The Rebuilding Year

By: Kaje Harper

Narrated by: Gomez Pugh

It took losing nearly everything to discover what they can't live without.

A few excruciating minutes pinned under a burning beam cost Ryan Ward his job as a firefighter, the easy camaraderie of his coworkers, his current girlfriend, and damn near cost him his left leg. Giving up, though, wasn't an option. He fought and won the battle back to health, over a painful year. Now, choosing a new profession, going back to school, and renting a room from the college groundskeeper should be simple.

Until he realizes he's falling in love with his housemate and things take a turn for the complicated.

John Barrett knows about loss. After moving twice to stay in touch with his kids, he could only watch as his ex-wife whisked them away to California. Offering Ryan a room seems better than rattling around his empty house alone. But as casual friendship moves to something more, and emotions heat up, the big old house feels like tight quarters.

It's nothing they can't learn to navigate, until life adds in unhappy teen kids, difficult family members, and mysterious deaths on campus. Rebuilding will be far from easy, even for two guys willing to open their minds, and hearts.

©2012 Kaje Harper (P)2017 Kaje Harper

Amazing story

This story is written in a very realistic setting with characters that could any of us. This story gives hope to all of us over 30 that there is still hope to find love. Gomez is an exceptional narrator

Lovely and heartwarming.

I loved the voice actor for this book. Gave such warmth to the characters and also did a wonderful job making each voice distinct.
The story was light but still interesting. Enough of a dramatic plot without taking over from the main focus, which is the relationship building between the two men. For me it was an added bonus that they were both mature, and not in their early 20's.

One of my all time Favorite mm stories!

Ryan is a med student, former fireman who was injured in the line of duty, looking for a cheap place to stay while studying. He meets John on campus where John does the maintenance for the university. John is recently divorced father of two who is looking for a friend and someone to share expenses.

John and Ryan quickly become great friends and find themselves inexplicably attracted to one another as more than friends. Neither has identified as gay before but are suddenly seeing the other as very attractive.

There are a lot of hurdles. Neither is willing to jump into this without being sure of their feelings. Ryan has scars on his body that makes him leery of opening himself up to anyone. John’s wife and family aren’t going to see this as something to embrace. And – there’s a dead body found on campus and John is a suspect!

With a lot of careful movements forward and some deep discussion the couple explore their new feelings and in the end find a deep and abiding love.

**

This was one of the first mm books I ever read and I have re-read it dozens of times! I absolutely loved it. It’s a double GFY, both male “virgins” and they are so very sweet with each other! Kaje Harper is an amazing writer, she carefully crafts their relationship so that it is believable and romantic and yet full of realistic challenges and day to day hurdles.

I can’t recommend this book enough and I am ever so excited to read the sequel (finally!)!

6 of 5 stars

Audio

It’s so funny how different (sometimes) a book can “hit” you when you listen to it rather than read it. This was one of my all time favorite books because it does such a nice job of really exploring “gay for you” and now that I know more about sexuality, I think John is probably more “demisexual” than bi or gay. I think Ryan is probably bisexual – not that any of this matters, but I was noticing how frustrated I got when both men jumped on to the “I’m gay now” bandwagon, when really… they probably aren’t.

In any case, I also noticed how much John annoyed me with his letting Cynthia get away with murder… and how wishy washy he was at times – well – they both were at times…

But… Gomez Pugh is one of those delightful narrators who could read me (probably) any book and I’d at least be entertained if not love it! He’s a great voice actor and really knows how to handle emotions and timing.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this and couldn’t stop once I started.

Highly Recommended!


6 of 5 stars

MASTERFUL!!!

WOW!!!!

I expected to read a story from my favorite genre and found a thriller and suspense also.
It was the best all around read I've read in a while.

The excitement and anticipation for that GFY connection was great, but there was so much more depth to it than just that of the fabulous MC's.

A definite must read!

Naration was perfect. Loved the voices.

This is Fabulous series

I happened upon this author who was new for me. I had just purchased 3 new credits so used one to get her book, which turned into immediately getting her next book. The stories were long, interesting, and kept my attention. You will NOT be disappointed! I highly recommend.

beautiful

I think that the story itself and the characters are beautiful.. wonderful narration as well #fave

Where's the second book?

Not just a romance. Nice attempt to weave in some suspense and mystery. I'd keep listening if someone would produce the next book in the series.

good narration

interesting storyline, great narration. I look forward to 2nd book. i always enjoy Gomez work.

4 stars

My review will contain spoilers for a few things that happens within this audio book, but I feel that I couldn't give my thoughts without doing so.

-Storywise-
Overall, I thought the story was pretty good. I was a bit taken aback/surprised by the added mystery to the story as that wasn't hinted at all in the summary. For me, it did feel a little out of place for some reason - like there was two or three storylines going on or something - but that is probably because I wasn't expecting it.
My favorite character would have to be Ryan. I liked his relationship with John as well. The one thing that did kind of surprise me was that I was kind of expecting Ryan to be a bit more affected by the incident that injured him. I know he was self conscious about his injuries being seen, not wanting to walk with a cane at times, issues with his family because of his injuries, but I kind of felt like he wasn't as mentally affected as I thought he would be, because experiencing something like that would be pretty traumatic. But I might have missed something while listening to it, and I'm guessing people recover from certain things at different rates. I also would have liked seeing a conversation between John and Ryan about the fire that injured him.
I liked John as well, especially with how much he cared about his kids, Ryan, and his ex-wife (despite how she treated him). But I felt like he was at times easily swayed and not wanting to say what he wants in a situation, as he was kind of a people pleaser who didn't like confronting people. Which is understandable as that is just who he is as a character, but there were a few points in the story that I couldn't believe he wasn't speaking up and defending himself or his beliefs and just allowing people to basically walk all over him. But I felt like he got a bit better about it towards the end of the book.

- Audio -
I thought Gomez Pugh did a wonderful job narrating. I think this is my first time listening to a book he has narrated, and I will definitely look into listening to more books he has narrated. I loved how he voiced each character and I really didn't have any issues with his narration.

Overall, I would recommend this audio book to other people to listen to as I did enjoy listening to this audio book. I apologize if my review isn't that good /well written as this is my first time posting a review.

I simply adore this story

I love how these two broken men find each other and slowly build trust and friendship. I love seeing how stronger, deeper feeling ambush them; and how they discover that they are, maybe, a little bit gay :P

There are a lot of emotions running here, and not only between the MC; we have John and his son, Ryan and John's son, John and his ex-wife, Ryan and his whole family...

And the mystery was a nice side dish that you almost forget about until the end, when it comes rushing forward and takes your breath away.

And, OMG! Gomez Pugh is superb, as always. Seeing his name on the cover is a guarantee of quality.