John McCann, a man who judges life by the tally of an accounts ledger, has a supreme goal in life: To achieve, live, and enjoy the rarified executive lifestyle. But he's encountered one problem:
The migraines are going to continue to get worse unless you make some major changes in your lifestyle. What you need is a 'sea change'... Perhaps buy a nice little business in the country, settle down, something easier to occupy your time...
While John knows the doctor is right, he just can't resign from the job he's fought so hard for. He decides the sacrifice of taking a year's leave of absence won't interfere too much with his plans, and so he finds himself running Margins, a cozy little bookstore, with the help of the former owner's son, Jamie. John expects to put in his year, get his stress under control, and then get back to business.
What John doesn't expect is how Margins and its denizens draw him in, particularly the quiet, disheveled man who takes refuge in the old leather chair in the second-hand book section. John's plans for an unattached year of simple business crumble when he meets David and is forced to reevaluate life, love and what he really wants from both. John and David are forced to come to terms with their pasts as they struggle to determine what possible future they might build together.
This is one of those books that deserves to be reread yearly. (And I'm embarrassed to say that I just now finished it, after having it downloaded to my desktop several months ago.)
To give away much more than is hinted-at in the summary would be spoiling the story. Suffice it to say that this is a particularly unusual love story which reminds me a bit of a current favorite: Ethan, Who Loved Carter. This, too, is a story about loving someone who is mentally ill, and the stressors, above and beyond the usual, which are placed on both sides of the love match.
If someone told me that I would love a story involving mental illness, I would have told them that they were crazy. However, this is, above all else, a love story between two men, each of whom has lost his way (albeit in very different ways.)
Mrs. Rowan successfully, for the most part, straddles a very narrow line between romantic sweetness and twee. There were a couple of times when I wanted to smack a couple of "giggling", "cheekily-grinning" MCs upside the head, but the love story driving the novel is firmly on track all the way. The setting, in Melbourne, Australia, in the months leading-up to Christmas, is charming; and a bookstore, as a main actor in the story, should put anyone on this site at their ease.
Now would be a particularly appropriate time to read the story, as we are approaching summer, which is the season that Australia has to overcome to celebrate the holiday season. It really can get confusing combining Christmas and summer heat; so this is a perfect season for getting, and reading, this story.
Again, this is romance with a capital "R", and I can highly recommend it to anyone looking for a very well-written m/m romance with a slight twist.
P.S. The novella, Twelve Days, is a sequel of sorts to this novel, although it does little, beyond the *awww!* moments, to really advance anything that wasn't tied-up in the original story. Still, it's a cute addendum, and obviously written as a Christmas novella to appeal to fans of the original tale. It is also recommended for lovers of the primary novel.
John McCann, a man who judges life by the tally of an accounts ledger, has a supreme goal in life: To achieve, live, and enjoy the rarified executive lifestyle. But he's encountered one problem:
The migraines are going to continue to get worse unless you make some major changes in your lifestyle. What you need is a 'sea change'... Perhaps buy a nice little business in the country, settle down, something easier to occupy your time...
While John knows the doctor is right, he just can't resign from the job he's fought so hard for. He decides the sacrifice of taking a year's leave of absence won't interfere too much with his plans, and so he finds himself running Margins, a cozy little bookstore, with the help of the former owner's son, Jamie. John expects to put in his year, get his stress under control, and then get back to business.
What John doesn't expect is how Margins and its denizens draw him in, particularly the quiet, disheveled man who takes refuge in the old leather chair in the second-hand book section. John's plans for an unattached year of simple business crumble when he meets David and is forced to reevaluate life, love and what he really wants from both. John and David are forced to come to terms with their pasts as they struggle to determine what possible future they might build together.
This is one of those books that deserves to be reread yearly. (And I'm embarrassed to say that I just now finished it, after having it downloaded to my desktop several months ago.)
To give away much more than is hinted-at in the summary would be spoiling the story. Suffice it to say that this is a particularly unusual love story which reminds me a bit of a current favorite: Ethan, Who Loved Carter. This, too, is a story about loving someone who is mentally ill, and the stressors, above and beyond the usual, which are placed on both sides of the love match.
If someone told me that I would love a story involving mental illness, I would have told them that they were crazy. However, this is, above all else, a love story between two men, each of whom has lost his way (albeit in very different ways.)
Mrs. Rowan successfully, for the most part, straddles a very narrow line between romantic sweetness and twee. There were a couple of times when I wanted to smack a couple of "giggling", "cheekily-grinning" MCs upside the head, but the love story driving the novel is firmly on track all the way. The setting, in Melbourne, Australia, in the months leading-up to Christmas, is charming; and a bookstore, as a main actor in the story, should put anyone on this site at their ease.
Now would be a particularly appropriate time to read the story, as we are approaching summer, which is the season that Australia has to overcome to celebrate the holiday season. It really can get confusing combining Christmas and summer heat; so this is a perfect season for getting, and reading, this story.
Again, this is romance with a capital "R", and I can highly recommend it to anyone looking for a very well-written m/m romance with a slight twist.
P.S. The novella, Twelve Days, is a sequel of sorts to this novel, although it does little, beyond the *awww!* moments, to really advance anything that wasn't tied-up in the original story. Still, it's a cute addendum, and obviously written as a Christmas novella to appeal to fans of the original tale. It is also recommended for lovers of the primary novel.