Title: Until The End of Time
Author: Shawn Lane
Publisher: http://amberquill.com/amberallure
Genre: Contemporary (M/M)
Length: short story (11K words)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
THE BLURB
Seven months into their relationship, Preston has yet to tell his parents he is gay and living with Scott. When they are invited to the wedding of Preston’s ex-wife, a wedding Preston’s parents will also attend, Scott hopes Preston will finally admit to their relationship. But Preston fears having the same strained relationship Scott has with his father, or worse, being disowned.
While Scott is beginning to believe Preston will always be ashamed of their love and will never come around to admitting the truth, Preston wonders if Scott will bolt if he doesn’t stick to Scott’s timetable.
Preston has a tough choice. Trust his parents with the truth or risk losing Scott forever…
THE REVIEW
Preston was having a hard time being a gay man. It had been several months since he and his lover Scott had set up house together and he still had not told his parents or his friends about his sexual orientation because he was unsure of their reactions. Scott thought that his life was the best since he and Preston had been together, but he was getting tired of being Preston’s dirty little secret and he felt that sometime soon, if things didn’t change, he might be moving to a new address. He wanted to be with Preston forever because he was very much in love with him, but the current situation was putting a cramp in their love life.
When Scott arrived home from work one evening Preston was on the telephone talking to his ex Marilyn, and it turned out that she was getting married again and had invited the guys to the wedding. There is only one fly in the ointment – Preston’s very straight laced parents will be in attendance, and hiding their relationship from them might be difficult.
This story is the sequel to At Long Last where Preston and Scott came out to each other about their long suppressed feelings. Scott had loved Preston for years and had left town because he thought Preston was straight as he was married and had two children. When he returned home several years later Preston was on the market, divorced, and looking for love and Scott grabbed the man of his dreams and took him to bed where he had wanted to have him for years. Since they had declared their love for each other Scott couldn’t be happier but the fact that Preston was still not out with his friends and family months later bothered him and was putting a strain on their relationship, and he was also hurt that his lover did not want to acknowledge him.
Until the End of Time worked better in my opinion than At Long Last where I had a problem with Preston’s characterization because of his expert knowledge of gay sex even though he was new to the lifestyle. This story was plausible except for one thing – Preston and his ex wife expected their children to keep his sexuality a secret and not disclose it to their grandparents during their 2 day stay for the wedding. That seemed quite unrealistic. However, the rest of the book was well written and the sex was as hot as I have come to expect from Shawn Lane. The characters were likable although I thought that Preston was a bit of a contradiction if at his age he was afraid to tell his parents that he was gay, but he felt comfortable enough about his sexuality to tell his young kids.
I fell in love with Scotty all over again as his emotions and hurt feelings were not over the top but clearly showed how much he loved Preston and wanted to be an important part of his life forever.
I think you will like this story and even though it’s a sequel it can be read as a standalone because there’s enough backstory so that the reader is brought up to speed.
