Title & Link: Wings of Love
Author: Scotty Cade
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: Novel (220 pages)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
A guest review by Buda
Summary Review: An almost too-easy but nicely entertaining GFY romance set in the Alaskan mountains.
The Blurb:
Devastated after losing his partner of fifteen years to cancer, Dr. Bradford Mitchell tries to escape the emptiness and loss by leaving his life in Seattle behind. Traveling to the Alaskan mountains where he and Jeff often vacationed, Brad reconnects with Mac Cleary, the ruggedly handsome and very straight floatplane pilot who had flown them to Hyline Lake many times in the past. Brad and Mac form an unlikely friendship and buy an old log cabin together, and as he and Mac begin to bring the old cabin back to life, Mac watches Brad come back to life as well, stirring emotions in him he’s never felt for a man before.
When fear, confusion, and a near tragedy threaten to force the two men apart, they’ll face some tough questions. Can Brad let go of Jeff and the guilt he feels about beginning to care for another man? And can Mac deal with his fears of being gay and accept the fact that he is in love with Brad? It will be a struggle for both men to keep their heads and hearts intact while exploring what life has to offer.
The Review:
As the book opens, Brad Mitchell spends the last few moments of his lover Jeff’s life with him. They’ve been down the long and painful road fighting Jeff’s colon cancer and the end has come. It is a touching scene and the emotional devastation Brad experiences is well-written and easily felt. Three mostly forgotten days later, Brad decides he needs to leave the Seattle home he shared with Jeff and takes off for one of their favorite places–in fact, “their spot”–, Hiline Lake in Alaska.
When he arrives at the Lake Hood Seaplane Base, he runs into McGovern Cleary, the float plane pilot who flies guests to the lodge at Hiline Lake. After explaining Jeff’s absence to the sympathetic pilot, the two depart for the lodge, where they bond over similar losses. Years before, Mac’s wife had died from breast cancer, leaving him the sole parent of an adopted teenage daughter.
While out hiking the next day, Brad stumbles upon an abandoned–and for sale–cabin. It’s largely one room, with a composting toilet (I never knew there was such a thing), solar power, well water and a loft. There’s another bed in a corner off the living room. Brad is immediately enchanted and decides to buy it. When he tells Mac about it, they decide to split it. Mac and his wife Lindsey had always wanted a cabin in the mountains. They’d actually seen that one years before, but it wasn’t for sale then, nor were they in a position to purchase at the time.
The two friends spend the rest of the short Alaskan summer completing upgrades and repairs, including enhancing the solar panels so they can enjoy hot running water and have a few of the creature comforts, such as a microwave and coffee maker. Between completing these updates and the general clean up the place required, the two men grow closer and Mac begins to notice his attraction to Brad. Six months later, the first major storm of the season is approaching. While Mac has chosen to deal with his attraction to Brad by working as much as possible and spending less time at the cabin, Brad has been busy preparing his new home for the onset of the long Alaskan winter. Now, Mac has to take the lodge owners down to Anchorage and come back before the storm hits or Brad will be left to face his first storm alone.
Eventually the two share an unexpected kiss and have the first of many “come-to-jeebus” talks about what’s happening between them. While I appreciated these discussions as necessary for their relationship to progress and some of Brad’s theories about sexuality were interesting (and, no doubt, bound to spark some tempers), they didn’t always work for me. One reason is that Mac and Brad are almost always on the same page, thinking the same thoughts. Where one paragraph ends with Brad thinking X, the next POV change begins with Mac thinking X as well. These two were too in sync too easily. Thinking back on my own struggle to accept my sexuality (at 17, not 46 as is Mac’s case), he accepts his attraction to Brad and enters into a physical relationship with him with remarkable ease. Angst is one of my favorite plot elements, I freely admit that, but I could have done with more here.
Tears are shed in this book–nowhere near the Pacific Ocean of Tears bawled out in A Red-Tainted Silence, but enough for me to notice. Many of them are understandable because they come from the agony of losing a spouse; others I felt to be self-indulgent and, largely, pointless. There is an awful lot of timekeeping done in this book, too. There were so many thirty minutes laters and glances thrown at clocks that I wondered how these two guys would get through an entire winter without going insane.
Overall, I truly did enjoy this book. Mac and Brad are likeable guys who actually talk to one another (Wave, I know you’ll appreciate that!) and develop a romantic relationship after having first become friends. It was easy to feel both Brad’s intense anguish at losing Jeff and his fear of betraying him by giving in to his burgeoning feelings for Mac in such a short time. At the same time, while Mac’s struggle with his sexuality seemed to last all of five minutes, I liked that he and Brad discussed what they were feeling and how or even if they should proceed with a relationship. If you like GFY stories, pilots or VHF radio talk, you will appreciate this sweet, mostly easy romance.
On a side note, take a moment to appreciate the subtlety of the cover art. It took me until just now to notice the guys in the snow at the bottom of the page. Beautiful.
Hmmm… I’m a bit of an angst-whore myself, and your review had ne a bit on the fence with regards to the anst-factor.
That said, it sounds like there’s enough angst to put this never-would-have onto my buy-when-buying list, so yay! 😛
Very interested in this story now, and thanks for this review!
~Tis
Thanks, Tis. Sorry about leaving you pulling a balancing act. 🙂 Most of the angst comes from Jeff’s death, Brad’s guilt about his feelings for Mac, and then the exposure of Mac and Brad’s relationship. There isn’t a lot of it surrounding Mac’s new-found sexuality, which was what I found lacking. OTOH, I like the guys and they work well with/for each other. I hope you like it!
Oh yes, Buda. In fact, composting toilets are coming back “in style” for those into hardcore green living 🙂
I’m happy to read that, for the most part, you liked this book. I really like stories about men getting a second chance at love, and I seem to be reading a lot of stories lately about grief/healing over the death of a partner. This sounds like a good book — I’ll definitely be getting it 🙂
Thanks for the great review!
Thanks, Cole. Second chances are one of my favorites, too. We all need them in some form, right? Hope you enjoy the book.
“Green living.” Yeah, I’m good with a municipal water system! lol
I was just looking at this last night whilst I was book shopping. Wondered about it. If I buy 4-5 book a week and I read 2-3 books a week, how long am I going to have to live to read them all? LOL Thanks for the review, Buda.
Thanks, Marilyn. You know what this means, right? You just have to read faster! Or be like Wave and cheat by reading pamphlets! 😉
Let me know what you think of this book if you get it, okay?
I finally finished this book. It took an amazing amount of time for as short as it was. I think you were pretty generous in your rating. I didn’t hate the book, but there were parts of it that made me guffaw, and not in a good way. I understood Brad being so emotional because his pain was new and raw. Mac on the other hand crying because he’d “just had the best day ever.”. Please. Then there were a few WTF moments that I found so unrealistic that I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Like I said, I didn’t hate it, but if it accidently fell off my Nook, Mac would probably cry more than me. 😉
LMAO at the last sentence!! You can’t say I didn’t warn you about the tears. But you can say I forgot some of the other WTF moments. Maybe I had already blocked their images from my head? I’m sorry this didn’t work out so well for you, Marilyn. I’ll try to do better next time. (I’d wink here, but for some reason all the emoticons are a creepy green now!)
Tears are shed in this book–nowhere near the Pacific Ocean of Tears bawled out in A Red-Tainted Silence
ROFL. This is actually in my book a plus for this book. Don’t get me wrong – I like A Red-Tainted Silence. But, there is only so many books like that one can take. Thanks, Buda!
Thanks, LadyM! I tell you, by the time I was half way through ARTS, I was ready to yank out those boys’ tear ducts with my bare hands. The rest of the book was okay, though the Baddie was telegraphed almost from the start. But, whatever. 🙂
On a good note, I hope you like Wings of Love. If you read it, please let me know.
I read this and enjoyed it too. Only one niggle was Mac’s sudden GFY conversion and how long he did not date *anyone* after his wife died – 14 years. But overall a sweet love story.
Hi, Lasha. Yes, definitely. I think perhaps I was looking for a bit more Evan Cerelli-style angst over the homo-conversion and was surprised when it didn’t happen. It didn’t make the story less, just different from what I expected. Sweet it was, and I’m glad for that. Happy to hear you enjoyed it, too. Thanks for the comment!
Oh yes the cover art – I just had an *huh* moment when I discovered the guys in the snow!
Thanks for the review, Buda, this one goe on my maybe list. I love Alaska, and I love pilots, so two pluses here.
Thanks, Feliz! I am happy you didn’t notice the guys right away either. It wasn’t until I was previewing this review that I saw them tucked away down there. I hope you enjoy the book if you read it.
It sounds a lot like his first novel. The easiness, no problems, lots of talking. Sort of sweet. Although I love the setting I think I will give this one a pass.
Hmm. Ingrid, this is the first book of his I’ve read, so I can’t compare the two, but now I’m curious. At least you know where to go if you’re ever in the mood for a sweet, easy romance. Thanks for the comment. 🙂
Buda,
Great review. Ive visited this authors page at dreamspinner a few weeks ago and I believe this is his second book. His first I havent read, the blurb sounded good, but I just havent taken that step.
“Come-to-jeebus” talks….lol..Ive never heard that one before.
Thank you, Hannah. I just checked out the DSP page you mentioned and the blurb for his first book. When I get caught up on all the new reading I have to do, I might give the other book a shot. I liked this one well enough to try a second helping, as it were. 🙂 Thanks for the comment. Let me know what you think of either of the books when/if you read them.
Sounds interesting enough to read and AK settings is definitely a bonus. Will have to get it 🙂
I do wonder though, how they are surviving with solar panels in the winter…
Ah, nice catch, Hellga. That is where the upgraded generator comes into play. 🙂 I hope you enjoy the book. Thanks for the comment!
I hope they are rich 🙂 getting oil in the bush will run you aground :-p
Thank you for the review))
Looks like another enjoyable reading. Will probably wait till the weather improves to check it out: I seem to want to read about tropical islands rigth now 🙂
Thank you for your review 🙂
After reading this review I bought this book because I love the GFY and later in life themes. To be perfectly honest, I am struggling to get through it. The writing style is somewhat “stilted” which has a lot to do with how the characters speak to each other (and you’re right that there is A LOT of conversation). I personally don’t really like dialogue in which the characters say each other’s name almost every time they speak to one another, especially when no one else is around. Many authors do a lovely job of setting up flowing dialogue by describing body language, e.g. “Jim turned to Tom..” or a varying emotion with “Jim growled”, “sighed”, “huffed”, etc…LOL Variety is good and helps us feel degrees of emotion. A little here would have gone a long way.
Ellie, I’m sorry you’re having a hard time with the book. You’re right about the “say my name” thing. I totally forgot to put that in the review, but it bothered me a bit, too. Thanks for the comment. I hope the book gets better for you as it goes along.