That of Stefan and Adri is not a “comfort” romance, meaning those stories where love overcomes everything and they will live happily ever after. Stefan and Adri met in 1935, in a time and country where homosexuality was still a crime; they don’t have a chance to an happily ever after, there is no place in the world where they can find it. Moreover considering that Stefan has a family, is married with 4 sons and he needs to provide to them before everything else, even his own love for Adri. And while Adri loves Stefan, he also knows he will never be happy with him, that their love will always be a dirty secret, something they will always have to hide. He has a choice in front of him: accepting it or leaving Stefan; and the oncoming war will give him more reasons to take one route over the other.

I found the story to be bittersweet but truth. Without the author knowing, there was even a small details that made it even more realistic to my eyes, my mother too was born under wartime, like Stefan’s younger daughter, and she was a redhead too, and for that reason the German soldiers who were occupying our hometown were more keen to give her some treats, cause she remembered them of the daughters they left at home.

R.A. Padmos is not trying to tell a fairy tale, she doesn’t invent some prince charming arriving on a white horse to rescue his lover; Stefan and Adri are ordinary men, not wealthy enough to believe to be above the common law, not daring, or stupid, enough to be able to leave everything behind and running alone towards the horizon. Stefan and Adri’s love is heartbreaking, without chance and often tragic. But it’s a story that many should read, cause beyond the bittersweetness, you could taste also the authenticity and strength of it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CCGMCHE/?tag=elimyrevandra-20