Melissa reviews Healing Man (Men of Manhattan #5) by Sandrine Gasq-Dion Published January 21st 2015 by Wilde City, 137 pages.
Dario Ramos thought he’d left the fighting behind in the war zone when a life-threatening injury sent him home. But a certain Irishman crossing his path everywhere he went convinced him that his biggest battle might be ahead. Tiernan Callahan is a bigoted jerk. Ramos finds himself constantly in the man’s orbit, even in a city as big as New York. The wounded warrior knows all about pain and loss — and that sometimes anger is the only form of release. When Tiernan once again crowds Ramos’ space, his eyes are opened to the possibility of other forms of release.
Tough NYC cop Tiernan Callahan is still mourning the death of his beloved youngest brother, Mason. Fearing his close-minded family’s reaction, the young soldier never got to tell them his secret — that he was gay and engaged to the love of his life. Tiernan is surviving on anger and guilt. When he continues to run into Dario Ramos, who continues to push his buttons, something inside him snaps. Suddenly, anger isn’t the only emotion he feels.
Two very different men, still trying to heal: Can they come to an understanding and heal each other?
A free copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Why I read this book: I had read a few reviews and they raved about it, plus the blurb just grabbed me. I love a good wounded-warrior love story.
Hmm, I can’t say I loved this book. I didn’t particularly like. It was just ok. There were moments where I smiled and thought, awww, but overall, I squinted my eyes a lot in disbelief. This wasn’t a realistic plot, and I got some mild whiplash from how quickly they went from straight to gay/bi (they aren’t big on labels).
This is labeled as a stand-alone, and it is, you don’t have to read the previous books in the series to read this one. But it would help. There are a lot of characters and their history isn’t clarified as to how they all met or came about. I liked Casper, he was adorable! I wouldn’t mind trying his story. I think if my emotional investment bank had been filled from book 1, I would have cared, or at least appreciated, this story of Dario and Tiernan more. Fans of the series will probably love this latest installment; I know I love to catch up on characters from past books so I’m sure these cameos are much loved from series fans.
Overall, it was just an ok read for me. Everything seemed over the top melodramatic; thankfully there wasn’t some corny couples spat that broke them up (I hate those), so it had that redeeming quality going for it.
I did like a lot of the secondary characters, Danny, Casper, Bobby, Slater. They were all very cute. Danny and Casper were bouncing bundles of eagerness and joy. I think I enjoyed their cuteness a lot more than I did anyone else in this story. It’s not a bad book, clearly people have enjoyed it. This just wasn’t written for my exact taste. If you are a fan of this author, I recommend you add this to your collection.
