Tuesday 17 April 2018

Rented Heart by Garrett Leigh - Review





Rented Heart #1
232 Pages
Publisher: Fox Love Press
Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK
Available on Kindle Unlimited


Blurb

Ex-surfer-turned-businessman Liam Mallaney moved back to Holkham, Norfolk, to mourn the loss of his husband. Grief and loneliness keep him a solitary figure, and he likes it that way. There’s no room in his broken heart for anything else.

Rentboy Zac Payne left London and most of his demons behind, but he still only knows one way to make a living. When he spots Liam in a club one night, it seems he’s found his mark. But Liam proves nicer—and their connection far deeper—than he’d bargained for. 

Their arrangement quickly becomes too complicated for Zac, who has other things on his mind: namely his BFF and wayward flatmate, Jamie. Zac owes Jamie the world, and even as Jamie’s drug addiction destroys all they have, Zac won’t leave him behind.

Besides, Liam knows nothing of Zac’s home life, too caught up in his own head to think much beyond the crazy heat he and Zac share. But when trouble comes to Zac’s door, putting his life in danger, Liam must set his grief and anger aside to pick up the pieces of Zac’s shattered heart and his own.

Review

Rented Heart is the story of two broken men, finding each other and, rather against the odds, healing each other as well as themselves. In many ways it’s a tale about the various forms of devastation.

Liam’s live changed completely when his husband Cory died. While he still runs the company they set up together, he does so from a sense of duty towards his husband and the people he employs. His heart isn’t in it. Just as his heart isn’t in the rest of his life, not really. He goes through the motions and mostly keeps to himself.

Zac on the other hand has beat the odds and turned his life around. Well, the drug taking part of it anyway. He still makes his living as a rentboy. While he barely has his own shit together, he’s also trying to look out for his friend, Jamie, who is still addicted and appears to be sliding towards his demise.

These two men don’t appear to have any common ground between them. And yet, from the moment Zac solicits Liam, sparks fly. What should have been a one-time deal, somehow turns into something more. Zac reminds Liam that there’s more to life than dragging yourself from one day to the next, while Liam gives Zac something to dream about.

Of course the path of true love never runs smoothly, and I saw the inevitable catastrophe coming a mile off. But, given the storyline and the characters, the drama made sense. What’s more, it wasn’t dragged out either. Because of that I found that I had no issue with the angst in this book, although I certainly hurt for these two men and all they put themselves and each other through.

If I had an issue with this story it is that I never got why Zac and Liam switched from lust to love. While it is obvious from their thoughts and actions that they do, I never completely understood what drove that transition.

Other than that, this was a touching, gripping, very well written and sexy story which left me hungry for more. How lucky am I that I have the sequel, Soul to Keep, already waiting on my Kindle? J

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