right dose of sex, good, healthy and with just enough details to satisfy.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1602728496/?tag=elimyrevandra-20