AKM Miles

This is such a brilliant story. It’s a book that really stands out for me, and even though I read it (for the first time) a very long time ago, the characters were still with me when I picked it up a few days ago to re-read it.

Much longer and richer than you’d think a short novel of 158 pages can ‘feel’, it revolves around the story of a man who is utterly lost when he first returns home after fighting in a war. Referring to himself only as ‘Soldier’, he starts out as an observer show more unable to join in. He is tired, hurt and doesn’t even know how to return to ‘normal’ society. The journey he takes to heal himself by helping others is nothing short of amazing. The description of his thoughts made him utterly real to me.

Dillon is struggling to give a safe place to a group of young boys who have nobody else to care for them. While Dillon connects to the world in a very direct way, he has given up hope to find happiness for himself. He is a great nurturer who is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for others. His surprise and delight when he begins to realize that maybe he can be happy after all is wonderful to watch. The threats that promptly pop up and try to take it all away again held me on the edge of my seat.

Soldier and Dillon are both scarred in different ways. Yet both are driven to help not only each other but the homeless boys as well. The development of Soldier's and Dillon's relationship and the outside threats they encounter held me spellbound. All of the characters were so real that I cried and laughed with them as if they were my friends. And yet, this is also a book that reads like a fairy tale. With all of the problems inherent in these men’s situation it could have easily turned into total disaster. The fact that it didn’t may prompt some people to say that it is unrealistic. Unfortunately, thanks to the cruel world we live in, that is most likely true. All the better that we have places our imagination can take us (with the help of a great author like AKM) where disaster doesn’t strike and where ‘the bad guys’ don’t win. I, for one, enjoy reading stories like this just as much as those that are ‘real. Who is to say which is the ‘better’ reality? show less

An M/M novella of 2.5 hours, this is an unusual romance to say the least! A department store Santa, Derek Campbell, is won over by a little boy dressed as an elf, who turns out to be the son of the store owner, Max Martin.

The story and the way it is written are more saccharine than my usual reads, and yet the author has included these full-on anatomically detailed sex scenes.

I was definitely drawn in, so the technique is successful, but at the same time I was thinking, this is dreadful show more writing! in the way a freaky thing grabs your attention and you can't look away.

I don't think I'll be reading more by this novelist, despite my 3 stars for holding my attention.

(After reading Thingers' comments: I see that Penny01 says much the same as me. Yes, the characters were one dimensional. The way the two MCs got together emotionally, not just physically, was absurdly quick - they knew almost nothing about each other. Of course it is romantic, and showed an almost old-fashioned kind of faith in people based on some fundamentals, but ridiculous?! It just doesn't happen like that now - people err on the side of caution big time, especially when children are involved. show less

Soldier was my first foray into the male/male sub-genre of romance, and I have to say it was a pretty good book with which to begin. This was a very sweet story about two men who are terribly wounded in both body and mind but find love and acceptance in each others arms. They in turn are able to pass that love and acceptance along to the seven abused little boys who are in their care and even a poor scruffy dog and a little puppy too. The interactions between the pair and their seven charges show more were utterly heartwarming, especially as a couple of the more severely abused boys slowly come out of their shells and begin to blossom under their care. It's readily apparent how much they all love each other, and they truly are one big, happy family. They couldn't be a closer, more caring bunch if they were related by blood.

Dillon is a sweet, wonderful guy who really stepped up to the plate to help these poor kids who no one wanted and who have completely gotten lost in the traditional social services system. Life is tough for them. The borrowed house they live in is falling down around their ears, and Dillon has to scrape on a daily basis just to provide food and the necessities of life for everyone in his care. As hard as he has to work though, I know Dillon wouldn't change a thing. He loves the boys just as much as if they were his own flesh and blood. After he was attacked as a teenager by his homophobic peers and left with facial scars, Dillon was resigned to probably spending the rest of his life alone until luck shone on him, bringing the man of his dreams right to his doorstep to help share his burden.

Soldier, as his nickname suggests, was in the military and fought in the war (presumably Iraq). His heroic actions saved several of his comrades lives, but he was severely wounded when a bomb exploded near him. He is now recovered from his injuries, but was left with extensive scarring on his face and body. Soldier has become something of a reclusive loner, a wanderer without much direction or purpose in life, until he finds a gorgeous guy with a bunch of kids living in one of his houses. Suddenly, Soldier knows what he wants to do with the rest of his life and the wealth that his dad left him. It's like he was just looking for a worthy cause, and Dillon and his boys were certainly that. I really admire Soldier for wanting to put his money to good use. I've often thought that if I had extra money that's exactly what I would be doing, searching for a philanthropic cause. Soldier had a lot more to offer than money though. As a military man and a big, strong guy at that, he was used to protecting and hadn't been able to do that since being injured. Now with Dillon and the kids, he has several someones to look out for. On the outside Soldier may have been a big, scary-looking dude, but underneath it all, he was just Gom's (and Dillon's ;-)) big, snuggly teddy bear.

Soldier and Dillon's first meeting, coupled with Gom coming out to ask a bazillion question and then fall asleep in Soldier's lap had just the right mix of awkwardness, emotion, sexual tension and sweetness. After that, things did kind of go from 0 to 60 really quickly in more ways than one. Normally, I wouldn't go for the love at first sight angle, nor the idea of an abused kid trusting a stranger so easily, but I think that they all just sensed something special in each other, a kindred spirit who could understand and relate to all their past hurts and share their fears of what the future might hold. In spite of knowing that, I did wish that there had been a little more development in Soldier and Dillon's relationship and a bit more exploration of their backgrounds. The reader is given just enough information on both men to get a feel for where they've been and what their lives were like before meeting, but not much else. I was a little surprised that Dillon didn't share his traumatic past with Soldier at any point in the story. However, I can respect that the author seemed to want to keep the focus on the present and how these two men interact with the boys and are trying to build a family unit together.

All the boys are a great bunch of kids, but two, Gom and Tommy, are stand-out characters who get quite a bit more face-time than the others. Little Gom (short for Montgomery) is just too cute for words and a real scene-stealer. He's been through a lot having been physically and emotionally abused by his drug-addict mother, but is still such a sweet, sensitive and thoughtful little boy. He doesn't sleep much until Soldier comes along and makes him feel safe and protected. Tommy is a little older and wise beyond his years. He too has been the victim of horrible sexual abuse and child prostitution. He's a quiet, gentle kid, but with Soldier there to back him up, he's able to face down his abusers. Even though these boys are just fictional characters they really got to me (probably because I know there are kids in the world just like them), so it really warmed my heart to know that they were being loved and cared for by two great dads like Soldier and Dillon.

Even though I loved the story, I did think that the writing itself could have been stronger. As is, it was a little too passive (too many “be” verbs), rather simplistic, and in need of more details. However, in spite of the mechanics of the writing being somewhat weak, I can't deny that Ms. Miles managed to create a story filled with heart and soul that really tugged at my heartstrings which is why I decided to give it keeper status. I haven't read a romance that embodied this much tenderness and emotion in a while. Soldier is the first book in the Scarcity Sanctuary series. Tommy and Gom grow up to get their own books next in the series, Tommy's Story and For Gom's Sake, and after falling in love with these little guys in this book, I can't wait to see what kind of young men they grow up to become. Soldier was definitely a pleasant introduction to male/male romance, and I'm really looking forward to not only continuing with this series, but seeing what else this genre has to offer.

Note: This book contains scenes of explicit sensuality between two men which may offend some readers. show less

Tommy's Story is a sweet and tender M/M romance novella that is the second story in AKM Miles's Scarcity Sanctuary series. It really tugs at the heartstrings with the story of two social workers who have known each other since the younger one was just a boy under the older one's care. They've both loved each other from afar for a while, and both are sweet, gentle beta heroes who I loved reading about. A traumatic event brings the pair closer together, giving them the courage to finally show more express their feelings for one another. Overall, this was another story in this series that I found to be very enjoyable.

Tommy appeared in Soldier, the first book of the series, as a broken and traumatized twelve-year-old child, who social worker Daniel placed with Dillon at what would later become known as Scarcity Sanctuary. Tommy had been through hell, abused in every way imaginable, at the hands of his mother and her boyfriends. In the nine years that have passed since, Tommy has managed to make an almost full recovery in the loving care of Soldier and Dillon. He's grown up to be a very caring, compassionate young man who wants to help other kids like himself find peace and love. To that end, he's training to be a social worker and has been working on various cases with Daniel. Over the last couple of years, Tommy has started to develop feelings for Daniel, but it takes a traumatic event that shakes both of them to the core for them to fess up about their feelings. Having read Soldier, I was privy to the things Tommy had been through, but I still would have liked to see the author delve a little more deeply into his background in this story to help build his character a little more fully.

The entire novella is told from Tommy's POV, so what little we learn about Daniel is only through Tommy's eyes. It seems Daniel has a somewhat sordid past of his own as a foster child, and like Tommy, it was his past experiences that also drew him into the field of social work. He's fourteen years older than Tommy, but if I recall correctly, there was a bit of an age difference between Soldier and Dillon too. The thing I loved about Daniel is his patience and tenderness. After everything he'd been through, Tommy wasn't sure he would ever be ready for a relationship with anyone. Daniel never pushes Tommy to do anything he's not comfortable with, and he's prepared to wait as long as it takes. Of course, some intimacies occur a bit faster than I would have liked, but having these two men know each other for so long made their quick relationship progression more believable. However, there never was a full consummation, which was a little disappointing.

While I did enjoy Tommy's Story, I felt like it could have been more fully developed in both characterization and plot. The villains are pretty one-dimensional and their comeuppance occurs very quickly. I'm a little disappointed to see that so far, only the female characters in these stories have been cast as absolutely horrible people and hope that this trend doesn't continue. It almost seems a little misogynistic, which is strange considering that the author herself is a woman. As I mentioned earlier, Ms. Miles could have gone even deeper with Tommy and Daniel's characters too. Like with the first book of the series, the writing itself is kind of on the simplistic side and would have benefited from a little more complexity and/or better editing. Sometimes there were a few too many words that could have been pared down for clarity and other times, the narrative could have used a little more description (eg. we don't even get a physical description of Daniel until the final chapter and there are no descriptions of Tommy). Overall though, like with Soldier, I can't deny that Ms. Miles made me feel very deeply while reading this story. She definitely has a talent for expressing emotions that are very effectively conveyed to the reader. I absolutely love sweet stories like this, and I loved visiting with Soldier, Dillon, and Gom again. I just hated what Gom went through, but I'll be looking forward to reading more about him and the work he'll be doing in his book, For Gom's Sake, which is the next in the series.

Note: This novella contains semi-explicit scenes of sensuality between two men, which may offend some readers.

Please note that this review is for the original version of Tommy's Story, which was published by Torquere Press. I see now that the story was re-edited and expanded by an additional 12K words before being reprinted by MLR Press. It's certainly conceivable that some of the issues I had with the story might have been addressed, which could have led to a higher rating. However, I didn't feel like shelling out an additional $5.99 (which IMHO is overpriced for a 32K word novella anyway) to get the extra 12K words in the new version. If Ms. Miles were to offer a deal like R.J. Scott has, where she is giving a free copy of the updated version of her stories to readers who purchased a previous edition, I'd be totally on board, but thus far I don't see anything on Ms. Miles's website to indicate she is doing anything like this. If at some point in the future, I'm able to get a copy of the new version, I will definitely update my review. show less