Torch Songs Bonfires
Contemporary Romance
Dreamspinner Press
9/24/24
Kindle
445
Amazon
Guthrie's a snakebit musician with a runaway heart. Can Tad convince his wandering minstrel to settle down?
Review By Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Guthrie Woodson is a honky-tonk guitarist playing at a club for tips and dinner. His group is called The Crabs. His music gigs help him with his expenses and his band consists of young people he knows will one day find better opportunities, something he has no hopes of happening to him.
Guthrie has just attended the wedding of the man he has loved but it was one sided. He is convinced that lasting love doesn’t exist so when he sings his words bring tears to those listening. One night he sees a man looking at him but then he was gone. They met again while Guthrie was being mugged and Tad Hawkins, a Sacramento cop showed up to help him.
Tad has watched Guthrie for weeks every time he comes to visit his sister, April, in her halfway house. April is a girl who suffers from drug addiction and is bipolar. It was Tad finding her, handcuffing her to the bed where she was covered in lice, bed bugs and other serious conditions. He cleaned her up, shaved her head and his from the lice and when she was ready took her to rehab. Now she is free from drugs, takes her bipolar medicine and crochets for something to do. She has come a long way, but Tad wants her to move in with him, but she is scared.
Now because of a mugging he is with the man he has been obsessed with. They spend time together whenever Tad visits April. Guthrie is hesitant to let things go too far but Tad is gung-ho. An incident occurs that causes April to seek out Guthrie at his day job because she hasn’t heard from Tad and is worried.
Why Tad is missing makes the news and Guthrie doesn’t hesitate to go with April to where Tad is, costing him his job. April finds herself leaning on Guthrie and takes comfort in his desire to find and help Tad. She meets other people, people that she and Guthrie become friends with. When the drama is over, and Tad is hurt he is surprised and excited to discover Guthrie and April were there. During the time Tad heals he and Guthrie get closer and Tad’s desire for April to move in with him becomes a reality when the people at the halfway house kick her out for leaving without permission. People who should be there to help are sorely lacking.
As Guthrie finally begins to express his feelings for Tad someone from Guthrie’s past comes knocking on the door regarding his father, a father who threw him out and never wanted him because he was gay, but Guthrie answers the call despite how hurtful it is.
A man who uses songs to express his feelings and who lives for music and a cop who loves him and wants forever. Tad and Guthrie are amazing, each with sad pasts and looking for a forever love. April is a girl you can help but love, she went through Hell and is fighting her way back. I did not want to reveal the situations that occurred with Tad and Guthrie, but they are worth reading this book to find out.