Go Tell It on the Mountains (Sugar Tree #3)

Title: Go Tell It on the Mountains (Sugar Tree #3)
Author: Nick Wilgus
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: February 22, 2016
Genre(s): Family/MM Romance/Disability/Gay parents
Page Count: 336
Reviewed by: LenaRibka
Heat Level: 1 flames out of 5
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Years have gone by since the death of Noah, his special needs son, and Wiley Cantrell realizes it’s time to move on. He and his husband, Jackson Ledbetter, try to adopt little Tony Gorzola, a deaf boy with HIV who is emotionally traumatized.

Difficulties quickly set in. Tony is a sweet boy but very damaged by abuse and neglect. And Tony’s mother, in prison, is unwilling to relinquish her parental rights. No sooner do they get the go ahead to foster Tony when another child they had considered becomes available—the daughter Jackson always wanted.

With two children on their hands, life is complicated—wonderfully so. But just as things begin to settle down, Tony, his immune system compromised, falls ill with pneumonia—and Wiley and Jackson find their little family faced with crisis once again.

A portion of the proceeds from this book are being donated to the Kentucky Youth Law Project (www.kylpinc.org), whose goal is to reduce homelessness and promote legal protections for LGBT youth in the state of Kentucky.

The first two books in the series blew me away. I love them both to pieces.

It is why I was delighted to hear that the author decided to write one more book in the series.

Now when I finished it, I can’t say that I loved it as much as I loved the previous books. Actually I have very conflicting feelings about it.
There were a lot of moments that reminded me WHY I loved this series so much, and as always I admired this special talent Nick Wilgus to make readers cry and laugh at the same page. Not many authors are capable of it.

But I also have to admit, that this book has other moments that I personally found pretty annoying, and if someone would have asked me after I had finished it, “WAS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO HAVE THE BOOK#3”, I would have probably answered with “No”.

I started this book totally virgin, it is why the beginning put me IMMEDIATELY in a state of shock.

I don’t think I spoil you the story if I’ll say, that Noah died 6 years ago and we meet Wiley and Jackson at the time when they try to adopt Tony,a seven year old boy. They want an orphan kid, whom nobody else wants, and yes, you can be sure, that Tony doesn’t have a line of needy couples behind: he is a messed-up traumatized deaf kid with HIV and, according to the reports in his file, about 40 percent of his body, including most of his low back, his right hip, and his genitals, had been severely burned when he was four year old.

Of course it is not that easy and cloudless in RL for our MCs as one can imagine. There are some obstacles on their way to a happy family. Tony’s health, Tony’s mother who is in jail but who still has her rights to decide WHO can adopt her son, then there are suddenly some personal problems of our married couple….Though the life has never been EASY for Wiley and Jackson, but they always managed it the best way.

Nick Wilgus has presented Wiley Cantrell, his first person narrator, always from both sides: not just as a loving and caring father, but also as a respectful and passionate partner. In Go Tell It on the Mountains he has to face one of the most important choice in his relationship of nine years.

My favorite parts of the book include Tony ans Wiley. Nick Wilgus writes MAGIC if it about Tony. HOW he does it. It is always SOOOO personal and intimate and emotional and heart-breaking…

He DID already magic to me making me to a fan of the series, because I. NORMALLY. DON’T. LIKE. KIDS. IN. MY.BOOKS. Not at all.

But I couldn’t have enough of Noah, and I couldn’t have enough of Tony.

I think it could have been a fantastic book, maybe a 5 stars book for me, if the author hadn’t brought Amelia in the story. The idea itself, to adopt two children, didn’t convince me.

Amelia appeared from nowhere and doesn’t matter how I really tried to like her, I didn’t, unfortunately. Just the opposite: her presence suddenly reminded me that I actually dont’t like kids in my books. It was too much of her, she talked too much, and BECAUSE Tony couldn’t talk but just sign, his character downgraded unexpectedly to a secondary role. And…I started to lose my interest in the story.

Thanks God, the last part of the book has been devoted to Tony alone, even if the circumstances were dramatic.

Bottom line:

You just can’t miss it if you’ve already read the first two books of the series. You have to read it. Period.