This tale belies its genre. Not that it isn't chockfull very steamy sex scenes, it's that these aren't the point of the book. They are a vehicle, almost a symbol of a damaged, frozen young man beginning to thaw and let the world in. It's a way for those he loves to connect to each other to form the net, that will catch him when the ice breaks and he faces what he has kept locked away all this time.
This is a love story, not a not a wedding bells and happily-ever-afters, not a star-crossed lover tragedy but the story of a man who has is "handing out love like it was oxygen" as he rebuilds his life finally finds the courage to accept himself.
This is not a quick read, it's a journey filled with living, individual characters all learning to live with themselves and find their place in the community. The scenes are so vividly painted that when you finish the book and look at the cover, you know exactly where you are standing in the world you have just left. The symbols are expertly handled and subtly used. This book will move you, if you see beyond the steam it will uplift, it will excite, it will nurture and reassure, and will make you cry. It certainly did me.
I'm familiar with the author's ability to tell a story and so I took a chance on a book in a genre I wouldn't normally read. I am very glad I did, it's a journey well worth taking, definitely more once. It'll change your view of the world maybe a little, maybe a lot. This one will live with me for a long while like good books should.