It’s Never Over

Title: It’s Never Over (Pay it Forward #2)
Author: Nealy Wagner
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: July 7th 2015
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary
Page Count: 192 pages
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Blurb:

Six years have passed since the awful day when Axel and Caxton were caught making out in the woods at church camp. They were only teenagers then, but Axel had been devastated when Cax had cut off all contact with him. After that, his best friend seemed to vanish.

So Axel is astonished to find his first love’s face in the crowd of a college basketball game he’s watching on TV—at a college which has just offered him a job. It’s a thousand miles away, in a tiny rural town. But suddenly, he can’t wait to get there.

Cax can’t believe his eyes when Axel appears in the same Massachusetts town where he now lives. And he’s still just as drawn to Axel as ever. But he can’t let himself go there again. Because loving Axel will mean losing everything else he holds dear.

Both men have so much to lose. But as far as their love is concerned, It’s Never Over.

It’s Never Over is a stand-alone novel with no cliffhangers. Readers of In Front of God and Everyone will get a chance to check in on Caleb and Josh and their clan.

First, can I just say what a gorgeous cover? Yum.

Told in Axel and Cax’s alternating POV, Wagner creates a believable plot of why Cax and Axel are apart for most of the story. The boys meet at a church camp when they’re eight years old and become best friends.

I was eight when I met him at a wintertime church retreat. We made friends in that desperately fast way that kids do. Everyone needed to pick a snowshoeing buddy, and we just looked at each other and smiled.
After twenty-four hours, it was obvious to both of us that we’d done well to end up together.

When the boys are sixteen and meet again at camp their attraction for each other leads to them messing around. When they are caught making out their parents are called. Though Axel’s mother is fantastic about it…

My mom’s reaction when they finally handed me the phone? She laughed.
“Oh, honey. I’m sorry. But you’re going to have to work on being subtle. Do you want me to pick you up? The director said I could choose whether or not to drive up and bring you home.”

…but Cax’s father is a homophobic dirt bag who immediately picks up Cax and forces him to cut off all contact with Axel. Six years later Cax is grown up and no longer living at home, but his desire to be a real presence for his three little brothers had led him to stay completely in the closet and to hide any part of his sexuality for fear his father will use it to prevent him from being in his brother’s lives.

“But if I want to have contact with my brothers, I can’t… date anyone else,” I said. “The old man lets me do a lot of his childrearing. But if I lived my life the way I want, he’d cut off contact. And I wouldn’t be able to keep my hand in to make sure they’re being treated well.”

This has worked for Cax…until Axel shows up in town and all the emotions and love he’s always felt for his boyhood best friend become too hard to resist.

Threading my fingers into his hair, I rubbed his scalp. “I love you, you know. Even if I’m not supposed to.”
He was absolutely silent, so I feared that once again I’d gone too far. That’s all I was good for, apparently. I was just about to apologize for the seventy-fifth time when Cax made a strange sound. And then another one. He was crying.
“Oh, hon. No!” I crooned, my palm holding his head against my chest. “I’m sorry. You need to sleep and…”
“It’s just the pain, and…” He shook his head, his forehead rubbing against my shoulder. “No, actually. It’s just the headache talking. I ache for you. Every night I lie in this fucking bed and try to find a workaround…” He paused to swallow hard. “Never can.”
Now my eyes were hot, too. “If there was anything I could ever do for you, I’d do it.”

The hatred I felt for Cax’s father was huge. At one point I wished for his horrible death because of how repulsive his behavior. Thankfully the angst in the story is mitigated by a generous sprinkling of humor, as well as delicious sexy times.

Spoiler

The ONLY complaint I had is there was one night when Cax went over to Axel’s to spend the night and left his brothers alone, sleeping with only a note to say where he’d gone.

“You left Jared in charge.”
“All three of them are asleep. I left a note on the kitchen table saying where I’d gone. But my plan is to go home around seven tomorrow morning, so I can get Scotty up for school.”

Cax had only just been given temporary custody of his brothers – that he would leave the boys asleep, unsupervised…it just seemed a completely out of character thing to happen.

I loved the cast of supporting characters: Caleb and Josh, Amy, Jason, Boz, Axel’s mom, Ruth, and Cax’s brother, Scotty. Wagner created a story that drew me in and kept me captivated until the end.

RECOMMENDED!

Note: Caleb and Josh are the main characters from Wagner’s In Front of God and Everyone (Pay it Forward #1).

Also – It’s pretty obvious Jason will be the subject of another novel and Wagner gives a great tease for his story…I’ll be sure to pick that up when it’s ready!

Spoiler

“Do we get to hear about your mystery man now?” Axel asked. “I’ve waited, like, hours.”
Jason propped his head in one hand. “I don’t know. It isn’t easy to talk about.”
“Why?” I badgered. “Do we know him?”
“No,” he said quickly. “No chance.”
Axel met my eyes and frowned. His gaze said, Do you have any clue what this is about?
And mine returned with, Nope!
“Spill,” Caleb demanded. “This sounds juicy.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “You’ll be very entertained. Eventually. When I’m ready to talk about it.”
“Which will be, like, five minutes from now, right?” Axel pressed.
Jason shook his head. “Sorry. Don’t mean to be a tease. But I’m just not there yet.”
“You are a tease,” I complained.