This novella explains how The Collective in Gwen Martin’s new series came to be. I really appreciated getting the background to this beautiful and emotional new series, and getting to know the founders more.

When their best friend Jon commits suicide, the former boyfriends Leon and Toryn are brought back to their home town to fulfil Jon’s dream of a creating a safe space for those in the community struggling with mental health issues and addiction (The Collective).

This was such an emotional read, full of love and sadness for the lost friend mixed with the tension and suppressed feelings from the past! It was so fulfilling to slowly get to understand more of the backstory and why Leon had left Toryn and fled his home town four years ago. I do however wish that the transition to admitting their feelings once again had felt a bit less rushed and that they had worked out the major issues causing the break-up more before getting back together. But that probably has most to do with the novella format, and I hope to see more of Leon and Toryn in the next book in the series, to maybe get those parts further addressed.

All in all, it was a truly beautiful story about love and friendship, and the importance of clear communication, and I can’t wait to continue the series!

Thank you to the author Gwen Martin for the free review copy, which I have voluntarily reviewed.

Rating:
3.5 stars rounding up to 4

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Author links

​Author info:
Gwen Martin

I absolutely adored this book! Follow the Stars is a sweet, tender and emotional story with a main character on the spectrum who is trying to navigate his way in life after the death of one of his best friends. I loved the extra dimension with the neurodivergent representation, but most of all, I loved it for being such a gripping story about overcoming grief and finding love where you never expect it.

Follow the Stars has such a wonderful main character, Noah, who is on the spectrum. Noah has had two best friends, Rory and Ezra, who has loved him unconditionally and been his support system almost his whole life. But when Rory dies because of her cystic fibrosis, Noah feels completely lost and not being able to put words to his feelings without Rory’s guidance and help to explain the world. When Ezra suggests that he and Noah should fulfill Rory’s biggest dream and go on the road trip that the three of them had planned for years, Noah feels terrified and worries that the connection he has with Ezra will be lost without Rory helping them to communicate. Ezra on the other hand fears he won’t be able to hold back his feelings and will risk losing his other best friend too by letting him know how deep his love really is.
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“If you follow your heart, can you find love as bright as the stars?”

Or will the road trip break the friends apart forever?

Gwen Martin did such an amazing job explaining the way a neurodivergent person experiences the world differently. As she pointed out in the introduction, Noah is just one representation of someone on the spectrum though, so of course there are million other ways to portrait a character with neurodiversity, but it was so well done and with such knowledge that you could really tell that Gwen Martin knew about this first hand and had put a lot of effort into the representation.

I also really loved the slow burn relationship development and how Noah was allowed to experience all these new feelings at his own pace. A part in the middle of the story dragged a little bit and at times I had some issues with the main characters age. They were supposed to be college graduates, but the way the interacted and depended on their parents made them sound more like high schoolers. But those are just minor details!

All in all, this was such a wonderful, gripping and authentic story about the world from a slightly different view and how much you can hurt even if you don’t express your feelings the same way others do. I really loved this heartwarming and hopeful story about overcoming grief and finding love and hope again and about being brave enough to risk losing it all for a chance of happiness.

Thank you to the author Gwen Martin for the opportunity to read this book in advance! I’m so happy it’s now out in the world for everyone to read!

Rating:
4.5 shining stars rounding up to 5

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Amazon

​Author info:
Gwen Martin

Happy Book Birthday to Chasing Hope by Gwen Martin! I’m so happy and honored to be a part of the Gay Book Promotions Release Blitz for this heartbreaking and beautiful book that is full of pain and hope, grief and joy, loss and love, and amazing characters!

Chasing Hope is of the most authentic stories I’ve ever read about the devastating grief and guilt, and how to find the strength to go on living, after being through the worst thing that can happen to a parent; losing your child. But at the same time as it dealt with all this hurt and loss, it was also such a sweet and heart-warming small town, second chance, m/m romance. I binge-read this book with an aching heart, unable to put it down until I knew what would happen to Sean and Jonah, sobbing and smiling at the same time. ​

The story follows twenty-seven years old Sean, who - despite his young age - has already lost everything worth living for. In an attempt to get away and build some kind of new life, he moves to a town where no one knows about him, the death of his child, or his failed marriage. Here, his life collides with the almost forty, somewhat disillusioned, owner of the local diner, Jonah, who had to give up on his university plans and move back home to take care of his dying father. But when the two of them meet, Jonah finds a new spark in his life, and Sean slowly starts to smile and feel again. Maybe there is hope after loss and a chance for love again for them both?

This book deals with a lot of heavy topics, such as loss of a child, guilt and grief, PTSD, depression and trust issues, but it was so wonderfully written and had so much hope, love and heart-warming friendships that it never felt too heavy. No matter how raw and authentic the descriptions of how devastating and life-shattering the loss of a child were, it was never all darkness and sorrow, there was always a hint of light at the end of the tunnel.

And the characters were amazing and so real and multifaceted. And adorable! I rooted immediately for both Sean and Jonah and my heart ached for them both in their struggles with insecurity and fear to open up and be brave enough to love again. Sean’s bisexual awakening and his feeling of being on thin ice and not really knowing what to do - of being something of a virgin again when being intimate with a man - was so well and realistically described. As was his feeling of guilt for being happy when his daughter was dead, and the way he reacted to certain triggers. I understand why Sean acted the way he did in some of the situations (trying to keep it vague here not to spoil anything…) but it nevertheless broke my heart and made me read the book feverishly, hoping for the HEA both Sean and Jonah deserved so much to come, but fearing that all the broken things wouldn’t be possible to mend.

All in all, I absolutely loved this book! Chasing Hope was a gripping, devastating and utterly honest story about love and grief, hope and loss. It was both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, showing that it’s never too late for second chances if you’re willing to chase them.

Thank you to Gay Book Promotions for the ARC and blog tour invitation for this gem! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

Rating:
5 stars

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Amazon

​Author info:
Gwen Martin

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