Jace's Trial: Trials in Abingdon Book 1, JM Wolf

There's something about grief that draws people together; the people you find who can bring you just comfort or maybe even true healing.  Gerard and Jace are more the latter than the former, though Gerard tries as hard as he can to offer only the comfort of one who understands true grieving.  Jace knows there's more to what they feel but he has his own demons to work through if something can ever grow between them.  When they both take steps towards healing and passion they find a complicated yet simple love that's meant to last despite the odd circumstances of their acquaintance.

I liked Jace's raw, real emotions.  He was numb at times and presenting a facade to the world because he hadn't had his break, that thing that tips him over the edge into fully dealing with the complete weight of what it means to be without his father.  Once he does, though, he finds the relief he desperately needed, a way out from his own self-induced fog of pretense.  And the encounter at the market with his past, the other part of his life he was hiding from, gave him the final key to a settling kind of peace, a real freedom.  Then there's his attraction to Gerard.  There's a passion there that feels believable even when you take into consideration their connection.

Now, those things aren't necessarily in chronological order for what happened in the book, but they're the key elements that brought the two men exactly what they needed for healing, peace, and a new chapter full of love.

Gerard's path was a bit different.  His past was a larger stumbling-block because of his parents' rampant homophobia as well as his experience in the military outside of his relationship with Riley.  And the connection to Jace is unsettling to say the least.  Having second-hand knowledge of the young man from his lover's perspective is blending with his own observations and he struggles to find the balance between attraction, fatherly advice, connection with Jace's idol and best friend and champion, and how to bring the true Jace out from his emotional haze.

I think that the complicated connection was dealt with in a realistic way.  It wasn't seedy or gritty in a taboo way.  Watching them come together both emotionally and physically was slow-going and mixed with arduous healing processes that made me believe that they could be a couple in a healthy way.  I'm eager to see their evolution on the periphery of Adam's story as they move into their own next phase.  We may not get much of them, but even the occasional glimpse through Adam and Jerrick's view will satiate my curiosity.  Overall, I loved these men and how they worked through an immensely difficult situation.  Their heat and hearts were palpable.  A fantastic story of the hell of grief, healing, and a tender May/December relationship with enough steam to scald the retinas.

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