RELEASE DAY REVIEW: 'Dinner at Jack's' by Rick R. Reed
Title: Dinner at Jack’s
Author: Rick R. Reed
Published: October 3, 2016
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Erotic Romance
Length: 220 pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; Family Drama; Mental Illness; HEA
BLURB:
Personal chef Beau St. Clair, recently divorced from his cheating husband, returns to the small Ohio River town where he grew up to lick his wounds. Jack Rogers lives with his mother, Maisie, in that same small town, angry at and frightened of the world. Jack has a gap in his memory that hides something he dares not face, and he’s probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Maisie, seeking relief from her housebound and often surly son, hires Beau to cook for Jack, hoping the change might help bring Jack, once a handsome and vibrant attorney, back to his former self. But can a new face and comfort food compensate for the terror lurking in Jack’s past?
Slowly the two men begin a dance of revelation and healing. Food and compassion build a bridge between Beau and Jack, a bridge that might lead to love.
But will Jack’s demons allow it? Jack’s history harbors secrets that could just as easily rip them apart as bring them together.
4 HEART READ
REVIEW:
Don’t Tug a Knot
Working with yarn you discover, knots require gentle patience, and tighten if tugged. Likewise, psychological trauma must be handled with finesse. In Dinner at Jack’s, Rick R. Reed is the rare breed of author who uses subtlety in demonstrating how psyches knit back together. The plot moves slowly, at the pace of realistic healing. And, even better, many chapters start with recipes. Yum!
Jack, once a promising lawyer, lives as a shut-in with his mom. Powerless to recall the trauma trapping him, his only release is to throw mom’s cooking against a wall. He’s even lost 50 pounds.
After divorcing an unfaithful husband, chef Beau returns to his hometown, and accepts a position to cook for Jack.
Can food entice Jack back to life?
By chance, Beau holds a piece of Jack’s puzzle. He realistically understands the revelation could hurt as much as harm, and waits until Jack remembers. An awkward dance begins.
After all, who would they become, on the other side of terror?
Mr. Reed uses an unusual combination to narrate. Jack’s story is told third person, much as Jack sees himself - depersonalized, on the outside, looking in. “Jack’s lost in a world of white.”
Beau tells his own story, first person, with folksy comments to the reader. “Does it make me a shallow person to say I wondered if it would hurt to see their happiness, coming so soon after my own failure?... Oh, shut up. You don’t know me.” But we do; we identify.
Rather than read about the characters’ inner worlds, we experience them. Only a good writer could pull of the duality. We know Jack and Beau’s flaws and like them anyway.
I did find myself a little frustrated by minor contradictions and what I felt was an abrupt ending. It seemed just when I was excited to learn the hard work of recovery, an epilogue summarized what happened.
However, as it stands, Dinner at Jack’s is a terrific story. I’ll re-read it the next time I feel hopeless.
A copy of Dinner at Jack’s was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by Dreamspinner Press, in exchange for our fair and honest opinion.
Rick R. Reed is all about exploring the romantic entanglements of gay men in contemporary, realistic settings. While his stories often contain elements of suspense, mystery and the paranormal, his focus ultimately returns to the power of love. He is the author of dozens of published novels, novellas, and short stories. He is a three-time EPIC eBook Award winner (for Caregiver, Orientation and The Blue Moon Cafe). His novel, Raining Men, won the Rainbow Award for Best Contemporary General Fiction. Lambda Literary Review has called him, "a writer that doesn't disappoint." Rick lives in Seattle with his husband and a very spoiled Boston terrier. He is forever "at work on another novel."
