Series: Hearts Intertwined
Volume: 1/?Publisher: Drea Roman Publishing
Genre/s: MM romance
Length: -
Read in: English
Review copy format: epub
Rate:✮✮✮✮✮✮
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Ian James Black is a talented and successful sculptor. Aubrey Davies earns a living by designing parks. One meeting of these two is enough to start a fire that cannot be put out. Clearly attracted to each other, they quickly allow their relation to become more and more intimate. It turns out, however, that under Black's charming, playful smile lies a deep, unhealed wound of the past, from which the poisonous pus of guilt and pain has oozed for years. The closer Black and Aubrey become to each other, the harder it is to ignore the fact that the third person in their relationship is the secret of the past, which does not allow the young sculptor to live and look into the future. So if these two want to create a permanent, serious relationship, they must fight for their tomorrow.
"Loving Him", the first volume of the "Hearts Intertwined" series and the literary debut of Drea Roman, is a novel full of advantages. The first of them, the one that quickly strikes the reader's eye, is the construction of the narrative. Let's start with the fact that the author uses a first-person narrative, which is undoubtedly extremely beneficial as it allows the reader to have a direct insight into the thoughts and feelings of the characters. However, this is not all, as "Loving Him" is a story seen through the eyes of not one but two narrators. At this point, it should be noted that Drea Roman decided on frequent and direct transitions between the narrators and doesn't inform us in advance from whose point of view we are about to continue to observe the events unfolding in the novel. However, this is not a problem at all, as the topics are taken up smoothly, very often they are directly connected, and what's more, we quickly find out who is the narrator of a given part, thanks to which the book stays well organized. In other words, we have the opportunity to witness one event, looking at it at different angles at the same time. As the first narrator ends telling his part, the other takes up the story straight away. I really liked it in this novel as such a narrative makes the reading fully satisfying.
In the case of "Loving Him" the topic of narrators is directly related to the main characters of the novel so I would like to write a few words about them. Well, let's start with the fact that they are really great. Drea Roman created two very characteristic and different from each other men who not only make a great couple, but also have a lot to offer as individuals, because of their personality, approach to life, passion, or problems they struggle with. What I really, but really, liked about their creation is the fact that the author doesn't use any emotional or personality division into Tops and Bottoms. Thanks to this fact, Black and Aubrey are incredibly human and believable. They both can be determined and strong, and at the same time weak and in need of other person's support. They have many faces which are the integral part of them, because they are the complicated individuals who are often driven by feelings and emotions. More over, they both have something of a dominant and subordinate person, which really suits them perfectly and makes them all the more interesting.
I must admit that Drea Roman's novel is also very realistic in terms of feelings and emotions shown in it. The characters are not some empty puppets, because at every step we can see what is happening in their minds, hearts, psyche, and what's more, their positive and negative reactions are often very strong and fierce. Because of that, we can easily imagine Black and Aubrey as real people, our colleagues, friends or family members. They are just like all of us – they are subject to various feelings, they act very emotionally, they give vent to joys and sorrows or hold them hidden deep inside themselves, they open up to others or withdraw, they are afraid of some things and try to find courage to face their life, they ponder the past, don't know what the future will bring and they are changing. In a word, they are real, true. Thanks to all of this, "Loving Him" is a very sweet novel at the beginning and touching at the end, as the characters exposed to emotions and feelings evolve, and with them their life change.
Another great advantage of "Loving Him", which simply can't be ignored, is the topic of relationship building, which the author has presented on many different levels. First, she showed that working on it, although difficult and labor-intensive, based on small things, seemingly insignificant information about each other, is essential to strengthen the bonds that tie people, to awaken love and thus it helps to create something permanent and unique. Secondly, she emphasized the fact that the relationship is created by two people with different personalities and life experience, so in this case their mutual cooperation and willingness to adapt to this other person, to open up to them is necessary. And finally, on the example of Black and Aubrey, she showed that in order to start something new, to take the first step toward being with someone, it is necessary to devote yourself to this other person, face the demons of the past and be honest. Let's add that Drea Roman clothed all this wisdom in a wonderful story in which we fall madly in love with.
To sum up, "Loving Him" is a really fantastic novel which offers the reader a really emotional rollercoaster, which is strongly addictive and makes us fall in love with the wonderful, believable characters at the speed of light. This is a brilliant story about love that needs to fight the past for the future. I heartily recommend it and look forward to another novel by this author!
Headcanon: For Christmas as a present from Ian, Aubrey gets a white chow chow puppy.
Fanfiction idea: For the Halloween party, Aubrey and Ian dress up as the bears from "We Bare Bears" and for their friends, they're the main attraction of the event.
AU idea: 1880s. Black is an eccentric painter who moves to a newly bought house outside the city. Because he knows nothing about interior design, he hires the best decorator in the area, Aubrey. It turns out that years before they both became famous, they have met and spent a crazy night together. Now, once again, they feel this strong mutual attraction because of which in the past they almost fell for each other.
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