New Leaf LGBTQ Romance
Dreamspinner Press
September 14, 2021
177
When Dex Grippon’s mother dies, he takes it as a sign—it’s time to give up acting and return to his hometown. If he can find a way to save his mother’s bookstore, he can preserve the one link he still has to his parents. But keeping an independent bookstore afloat turns out to be more difficult than he anticipated, and Dex isn’t the only one who wonders what else his mom might have been selling.
Former cop Les Gable might be off the job, but he has to know what was going on at the bookstore, and he’ll do anything to satisfy his curiosity—including befriend the new owner with an offer to help sort out his new business. Something about the bookstore doesn’t smell right, and Les is going to find out what.
The problem is that his curiosity about Dex soon far outstrips his interest in what happened at the store. But as curiosity matures into love, the store’s past threatens their future. Can Les and Dex untangle the mystery of the bookshop and escape with their relationship—and their lives—intact, or will the whole thing go up in smoke?
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
This was a wonderful story of two men who had dreams for their future, dreams that came crashing down around them. Dex Grippon dreamed of being an actor but when his mother died, he returned to his hometown of Carlisle and realized that his dream was never going to come true. Les Gable, a cop whose career ended with a gunshot that left him unable to return to the job he always dreamed of doing.
When Dex came home he knew he had to find a new purpose and decided to run his mother’s bookstore keeping her legacy alive. Unfortunately, while searching the store he made a discovery that explained how his mother was able to keep afloat, hollowed out books with little bags of marijuana. It was incomprehensible to him that his mother would be a drug dealer and he would soon discover who the marijuana was for and how it benefited more than his mom.
Les has a front row view of the bookstore and has always watched as few people went in but how Dex’s mom managed to keep the store running. He was convinced that somehow this wonderful woman who everyone knew was involved in something illegal, something involving drugs, a case he had been working on when he was shot. Now that her son has returned and is going to reopen the store his curiosity is back in full force even though he knows Dex had nothing to do with anything that was going on.
Well, Dex is faced with the unpleasant task of trying to decide what to do with the drugs and as he and Les have become involved he knows that once a cop always a cop, I know it is a Marine saying but it works here as well lol. Both men are fighting to make a new life for themselves and want that life to be with each other but a small problem of illegal drugs seems to be a major block as well as Les always feels as if he is not good enough because of his injury.
Okay so we have two men trying to turn over a new leaf which explains the title of the book while one is trying to come to terms with the possibility his mom was a drug dealer and one who keeps living in the past and refuses to look forward. Dex finally discovers the reason for the drugs and although illegal it was a helping hand to her as well as others. Les is faced with the possibility of losing whatever he and Dex had started to build if Dex discovers his belief about drugs and trying to prove he wasn’t using Dex for information.
Well, that’s not all folks because there is another problem brewing and it could be dangerous. Enough said I have to leave something for you to discover on your own. Wonderful characters, romance, suspense and secrets left me glued to the book and Andrew Grey is totally responsible for my starving husband lol.