Friday 4 April 2014

Blog Tour and Giveaway ~~ When Sean Loves Rusty by Chris Cox

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Synopsis
Best friends since grade school, lovers since high school, Sean Delahunt and Rusty Duchene thought nothing could ever tear them apart. Then Sean graduates college and his world changes, while Rustys stays the same.
Offered a job in Boston, Sean knows asking Rusty to leave New Orleans is a big sacrifice for his soul mate, who has a successful career and supportive family. Abused and rejected by his own family, Sean struggles with self worth and thinks this career opportunity will give him a new life.

Rusty wavers in his trust but takes and chance and agrees to follow him to Boston.

Alone for several weeks in a strange city, Sean is determined to make friends on his own. When Rusty arrives, this new Sean makes him feel insecure. Crushing student loans, being unable to find a job and suspicions about the nature of Seans friends strain an already tenuous relationship.
A trip home for the holidays reminds both men of all theyve left behind and makes them reevaluate what they want in their future.
On the verge of wedding vows, a career crisis threatens to bring their lives back full circle.

Money, moves and menwill this longtime love last forever or will life in the big city destroy their young love?

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 ARC RECEIVED FOR AN HONEST REVIEW

My latest obsession is with m/m books.  I can't get enough of them.   It is a sickness!

So when I was given the opportunity to join the blog tour for When Sean Loves Rusty, you couldn't have kept me away if you tried.

And I was not disappointed.

Rusty and Sean are childhood best friends who realise very early in life that theirs is not just a friendship, but so much more.  When Sean Loves Rusty tells their story and allows the reader to get to know them both as young boys and as the men they are today.

And you will fall in love with them both. Told through a series of 6 novellas, each novella tells us a different period of time in their relationship.

We get an insight to their childhoods, where they were discovering who they were.  They could not come from two such completely different families.  Sean's family is abusive, wiping him from the family when he comes out.  Rusty's family is the family we all want.  Close, loving, accepting. Not just of Rusty but especially of Sean.

Some of my favourite moments in the story are conversations that Rusty's parents have with both these sweet boys.  They have a way of putting things in perspective and making those around them feel better about themselves and their situations.

Sean and Rusty's relationship has it's fair share of ups and downs, twists and turns.  They are making their way in the big bad world.  There are lots of trials and tribulations as they deal with everything life throws at them.  

I loved watching them grow emotionally and spiritually.  There were plenty of times when I wanted to scream at on or the other (and occasionally both) for their actions or attitudes to each other.  You could feel the tension, the worry, the anxiety between them.  But more than that, you could feel the love.  The love between them shone from the page.  There is no way you could imagine them ever not making it, even though there were enough tests to the relationship.

Chris Cox has a very easy going writing style, and the stories flowed together seamlessly once they got going.  I do admit that for the first one or two novellas I was not as much into the story as the following four, but the was probably as we were in that learning curve, feeling out the characters.  After that I was totally immersed.  And by the time we get to the final novella, the story had taken a wonderful, fairy tale-esque arc that left me with a huge smile on my face, and maybe the occasional damp eye.

Let's not forget the secondary characters.  Rusty's family were wonderful, Sean's not so much.  Sean and Rusty's friends, two in particular, are so heartwarming. 

But the one I want to know more about is Levi.  Levi is woven in and out of Sean and Rusty's story and he becomes a bit of an enigma. 

Chris Cox ~ please tell me we get more of Levi.  We need to know about him!

If you are after a sweet romance with not tooooo much angst, then you must read When Sean Loves Rusty.


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When Sean Loves Rusty
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Excerpt
Was this it? Was this the end of them?
No. It couldn’t be.
Sean bit his knuckles using the pain to clear his tears. “I have loved you since the first time you scooted over to let me sit with you at lunch. Do you remember, Rusty?”
Please, remember, Rusty. Please remember who we’ve always been to each other. Who we are to each other. Please be my lover. My love. My soulmate. My completeness.
Magnificent in his nakedness, Rusty nodded once. His dark curls tracked down the nape of his neck. Sean knew that whispering kisses right there, right where that bottom curl rested, drove Rusty wild.
“I was the new kid and nobody would let me sit with them. But you did. You pushed Toby McClellan off his chair and told me to sit.”
Rusty’s shoulder blades tightened. “You looked so sad. So lost. But you had this look in your eye, like you dared anyone to pity you.”
“So you did.”
“No. I didn’t pity you. I admired you. I admired your courage. Your bravado.” Rusty hugged himself.
Sean wanted to go to him. To wrap his arms around the boy who always included him, to the man who always comforted him.
Instead, he squeezed the pillow tighter and willed Rusty to turn around. If he would just turn around.
“Bravado. It was all bluff. I was scared shitless. Every time we moved, I was scared shitless.”
“What were you afraid of?”
“Of being alone.”
“Is that why you’re with me?” Rusty unfolded his arms and scrubbed both hands through his curls. “No, of course not. You would never have to be alone if you didn’t want to be. With the way you look, with the way you are, you’d just have to give a guy one of those sideways looks and he’d follow you anywhere.”
“No, Rusty. No. They wouldn’t. I wouldn’t.”
“You did. You said you really wanted to go to Boston.” Rusty turned around. The tears streaking his face broke Sean’s heart. “And I said I would follow you anywhere.”
“And now you don’t want to.”

MeetTheAuthor
In Chris Cox’s stories, men climb steep mountains of emotion and brave treacherous valleys of personal growth on a journey to love. The Bayou Boys series is about deep relationships, about finding yourself as well as your soul mate, and about learning to feel right in your own skin.
Sexy and complex, Chris’ writing delivers the stories that touch readers’ hearts. Born and raised in Louisiana, Chris worked as an electrical engineer before chucking the corporate ladder and becoming a full-time writer. Chris resides in Louisiana, where the gumbo is hot…but the men are hotter. You can check out more about Chris Cox by visiting www.chriscoxwrites.com, on Facebook at www.facebook/chriscoxwrites.com and on Twitter: @ChrisCoxWrites.
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