Slide (Roads #1) by Garrett Leigh
Summary:
Don’t look back. Don’t you ever look back…
Shy tattoo artist Ash has a troubled past. Years of neglect, drug abuse, and life on the streets have taken their toll, and sometimes it seems the deep, unspoken bond with his lover is the only balm for wounds he doesn’t quite understand.
Chicago paramedic Pete is warmth, love, and strength—things Ash never knew he could have, and never even knew he wanted until Pete showed him. But fate is a cruel, cruel mistress, and when nightmares collide with the present, their tentatively built world comes crashing down.
Traumatic events in Pete’s work life distance him from home, and he doesn’t realize until it’s too late that Ash has slipped away. Betrayal, secrets, and lies unfold, and when a devastating coincidence takes hold, Pete must fight with all he has to save the love of his life.
My Review:
Oh boy. So…the other night I was attempting to read a book but I was really antsy. I put that book away and starting scrolling through my Nook for something else. I can’t tell you when or why I bought Slide but I decided to open it up and take a peek. That peek turned into me reading the prologue and being blown away. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? I literally said that out loud. Got out of bed and paced the landing outside my bedroom door so I didn’t wake my husband. It hit me that hard and had me buzzed with crazy anticipation. I wanted to keep reading to find out more but I forced myself to go to bed and ended up laying awake for two hours thinking about that prologue and when I finally dozed off I dreamt of paper tattooed covered walls. I woke up thinking of Pete and Ash. I thought about them as I got my boys ready for school and me for work. They had consumed me, again, just from the prologue. I got to work and instead of doing what I had planned, I opened my Nook and openly read at my desk so lost in this story that I did nothing but read all day. I have no shame and though I now have mini piles on my desk it was worth it.
This story, it was beyond amazing. I know I am a reader who likes to throw out stars for books like they are party favors but if a book moves me, if it makes me feel the emotions as deeply as the characters I have no problem doing that. I read to feel and this story of Ash and Pete made me feel. Oh boy did it ever.
I loved the way this was told. We get both MC’s POV’s from different times, separate years in their relationship and though it normally would be a tough sell for me to read a story this way the author pulls it of seamlessly. It’s not the only thing she does either. I could totally go fangirl crazy over the writing of this but I won’t, just know that it is brilliantly and gorgeously told that I would want you to find out for yourself. Find out how deeply this story will resonate and filter through every pore of you as you read it and how it will stay with you long after you are done.
The story begins with Pete as he comes home from a bad day at work. We meet Ash as he waits in bed for Pete and then *whistles*…this prologue was amazing. I can’t say that enough and yet it’s all I want to say. It’s simply brilliant in how quickly you feel these men as they connect. It’s not just the physical on the page, you feel them. You understand the emotions as they go through them. I felt them and knew this would be a book that would kill me and what a wonderful death it would be.
He changed everything about me. He was like an addiction, an all consuming habit of the best kind. I wanted him in every way possible, whenever and wherever I could have him.
Pete, we meet you first. You crept into my soul with those first few pages and you stayed there. Though I was ready to hear from you with the turn of the page we got Ash. Oh we got Ash and we got you and we get your story from the beginning. What a great way to learn about the two of you. I fell hard for you both when my usual game is to choose an MC I like the best but how could I possibly choose between you two?
So, I started writing this review 5hrs ago. Honestly I did. I started to go over my notes, my highlights and decided I wanted to read the Prologue one more time and I didn’t stop reading. I am at 30% of the book right now and you want to know a secret? That is not something I ever do. Since I started reading the way I used to when I was younger again, in about the last 2.5 yrs I have not read a single book twice. It’s not what I do. I read parts of it yes but to pick up a book I finished less than 12hrs ago and start to read it again. That’s not me but this book is that good that I couldn’t stop.
In a world where I seemed to be ruled by shit I didn’t understand, the rare moments I spent with Pete were the only respite I knew.
I am not going to keep babbling along with this review. I can’t, it’s almost impossible to say what I want to say without telling the story all over again. I loved Ash, my heart broke for him and I cheered him on along with everything he was trying to do. I hurt with him; I felt his anxiety, his claustrophobia, his confusion and his pain. I ached for him so much throughout this story.
My memory of how incredible he was when he really let go had clearly faded, because this blew my mind. I’d only ever felt that way for him. Fucker made me forget my own name.
And then there is Pete. A friend who held my hand through this let me know there are people out there who didn’t like him. In a very small corner of my brain can understand that (and then I can’t and want to hurt someone) but this is where I stand with Pete and all that happened in part two: I felt for Pete, I so felt for him. When things happen they way they happen in this story, you don’t think straight. Love is never rational, and when it’s this passionate you walk a fine line with everything that happens. These two have so much passion and they are so wrapped up in that they let the little things, the details they should have noticed slide away from them. It’s an easy thing to do and they are so young and still so new in their relationship. Neither of them wants to lose the other and so much time apart led to the situation. I could never blame Pete. Never. I felt for both of them and you know how it’s eating Pete literally alive and just tearing his heart out to have that happen. Pete is this caretaker, this natural caretaker and all he has wanted to do was take care of Ash. It was clear that what he did hurt him and he felt the guilt immensely. Ugh.
Somehow, I’d gone from being connected to him in the most intimate way possible to feeling he was more detached form me than he’d been for a long time.
These boys, they are so young. They really are. So young and they have both had hard lives; they are used to doing what they need to do to survive and communication is not where it should be. There were a few times I yelled at my Nook “Would you just talk to him, fucker!” (I LOVE that endearment, yes it was endearing and made me smile each time, it is my favorite word after all) and wanted them to be okay. Oh I just wanted so much for them. They were gorgeous together and I can honestly say I have never seen a pairing fit this way. Sure, they are other stories out there but these two, the way they understood each other, the way they worked, it just worked.
Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to babble anymore? Sorry I keep going. Oh and it’s now another 5hrs later than before and I have read the book for a second time fully. I need to move on to Rare and I will, but I am having a hard time not dragging that bar back to page one and meeting these boys once again. I could do it. Just to read their connection again, to read those intimate moments that are so intense and yet not overly graphic because that is not what you need with Ash and Pete. Ugh. Okay, I will stop.
Slide is a story that if you can’t tell, I loved. From the first page to the last page I was entranced with it. It’s one of those stories where you want to know everything about everything and keep reading when you shouldn’t be so you can find out every secret and know what will happened. Yet at the same time, it’s so beautiful that you never want it to end.
The Risqué Redhead Reads 