Carry Me Home

Title: Carry Me Home

Author: Sterling Rivers

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Publishers URL: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

ISBN/BIN: 9781634768429

Genre: {M/M}, Contemporary        

Rating: 4.5 Nymphs

Literary Nymph Reviewer: Critter Nymph

Aiden was not looking forward to being home. The tragic and unexpected death of his mother is more than Aiden can handle, and although his remaining family should be supportive, they are anything but. He has not seen his father since his parent’s divorce when he was a kid, and has lost contact, more or less, with his older sister after she left home for college.  When they find out he is gay, their reaction devastate Aiden.  Using an uncovered connection to a long gone uncle, Aiden heads out of town hoping to come to terms with everything going on in his life.

Carry Me Home is a new story by author Sterling Rivers.  This book instantly pulled me into the world created by the author.  The characters came alive in a way that let me feel what Aiden was going through and I could not believe that those around him could not see, or did not care enough to see, that the young man was holding on by a thread.  It was very easy to dislike both Aiden’s father and his sister.  These two are cut from the same cloth and I wanted to smack them from the time they showed up.  It is no surprise that Aiden felt the only way he could deal is by getting in his car and driving away. 

Cody is the complete opposite of Aiden.  While Aiden is in the closet and more or less still coming to terms with being gay, Cody is open and out there for all to see.  While he realizes that not everyone is going to accept him for whom he is, he does not care and will not let that keep him from being who he is.  Needless to say, it was easy to see that these two were made for each other.  Cody is just the person to show Aiden that it is okay to be gay, and Cody’s family shows Aiden just what family means.  I loved watching these two come together.  The passion that exists between them is strong from the beginning and I thought it was funny that Aiden imagined he would just have a “friends with benefits” type of relationship with Cody. 

Carry Me Home is not just about Cody and Aiden.  This story is also about Biddy and George.  George is Aiden’s great uncle who left his love behind to go to war and never came home.  That, in itself, is sad but, when I found out just how close the two came to being together, I wanted to cry.  These two do a lot for Aiden when he needed something to help him get over his mother’s death.  While I was wondering if Cody and Aiden would ever find Biddy, I was not surprised when the connection between the four men is made clear in the end.    

I really loved reading this story and will be looking for more from this author.