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Sins of the Father

by D.W. Marchwell (Goodreads Author)

4.06 · rating details · 165 ratings · 31 reviews

While volunteering to help prisoners earn their high school equivalency, Charlie Kirby meets Caleb Farmer, who asks his help to write a letter to his long-lost son, Junior, to make amends. Touched by Caleb's story, Charlie agrees to help. When Charlie manages to track down Junior, he discovers the man has long since changed his name to James Marshall and wants absolutely n...more

ebook, 232 pages

Published January 15th 2010 by Dreamspinner Press (first published 2010)

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Feb 02, 2012

Lauraadriana rated it

Shelves: loved-it, m-m, super-super-hot, troubled-past

4.5 Stars Could have been five stars, if not for just one thing in the story that really bugged me. There were a few glaring typos as well, but I liked this story so much I'm going to overlook them. Also the blurb is kinda off, but again going to just go with it, because I really liked it.

Charlie is a widower, his partner died in an accident two years before, and he has just started dating. He's not too interested though. He likes his life as it is. He's been a high school teacher fo...more4.5 Stars Could have been five stars, if not for just one thing in the story that really bugged me. There were a few glaring typos as well, but I liked this story so much I'm going to overlook them. Also the blurb is kinda off, but again going to just go with it, because I really liked it.

Charlie is a widower, his partner died in an accident two years before, and he has just started dating. He's not too interested though. He likes his life as it is. He's been a high school teacher for twenty years, has been volunteering at the local prison helping inmates to get their GED. His own life history is very connected to that jail. His father was a convict who died there years ago.

Charlie has forgiven his father for what he did long ago, to him, to his mom, to the people he killed. As a way to find peace with what happened he tries to help the men in the prison. One day Caleb Farmer, a man who is serving a life sentence for killing his wife, approaches Charlie. Caleb is an elderly man, and he wants to write a letter to his son. He has not seen his son since he was a boy, and wants to make amends. The anger that Caleb has lived with, seeped away with the years and he does not want to die with such a regret.

So Charlie begins to help Caleb write the letter to his son Junior. The more Charlie works with Caleb the more he cares for the man, and wants to help find his son. He begins his search, and finally after so many dead ends finds James Marshall. James has changed his name and tried to distance himself from that past. From that horrific history that was his childhood.

This is where things gets complicated. For Charlie getting involved in this possible reunion, could cost him this new chance at love. James and Charlie, have a connection there is a possibility of something between them. A chance to start over. A second time for Charlie, and the very first for James. They are cautious, but they are open. They realize the amazing opportunity that life has given them.

There is so much baggage though, and James is not willing to forgive and forget. Charlie only hopes that when James finally is ready to listen to his father it won't be too late. Things are hard for these men, they stumble and they mess up, but they are so in love already.

This was a kind of wonderful story about second chances, forgiveness and just moving on. Finding peace with the bad stuff, and using it to make your future better. I REALLY cared for these two men. They were so great together, and pretty damn hot too. Well written story too. Emotional, but not exhausting, romantic but not instantly that HEA was well earned, erotic and sensual, but nothing gratuitous.

Really enjoyed reading this book, and would certainly recommend it.

(less)

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Mar 11, 2010

Leslie Nicoll rated it

THE BLURB

THE REVIEW

Wondering where the blurb is? I didn’t include it because 1) it completely misses the point of this book and 2) it contains a huge spoiler which totally ruined the build-up to the main part of the story that occurs in the first one-third of the book. If you decide you want to read this book based on this review (and I would be flattered if you do, but more importantly, it’s very good and I can easily recommend it) then use this link, which will take you...more

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Apr 25, 2010

Top 2 Bottom Reviews Interviews and More added it

Sins of the Father

By D.W. Marchwell
Dreamspinner Press
Pages: 232
5+ KISSES

Blurb:

While volunteering to help prisoners earn their high school equivalency, Charlie Kirby meets Caleb Farmer, who asks his help to write a letter to his long-lost son, Junior, to make amends. Touched by Caleb's story, Charlie agrees to help.

When Charlie manages to track down Junior, he discovers the man has long since changed his name to J...more

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Aug 02, 2010

Kassa rated it

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I think he’s just not for me. I struggled with this one and became bored about halfway through. I only finished it to see if there was an additional twist at the end, there’s not but I wanted to see what happened. Since there is nothing fatally wrong with the book, this is clearly a case of just not appealing to me specifically. The characters felt boring and predictable as they dance around each other in a push/pull relationship. It didn’t ma...more

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Jan 20, 2010

Kathy rated it

Shelves: contemporary, ebook, marchwell-dw, keeper, favourite, m-m, romance

Buying this book was a given; this is the third story by D.W. Marchwell that I've read and it totally blew me away. I've loved his other stories, but in Sins of the Father, he's surpassed himself. This is not a short story ~ I was up 'til 4:30 in the morning because I literally could not put this book down ~ but it read as though it were. Was it worth it? Oh heck yes! (I'm using much stronger language in my mind... just so you know.)
In fact just after I started reading the book I had to g...more

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Jul 20, 2011

Daanquai rated it

I really struggled with this book trying to decide if I liked it or hated it. There were parts where I found myself skipping ahead to get to an interesting part and then I would find a scene that kept my riveted. But ultimately, I just couldn't really get into the MCs, Charlie and James.

First, there was too many coincidences that brought Charlie to James: friend of his neighbors, James being his favorite "elusive" author, and then of course, the son of the man in prison he w...more

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May 02, 2011

Min rated it

Shelves: glbt, romance

There were parts of this novel where I felt the weary urge to just skip through the pages in hopes to get to somewhere interesting and moments where I really felt for the characters. Unfortunately all the characters I empathized with died and those who were left behind I could never find the desire to care for.

Charlie is a high school teacher and a widower who also volunteers at the local prison helping inmates earn a basic high school degree to prepare them for when they return to s...moreThere were parts of this novel where I felt the weary urge to just skip through the pages in hopes to get to somewhere interesting and moments where I really felt for the characters. Unfortunately all the characters I empathized with died and those who were left behind I could never find the desire to care for.

Charlie is a high school teacher and a widower who also volunteers at the local prison helping inmates earn a basic high school degree to prepare them for when they return to society. His own father had been sent to that same prison for manslaughter and remained there until the day he died. It is at this prison that he meets Caleb Farmer, a dying and illiterate old man who has finally realised his mistakes after many years of destructive behaviour and contemplation over the actions that brought him to where he stood now. Caleb now wants to right at least a part of his wrongs by reconnecting with his son Junior.

In the meantime, Charlie’s neighbours and good friends, Beth and Deanna, have been constantly trying to set him up with a new partner since his husband, Jesse, passed away two years ago. It just so happens that Deanna is buddies with James Marshall (AKA Junior), and Charlie meets up with James on one last blind date to satisfy his neighbours.

The rest of the novel pretty much touches on Charlie trying to help James past his hatred of his father and his own attempts to move on from the death of his husband. The novel tries to touch on the human problems and pains that exist such as Beth and Deanna’s relationship as a couple (which sort of faded into the background and fizzed into forgotten land) and Charlie and James’ past issues and hurts, but I really never got to really get close to them. I just didn’t feel much personality and character that would normally draw me like a moth to a light bulb. A lot of the time I felt like I was reading about the lives of wilting daisies. It didn’t really help that a lot of the plot points practically fell down from the sky to fill the puzzle either.

It was amusing, though, to see the past written in present tense and present written in the past tense. I barely noticed the change until I realised I had stopped cringing every so often a few chapters in (I personally do not have much love for present tense, but I deal with it if I like a story). It noticed that the author used ‘the smaller man’ and ‘the younger man’ quite often when differentiating between Charlie and James. For me it was a bit distracting and slightly odd to read again and again.

It was unfortunate that I couldn’t connect with the novel, but there were some touching moments such as Charlie’s memories of his life with Jesse and Caleb’s regrets and earnest attempts to write to his son. I think I would have been much more empathic and captured if I was reading about Caleb and Jesse in their respective stories than the actual main characters’ since frankly the living left me colder than the dead.(less)

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Apr 24, 2010

Michele Montgomery rated it

5++++++

Rarely do I begin a review by saying: YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!! I sorta like to build up to that. With Sins of the Father, I can’t wait. I have to tell you that this is a MUST read. I loaded the book up to my Sony E-reader Tuesday morning and by Tuesday night I was done. I could not put this book down. I didn’t want to. In fact as I read and read and noticed how close I was to being done I was saddened. I wanted more pages to appear because I wanted more of Charlie and Jam...more5++++++

Rarely do I begin a review by saying: YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!! I sorta like to build up to that. With Sins of the Father, I can’t wait. I have to tell you that this is a MUST read. I loaded the book up to my Sony E-reader Tuesday morning and by Tuesday night I was done. I could not put this book down. I didn’t want to. In fact as I read and read and noticed how close I was to being done I was saddened. I wanted more pages to appear because I wanted more of Charlie and James. However, the book is perfect in size. Just enough pages. It’s just that when something is so good you never want it to end, at least I don’t. I didn’t want this book to end and I miss it already.

There are only a few books I get attached to as I did this one. The Kite Runner is also one. I had heard that Sins of the Father was a non-stop read, and that I’d need a box of tissues. I heard right. It’s not to say that it’s full of angst, because it isn’t. It is full of heartfelt emotions. Good ones, sad ones, and angry ones.

Honestly, the blurb does not do this title justice.

At the prologues I met Charlie Kirby. At just seventeen this boy looses his mother and this leaves him alone in the world. Then while in college he meets the man he’ll spend twenty years with.

Chapter one starts then and I met Charlie twenty plus years older and in a bookstore searching for a new book by his favorite author. He loves to read and once he gets the book home, he gets lost in the plot…much like I did with this story. So, Charlie is so into it that he almost forgets about his blind date that was set up by his female friends, Beth and Deanna for that night. The two ladies seem to spend a lot of time trying to fix their single gay friends up with one another and it’s done with good intentions. One thing I want to say is that Beth and Deanna are lovers and I have a feeling a great story could come of those two if the author were to explore more with this story. The two gals debated on and off about having a child. One wants a baby, the other not so much and it seemed as if the author left that sub-plot hanging a bit. Last I read was that Beth was in tears because Deanna wanted a baby and she didn’t and Beth was scared Deanna would leave her. Charlie tells her that Deanna loves her with or without kids and I think that was the last I heard of that dilemma. However, this story wasn’t about Beth and her lover. It’s about Charlie and how he came to find the will to move on and find love again.

Charlie says he’s very content with his life; he’s a high school teacher and also volunteers at the same prison his father was a resident of. He enjoys teaching and loves to read but he just can’t seem to find the right guy to connect with. As you’ve read in the blurb, Charlie meets up with Caleb, who is a prisoner and he agrees to help the ill man locate his long lost son. This is anything but easy to Charlie because all Caleb knows of his son is that he’s called, Jr.

Racing against time, Charlie does all he knows to locate the missing man, even going as far as visiting area schools looking through old year books to get some sort of clue as to what happened to young Farmer. Oh the way he finds him is just wonderful.

Sins of the Father is not full of mad crazy sex, it’s not full of laughter, and it’s not full of useless jargon that takes up space. Instead the story offered me a tale made of the heart in everyway imaginable. I met some amazing characters that drive the story forward with every sentence. I fell in love with Charlie who is extremely thoughtful, caring, and intelligent. He is also funny, he’s sad, and when he loves, he loves deeply. The author did a wonderful job fleshing Charlie out, as well as the other characters that help to drive this story right to your heart.

This is the first book I read by this author and it will not be the last. If I could, I’d rate this book a hell of a lot higher than 5 kisses. This story sits beside The Kite Runner in my opinion and it is a definite read.(less)

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Dec 14, 2010

Nicci rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-romance, m-m-romance, qgbc-oct-10, kindle-lendables

Slow start but interesting as the story moved along. What I like about this book is how an almost similar childhood trauma affected the adult men, James and Charlie. Something that cannot be measured nor judged, people internalized differently.

For James, the tragedy is more harsh and there is there underlying feeling he'd been abused as child by his father. He goes through life coping and not having a strong relationship until he meets Charlie. Charlie is luckier than James. His...more

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Mar 11, 2011

Adara rated it

Shelves: gangbang2010q4, gangbang2011q1

This one was a touch slow to start off with. I found the beginning to be a bit confusing when laying the groundwork for who the characters are because how they fit together in the story was not immediately apparent. Once I got around 20% in, then it started making more sense.

The descriptions were fairly lengthy. Sometimes this appeals to me and sometimes not. This time it didn't quite catch me. Too much description over living the action. Point of view also seemed to hop some. It's m...more

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Jan 15, 2010

Hank Mcallister rated it

got turned on to Marchwell's books through a friend. never knew these kinda books even exist but bought sins as sono as it came out. as with his other stories this one is full of heart. i think i like the cereberal aspect of the writing not what anyone would call action or adventure - if that's why your reading you'll be disappointed. has a good mix of the regular blue collar man and just tryin to survive

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Feb 03, 2010

Francis Degroot rated it

I decided - despite the blurb - to pick this up because I really enjoyed his other two stories. What a shame that they couldn't come up with a better blurb; the story is about so much more than what's mentioned in the blurb. Completely absorbing, introspective and an emotional journey I won't soon forget. Kudos, Mr. Marchwell!

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Oct 21, 2011

Neet rated it

I love this book! The sins of the father have affected these two very different young men in different ways. Can they get over their past and have a future together. I like that Charlie who some might see as a goody two shoes has flaws and how his new love interest might look tough, but really is a good guy. This book is one I'll read again!

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Aug 01, 2010

Eyre rated it

Shelves: 2010_reads, glbt, i-cried-buckets, mm-mmm-mmf

This one was a tearjerker for me. As I read it, it made me think of my students who are sometimes defined by those around them by who their parents are and the things that their parents have done. It also made me think about forgiveness and if there are things that are unforgivable.

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Jan 31, 2010

Kimmy D rated it

I highly recommend this excellent book. The author's prose really pulled me into the story, and I felt very invested in the lives of the main characters. I practically read this entire book in one sitting; the author kept me on pins and needles wondering if everything would ultimately work out for characters who so richly deserved some happiness.

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Jul 16, 2010

Mabz rated it

I'm still trying to wipe the tears!!! I dont know why i waited so long to read this book but in a way i am glad. Kind of makes me want to redo my life or at least have more fun than now. Beautifully written, and well rounded, but then this author has never disappointed me

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Mar 15, 2010

Holly rated it

Entertaining story, racing against the clock, but the sentiment does get laid on with a shovel. And even the bad characters have got hearts of gold. A bit more grit and it could have been 5 stars.

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Aug 15, 2011

Patty rated it

Shelves: favorites, e-books, nook-books, reading-challenges, m-m, contemporary

Truly a great story. DW Marchwell is a new author for me. I'm so glad that I found him. I will definitely be ordering more of his books.

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Feb 02, 2010

John Fassbinder rated it

couldn't be happier to support a fellow MB...excellent book, incredible emotion plus a HEA

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Feb 03, 2010

Gordon Logan rated it

a lot of angst, but very well written with a beautiful ending...definitely recommend

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Jan 19, 2010

Roman Johnston rated it

Couldn't agree more with Bookwenches...picked this up b/c of their recommend.

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Feb 02, 2010

John Binner rated it

simply astonishing!

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Jun 14, 2011

dx rated it

Shelves: have

3.5

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Mar 28, 2010

Julia rated it

Shelves: m-m

I think I would've liked this one a lot better if the writing style had been more my taste. Instead it felt a little off to me. The characters are amazing and wonderful, though, and there's a few sniffly scenes which I always appreciate. Worth the time it takes to read it, at the same time a little disappointing because I think it could've been outstanding and instead just felt pretty good.

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Oct 23, 2010

Nightcolors rated it

Shelves: contemporary, ebook, glbt, 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 01, 2012

Raevyn rated it

Shelves: m-m, contemporary, 65k-to-100k-words, hurt-comfort

This book was an emotional roller coaster for me, but I could not put it down. The characters are well written and it is not full of fluff and sweetness. It hits you in the gut and makes you think long and hard.

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Jul 10, 2010

Alli rated it

Shelves: m-m-read

4-4.5 Very well written, very emotional story. The compassion was misdirected at times, so it seemed like the wrong person was begging for forgiveness...but still enjoyable.

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Oct 08, 2010

Deanna rated it

Shelves: m-m, ebook, contemporary

Slow/confusing beginning. Pretty good middle. Strong ending. Unnesessary epilogue.

Contrary to pretty much every other review - I didn't find it sad.

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Jan 16, 2010

Juniper rated it

Shelves: contemporary, m-m

Recommended read. Not a huge amount of sex, but not a lesser book for it. Cried buckets.

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Aug 08, 2010

Gianthogweed rated it

Shelves: m-m, contemporary, contemporary-m-m, novel-novella

I love "shade of gray" story and I got carried away by this one.

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About D.W. Marchwell

When D. W. Marchwell is not teaching future generations the wonders of science, he can usually be found hiking, writing, riding horses, trying new recipes, or searching for and lovingly restoring discarded antique furniture. A goofy and incurable romantic, D.W. admits that his stories are inspired by actual events and has a soft spot for those where boy not only meets boy but also turns out to be ...more

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