Whispers of Home (Pickleville #1) by April Kelley @Ott1My #LGBT #Review #Guest post #Giveaway

Tracy reviews ‘Whispers of Home’ (Pickleville #1) by April Kelley. Published February 15th 2004 by eXtasy Books, 159 pages

This book was provided free of charge for an honest review by the author. 😉

Can You Ever Go Back Home?

By April Kelley

My home town is a small and typical American small town. I looked up an aerial view of my home town on Google Earth once, just to see what Main Street looked like. From that Broad picture my town looked perfect. There are about a dozen shops on either side of Main Street and the Library just beyond them on one side of the street. Of course, I can pick out the library from space without a problem, believe me. I also was able to see how all the streets connect and how the cute little houses lined up. Even when you’re driving through town Main Street looks perfect. On the lamp posts they have little flags that represent the seasons. When football season is on the local high school football players each have their own little flags. What this broad view doesn’t show is where the drug houses are. Even if you don’t do drugs the average citizen who lives in my town knows where they are and who frequents those houses. We also know that the LGBT community is virtually non-existent and the small one that does existent is usually the center of most of the gossip. This was especially true for my character, Jaron McAllister, while he was growing up in Pickleville. There’s no such thing as anonymity in a small town.

The urge to leave and move to a bigger city to gain some sort of privacy is overwhelming, especially as a teenager which is when Jaron leaves. In a bigger city, getting lost in the crowd is easy and no one cares who you sleep with or what drugs you do. Meeting people in the LGBT community is much easier simply because there are more of us around and we can be quite diverse. This diversity tends to broaden a person’s perspective, allowing for less judgment and more acceptances of other people’s point-of-view.

The life experiences gained from branching out and expanding the world around a person are irreversible. Even when a person comes back to their small town to live permanently the experiences gained from interacting with different kinds of people will always broaden a person’s perspective on the world around them. Jaron finds out this is especially true for him as he makes a life for himself and his son. He also realizes that not everyone can be put in a neat little box based on where they live. He realises that he has more friends in the LGBT community than he originally thought, but it is his own openness that allows him to make these friends in the first place.

*****

Why I read this book: The cover of this book has been following me around Face Book the last few days, its stunning, I read the blurb and thought this book was for me.

Synopsis:

All Jaron McAllister wanted to do was get out of the small town where he grew up. After being bullied all his life for being gay, that’s exactly what he does. He loses all contact with everyone in the town of Pickleville, including his emotionally distant mother and the only true friend he ever had.

When his best friend and mother of the child they share, get murdered he knows he must ask for help in the one place he thought he would never go back to. Coming back home isn’t easy and finding himself attracted to the town man-slut spells disaster. Travis Heath isn’t at all what his reputation suggests though.

 

10/10 Pots of Gold

*****

Whispers of Home is the first book in the Pickleville Series. I found this book really enjoyable.

The prologue packs a punch that carries on through out the book. We meet the very young Jaron, bullied through high school after being outed as gay. His one friend does even stick up for him. He has a thing for the very slutty Travis, the only problem is Travis is not gay. One dark night, after a run in with the bullies Jaron packs his bag and runs away to the big city.

After the horrific death of his son’s mother Jaron decides to go home to Pickleville, he has no idea if this is the best idea in the world but he needs his young son settled. He is worried about the homophobes and bullies he ran from but will do anything for Bobby.

Travis grew up really quickly when his dad died, he needs to be responsible to take over from his dad on the Ranch/Farm. When Travis meets up with Jaron again he doesn’t recognise him, he feels a strange attraction. He finds him a job as a house keeper, the only problem is he is falling really hard and really quickly for the feisty Jaron and his young son Bobby…..

I loved the whole idea of this book, yes the two MC’s did fall in love really quickly but they did go to school together as children. I liked that Travis stood up to everyone for Jaron. He wanted Jaron happy and safe. The authors writing style was very easy to read, the storyline was good and kept me invested to the very end. I did like all the characters and think there are quite a few closet cases that will come out in future books.

Honestly I can’t wait to read more in this series…. 🙂

 

Buy Links: Extasy Books

*****

Living in Southwest Michigan, April resides with her husband and two kids. She has been an avid reader for several years. Writing her first story at the age of ten, the characters in her head still won’t stop telling their stories. If April isn’t reading or writing she can be found outside playing with the animals or taking a long walk in the woods.

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:

Website, Facebook, GoodReads

*****

April has kindly given us 1 e-book copy of Whispers of Home to give to one lucky person…. All you have to do is comment on this post to be entered into the draw. Giveaway ends February 28th 2015….

Good Luck everyone 🙂