Another Border

Title: Another Border
Author: K.I.L. Kenny
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M contemporary romance
Length: Sip (22 pages)
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

A guest review by Jenre

Summary Review
A gentle and emotionally moving story featuring an older, established couple.

This Sip is part of Torquere Books’ Charity Sip Blitz and all proceeds from the sale of this Sip goes to the charity Doctors Without Borders.

THE BLURB

When his weary lover comes home after a twelve-hour shift on the Alzheimer’s ward, Jeff wants to offer comfort. A little banter and some massage are easy, but getting Ed to open up about what’s on his mind is a trickier proposition. A teacher’s Socratic methods aren’t going to work. It will take a lot of TLC and some unorthodox healing methods for Jeff to lull his man into a restful sleep.

THE REVIEW

Another Border begins as Jeff wakes up when his lover of 16 years, Ed, returns from working the noon to midnight shift as a nurse on the Alzheimer’s ward. Jeff gets up to offer TLC and finds that a bad shift leaves Ed needing a listening ear and something to take his mind off his job.

I like stories which show a slice of life between an established couple so this story was bound to appeal to me. What I liked most about the story was the ease that the men have, and the little quirks that only build up after a couple have been together a long time. Quirks such as the beginning of the story as Jeff is laid in bed, listening to Ed moving about, he debates whether he should get up or not, knowing that Ed wouldn’t be happy to have woken Jeff up, and eventually manufactures an excuse to get up so that he won’t hurt his lover’s feelings. Or other quirks such as Jeff knowing how to give Ed the perfect foot massage, or that Jeff can sense that Ed has had a bad shift. These little things added up to give a picture of a couple in love, who know each other through and through and accept each other warts and all. It was charming to read about such a couple, and I warmed to both men.

The second thing I liked was the way that I got to see how Alzheimer’s affects, not just the families of the sufferers, but also those who care for them. The way that Ed is affected by his job, and the repercussions of dealing with emotionally fragile people day in, day out, was sensitively handled. Ed obviously cares for his patients as he says to Jeff:

“I dunno where they go, babe,” Ed murmured. It was an old grief, an old lament. “They’re in there, somewhere. Wandering. All caught up in that anger and hurting they have, even after they’ve forgotten why.”

Yet, Ed also has to deal with the harsher realities of working with those “wandering” people and I was moved to tears on a couple of occasions on behalf of Ed and his patients, as he tells Jeff about his day

Overall, I was impressed by the amount of incidental character building and plot fitted into the short format. Although the story is just one scene, a couple of hours in the life of Jeff and Ed, I felt like I knew them fairly well by the end of the story. I’d recommend Another Border to readers who want a character based short, full of tenderness, and an emotional story of coping with a difficult job.