Title: Touch
Author: Remmy Duchene
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: March 2, 2018
Genre(s): Contemporary Romance
Page Count: 137 pages
Reviewed by: Crabbypatty
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 2.75 stars out of 5
Blurb:
One can’t walk the path of darkness and expect to escape unscathed.
At eighteen, Foster Erickson stepped out of the closet into a world of homelessness, prostitution, and drugs. Years later, he’s pulled it together and is ready to rebuild.
Determined not to let the demons win, Foster starts university with a plan to keep others from making the same mistakes he did. The last thing he expects is Sylvester Roberts.
After years of working with his father, Sylvester decides to step out on his own. University at his age is strange, but for him, failure isn’t an option. After flunking a few tests, Sylvester’s professor assigns him a tutor—Foster Erickson. The moment they meet, Sylvester knows Foster isn’t like other guys.
As the darkness hovers and Sylvester begins falling, he will have to decide if helping Foster fight his demons will be worth it in the end.
Foster Erickson has had some really rough years and is now in college, finally getting his life together. Foster meets Sylvester Roberts in their psychology class and is interested in the other student. The two men begin a very tentative relationship, taking into account Foster’s background and his haehophobia (fear of touch).
While the plot has potential, this novella just doesn’t come together for me. Both men are older adult students; Sylvester has a lot of international business experience and is about 30 years old, yet he “reads” much younger. I didn’t get a strong sense of either man’s personality and the relationship seems to progress with little deep meaningful interaction. Although the novella is only 137 pages, the pace felt slow to me, with a lot of similar scenes and conversation didn’t flow naturally, feeling very stilted and awkward.
Touch doesn’t work for me due to the “distance” between the reader and the characters – it doesn’t feel personal, and there was way too much “tell” versus “show”. Ultimately, I could never really picture the two men together in a healthy and happy relationship. 2.75 stars rounded up to 3 stars.
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