Second Helpings MM Romance
Independently Published
September 8, 2020
99
After escaping to New York City and building a successful career, food blogger Isaac Reynolds returns to his small Ozark hometown for his twenty-year high school reunion. But old ghosts and a charged family history surrounding his mixed-race identity emerge to threaten the emotional safety that time and distance once provided.
Grant Atkins never expected his long-lost love to make an appearance at the reunion—or to step foot in their hometown, for that matter—not after two decades in the big city. But the flames Isaac inspired in Grant have yet to cool, and while part of Grant wants to shove the past aside and live for the moment, the other part screams out a warning that the risk might shatter his heart and the peace he has finally found.
As Isaac explores the memories and flavors of childhood, he realizes what his soul has been craving all this time… And a second chance might be just within Grant’s reach.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
This was such a beautiful novella about two men who have loved each other since they were kids and who for twenty years lost each other. Isaac Reynolds lives in New York is a food blogger and photographer and has decided to return home to El Dorado Springs in the Ozarks for his twenty year high school reunion.
Isaac is well aware that he will be unable to recognize most of his past schoolmates and they will definitely recognize him. Isaac is black, a product of his mother being with a black man and producing a black son in an almost totally white area. Isaac would have been bullied if not for the fact that his grandfather was the mayor and people were very afraid of getting on his wrong side. Isaac only wants to see one face and that is the face of Grant Atkins who he has always loved.
Grant and Isaac spend two days and nights together both realizing that they missed so much but unable to rectify the situation. Grant shared a secret with Isaac that brought about an argument on their last night together and Isaac had a secret of his own regarding the grandfather and grandmother who raised him.
They say you can never go home again but Isaac and Grant may prove that saying wrong, never say never. Such a heartwarming story that I totally recommend.