To Live Again (Vallie’s Review)

Title: To Live Again (The Distance Between Us #6)
Author: LA Witt
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Release Date: April 12, 2016
Genre(s): Contemporary
Page Count: 256
Reviewed by: Vallie
Heat Level: 4 flames out of 5
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Blurb:

The heart doesn’t take requests. It calls the tune.

Greg Douglas’s wife surprised him with an early 25th anniversary gift: a divorce. Staying with friends Ethan and Rhett seems like a good idea, just until he gets back on his feet. The guys have an even better idea to take his mind off his troubles—take him out to explore the other half of his bisexuality.

After a quarter century suppressing his hidden desires, he’s not waiting any longer. Especially not after laying eyes on the gorgeous deejay at Wilde’s.

Deejay and single dad Sailo Isaia isn’t looking for anything serious. He’s definitely not out to be a sexual teacher, never mind to a man almost two decades his senior. But as Greg gets the hang of having a male lover, Sailo can’t help himself. They both keep coming back for more. And more. And more.

But a few nagging questions hold Sailo back from giving his whole heart. Is this just Greg’s midlife crisis and rebound fling? Or a chance to fill that empty space—forever—for both Sailo and his beloved son?
Product Warnings

Contains an older guy who’s waited half his life for this, a younger guy who didn’t realize how lonely he was, and some very hot visits to the upstairs VIP lounge at Wilde’s. Author is not responsible for readers who can no longer look at a leather booth the same way again.

Oooooh Greg and Sailo! They are one explosive couple, let me tell you.

So. Greg has always felt an attraction to men and what a better way to know for sure if that’s true than try for a hook-up with a man after getting out of a 25 year-old marriage from a woman. Ethan and Rhett (boy did I love their book), are good friends who put Greg up in their house until he moves to his own apartment. They go cruising at Wilde’s and the rest is history. Greg manages to snag the hot Samoan DJ for a one-night stand that turns into 2, 3, dating and sex, dating without sex, dating and meeting Greg’s son, dating and meeting Greg’s friends, aaaaand you get the picture. Until of course the out-of-the blue drama that happens towards the end which felt totally unnatural and very contrary to the characters’ personalities as we’d known them up to that point.

Things I liked:

-Greg does not magically get over his divorce to start his bi-gay exploration with Sailo. He’s still hurt over it and reflects on his time with his ex-wife. There are also a few scenes where Greg has to interact with his ex-wife on page, which I think was handled in a very mature way and deserving of having spent 25 years together and having raised 3 kids.
-I really liked that Greg’s kids were not background décor. They didn’t spend too much page time, but Greg “thought” about them a lot and spent some time with them on page that illuminated a lot about his character and their family background.
-Sailo. I liked his carefree, relaxed attitude towards helping Greg discover his bi/gay side –las if it were some huge imposition, ha! Sailo was cool and interesting and most of all, very understanding about Greg’s personal circumstances. In fact, he was the one to encourage Greg to open up about his family life before the divorce when Greg was having a bad day and needed some emotional support.
-The sex scenes. LA Witt writes steamy, emotional sex scenes with the best of them and she did not disappoint here. Yum.

Things that I did not enjoy:

-The whole –coming out is not a big deal any more shtick. I don’t agree with it, I don’t believe it, and I especially do not appreciate reading about it so casually. Just no.
-The conflict point at the end. Sailo was completely unreasonable. I actually disliked his character for acting the way he did. The whole situation made me feel as if he was pretending to be so cool and casual about everything before. Was he dishonest or what? And the resolution did not satisfy purely because the wrong person ended up doing the grovelling.
-I would have appreciated something more in between the drama towards the end and the movie-like HEA they got. It just didn’t feel as realistic and I would have liked to see more of them as an established couple before the epilogue, just something more than the dating they did throughout the book.

Verdict: Yeah, this was a win. But I had some niggles and I have read better by this author. I’d still recommend it.