A Good Neighbor

Title: A Good Neighbor
Author: Clare London
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: short story (15K words)
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

THE BLURB

Dylan admits it himself, he’s a relentlessly single man in a small town, consoled only by being a good teacher and a devoted nephew to his Great-Aunts. When the Aunts take a hand in matchmaking him with Josie, the girl down the street, Dylan doesn’t tell them what kind of soulmate he’s really looking for—and the fact that he’s already found the man in question, Josie’s brother Neal. But a secret affair can’t go on forever, can it?

Faced with a heart-wrenching decision when his chance at love seems to be moving even farther out of his reach, Dylan knows it’s time for him to own up to what he wants…and what kind of man he really is…

THE REVIEW

At 30 Dylan is repressed and has a very safe life. He lives in a  small town and teaches at a college, which doesn’t improve his worldview. To add to his staid character his two lovable maiden aunts visit him once a week from the Home where they live, and they are always trying to fix him up with a special woman, Josie who lives down the street, and he doesn’t have the courage to tell them that she doesn’t interest him in the least. In fact, no woman does because he likes men and he’s already found his man, Josie’s brother Neal,  a globe trotting reporter. Of course the aunts would be horrified if he confessed and would probably disown him along with the townspeople. The aunts tended to  ignore the fact that Josie had her own young man, she visited rarely, and that there had to be another reason why Dylan was next door so often; after all, he certainly was not an expert at housekeeping, so what was the attraction?

On Neal’s latest visit he shared some upsetting news – upsetting for Dylan and exciting for Neal. He had been offered a wonderful opportunity to be the lead on a high profile project based in Asia. This would mean long separations and Dylan is, of course, not happy when he hears about the project. He loves Neal and wants to spend his life with him, however, the major impediment for Dylan to really live life to the full is that he’s so far in the closet he can’t find the door to come out.

This story is about two diverse characters, one of whom is vibrant and the other seems to be but a pale reflection. Dylan is the homebody who loves living in a small community and can’t conceive of adventure beyond its borders. He selfishly wants more from Neal in terms of emotional commitment, as long as it’s in secret, because he’s afraid of people’s opinions –  those small minds in his small town. But apparently he’s the one who can’t think outside the box; he believes that everyone should live along conventional lines. He’s happy if Neal is the one who’s doing all the giving and making sacrifices, but he is not prepared to reciprocate and live with him openly because of the fear that’s holding him back that he would lose respect and stature  in his little community if his sexual orientation were known.

Neal shone so bright that he eclipsed Dylan at times, but both characters were exquisitely drawn and this is typical of Clare London. Dylan was so understated that you tended to overlook him until he asserted himself and you realized that while he was a wonderful caring man who loved his aunts and took care of them, there were unexplored depths to him. Neal seemed to be the typical foreign correspondent whose only objective was to have a wonderful career jetting all over the world, then he surprised Dylan when he told him what he really needed.

As usual the other characters were well drawn and Clare had a lot of fun with Dylan’s outré aunts. I won’t describe them because you have to experience them for yourself. All I will say is that they were priceless and had many surprising facets to their personalities.

I loved this book and I think you will too if you read between the lines. By the way the sex was smokin’.  This story is told in the 1st person POV from Dylan’s perspective. Definitely recommended.